, since otherwise it could
not have been held at all, and he would have been compelled to forgo the
satisfaction he desired.

He passed to the consideration of the locality chosen, and there he
confessed that he was confronted with a mystery. Yet the mystery
would have been no less in the case of any other opponent than Captain
Tremayne, since it was clear beyond all doubt that a duel had been
fought and Count Samoval killed, and no less clear that it was a
premeditated combat, and that the deceased had gone to Monsanto
expressly to engage in it, since the duelling swords found had been
identified as his property and must have been carried by him to the
encounter.

The mystery, he repeated, would have been no less in the case of any
other opponent than Captain Tremayne; indeed, in the case of some other
opponent it might even have been deeper. It must be remembered, after
all, that the place was one to which the accused had free access at all
hours.

And it was clearly proven that he availed himself of that access on the
night in question. Evidence had been placed before the court showing
that he had come to Monsanto in a curricle at twenty minutes to twelve
at the latest, and there was abundant evidence to show that he was found
kneeling beside the body of the dead man at ten minutes past twelve--the
body being quite warm at the time and the breath hardly out of it,
proving that he had fallen but an instant before the arrival of Mullins
and the other witnesses who had testified.

Unless Captain Tremayne could account to the satisfaction of the court
for the manner in which he had spent that half-hour, Major Swan did not
perceive, when all the facts of motive and circumstance were considered,
what conclusion the court could reach other than that Captain Tremayne
was guilty of the death of Count Jeronymo de Samoval in a single combat
fought under clandestine and irregular conditions, transforming the deed
into technical murder.

Upon that conclusion the major sat down to mop a brow that was
perspiring freely. From Lady O'MOY in the background came faintly, the
sound of a half-suppressed moan. Terrified, she clutched the hand of
Miss Armytage,--and found that hand to lie like a thing of ice in
her own, yet she suspected nothing of the deep agitation under her
companion's, outward appearance of calm.

Captain Tremayne rose slowly to address the court in reply to the
prosecution. As he faced his, judges now he met t