"We must find out if he has."
"Very good. I leave that part of it to you; and now, sir, I'll get to business. You wait for me here, and I'll come back after I have had a squint round that room, and tell yer my impressions."
"You can't do much in so short a time."
"I can watch his face any'ow, as I serve this subp[oe]na. If 'e's guilty, guess I'll twig it--trust me. I ain't read detective stories for nothin'." With a complacent nod Slade made off, and Brand watched him enter the minister's house. He was absent for some ten minutes, during which time Korah stood staring at the sea, and wondered how he could return to his mission work at Koiau without Tera. Absorbed in these thoughts, he failed to hear Slade's returning footsteps, and it was only when he felt a touch on his shoulder that he turned to see the triumphant face of the man.
"What have you found?" he asked, guessing that Slade had made some discovery.
"Well, I saw Johnson, and he took the subp[oe]na, turning as pale as all villains. Then I looked about me a bit. I noticed the curtains on the winder."
"I know, I know," groaned Brand, "vanity and vexation and gauds of the world. Gay curtains they are, tied back with red, white, and blue cords."
"Yes, but one of them cords is gone, Mr. Brand," cried Slade, exultingly. "We've got 'im. That girl was strangled with a red, white, and blue cord. It ain't drawing back the curtain now. No, sir, it's round her throat."