down there. I'll go and have a look and see what it is." I
tried to dissuade him, and certainly made no attempt to follow him, but
not more than half a minute could have elapsed before I heard a cry and
a groan, then Lord Arthur's footsteps hurrying down the wooden stairs
which lead on to the racecourse.'

"You may imagine," said the man in the corner, "what severe
cross-examination the gallant Colonel had to undergo in order that his
assertions might in some way be shaken by the prosecution, but with
military precision and frigid calm he repeated his important statements
amidst a general silence, through which you could have heard the
proverbial pin.

"He had heard the threatening voice _while_ sitting with Lord Arthur
Skelmerton; then came the cry and groan, and, _after that_, Lord
Arthur's steps down the stairs. He himself thought of following to see
what had happened, but it was a very dark night and he did not know the
grounds very well. While trying to find his way to the garden steps he
heard Lord Arthur's cry for help, the tramp of the patrolling
constables' horses, and subsequently the whole scene between Lord
Arthur, the man Higgins, and the constables. When he finally found his
way to the stairs, Lord Arthur was returning in order to send a groom
for police assistance.

"The witness stuck to his points as he had to his guns at Beckfontein a
year ago; nothing could shake him, and Sir Marmaduke looked triumphantly
across at his opposing colleague.

"With the gallant Colonel's statements the edifice of the prosecution
certainly began to collapse. You see, there was not a particle of
evidence to show that the accused had met and spoken to the deceased
after the latter's visit at the front door of 'The Elms.' He told Chipps
that he wouldn't see the visitor, and Chipps went into the hall directly
and showed Lavender out the way he came. No assignation could have been
made, no hint could have been given by the murdered man to Lord Arthur
that he would go round to the back entrance and wished to see him there.

"Two other guests of Lord Arthur's swore positively that after Chipps
had announced the visitor, their host stayed at the card-table until a
quarter to eleven, when evidently he went out to join Colonel McIntosh
in the garden. Sir Marmaduke's speech was clever in the extreme. Bit by
bit he demolished that tower of strength, the case against the accused,
basing his defence entirely upon the evidence of Lor