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Did he look in through the window?”
    â€œI think we shall find it was something much cleverer than that. I think I shall be able to show that he could infer that those two moves had been played, without any other help, from the position of the pieces as they stood at the end of the game; as they stand on the board now.” He again bent down over the board. “White plays queen to queen’s knight’s sixth, not taking anything, and Black takes the queen with the rook’s pawn; those are the two moves.”
    For nearly another half-hour Norah waited in loyal silence, watching the alternations of his face as it brightened with the light of comprehension and clouded again with fresh perplexity.
    At last he shut up the board and put it down, looking profoundly puzzled.
    â€œCan it not be proved that the queen must have been taken at that particular square?” Norah inquired.
    â€œNo,” he answered. “It might equally have been a rook. I can’t make the matter out. So many of the jigsaw bits fit in that I know I must be right, and yet there is just one little bit that I can’t find. By Jove!” he added, suddenly starting up, “I wonder if Churt could supply it?”
    He was just going off to find out when a servant entered the room with a message that Lord Churt requested their presence in his study.
    The conclave assembled in the study consisted of the same persons who, in the drawing-room, had witnessed the discovery of the bank-note, with the addition of Shapland, the detective from Scotland Yard. Lord Churt presided, sitting at the table, and Shapland sat by his side, with a face that might have seemed almost unintelligent in its lack of expression but for the roving eyes, that scrutinized in turn the other faces present.
    Norah and Kenneth took the two chairs that were left vacant, and, as soon as the door was shut, Kenneth asked Churt a question.
    â€œWhen you played your game of chess with Sir James Winslade this afternoon, did he give you the odds of the queen’s rook?”
    Everyone, except Norah and the sphinx-like detective, whose face gave no clue to his thoughts, looked surprised at the triviality of the question.
    â€œI should hardly have thought this was a fitting occasion to discuss such a frivolous matter as a game of chess,” Aunt Blaxter remarked sourly.
    â€œI confess I don’t understand the relevance of your question,” Churt answered. “As a matter of fact, he did give me those odds.”
    â€œThank God!” Kenneth exclaimed, with an earnestness that provoked a momentary sign of interest from Shapland.
    â€œI should like to hear what Mr Dale has to say about this matter,” he remarked. “Lord Churt has put me in possession of the circumstances.”
    â€œI have an accusation to make against Lord Churt’s private secretary, Mr Gornay. Perhaps he had better be present to hear it.”
    â€œQuite unnecessary, quite unnecessary,” Churt interposed. “We will not have any unpleasant scenes if we can help it.”
    â€œVery well,” Kenneth continued. “I only thought it might be fairer. I accuse Gornay of stealing the thousand-pound bank-note out of the envelope addressed to the Red Cross and putting it into a letter addressed to me. I accuse him of using colourless ink, of a kind that would become visible after a few hours, to cross out my address and substitute another , the address of a confederate, no doubt.”
    â€œYou must be aware, Mr Dale,” Shapland observed, “that you are making a very serious allegation in the presence of witnesses. I presume you have some evidence to support it?”
    Kenneth opened the chess-board. “Look at the stains on those chess pieces. They were not there when the game was finished. They were there, not so distinctly as now, about an hour ago. Precisely those pieces, and only those, are stained that Gornay touched in showing that Lord