"I saw you myself," she burst
out; "I was there also."

CHAPTER XVII

JULIET'S STORY CONTINUED

Cuthbert was so surprised by this admission that astonishment held him
silent for a moment. He never expected to hear that Juliet herself had
been on the spot. Seeing this, she went on quickly. "Now you can
understand why I held my tongue. You were at Rose Cottage on that
night. You have enemies who know you were there. I have been
threatened should I insist on our engagement being fulfilled that you
will be arrested. Therefore I kept away and held my tongue."

"But if you had told me this long ago--"

"How could I?" she cried vehemently. "Could I come and say to you, I
believe you are a murderer?"

"Did you believe that, Juliet?" he asked in a grieved tone.

"Yes and no," she faltered. "Oh, Cuthbert, you know how I love you. I
could not bring myself to think you were guilty--and yet the proofs are
so strong. You were at Rose Cottage at a quarter to eleven--"

"No. I was there at a quarter past ten."

"I tell you I saw you at a quarter to eleven. You were getting over
the wall into the park. Then there was the knife--your knife."

"How did you know it was mine?"

"By the notches. You told me you always cut three notches on the
handle of any weapon you possessed. One day when mother and I came to
afternoon tea at your place you showed me some of your weapons--the
knife amongst them. One knife is much like another, and I would not
have noticed but for the notches and for the fact that I saw you on
that night. I hid the knife and Mr. Jennings--"

"He found it," said Mallow. "Quite so. He told me he did. When you
left the attic he contrived to--"

"Then the closing of the door was a trick," said Juliet in an agitated
tone. "I might have guessed that. He took the knife. He has
threatened to arrest you, so Miss Garthorne says."

"She says rightly," replied Mallow, thinking it best to make use of all
he knew, so as to force her to speak freely. "But of course, if you
can explain--"

"Explain!" she cried wildly and sinking into a chair. "What can I
explain? That I saw you climbing that wall, running away apparently
from the scene of your crime. That I found the knife by the body?"

"What!" Cuthbert started up and looked at her. "You saw the body?"

"Yes. I was in the house--in the room. I found my aunt dead in her
chair, with the cards on her lap, exactly as the parlor-maid s