is no doubt whatever about all that,' said Mr Murch, with a
slight emphasis on the verb.

'And now,' pursued Trent, 'we are invited by this polished and
insinuating firearm to believe the following line of propositions: that
Marlowe never went to Southampton; that he returned to the house in the
night; that he somehow, without waking Mrs Manderson or anybody else,
got Manderson to get up, dress himself, and go out into the grounds;
that he then and there shot the said Manderson with his incriminating
pistol; that he carefully cleaned the said pistol, returned to the house
and, again without disturbing any one, replaced it in its case in a
favourable position to be found by the officers of the law; that he then
withdrew and spent the rest of the day in hiding--with a large motor
car; and that he turned up, feigning ignorance of the whole affair,
at--what time was it?'

'A little after 9 p.m.' The inspector still stared moodily at Trent. 'As
you say, Mr Trent, that is the first theory suggested by this find, and
it seems wild enough--at least it would do if it didn't fall to pieces
at the very start. When the murder was done Marlowe must have been fifty
to a hundred miles away. He did go to Southampton.'

'How do you know?'

'I questioned him last night, and took down his story. He arrived in
Southampton about 6.30 on the Monday morning.'

'Come off' exclaimed Trent bitterly. 'What do I care about his story?
What do you care about his story? I want to know how you know he went to
Southampton.'

Mr Murch chuckled. 'I thought I should take a rise out of you, Mr
Trent,' he said. 'Well, there's no harm in telling you. After I arrived
yesterday evening, as soon as I had got the outlines of the story from
Mrs Manderson and the servants, the first thing I did was to go to the
telegraph office and wire to our people in Southampton. Manderson had
told his wife when he went to bed that he had changed his mind, and sent
Marlowe to Southampton to get some important information from some one
who was crossing by the next day's boat. It seemed right enough, but,
you see, Marlowe was the only one of the household who wasn't under
my hand, so to speak. He didn't return in the car until later in the
evening; so before thinking the matter out any further, I wired to
Southampton making certain enquiries. Early this morning I got this
reply.' He handed a series of telegraph slips to Trent, who read:

PERSON ANSWERING DESCRIPTION IN M