Annie Smart looked at the Chief Inspector doubtfully.
"No, sir," she said at last.
She hoped she looked braver than she was feeling. It was all very well for these men to talk of being safe and all the rest of it. But it was always possible that something might go wrong, and that last awful murder had been committed almost under the noses of the police. Her mind went back to the dreadful evening three days before, when she had gone out to meet her young man. She would see again the tall stranger who had walked after her in long silent strides. He had lifted his hat to her and said something. And then she had run blindly, with the Evil, as it seemed, at her heels. Luckily Mrs. Chesham's house, where her aunt was cook, had been only a few yards away. Thither she had bolted, and her aunt ha
