m that night of the murder?"

"Man, how did you find that out?" Penreath's calm disappeared in a
sudden fury of voice and look. "What do you know?"

"I know whom you are trying to shield," replied the detective, with his
eyes fixed on Penreath's face. "You are wrong. She----"

"I beg of you to be silent! Do not mention names, for God's sake."
Penreath's face had grown suddenly white.

"It is in your power to ensure my silence."

"How?"

"By speaking yourself."

"That I will never do."

"Then you compel me to go to the authorities and tell them what I have
discovered. I will save you in spite of yourself."

"Do you think that I want to be saved--like that?"

Struggling desperately for self-control Penreath turned to Mr. Oakham.
"Why did you bring Mr. Colwyn here?" he asked the solicitor fiercely.
"To torture me?"

Before Mr. Oakham could reply Colwyn laughed aloud. A clear ringing
laugh of unmistakable satisfaction. The laugh sounded strangely
incongruous in such a place.

"Penreath," he said, "you've told me all that I came here to know.
You're a splendid young Briton, but finesse is not your strong point.
You've acted like a quixotic young idiot in this case, and got yourself
into a nice muddle for nothing. The girl is as innocent as you are, and
you are a pair of simpletons! Yes. I mean what I say," continued the
detective, answering the young man's amazed look with a reassuring
smile. "Do you think that I would want to save you at her expense? Now
perhaps, when I have told you what happened that night, you will answer
a few questions. Before you went to bed you sat down and wrote a letter
on a leaf torn from your pocket-book. That letter was to Miss
Willoughby, breaking off your engagement. After writing it you went to
bed. At that time it was raining hard.

"You must have fallen asleep almost immediately, and slept for half an
hour--perhaps a little more--for when you awoke the rain had ceased. You
heard a slight noise in your room, and lit your candle to see what it
was. There was a rat in the corner of the room. You got up to throw
something at it, but as soon as you moved the rat darted across the room
and disappeared behind the wardrobe at the side of the bed. You pushed
back the wardrobe and----"

"For God's sake, say no more!" said Penreath. His face was grey, and he
was staring at the detective with the eyes of a man who saw his heart's
secret--the secret for which he was prepared to die--be