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Miss Cornelia could not deny the truth in his words And yet she felt decidedly unsatisfied with the way things were progressing

"You said Fle hard

The Doctor nodded "Yes"

"Have you a pocket-flash, Doctor?" she asked him suddenly

"Why--yes--" The Doctor did not seeht is more important to a country Doctor than--castor oil," he added, with a little smile

Miss Cornelia decided upon an experiment She turned to Dale

"Dale, you said you sahite light shining down from above?"

"Yes," said Dale in a minor voice

Miss Cornelia rose

"May I borrow your flashlight, Doctor? Now that fool detective is out of the way," she continued soave her his flashlight with a stare of bewilderment She took it and moved into the alcove

"Doctor, I shall ask you to stand at the foot of the s up"

"Now?" queried the Doctor with some reluctance

"Now, please"

The Doctor slowly followed her into the alcove and took up the position she assigned him at the foot of the stairs

"Now, Dale," said Miss Cornelia briskly, "when I give the word, you put out the lights here--and then tell me when I have reached the point on the staircase froht seeave assent Miss Cornelia left the room to seek the second floor by the main staircase and then slowly return by the alcove stairs, her flashlight poised, in her reconstruction of the events of the crime At the foot of the alcove stairs the Doctor waited uneasily for her arrival He glanced up the stairs--were those her footsteps now? He peered more closely into the darkness

An expression of surprise and apprehension calanced swiftly at Dale--was she watching hi He turned back toward the stairs and o back!" it said, plainer than words, to--So--in the darkness by the head of the stairs Then his face relaxed, he gave a noiseless sigh of relief

Dale, rousing from her brown study, turned out the floor laht switch, awaiting Miss Cornelia's signal to plunge the roolance at her--had his gestures been observed?--apparently not

Unobserved by either, as both waited tensely for Miss Cornelia's signal, a Hand stole through the broken pane of the shattered Frenchbehind their backs and fumbled for the knob which unlocked the -door It found the catch--unlocked it--the -door swung open, noiselessly--just enough to adure that cramped itself uncomfortably behind the settee which Dale and the Doctor had placed to barricade those very doors When it had settled itself, unperceived, in its lurking place--the Hand stole out again--closed the -door, relocked it