"out of the night, and into the light,

comes the doer of evil deeds.

out of the light, and into the night,

with a sin on his soul he speeds.

but the hemp is sown, and the tree is grown,

that will hang him high as a murderer known,

himself hath planted the seeds."

to be an amateur detective requires a certain amount of capital. there are people "who know" to be discovered, and a search after them cannot be successfully conducted without money; and when the people "who know" are brought under the eye of the inquirer, they frequently decline to speak unless well paid for their information. money, therefore, is essential to the success of solving a mystery, and when archie maxwell sat down calmly to consider the aspect of affairs, he found himself at once face to face with the question of funds.

he was young, he had talents, he had a profession; so with all these endowments looked forward to making a fortune, which is the ambition of every well-constituted youth in this age of gold. unfortunately, like the magical draught of mephistopheles, time is required to make money, and as every moment was of importance in finding out the mystery of sir rupert's death, archie could not waste four or five years in getting together sufficient to prosecute his inquiries. it was true that he was engaged to go out to buenos ayres at the end of the year, but the firm who employed him were hard to deal with, and refused to let him draw in advance of his salary. toby was not well off, so he could not apply to him for aid, besides which that young man was already on his way to the antipodes; so mr. maxwell found himself with comparatively little money in the bank and a difficult case to solve without funds.

luckily archie was of a very sanguine nature, and hopeful in a micawberish sense of "something turning up;" so making up his mind to at all events make a start in the affair, he collected all the newspaper reports of the inquest, and made himself thoroughly acquainted with the ins and outs of the baronet's death.

it appeared, from the evidence of the butler, that on the night of the murder sir rupert had informed him that he would be sitting up late in his study, looking over some papers, and that the household could go to bed at their usual time. sir rupert appeared cheerful, but somewhat preoccupied, and went into his study shortly after dinner. the butler, according to his instructions, locked up all the house, leaving the hall lamp burning for sir rupert to put out, and then, with the rest of the servants, retired to rest. he heard no pistol-shot, no sounds of any one being in the house, and knew nothing about the terrible event which had taken place until the next morning.

the housemaid stated that she had entered the study, according to her usual custom, to put it to rights, and had there found the body of her master lying half in and half out of the french window, which was open. her shriek of terror brought her fellow-servants to the spot, and the police were sent for but she knew nothing more.

miss pethram deposed that her father had said good-night to her shortly after dinner, and had retired to his study to attend to some business. she remained in the drawing-room for some time with mr. dombrain, her father's solicitor, who was then staying in the house, and retired to bed about nine o'clock, as she had a bad headache. she had heard no pistol-shot during the night there was nothing in her father's demeanour that led her to think he contemplated suicide.

mr. dombrain, the dead man's solicitor, said that he had come down to thornstream in order to witness the signing of sir rupert's will. the signing took place in the afternoon, and at night the baronet went to his study to look over some papers. he (witness) offered to accompany him, but sir rupert refused, as he said it was not necessary. miss pethram retired to bed about nine o'clock, and as he was left alone, he also retired half an hour afterwards. sir rupert never gave him the least idea that he contemplated suicide--in fact, on the night of the murder he seemed very cheerful. witness was a very heavy sleeper, but he certainly had heard no pistol-shot during the night, and it was only next morning that he learned about the crime.

mrs. belswin, chaperon to miss pethram, gave her evidence, which was rather important, as she was the last person who saw sir rupert alive. she had been engaged when sir rupert was in new zealand, and on his arrival had gone up to london on business. she only returned on the day when the crime was committed, and went to see sir rupert in his study between eight and nine o'clock. she only had a short interview with him, as they had nothing particular to talk about, and had gone up to her room shortly after nine o'clock. knowing that miss pethram had retired with a bad headache, she did not disturb her, but went straight to bed. some of the servants might have noticed her going upstairs to her room; she did not know. sir rupert was a complete stranger to her. he seemed well and cheerful; certainly the idea of suicide never crossed her mind for a moment. she heard no sounds of a struggle nor any pistol-shot, and knew nothing of the committal of the crime until next morning.

the doctor's evidence was to the effect that the deceased had been shot somewhere between ten and eleven o'clock at night. the bullet, penetrating the right eye, had entered the brain, causing death almost instantaneously. from the slanting upward direction of the bullet from the eye towards the back part of the head he would think the pistol or gun had been fired from a low position. according to his idea, the murderer had been crouching behind some shrubs on the terrace. sir rupert came to the window, and, as the study was lighted, his form would be clearly defined against the brilliant background. this was the opportunity chosen by the assassin, who had fired from the crouching position he occupied, so that the bullet had travelled upwards and penetrated into the brain through the right eye.

during the evidence of this witness the bullet was produced to the court, and afterwards the coroner summed up. going on the evidence produced, the jury brought in a verdict of murder against some person or persons unknown. in addition to this bold report of the case, there was a short leader, which theorised a great deal, but ultimately came to the conclusion that nothing could be done to unravel the mystery, and (as usual) complimented the police on their vigilance, a compliment wholly undeserved, as, from all appearances, the case had been conducted in a singularly slip-slop fashion, utterly unworthy of english justice.

being an engineer, maxwell was consequently a mathematician, therefore, having been trained in that exact science, he had a singularly logical mind. two and two, according to his way of looking at things, made four, but in this instance he was doubtful as to whether they did so. everything in connection with the case was wrapped in mystery, and there seemed to be no one on whom suspicion could rest. all the people present in the house on the night in question had given satisfactory accounts of their movements, except, perhaps, mrs. belswin, and the only possible suspicion against her was that she had been last in the company of the dead man.

this was all very well, but the committal of a crime pre-supposes a motive, and as mrs. belswin, according to her own account, was a complete stranger to sir rupert, it would certainly be very foolish to even hint such a thing against her. she had seen the baronet, spoken to him for a few minutes, and then retired to bed. nothing could be simpler, and whosoever had a hand in the murder it was certainly not mrs. belswin, so archie dismissed this fancy as a foolish one.

the curious part about the whole affair was that no one had heard any report, and, as sir rupert had been shot the sound of the weapon employed would certainly have been heard. yet all present in the house averred that they heard nothing; which was, to say the least, very peculiar.

judging from the evidence of the doctor, sir rupert was shot from the terrace, which argued that the assassin must have been a stranger to the house. with this idea in his head, maxwell wondered whether any suspicious stranger had been about the neighbourhood at that time, and made up his mind to inquire. sir rupert, from all accounts, was not a loveable character, and, in fact, his conduct towards maxwell had been anything but courteous, so that he was just the kind of man to have enemies. this being the case, what was more probable than that some man or woman whom he had wronged had followed him to thornstream and revenged themselves by killing him. it was rather a wild idea, still it seemed the only feasible one, so maxwell made up his mind to go down to deswarth, ask the hospitality of the vicarage for a few days, and make inquiries regarding what strangers had been to the village on that fatal day.

this was the conclusion he came to, but then the assertion of every one that they had heard no shot was puzzling, and the more maxwell thought the more puzzled he became.

suddenly an idea struck him and he jumped to his feet.

"i have it," he cried, "it was an air-gun."