rprised than ever. I said we
had better search the house to make sure whether he was there or not,
and Mr. Hurst said he would come with me; so we all went over the house
and looked in all the rooms, but there was not a sign of Mr. Bellingham
in any of them. Then Mr. Hurst got very nervous and upset, and when he
had just snatched a little dinner he ran off to catch the six
thirty-one train up to town."

"You say that Mr. Bellingham could not have left the house because you
were watching all the time. Where were you while you were watching?"

"I was in the kitchen. I could see the front gate from the kitchen
window."

"You say that you laid the table for two. Where did you lay it?"

"In the dining-room, of course."

"Could you see the front gate from the dining-room?"

"No, but I could see the study door. The study is opposite the
dining-room."

"Do you have to come upstairs to get from the kitchen to the
dining-room?"

"Yes, of course you do!"

"Then, might not Mr. Bellingham have left the house while you were
coming up the stairs?"

"No, he couldn't have done."

"Why not?"

"Because it would have been impossible."

"But why would it have been impossible?"

"Because he couldn't have done it."

"I suggest that Mr. Bellingham left the house quietly while you were on
the stairs?"

"No, he didn't."

"How do you know he did not?"

"I am quite sure he didn't."

"But how can you be certain?"

"Because I should have seen him if he had."

"But I mean when you were on the stairs."

"He was in the study when I was on the stairs."

"How do you know he was in the study?"

"Because I showed him in there and he hadn't come out."

Mr. Loram paused and took a deep breath, and his lordship flattened his
eyelids.

"Is there a side gate to the premises?" the barrister resumed wearily.

"Yes. It opens into a narrow lane at the side of the house."

"And there is a French window in the study, is there not?"

"Yes. It opens on to the small grass plot opposite the side gate."

"The window and the gate both have catches on the [Transcriber's note:
possibly missing words: 'inside. Could it'] have been possible for Mr.
Bellingham to let himself out into the lane?"

"The window and gate both have catches on the inside. He could have
got out that way, but, of course he didn't."

"Why not?"

"Well, no gentleman would go creeping out the back way like a thief."

"Did you look to see if the Frenc