ently to hear the joyful news that
the man she loved so well was innocent after all.

"Mystery!" he added as if in answer to Polly's own thoughts. "The murder
of that man was never a mystery to me. I cannot understand how the
police could have been so blind when every one of the witnesses, both
for the prosecution and defence, practically pointed all the time to the
one guilty person. What do you think of it all yourself?"

"I think the whole case so bewildering," she replied, "that I do not see
one single clear point in it."

"You don't?" he said excitedly, while the bony fingers fidgeted again
with that inevitable bit of string. "You don't see that there is one
point clear which to me was the key of the whole thing?

"Lavender was murdered, wasn't he? Lord Arthur did not kill him. He had,
at least, in Colonel McIntosh an unimpeachable witness to prove that he
could not have committed that murder--and yet," he added with slow,
excited emphasis, marking each sentence with a knot, "and yet he
deliberately tries to throw the guilt upon a man who obviously was also
innocent. Now why?"

"He may have thought him guilty."

"Or wished to shield or cover the retreat of _one he knew to be
guilty_."

"I don't understand."

"Think of someone," he said excitedly, "someone whose desire would be as
great as that of Lord Arthur to silence a scandal round that gentleman's
name. Someone who, unknown perhaps to Lord Arthur, had overheard the
same conversation which George Higgins related to the police and the
magistrate, someone who, whilst Chipps was taking Lavender's card in to
his master, had a few minutes' time wherein to make an assignation with
Lavender, promising him money, no doubt, in exchange for the
compromising bills."

"Surely you don't mean--" gasped Polly.

"Point number one," he interrupted quietly, "utterly missed by the
police. George Higgins in his deposition stated that at the most
animated stage of Lavender's conversation with Lord Arthur, and when the
bookmaker's tone of voice became loud and threatening, a voice from the
top of the steps interrupted that conversation, saying: 'Your tea is
getting cold.'"

"Yes--but--" she argued.

"Wait a moment, for there is point number two. That voice was a lady's
voice. Now, I did exactly what the police should have done, but did not
do. I went to have a look from the racecourse side at those garden steps
which to my mind are such important factors in the discov