"That stands for a hut--it can hardly be called a cottage--where a poor old woman lives called Mother Jane. She is a harmless imbecile, against whom no one has ever directed a suspicion. You may take your finger off that mark, Miss Butterworth."
I did so, but I did not forget that it stood very near the footpath branching off to the station.
"You entered this hut as well as the big houses?" I intimated.
"And found," was his answer, "four walls; nothing more."
I let my finger travel along the footpath I have just mentioned.
"Steep," was his comment. "Up, up, all the way, but no precipices. Nothing but pine woods on either side, thickly carpeted with needles."
My finger came back and stopped at the house marked M.
"Why is a letter affixed to this spot?" I asked.
"Because it stands at the head of the lane. Any one sitting at the window L can see whoever enters or leaves the lane at this end. And some one is always sitting there. The house contains two crippled children, a boy and a girl. One of them is always in that window."
"I see," said I. Then abruptly: "What do you think of Deacon Spear?"
"Oh, he's a well-meaning man, none too fine in his feelings. He does not mind the neighborhood; likes quiet, he says. I hope you will know him for yourself some day," the detective slyly added.
At this return to the forbidden subject, I held myself very much aloof.
"Your diagram is interesting," I remarked, "but it has not in the least changed my determination. It is you who will return to X., and that, very soon."
"Very soon?" he repeated. "Whoever goes there on this errand must go at once; to-night, if possible; if not, to-morrow at the latest."
"To-night! to-morrow!" I expostulated. "And you thought----"
"No matter what I thought," he sighed. "It seems I had no reason for my hopes." And folding up the map, he slowly rose. "The young man we have left there is doing more harm than good. That is why I say that some one of real ability must replace him immediately. The detective from New York must seem to have left the place."
I made him my most ladylike bow of dismissal.
"I shall watch the papers," I said. "I have no doubt that I shall soon be gratified by seeing in them some token of your success."