in less than a day or two the identity of the victim of the burnt barn was established. for hewitt had his idea, and he communicated with plummer, of scotland yard. the man with the buttoned boots and the sketch-book was the artist who had been staying at the cottage in the village, but who, singularly enough, had never been seen to draw, and had left no drawings behind him. he had warned the people of the cottage that he might be away for a night or two, and he had stayed away for two nights before; so that his disappearance did not disturb them, and when they heard that mr. peytral’s body had been found in the barn they accepted the news as fact. they recognised at once a photograph produced by plummer as that of their late lodger. and the photograph had been procured from messrs. kingsley, bell and dalton, the intended victims in the bond case, and it was one of henning, their vanished correspondence clerk!

that his death would be convenient to mayes, the greater scoundrel, was plain enough. the bond robbery had been brought to naught, thanks to martin hewitt, and henning was now useless. worse, he might be caught, or give himself up, and was thus a perpetual danger. and probably he wanted money. this being so, it was a singular fact that at the inquest the surgeon who had examined the wound gave it as his most positive opinion that it had been self-inflicted. and it was inflicted with a razor, henning’s own, as was very clearly proved after inquiry. for the razor was found in the barn by the police, entangled with the blackened frame of an old lantern. here was still another puzzle; one to which the final revelation of the mystery of the red triangle gave an answer, as will be seen in due place.