"Yes, but I've left a broom up there because I know my stockinged feet will leave prints in the dust—the thick dust. So while Props is jerking in the air I sweep away the dust. He's hidden by the ceiling-cloth. He won't be missed until to-morrow. It's an old building—some more dust will have fallen then. They may not find him at once, and if they do it looks like suicide. So I take the broom down with me and leave it on the stage in its usual place. Then I run down those nightmare passages into the little store-room. Thompson is in the yard outside. I wait. Presently I hear him go off to get his man from the front of the theatre. That's my chance. When he comes back—I'm not there."

"I see," said Fox heavily. "Yes. I see."

"Now, look here." Alleyn bent over the body. "The head and shoulders are covered in dust. It was there while he was still hanging. It was swept off the top gallery. Analysis will prove it. We've got to come all over scientific, Fox."

"It can't be Saint and it wasn't Props. That's two people cleared away in favour of your theory, sir."

"It is."

"What do we do now, then?"

"Get hold of the men who were watching the rest of the party."

"I'll ring up the Yard. Reports should have come through by now."

"Yes," said Alleyn. "Do that, Fox. I'm especially anxious for the report from Cambridge."

"Yes."

"And from—who's that fellow? Oh, Detective-Sergeant Watkins. Find out if he's been relieved, and if he has tell them to get hold of him and send him round here."

"Very good, sir."

"And ring up Bailey. He'll be in bed now, poor creature, but we'll have to beat him up. And the divisional surgeon. Oh, Lord—here we go again."

Fox disappeared through the proscenium door. Alleyn went back along the stone passages. He turned up the lights and examined the floor and walls carefully. He walked, hugging the wall, all the way to the room with the broken window. Here he examined the floor, the walls, the window-sill and the yard outside. He turned his torch on the gate, climbed it, and scrutinised the top meticulously. Here he found a tiny scrap of black cloth which he preserved.

Then he returned to the stage.