flower-beds. It was built of yellow stone, and was almost square
in shape. A couple of ornate pillars flanked the door, and a gable
roof, topped by a gilt vane, surmounted it. To Ricardo it seemed
impossible that so sordid and sinister a tragedy had taken place
within its walls during the last twelve hours. It glistened so
gaudily in the blaze of sunlight. Here and there the green outer
shutters were closed; here and there the windows stood open to let
in the air and light. Upon each side of the door there was a
window lighting the hall, which was large; beyond those windows
again, on each side, there were glass doors opening to the ground
and protected by the ordinary green latticed shutters of wood,
which now stood hooked back against the wall. These glass doors
opened into rooms oblong in shape, which ran through towards the
back of the house, and were lighted in addition by side windows.
The room upon the extreme left, as the party faced the villa, was
the dining-room, with the kitchen at the back; the room on the
right was the salon in which the murder had been committed. In
front of the glass door to this room a strip of what had once been
grass stretched to the gravel drive. But the grass had been worn
away by constant use, and the black mould showed through. This
strip was about three yards wide, and as they approached they saw,
even at a distance, that since the rain of last night it had been
trampled down.

"We will go round the house first," said Hanaud, and he turned
along the side of the villa and walked in the direction of the
road. There were four windows just above his head, of which three
lighted the salon, and the fourth a small writing-room behind it.
Under these windows there was no disturbance of the ground, and a
careful investigation showed conclusively that the only entrance