we must not forget that, Mr. Thresk--and from the
cross-examination it is quite clear what answer he was going to make. He
was going--not to deny that Mrs. Ballantyne shot her husband--but to
plead that she shot him in self-defence."

"Oh?" said Thresk, "and where do you find that?"

He had no doubt himself in what portion of the report of the trial a
proof of Pettifer's statement was to be discovered, but he made a
creditable show of surprise that any one should hold that opinion at all.

Pettifer selected a column of newspaper from his cuttings.

"Listen," he said. "Mr. Repton, a friend of Mrs. Ballantyne, was called
upon a subpoena by the Crown and he testified that while he was a
Collector at Agra he went up with his wife from the plains to the
hill-station of Moussourie during a hot weather. The Ballantynes went up
at the same time and occupied a bungalow next to Repton's. One night
Repton's house was broken into. He went across to Ballantyne the next
morning and advised him in the presence of his wife to sleep with a
revolver under his pillow."

"Yes, I remember that," said Thresk. He had indeed cause to remember it
very well, for it was just this evidence given by Repton with its clear
implication of the line which the defence meant to take that had sent him
in a hurry to Mrs. Ballantyne's solicitor. Pettifer continued by reading
Repton's words slowly and with emphasis.

"'Mrs. Ballantyne then turned very pale, and running after me down the
garden like a distracted woman cried: "Why did you tell him to do that?
It will some night mean my death."' This statement, Mr. Thresk, was
elicited in cross-examination by Mrs. Ballantyne's counsel, and it could
only mean that he intended to set up a plea of self-defence. I find it a
little difficult to reconcile that intention with the story you
subsequently told."

Henry Thresk for his part knew that it was not merely difficult, it was,
in fact, impossible. Mr. Pettifer had read the evidence with an accurate
discrimination. The plea of self-defence was here foreshadowed and it was
just the certainty that the defence was going to rely upon it for a
verdict which had brought Henry Thresk himself into the witness-box at
Bombay. Given all that was known of Stephen Ballantyne and of the life he
had led his unhappy wife, the defence would have been a good one, but for
a single fact--the discovery of Ballantyne's body outside the tent. No
plea of self-defence could safely b