The road was quite deserted. Nobody in Lymstock is about after dark. The first few houses were just ahead, amongst them the ugly gabled building of the Women’s Institute. It loomed up in the dim starlight and something impelled me to go and have a look at it. I don’t know whether I had caught a faint glimpse of a stealthy figure flitting through the gate—if so, it must have been so indeterminate that it did not register in my conscious mind, but I did suddenly feel a kind of overweening curiosity about the place.

The gate was slightly ajar, and I pushed it open and walked in. A short path and four steps led up to the door.

I stood there a moment hesitating. What was I really doing there? I didn’t know, and then, suddenly, just near at hand, I caught the sound of a rustle. It sounded like a woman’s dress. I took a sharp turn and went round the corner of the building towards where the sound had come from.

I couldn’t see anybody. I went on and again turned a corner. I was at the back of the house now and suddenly I saw, only two feet away from me, an open window.

I crept up to it and listened. I could hear nothing, but somehow or other I felt convinced that there was someone inside.

My back wasn’t too good for acrobatics as yet, but I managed to hoist myself up and drop over the sill inside. I made rather a noise unfortunately.

I stood just inside the window listening. Then I walked forward, my hands outstretched. I heard then the faintest sound ahead of me to my right.

I had a torch in my pocket and I switched it on.

Immediately a low, sharp voice said: “Put that out.”

I obeyed instantly, for in that brief second I had recognized Superintendent Nash.

I felt him take my arm and propel me through a door and into a passage. Here, where there was no window to betray our presence to anyone outside, he switched on a lamp and looked at me more in sorrow than in anger.

“You would have to butt in just that minute, Mr. Burton.”

“Sorry,” I apologized. “But I got a hunch that I was on to something.”

“And so you were probably. Did you see anyone?”

I hesitated. “I’m not sure,” I said slowly. “I’ve got a vague feeling I saw someone sneak in through the front gate but I didn’t really see anyone. Then I heard a rustle round the side of the house.”

Nash nodded.

“That’s right. Somebody came round the house before you. They hesitated by the window, then went on quickly—heard you, I expect.”

I apologized again. “What’s the big idea?” I asked.

Nash said: