'
She rose to her feet at this, and with a tremulous little laugh
apologised for her terror, but I assured her that for the moment there
were two panic-stricken persons at the stair head. Taking the candle,
and recovering my electric torch, which luckily was uninjured by its
roll down the incline the butler had taken, I escorted the lady to the
door of her room, and bade her good-night, or rather, good-morning.
The rising sun dissipated a slight veil of mist which hung over the
park, and also dissolved, so far as I was concerned, the phantoms
which my imagination had conjured up at midnight. It was about
half-past ten when the chief constable arrived. I flatter myself I put
some life into that unimaginative man before I was done with him.
'What made you think that the butler was mounting the stair when he
fell?'
'He was going up with my lord's breakfast,' replied the chief.
'Then did it not occur to you that if such were the case, the silver
pitcher would not have been empty, and, besides the broken dishes,
there would have been the rolls, butter, toast, or what not, strewn
about the floor?'
The chief constable opened his eyes.
'There was no one else for him to bring breakfast to,' he objected.
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