ng the ones in which you appeared on your return to the house, the
day following your sister's murder?"

"I have."

"Also the hat and coat found on a remote hook in the closet under the
stairs, bearing the flour-mark on its under brim?"

"Yes, that too."

"Yet cannot say which of these two overcoats you put on when you left
your home, an hour or so after finishing your dinner?"

Trapped by his own lawyer--visibly and remorselessly trapped! The blood,
shooting suddenly into the astounded prisoner's face, was reflected on
the cheeks of the other lawyers present. Even Mr. Fox betrayed his
surprise; but it was a surprise not untinged by apprehension. Mr. Moffat
must feel very sure of himself to venture thus far. I, who feared to ask
myself the cause of this assurance, could only wait and search the
partially visible face of little Ella for an enlightenment, which was no
more to be found there than in the swollen features of the outraged
Arthur. The excitement which this event caused, afforded the latter some
few moments in which to quell his own indignation; and when he spoke, it
was passionately, yet not without some effort at restraint.

"I cannot. I was in no condition to notice. I was bent on going into
town, and immediately upon coming downstairs went straight to the rack
and pulled on the first things that offered."

It appeared to be a perfect give-a-way. And it was, but it was a
give-a-way which, I feared, threatened Carmel rather than her brother.

Mr. Moffat, still nervous, still avoiding the prisoner's eye,
relentlessly pursued his course, unmindful--wilfully so, it appeared--of
the harm he was doing himself, as well as the witness.

"Mr. Cumberland, were a coat and hat all that you took from that hall?"

"No, I took a key--a key from the bunch which I saw lying on the table."

"Did you recognise this key?"

"I did."

"What key was it?"

"It belonged to Mr. Ranelagh, and was the key to the club-house
wine-vault."

"Where did you put it after taking it up?"

"In my trousers' pocket."

"What did you do then?"

"Went out, of course."

"Without seeing anybody?"

"Of course. Whom should I see?"

It was angrily said, and the flush, which had begun to die away, slowly
made its way back into his cheeks.

"Are you willing to repeat that you saw no one?"

"There was no one."

A lie! All knew it, all felt it. The man was perjuring himself, under his
own counsel's persistent questioning on a p