shot if it had come to that.
All that I was concerned to do was to submit him to the ordeal which I
conceived he must undergo when he saw himself confronted with the choice
of keeping silence and submitting to his fate, or saving himself by an
avowal that could scarcely be less bitter than death itself."

"You fool, O'Moy-you damned, infernal fool!" his lordship swore at him.
"Grant overheard more than you imagined that night outside the gates.
His conclusions ran the truth very close indeed. But I could not believe
him, could not believe this of you."'

"Of course not," said O'Moy gloomily. "I can't believe it of myself."

"When Miss Armytage intervened to afford Tremayne an alibi, I believed
her, in view of what Grant had told me; I concluded that hers was the
window from which Tremayne had climbed down. Because of what I knew I
was there to see that the case did not go to extremes against Tremayne.
If necessary Grant must have given full evidence of all he knew, and
there and then left you to your fate. Miss Armytage saved us from that,
and left me convinced, but still not understanding your own attitude.
And now comes Richard Butler to surrender to me and cast himself upon
my mercy with another tale which completely gives the lie to Miss
Armytage's, but confirms your own."

"Richard Butler!" cried O'Moy. "He has surrendered to you?"

"Half-an-hour ago."

Sir Terence turned aside with a weary shrug. A little laugh that was
more a sob broke from him. "Poor Una!" he muttered.

"The tangle is a shocking one--lies, lies everywhere, and in the places
where they were least to be expected." Wellington's anger flashed
out. "Do you realise what awaits you as a result of all this damned
insanity?"

"I do, sir. That is why I place my resignation in your hands. The
disregard of a general order punishable in any officer is beyond pardon
in your adjutant-general."

"But that is the least of it, you fool."

"Sure, don't I know? I assure you that I realise it all."

"And you are prepared to face it?" Wellington was almost savage in an
anger proceeding from the conflict that went on within him. There was
his duty as commander-in-chief, and there was his friendship for O'Moy
and his memory of the past in which O'Moy's loyalty had almost been the
ruin of him.

"What choice have I?"

His lordship turned away, and strode the length of the room, his head
bent, his lips twitching. Suddenly he stopped and faced the silent