or something. How about that, Mr. Darcy?"

"Well, no. I didn't exactly hear anything. I went to bed about half
past ten, after working at my table down here awhile."

"Was Mrs. Darcy in bed then?" Thong asked.

"I couldn't say. She had gone to her apartment, but I don't have to
pass near that to get to my room. I came straight up and went to bed."

"At ten o'clock, you say?"

"A little after. It may have been a quarter to eleven."

"And you didn't hear anything all night?" Carroll shot this question
at Darcy suddenly.

"No--no--not exactly, I did hear _something_--it wasn't exactly a
noise--and yet it was a noise."

"What kind of talk is that?" demanded Thong roughly. "Either it was a
noise or it wasn't! Now which was it?"

"Well, if you call a clock striking a noise, then it was one."

"Oh, a clock struck!" and Thong settled back in his chair more at his
ease. His manner seemed to indicate that he was on the track of
something.

"Yes, a clock struck. It was either three or four, I can't be sure
which," Darcy replied. "You know when you awaken in the night, and
hear the strokes, you can't be sure you haven't missed some of the
first ones. I heard three, anyhow, I'm sure of that."

"Well, put it down as three," suggested Thong. "Was it the striking of
the clock that awakened you?"

"No, not exactly. It was more as if some one had been in my room."

"Some one in your room!" exclaimed both detectives. They were
questioning Darcy in the living-room of Mrs. Darcy's suite, the clerks
being detained downstairs by Mulligan. The county physician, who was
also the coroner, had not yet arrived.

"Yes, at first I thought some one had been in my room, and then, after
I thought about it, I wasn't quite sure. All I know is I slept quite
soundly--sounder than usual in fact, and, all at once, I heard a clock
strike."

"Three or four," murmured Thong.

"Yes; three anyhow--maybe four. Something awakened me suddenly; but
what, I can't say. I remember, at the time, it felt as though
something had passed over my face."

"Like a hand?" suggested Carroll.

"Well, I couldn't be sure. It may have been I dreamed it."

"But what did it _feel_ like?" insisted Thong.

"Well, like a cloth brushing my face more than like a hand--or it may
have been a hand with a glove on it. Yes, it may have been that. Then
I tried to arouse myself, but I heard the wind blowing and a sprinkle
of rain, and, as my window was open, I thought the curtain might have
blown across my face. That would account for it I reasoned, so--"

"Yes, it _may_ have been the curtain," said Thong, slowly. "But what
did you do?"

"Nothing. I lay still a little while, and then I went to sleep again.
I was only awake maybe two or three minutes."

"You didn't call Mrs. Darcy?"

"No."

"Nor the servant--what's her name? Sallie?"

"No. There wasn't any use in that. She's deaf."

"And you didn't call the janitor?"

"No. I wasn't very wide awake, and I didn't really attach any
importance to it until after I saw her--dead."

"Um! Yes," murmured Carroll. "Well, then you went to sleep again.
What did you do next?"

"I awakened with a sudden start just before six o'clock. I had not set
an alarm, though I wanted to get up early to do a little repair job I
had promised for early this morning. But I have gotten so in the habit
of rousing at almost any hour I mentally set for myself the night
before, that I don't need an alarm clock. I had fixed my mind on the
fact that I wanted to get up at five-thirty, and I think it was just a
quarter to six when I got up. I was anxious to finish the repair job
for a man who was to leave on an early train this morning. He may be
in any time now, and I haven't it ready for him."

"What sort of a repair job?" asked Carroll.


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