arrive at that conclusion." Phil strove
to utter the words calmly, but his trembling lips revealed his inward
agitation.

"His story, as told to me, fits in with facts of which he could have had
no knowledge. He says he found the door of the left wing locked, and we
know it was locked by Tufnell more than an hour before. He states that
after the shot he hid in the woods in front of the house. It was there
Tufnell thought he saw somebody hiding; it was there I found a scrap of
khaki adhering to a bramble at the spot indicated by Nepcote as his
hiding-place. Tufnell admits that he called out in alarm when his eye
fell on the crouching figure. Nepcote says that he saw Tufnell, heard
his cry, and plunged deeper into the bushes for safety. Tufnell returned
along the carriage drive twenty minutes afterwards with Detective Caldew
and Sergeant Lumbe. Nepcote heard the crunch of their feet on the gravel
as they passed. His accuracy in these details which he could not
possibly have known helped me to the conclusion that the whole of his
story was true."

"He had plenty of time to commit the murder, nevertheless," said Phil.

"It is useless for you to try and cling to that theory--now."

There was something in the tone in which these words were uttered which
caused the young man to look swiftly at the detective from beneath
furrowed brows.

"You seem to have constituted yourself the champion of this scoundrel,"
he said, in a changed harsh voice.

Musard glanced from one to the other with troubled eyes. There was a
growing hint of menace in their conversation which his mind, deeply
agitated by the strange disclosures of the evening, could only fear
without fathoming.

"I do not understand you," he said simply, addressing himself to Colwyn.
"If this man Nepcote did not commit the murder, who did? Was it not he
who was in the bedroom when Hazel Rath went there in the dark?"

"No," said Colwyn; "it was not he."

"Who was the man, then, who clutched Hazel Rath, by the throat?"
persisted Musard.

"It was no man," responded Colwyn, in a gloomy voice. "_That_ was the
point which baffled me for hours when I thought the whole truth was
within my grasp. Again and again I sought vainly for the answer, until,
in mental weariness and utter despair, I was tempted to believe that the
powers of evil had combined to shield the perpetrator of this atrocious
murder from justice. Then it came to me--the last horrible revelation in
this h