ill settle once and for all, in my mind at any rate,
the question whether Lord Loudwater was murdered or not."

"But surely you haven't any doubt about that?" said the lawyer sharply.

"Just a trifle, and I may as well get rid of it," said Mr. Flexen.

Mr. Manley took his hat and stick and went leisurely out of the front
door of the Castle. He paused on the steps for half a minute to admire
the moonlit night and murmur a few lines from Keats. Then he strolled
down the drive whistling the tune of an American coon song. But presently
the whistle died on his lips as he considered Mr. Flexen's keen desire to
discover the other firm of lawyers who had done business for Lord
Loudwater. He could not but think, when he put this keenness of Mr.
Flexen beside Helena's strange anxiety, that she had done something of
which she had not told him, something that might have drawn suspicion on
her. He did not see what she could have done; but there it was. He had a
feeling, an intuition that it was she whom Mr. Flexen was seeking, and he
prided himself on his intuition. Well, the longer they were finding
Shepherd, the lawyer who had handled the business of her allowance, the
better he would be pleased. He had certainly done his best to block their
way. At the same time, they might at any moment learn who he was. It was
fortunate, therefore, that Shepherd had a job in Mesopotamia, and that
his business was closed down for the present. If they did learn who he
was, they would still be a long while before they obtained any
information about Helena from him. Mr. Manley's keen desire was that the
first excitement about the murder should have died down before they did
get it. He was a firm believer in the soothing effect of time. The
discovery of Helena's allowance, if it were made now, might cause her
considerable annoyance, if not actual trouble. Coming in six weeks' time,
or even a month's time, it would be far less likely to make that trouble.

He wondered what it could be that she had done to bring herself under
suspicion. Remembering what she had said of her determination to discuss
the halving of her allowance with the dead man, and her remark that she
had such a knowledge of his habits that she could make sure of having an
interview with him to discuss it, it seemed not unlikely that she had
gone to see him on the very night of his murder, and that some one had
seen her. If it were so, he hoped that she would tell him, so that they