ories agreed in their
essential particulars, but they varied in some degree in detail. Colwyn,
however, was well aware that different witnesses never exactly agree in
their impressions of the same event. Phil had made only an incidental
reference to the dinner-table conversation about jewels, and Colwyn was
not previously aware that the story of the ruby ring had occupied twenty
minutes in the telling.

"How did you come to tell the story?" he asked.

"Some of the ladies were admiring my ring, and Phil suggested that they
should hear the story of its discovery. I had just finished when the
scream rang out from upstairs, followed by the shot."

"How long was the interval between the scream and the shot?"

"Only a few seconds," replied Musard. "Some of us started to go upstairs
as soon as we heard it, but the shot followed before we reached the door
of the dining-room."

Colwyn reflected that this estimate differed from Phil Heredith's, who
had thought that nearly half a minute elapsed between the scream and the
shot. But he knew that a correct estimate of the lapse of time is even
rarer than an accurate computation of distance.

Musard knew nothing about two aspects of the case on which Colwyn
desired to gain light. He had seen nothing of the target shooting in the
gun-room the day before the murder, but he thought it quite possible
that Captain Nepcote's revolver might have lain there unnoticed until
the following night, because the men of the house party were a poor
shooting lot who were not likely to use the gun-room much. He had heard
the head gamekeeper say that there had been no shooting parties, and
Tufnell had told him that only one or two of the men had brought guns
with them. Neither was Musard aware whether there existed the motive of
wronged virtue or slighted affection to arouse a girl like Hazel Rath to
commit such a terrible crime. He had always thought her a sweet and
modest girl, but he had seen too much of the world to place much
reliance on externals, and he had had very few opportunities of
observing whether there had been anything in the nature of a love affair
between her and Philip. His own view was that whatever feeling existed
was on the girl's side only.

"If there had been love passages between them, Phil's conscience would
not have allowed him to be quite so certain of her innocence," added
Musard. "I told him of her arrest, and there can be no doubt that he
thinks the police have made