“About eight in the morning.”
“Good gracious! Were you hiding in the house when I arrived at ten o’clock?” gasped Evelyn.
“No. I was stunned by my discovery, but half awake, and my first thought was that I had inadvertently given Von Eltz an overdose of hyoscine and killed him,” explained Maynard. “In my confused state of mind, I dressed immediately and left the house, taking my suit case, which I had brought with me, as well as the six chess problem diagrams; first, however, I searched Von Eltz’ body and found nothing—not even a pocket handkerchief. I overlooked the string which you discovered later, Penfield.”
“And which I promptly lost,” and the coroner made a wry face.
“I took it unseen from your pocket when coming out of my faint,” volunteered Mrs. Ward from the background. “I was in mortal terror Sam was mixed up in the man’s death and so I also stole the ball of cord out of Mr. Burnham’s library; I knew he used it to send his parcels abroad, and I gave the cord to Sam. He told me, Miss Evelyn, that he accidentally handed you a piece from the ball when helping you gather up your bundles.”
“So that was it!” and Evelyn sighed with relief; the tangled skein was rapidly unwinding and brighter hours seemed ahead with the clearing of the mystery. “Where did you go after leaving here, Mr. Maynard?”
“To the home of an old ‘dresser’ of mine who is still employed in a local theater,” replied Maynard. “He took me in without requiring explanations, and after a bath and something to eat I was again in condition to reason things out. I concluded to return here that afternoon, await developments, and if possible find out if Burnham was in any way aiding the Germans by the loan of his house, and by using his established reputation as a chess expert to cloak their method of passing valuable information in and out of Germany.”
“Heavens! I knew nothing of it!” gasped Burnham, appalled. “I assure you, Maynard, I had no idea——”
“I know that now,” acknowledged Maynard quickly. “After my bath I went over the chess problem diagrams again, and this time my examination became more technical and its results increased my suspicions of a code.” Maynard paused, and took from his pocket small squares of paper and laid them systematically in front of him on the bed.
