meanwhile he could be finding out exactly what the hero _did_ do when
he found out (to his horror) that it was his cousin Jasper who had
really killed the old gentleman in the wood. The only question was--how
was he to do his reading? Prefects were allowed to work on after lights
out in their dormitories by the aid of a candle, but to the ordinary
mortal this was forbidden.

Then he was struck with another brilliant idea. It is a curious thing
about ideas. You do not get one for over a month, and then there comes
a rush of them, all brilliant. Why, he thought, should he not go and
read in his study with a dark lantern? He had a dark lantern. It was
one of the things he had found lying about at home on the last day of
the holidays, and had brought with him to school. It was his custom to
go about the house just before the holidays ended, snapping up
unconsidered trifles, which might or might not come in useful. This
term he had brought back a curious metal vase (which looked Indian, but
which had probably been made in Birmingham the year before last), two
old coins (of no mortal use to anybody in the world, including
himself), and the dark lantern. It was reposing now in the cupboard in
his study nearest the window.

He had brought his book up with him on coming to bed, on the chance
that he might have time to read a page or two if he woke up early. (He
had always been doubtful about that man Jasper. For one thing, he had
been seen pawning the old gentleman's watch on the afternoon of the
murder, which was a suspicious circumstance, and then he was not a nice
character at all, and just the sort of man who would be likely to murder
old gentlemen in woods.) He waited till Mr Seymour had paid his nightly
visit--he went the round of the dormitories at about eleven--and then he
chuckled gently. If Mill, the dormitory prefect, was awake, the chuckle