detail your account of all the strange things which happened
whilst you were in Diana's Grove?"

"So far as I know, yes. Of course I may be mistaken in recollection of
some detail or another, but I am certain that in the main what I have
said is correct."

"You feel sure that you saw Lady Arabella seize the negro round the neck,
and drag him down with her into the hole?"

"Absolutely certain, sir, otherwise I should have gone to her
assistance."

"We have, then, an account of what happened from an eye-witness whom we
trust--that is yourself. We have also another account, written by Lady
Arabella under her own hand. These two accounts do not agree. Therefore
we must take it that one of the two is lying."

"Apparently, sir."

"And that Lady Arabella is the liar!"

"Apparently--as I am not."

"We must, therefore, try to find a reason for her lying. She has nothing
to fear from Oolanga, who is dead. Therefore the only reason which could
actuate her would be to convince someone else that she was blameless.
This 'someone' could not be you, for you had the evidence of your own
eyes. There was no one else present; therefore it must have been an
absent person."

"That seems beyond dispute, sir."

"There is only one other person whose good opinion she could wish to
keep--Edgar Caswall. He is the only one who fills the bill. Her lies
point to other things besides the death of the African. She evidently
wanted it to be accepted that his falling into the well was his own act.
I cannot suppose that she expected to convince you, the eye-witness; but
if she wished later on to spread the story, it was wise of her to try to
get your acceptance of it."

"That is so!"

"Then there were other matters of untruth. That, for instance, of the
ermine collar embroidered with emeralds. If an understandable reason be
required for this, it would be to draw attention away from the green
lights which were seen in the room, and especially in the well-hole. Any
unprejudiced person would accept the green lights to be the eyes of a
great snake, such as tradition pointed to living in the well-hole. In
fine, therefore, Lady Arabella wanted the general belief to be that there
was no snake of the kind in Diana's Grove. For my own part, I don't
believe in a partial liar--this art does not deal in veneer; a liar is a
liar right through. Self-interest may prompt falsity of the tongue; but
if one prove to be a liar, nothing that h