I save my neck by a lie? One after
another came into my mind; I need not trouble to remember them now. Each
had its own futilities and perils; but every one split upon the fact--or
what would be taken for fact--that I had induced Manderson to go out
with me, and the fact that he had never returned alive. Notion after
notion I swiftly rejected as I paced there by the dead man, and doom
seemed to settle down upon me more heavily as the moments passed. Then a
strange thought came to me.

'Several times I had repeated to myself half-consciously, as a sort of
refrain, the words in which I had heard Manderson tell his wife that
I had induced him to go out. "Marlowe has persuaded me to go for a
moonlight run in the car. He is very urgent about it." All at once
it struck me that, without meaning to do so, I was saying this in
Manderson's voice.

'As you found out for yourself, Mr Trent, I have a natural gift of
mimicry. I had imitated Manderson's voice many times so successfully as
to deceive even Bunner, who had been much more in his company than
his own wife. It was, you remember'--Marlowe turned to Mr Cupples--'a
strong, metallic voice, of great carrying power, so unusual as to make
it a very fascinating voice to imitate, and at the same time very easy.
I said the words carefully to myself again, like this--' he uttered
them, and Mr Cupples opened his eyes in amazement--'and then I struck
my hand upon the low wall beside me. "Manderson never returned alive?" I
said aloud. "But Manderson shall return alive!"'

'In thirty seconds the bare outline of the plan was complete in my mind.
I did not wait to think over details. Every instant was precious now. I
lifted the body and laid it on the floor of the car, covered with a rug.
I took the hat and the revolver. Not one trace remained on the green, I
believe, of that night's work. As I drove back to White Gables my design
took shape before me with a rapidity and ease that filled me with a wild
excitement. I should escape yet! It was all so easy if I kept my pluck.
Putting aside the unusual and unlikely, I should not fail. I wanted to
shout, to scream!

'Nearing the house I slackened speed, and carefully reconnoitred the
road. Nothing was moving. I turned the car into the open field on the
other side of the road, about twenty paces short of the little door at
the extreme corner of the grounds. I brought it to rest behind a stack.
When, with Manderson's hat on my head and the pis