aol the better I shall
feel," said Mr. Carrington.

"So should I," said Mr. Flexen. "But I'm very much afraid that for Mr.
Manley it's a far cry to Holloway. We have no case against him
whatever--not a scrap of a case that I can see."

"Hang it all! It's as plain as a pikestaff! He's engaged to this
woman--this Mrs. Truslove--who has a nice little income. He hears that
her income is to be halved; and we know that if an allowance begins by
being halved, as likely as not it will be stopped altogether before long.
He saw that clearly enough. Then in the very nick of time this cheque
comes along. He sends it to the bank with this letter of instructions,
and murders Lord Loudwater so that he cannot disavow them. What more of a
case do you want?"

"I don't want a better case. I only want some evidence. It's true enough
that Mrs. Manley told me that she told Manley that Lord Loudwater
proposed to halve her allowance. But where's the evidence that she talked
to him about it? She'd deny it if you put her into the witness-box, and
you can't put her into the witness-box."

"Husband and wife, by Jove! Oh, the clever young scoundrel!" cried Mr.
Carrington.

"And that halving of the allowance is the beginning of the whole
business. Manley had made up his mind to marry a lady with a fixed
income--indeed, they were probably already engaged. Loudwater upsets the
arrangement. Manley restores the _status quo_ by means of this cheque and
the murder of Loudwater. Of course, he hated Loudwater--he admitted as
much to me--more than once. But if Loudwater had played fair about that
allowance, he'd be alive now. Having established the _status quo,_ Manley
promptly marries the lady, and closes the mouth of the only person who
can bear witness that the allowance was in danger and he had any motive
for murdering Loudwater."

Mr. Carrington ground his teeth and murmured: "The infernal young
scoundrel!" Then he broke out violently: "But we're not beaten yet. Now
that we know for a fact that he murdered Loudwater and why, there must be
some way of getting at him."

"I very much doubt it," said Flexen sadly. "He's an uncommonly able
fellow. I don't believe that he's taken a chance. He wears a glove and
leaves the knife in the wound, so that there are no bloodstains. And
consider the cheque. The bank wouldn't have honoured Loudwater's own
cheque, the cheque of a dead man, but the stock-broker's cheque goes
through as a matter of course."

"O