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She wished her hand had withered before she had done so.

She had gone to bed at half-past ten.

Her room was at the other end of the house, and she could hear nothing of what passed.

Mr. McFarlane had left his hat, and to the best of her belief his stick, in the hall.

She had been awakened by the alarm of fire.

Her poor, dear master had certainly been murdered.

Had he any enemies? Well, every man had enemies, but Mr. Oldacre kept himself very much to himself, and only met people in the way of business.

She had seen the buttons, and was sure that they belonged to the clothes which he had worn last night.

The wood-pile was very dry, for it had not rained for a month.

It burned like tinder, and by the time she reached the spot nothing could be seen but flames.

She and all the firemen smelled the burned flesh from inside it.

She knew nothing of the papers, nor of Mr. Oldacre's private affairs.

"So, my dear Watson, there's my report of a failure.

And yet - and yet -" - he clenched his thin hands in a paroxysm of conviction - "I know it's all wrong.

I feel it in my bones.

There is something that has not come out, and that housekeeper knows it.

There was a sort of sulky defiance in her eyes, which only goes with guilty knowledge.

However, there's no good talking any more about it, Watson; but unless some lucky chance comes our way I fear that the Norwood Disappearance Case will not figure in that chronicle of our successes which I foresee that a patient public will sooner or later have to endure."

"Surely," said I, "the man's appearance would go far with any jury?"

"That is a dangerous argument, my dear Watson. You remember that terrible murderer, Bert Stevens, who wanted us to get him off in '87? Was there ever a more mild-mannered, Sunday-school young man?"

"It is true."

"Unless we succeed in establishing an alternative theory this man is lost.

You can hardly find a flaw in the case which can now be presented against him, and all further investigation has served to strengthen it.

By the way, there is one curious little point about those papers which may serve us as the starting-point for an inquiry.

On looking over the bank-book I found that the low state of the balance was principally due to large cheques which have been made out during the last year to Mr. Cornelius.

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