"But there are so few
people about at night nowadays. Five out of the eight gamekeepers are
still abroad. In ordinary times there would have been four at least of
them about the roads and woods. On that night there was only one."

"There's the further difficulty that Lord Loudwater had so few friends.
That will make it harder to find out anything about an affair of this
kind--if he had one," said Mr. Carrington.

"It will, indeed," said Mr. Flexen, and paused, frowning. Then he
added gravely: "I'm sure that there was such an affair, and I've got
to find the woman."

CHAPTER XI

Mr. Manley did not lunch with Mr. Flexen and the lawyer. In cultivating
Mr. Flexen he had been forced to see less than usual of Helena, and,
interesting a companion as Mr. Flexen was, Mr. Manley very much preferred
her society. He found her less nervous than she had been the day before,
but she still wore a sufficiently anxious air, and was still restless.
She seemed more pleased to see him than usual, and the warmth of her
welcome gave him a sudden sense that she was even fonder of him than he
had thought, or hoped. It stirred him to an admirable response.

At lunch she questioned him with uncommon particularity about the
proceedings of Mr. Flexen, the discoveries he had made, the lines on
which he was making his investigation. Her interest seemed natural
enough, and he told her all that he knew, which was little. She seemed
much disappointed by his lack of information. He was careful not to tell
her that Mr. Flexen had inquired of him whether he knew of any
entanglement between Lord Loudwater and a woman. Thanks to his
imagination he was a young man of uncommon discretion, and it was plain
that she was suffering anxiety enough.

At the end of her fruitless questioning she sighed and said: "Of course,
the whole affair is of no great interest to you really."

"It isn't of very great interest to me," said Mr. Manley. "You see, the
victim of the crime, if it was a crime, was such an uninteresting
creature. Nature, as I've told you before, intended him for a bull,
changed her mind when it was too late to make a satisfactory alteration,
and botched it. You must admit that the bull man is a very dull kind of
creature, unless he can make things lively for you by prodding you with
his horns. When he is dead, he is certainly done with."

"I wish he was done with," she said, with a sigh.

"Well, as far as you are concerned, he is done wi