t's a pity you're not more observing," he returned, "for it's
important, on the whole. But never mind. I'll find that out for myself.
Did you notice when he left the rest of the party?"

"No, there was such a crowd of us that I didn't miss him."

"Very well, we'll have a look at his testimony. He left the rest of you
in this same gallery of the broken column, went straight out, strolled
about the woods for half an hour or so and then returned to the hotel. I
fancy 'strolled' is not precisely the right word, but at any rate it's
the word he uses. Now that half hour in the woods is an unfortunate
circumstance. Had he gone directly to the hotel from the cave, we could
have proved an alibi without any difficulty. As it is, he had plenty of
time after the others came out to remember that he had forgotten the
coat, return for it, renew the quarrel with his father, and after the
fatal result make his way to the hotel while the rest of the party were
still loitering in the woods."

"Terry--" I began.

He waved his hand in a gesture of dissent.

"Oh, I'm not saying that's what _did_ happen. I'm just showing you that
the district attorney's theory is a physical possibility. Let's glance
at the landlord's testimony a moment. When Radnor returned for his horse
he appeared angry, excited and in a hurry. Those are the landlord's
words, and they are corroborated by the stable boy and several loungers
about the hotel.

"He was in a hurry--why? Because he wished to get away before the others
came back. He had suddenly decided while he was in the woods--probably
when he heard them laughing and talking as they came out of the
cave--that he did not wish to see anyone. He was angry--mark that. All
of the witnesses agree there, and I think that his actions carry out
their evidence. He drank two glasses of brandy--by the way, I understood
you to say he had stopped drinking. He ordered the stable boy about
sharply. He swore at him for being slow. He lashed his horse quite
unnecessarily as he galloped off. He rode home at an outrageous rate.
And he was not, Solomon gives me to understand, in the habit of
maltreating horses.

"Now what do you make of all this? Here is a young man with an
unexpended lot of temper on his hands--bent on being reckless; bent on
being just as bad as he can be. It's as clear as daylight. That boy
never committed any crime. A man who had just murdered his father would
not be filled with anger, no matter what th