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Churt might have won the game. If they are not stains of invisible ink, why should they grow more distinct? If they are invisible ink, how did it get there, unless from Gornay’s guilty fingers?”
    He took out of his pocket the envelope of Norah’s letter, and a glance at it brought a look of triumph to his face. He handed it to Shapland. “The ink is beginning to show there, too. It seems to act more slowly on the paper than on the polish of the chessmen.”
    â€œIt is a difference of exposure to the air,” Shapland corrected. “The envelope has been in your pocket. If we leave it there on the table, we shall see presently whether your deduction is sound. Meanwhile, if Mr Gornay was the guilty person, how can you account for his presence in the library at the only time when a crime could have been committed?”
    â€œBy denying it,” Kenneth answered. “What proof have we that he was there at that particular time?”
    â€œHow else could he know the moves that were played at that time?” Shapland asked.
    Kenneth pointed again to the chess-board. “From the position of the pieces at the end of the game. Here it is. I can prove, from the position of those pieces alone, provided the game was played at the odds of queen’s rook , that White must, in the course of the game, have played his queen to queen’s knight’s sixth, not making a capture, and that Black must have taken it with the rook’s pawn. If I can draw those inferences from the position, so could Gornay. We know how quickly he can think out a combination from the way in which he showed that Lord Churt could have won the game, when it looked so hopeless that he resigned.”
    The detective, fortunately, had an elementary knowledge of chess sufficient to enable him to follow Kenneth’s demonstration.
    â€œI don’t suggest,” Kenneth added, when the accuracy of the demonstration was admitted, “that he planned this alibi beforehand. It was a happy afterthought, that occurred to his quick mind when he saw that the position at the end of the game made it possible. What he relied on was the invisible ink trick, and that would have succeeded by itself, if I hadn’t happened to turn up unexpectedly in time to intercept my letter from Norah.”
    While Kenneth was giving this last bit of explanation, Shapland had taken up the envelope again. As he had foretold, exposure to the air had brought out the invisible writing so that, although still faint, it was already legible. Only the middle line of the address, the number and name of the street, had been struck out with a single stroke, and another number and name substituted. The detective handed it to Churt. “Do you recognize the second handwriting, my lord?”
    Churt put on his glasses and examined it. “I can’t say that I do,” he answered, “but it is not that of Mr Gornay.” He took another envelope out of his pocket-book, addressed to himself in his secretary’s hand, and pointed out the dissimilarity of the two writings. Norah cast an anxious look at Kenneth, and Aunt Blaxter one of her sourest at the girl. The detective showed no surprise.
    â€œNone the less, my lord, I think it might forward our investigation if you would have Mr Gornay summoned to this room. I don’t think you need be afraid that there will be any scene,” he added, and, for an instant, the faintest of smiles flitted across his lips.
    Churt rang the bell and told the servant to ask his secretary to come to him.
    â€œMr Gornay left an hour ago, my lord. He was called away suddenly and doesn’t expect to see his grandmother alive.”
    â€œPoor old soul! On Christmas Eve, too!” Churt muttered, sympathetically, and this time Shapland allowed himself the indulgence of a rather broader smile.
    â€œI guessed as much,” he observed, “when I recognized the handwriting in which the envelope had been