quence."

"Caldew's a fool if he said that, and I wish I'd never allowed him to
meddle in the case," replied Merrington forcibly. "I've had the police
court proceedings against the girl put back for a week till the question
of the ownership of the revolver could be settled. Now that it is
decided I shall have Nepcote interviewed and questioned without delay."

"Before you try to trace the missing necklace?" The faint inflection of
surprise in Colwyn's voice might have escaped a quicker ear than
Merrington's.

"Scotland Yard will trace the necklace fast enough," he confidently
declared. "I like to take things in their proper order. The next thing
to do is to ascertain whether Nepcote left his revolver behind him at
the moat-house, though I have not the least doubt that he did. The
necklace is really a minor consideration. It merely provides another
motive for the murder--cupidity as well as jealousy."

"Is that the way you regard it?" A less thick-skinned man than
Merrington would this time have caught something more than surprise in
the other's tone.

"Is there any other way of looking at it?"

"I would not like to venture an opinion in this case without more
knowledge than I have at present," returned Colwyn in sober accents.
"But so far as I have gone into it I should say that there are several
things which seem to require more explanation. Nepcote's own actions
seem to call for some investigation."

"You are surely not suggesting that Nepcote had anything to do with the
murder or the robbery of the pearls?" said Merrington in an astonished
voice. "That is quite impossible. He left the moat-house in the
afternoon before the murder was committed, and went over to France that
night."

"He didn't go to France that night. He stayed in London, and did not
return to France until the following day."

Merrington was obviously startled at this unexpected information.

"This is news to me," he said gravely. "Where did you learn it?"

"From the War Office this morning. There is no possibility of mistake.
Nepcote was in London on the night of the murder."

"He probably has an explanation, but what you have just told me is an
additional reason for seeing and questioning Nepcote without delay, even
if I have to send a man to France for the job."

"It will not be necessary for you to do that. Nepcote returned to London
two days ago--sent over on some special mission. I ascertained that fact
also from my friend at the