would only be accordant to accredited rules that the window
should be preferable to the door? Had it not already figured in the
visions of adventure in the Sunday evening's walk? was it not a
favourite mode of exit in the mornings, when bathing and fishing were
more attractive than the pillow! Moreover, the moonlight disclosed
what appeared like a figure in the court-yard, and there was reason at
the time to suppose it a person likely to observe and report upon the
expedition. The opening of the front door might likewise attract
notice; and if the cousin should, as was possible, return that night,
the direct road was the way to meet him. The hour was too early for
the train which was to be met, but a lighted candle would reveal the
vigil, and moonlight on the meadows was attractive at eighteen.
Gentlemen of soberer and maturer years might be incredulous, but surely
it was not so strange or unusual for a lad, who indulged in visions of
adventure, to find a moonlight walk by the river-side more inviting
than a bed-room.

'Shortly after, perhaps as soon as the light was extinguished, the
murder must have been committed. The very presence of that light had
been guardianship to the helpless old man below. When it was quenched,
nothing remained astir, the way from without was open, the weapon stood
only too ready to hand, the memorandum-book gave promise of booty and
was secured, though nothing else was apparently touched. It was this
very book that contained the signature that would have exonerated the
prisoner, and to which he fearlessly appealed upon his arrest at the
Paddington Station, before, for his additional misfortune, he had time
to discharge himself of his commission, and establish his innocence by
the deposit of the money at the bank. He has thus for a while become
the victim of a web of suspicious circumstances. But look at these
very circumstances more closely, and they will be found perfectly
consistent with the prisoner's statement, never varying, be it
remembered, from the explanation given to the policeman in first
surprise and horror of the tidings of the crime.

'It might have been perhaps thought that there was another alternative
between entire innocence and a deliberate purpose of robbery and
murder-namely, that reproof from the old man had provoked a blow, and
that the means of flight had been hastily seized upon in the moment of
confusion and alarm. This might have been a plausible line of