Miss Cornelia was at a loss. If this were acting, it was at leastfine acting.

"How did you happen to come to this home?" she persisted, her voiceunconsciously tuning itself to the slow, laborious speech of theUnknown.

"Saw - the - lights."

Bailey broke in with a question.

"Where were you when you saw the lights?"

The Unknown wet his lips with his tongue, painfully.

"I - broke - out - of - the - garage," he said at length. This wasunexpected. A general movement of interest ran over the group.

"How did you get there?" Beresford took his turn as questioner.

The Unknown shook his head, so sluggishly and deliberately that MissCornelia's fingers itched to shake him in spite of his injuries.

"I - don't - know."

"Have you been robbed?" queried Bailey with keen suspicion.

The Unknown mumbled something unintelligible. Then he seemed toget command of his tongue again.