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Neville St. Clair. Out of the window he must apparently have gone

for no other exit could be discovered, and the ominous

bloodstains upon the sill gave little promise that he could save

himself by swimming, for the tide was at its very highest at the

moment of the tragedy.

"And now as to the villains who seemed to be immediately

implicated in the matter. The Lascar was known to be a man of the

vilest antecedents, but as, by Mrs. St. Clair's story, he was

known to have been at the foot of the stair within a very few

seconds of her husband's appearance at the window, he could

hardly have been more than an accessory to the crime. His defence

was one of absolute ignorance, and he protested that he had no

knowledge as to the doings of Hugh Boone, his lodger, and that he

could not account in any way for the presence of the missing

gentleman's clothes.