his lip.

"I laid out those things in case there was anything doing," he said.
"As I told you, I felt sure that I had heard an airship earlier in the
evening, and I meant to try and follow it if I heard it again."

There was a brief silence. Granet lounged a little back in his chair,
but though his air of indifference was perfect, a sickening foreboding
was creeping in upon him. He was conscious of failure, of blind,
idiotic folly. Never before had he been guilty of such miserable
short-sightedness. He fought desperately against the toils which he felt
were gradually closing in upon him. There must be some way out!

"Captain Granet," he questioner continued, in his calm, emotionless
tone, "according to your story you changed your clothes and reached here
at the same time as the Zeppelin, after having heard its approach. It
is four miles and a half to the Dormy House Club, and that Zeppelin must
have been travelling at the rate of at least sixty miles an hour. Is
your car capable of miracles?"

"It is capable of sixty miles an hour," Granet declared.

"Perhaps I may spare you the trouble," Thomson proceeded drily, "of
further explanations, Captain Granet, when I tell you that your car was
observed by one of the sentries quite a quarter of an hour before
the arrival of the Zeppelins and the lighting of that flare. Your
statements, to put it mildly, are irreconcilable with the facts of the
case. I must ask you once more if you have any other explanation to give
as to your movements last night?"

"What other explanation can I give?" Granet asked, his brain working
fiercely. "I have told you the truth. What more can I say?"

"You have told me," Major Thomson went on, and his voice seemed like the
voice of fate, "that you arrived here in hot haste simultaneously with
the lighting of that flare and the dropping of the bombs. Not only one
of the sentries on guard here, but two other people have given evidence
that your car was out there in the lane for at least a quarter of an
hour previous to the happenings of which I have just spoken. For the
last time, Captain Granet, I must ask you whether you wish to amend your
explanation?"

There was a little movement at the further end of the room. A curtain
was drawn back and Isabel Worth came slowly towards them. She stood
there, the curtains on either side of her, ghastly pale, her hands
clasped in front of her, twitching nervously.

"I am very sorry," she said. "This is al