Then I heard the sound of a creaking door, the murmur of a low conversation, cut short by the shutting of the door.

I stood there for a few minutes, and then went back to my bed and fell asleep.
"The next day it all came back to me.

I had gone into Charles Turold's room for some reason when he was out, and there, on the hearth, I could see the remains of the fire he had lit overnight to dry his clothes.

He had made some clumsy man-like attempt to clean up the grate, but he left some ends of the charred kindling wood lying about." This final revelation brought a silence between Mrs.Brierly and the lawyer; a silence broken only by the distant deep call of the sea beneath the open window.

The silence lengthened into minutes before Mr.Brimsdown found his voice.
"You have said nothing to anybody else about this ?" He spoke almost abstractedly, but she chose to regard this question in the light of a reproach.