pt in. The statement drawn by Sir Terence from the
sentry appeared flatly to contradict Captain Tremayne's own account of
his movements on the night in question.

"You told the court," O'Moy addressed the witness Mullins, consulting
his notes as he did so, "that on the night on which Count Samoval met
his death, I sent you at ten minutes past twelve to take a letter to the
sergeant of the guard, an urgent letter which was to be forwarded to its
destination first thing on the following morning. And it was in fact in
the course of going upon this errand that you discovered the prisoner
kneeling beside the body of Count Samoval. This is correct, is it not?"

"It is, sir."

"Will you now inform the court to whom that letter was addressed?"

"It was addressed to the Commissary-General."

"You read the superscription?"

"I am not sure whether I did that, but I clearly remember, sir, that you
told me at the time that it was for the Commissary-General."

Sir Terence signified that he had no more to ask, and again the
president invited the prisoner to question the witness, to receive again
the prisoner's unvarying refusal.

And now O'Moy rose in his place to announce that he had himself a
further statement to, make to the court, a statement which he had not
conceived necessary until he had heard the prisoner's account of his
movements during the half-hour he had spent at Monsanto on the night of
the duel.

"You have heard from Sergeant Flynn and my butler Mullins that the
letter carried from me by the latter to the former on the night of the
28th was a letter for the Commissary-General of an urgent character, to
be forwarded first thing in the morning. If the prisoner insists upon
it, the Commissary-General himself may be brought before this court to
confirm my assertion that that communication concerned a complaint from
headquarters on the subject of the tents supplied to the third division
Sir Thomas Picton's--at Celorico. The documents concerning that
complaint--that is to say, the documents upon which we are to presume
that the prisoner was at work during tine half-hour in question--were at
the time in my possession in my own private study and in another wing of
the building altogether."

Sir Terence sat down amid a rustling stir that ran through the court,
but was instantly summoned to his feet again by the president.

"A moment, Sir Terence. The prisoner will no doubt desire to question
you on that statement."