th, surely," he said, in
some surprise.

"Of course, of course," she said quickly. "But still, he seems likely to
give a great deal of trouble to somebody; and if there is a trial, how am
I to know that my name won't be brought up?"

"I don't think there's a chance of it," he said. "How should it be
brought up?"

"One never knows," she said, with a note of nervous dread in her voice.

"Well, as far as I'm concerned, he'll get no help in making a posthumous
nuisance of himself from me; and I'm inclined to think that, as things
are going, he'll need my help to do that," he said in a tone of quiet
satisfaction.

"A posthumous nuisance--you do have phrases! And how you do dislike
him!" she said.

"The moderately civilized man, with a gentle disposition like mine,
always does hate the bull man. Also, he despises him," said Mr.
Manley calmly.

She was silent a while, thinking; then she said: "What did you mean by
saying: 'If it was a crime.' What else could it have been?"

"A suicide. The evidence was that the wound might have been
self-inflicted," said Mr. Manley.

"Absurd! Lord Loudwater was the last man in the world to commit suicide!"
she cried.

"That's purely a matter of individual opinion. I am of the opinion that a
man of his uncontrollable temper was quite likely to commit suicide," he
said firmly. "As for its being absurd, if there is any attempt to prove
any one guilty of murdering him on purely circumstantial evidence, that
person won't find anything absurd in the theory at all. In fact, he'll
work it for all it's worth. I think myself that, with Dr. Thornhill's
evidence in mind, the police, or the Public Prosecutor, or the Treasury,
or whoever it is that decides those things, will never attempt in this
case to bring any one to trial for the murder on merely circumstantial
evidence."

"Do you think not?" she said in a tone of relief.

"I'm sure of it," said Mr. Manley. "But why do we waste our time talking
about the tiresome fellow when there are things a thousand times more
interesting to talk about? Your eyes, now--"

Mr. Flexen instructed Inspector Perkins and his men to make inquiries
about the rides of Lord Loudwater and to try to learn whether any one had
seen a strange car, or, indeed, a car of any kind, in the neighbourhood
of the Castle about eleven o'clock on the night of the murder. Also, he
could see his way to using the newspaper men to help him to discover
whether there had been any