is an old man and was taken ill last evening. He believes he asked
some one to telegraph to his daughter, asking her to come to him. She
certainly received a telegram and as certainly did visit him. Of
course, that phase of the affair will be cleared up thoroughly, but
the main facts are indisputable. Ann Rogers has her own latchkey. As
Mrs. Lester usually sat up late, being a lover of books, and seldom
stirred before ten o'clock, the maid waited until that hour before
bringing her mistress's cup of tea. That stain on the carpet near the
door shows where the tray fell from her hands."

Sometimes an artist obtains the strongest effect by one deft sweep of
the brush. Winter, though he would have blushed if described as an
artist in words, had achieved a similar result by his concluding
sentence. Theydon pictured the scene. He saw the limp form thrown
across the bed, the distorted face, the hands and arms posed
grotesquely.

He heard the shrill scream of the terrified servant, an elderly woman
whom Bates described as "a quiet body," and could imagine the clatter
of the laden tray as it dropped from nerveless fingers. A sort of fury
rose within him. Mrs. Lester had been done to death in a horrible and
insensate way, and no matter who suffered, be he millionaire or
pauper, the wretch who committed the crime should be made to pay the
penalty of the law.

In that moment he forgot Evelyn Forbes, and thought only of the fair
and gracious woman whose agonized spirit had taken flight under the
compulsion of the tiger grip of some human brute now moving among his
fellow-creatures unknown and unsuspected. It was inconceivable that
Forbes should be guilty, but why should he not avow his acquaintance