Mr. Fenton looked displeased.
"And how came you to find me here?" he asked.
"Oh, some men saw you take this road, and I guessed the rest."
"Oh, ah, very good. And what do you want, Sweetwater?"
The young man, who was glowing with pride and all alive with an enthusiasm which he had kept suppressed for hours, slipped up to the constable and whispered in his ear: "I have made a discovery, sir. I know you will excuse the presumption, but I couldn't bring myself to keep quiet and follow in that other fellow's wake. I had to make investigations on my own account, and—and"—stammering in his eagerness "they have been successful, sir. I have found out who was the murderer of Agatha Webb."
The constable, compassionating the disappointment in store for him, shook his head, with a solemn look toward the room from which he had just emerged. "You are late, Sweetwater," said he. "We have found him out ourselves, and he lies there, dead."
It was dark where they stood and Sweetwater's back was to the moonlight, so that the blank look which must have crossed his face at this announcement was lost upon the constable. But his consternation was evident from the way he thrust out either hand to steady himself against the walls of the narrow passageway, and Mr. Fenton was not at all surprised to hear him stammer out:
"Dead! He! Whom do you mean by he, Mr. Fenton?"
"The man in whose house we now are," returned the other. "Is there anyone else who can be suspected of this crime?"
Sweetwater gave a gulp that seemed to restore him to himself.