-I don't--really I don't. I picked up the knife and left the
room after ten minutes. I stole up the stairs and shut the door so
quietly that no one heard. You see, the first time I did not trouble
to do that, but when I found that aunt was dead I was afraid lest the
servants should come and find me there. I fancied, as I had the knife
in my hand and had entered by means of the latch-key, that I might be
suspected. Besides, it would have been difficult to account for my
unexpected presence in the house at that hour."

"I quite comprehend!" said Mallow grimly. "We can't all keep our heads
in these difficult situations. Well?"

"I came out into the garden. I heard the policeman coming down the
lane, and knew I could not escape unobserved that way. Then if I took
the path to the station I fancied he might see me in the moonlight. I
ran across the garden by the wall and got over the fence amongst the
corn, where I lay concealed. Then I saw you coming round the corner.
You climbed the wall and went into the park. After that I waited till
after eleven, when the policeman entered the house, summoned by the
servants. I then ran round the field, sheltered from observation by
the corn, which, as you know, was then high, and I got out at the
further side. I walked to Keighley, the next place to Rexton, and took
a cab home. I went straight to bed, and did not see Basil till the
next morning. He told me he had come home later, but he did not say
where he had been, nor did I ask him."

"But I am sure--unless my watch was wrong, that I climbed the wall at a
quarter past ten," insisted Mallow.

"You might have climbed it again at a quarter to eleven."

"No! I climbed it only once. Which way did I come?"

"Along the path from the station. Then you walked beside the fence on
the corn side, and jumping over, you climbed the wall."

"Certainly I did that," murmured Mallow, remembering what he had told
Jennings. "Did you see my face?"

"No! But I knew you by your height and by the light overcoat you wore.
That long, sporting overcoat which is down to your heels. Oh,
Cuthbert, what is the matter?"

She might well ask this question, for Mallow had started and turned
pale. "Nothing! nothing," he said irritably. "I certainly did wear
such an overcoat. I was with Caranby before I went to Rexton, and
knowing his room would be heated like a furnace, I took every
precaution against cold."

Juliet doubted this, as