It was doubtful whether she yet did. She could still only repeat, "Chummy shot him! Does that mean----?" Her horrified stare finished the question. "Oh, I don't think so," he answered quickly, "at any rate not yet. Naturally both Hubbard and I have got to stand by Chummy for the present." "Then somebody saw Monty pick up the pistol?" "For the police to know anything about it, you mean? Well, as a matter of fact that's the purest bad luck. There happens to be a fellow called Westbury, confound him, and that beastly bullet seems to have fetched up somewhere in his house; he lives just across the way there. That's all the police have to go on now that the other things are safely in the river mud." Slowly it was sinking into her mind. Her eyes closed for a moment as she felt the first faint strain of the weight of it. This came with the thought of Joan. "But--but----" she said faintly, "--that poor child----?" "Joan? I suppose she is wondering what's happened?" "Wondering what's happened.... You may as well know, Philip--it's a mere trifle at this stage--that they're most awfully thick--far more than you've been told. You know what boys and girls are nowadays. And now comes this horrible silence, except for that one little note from him----" "Has she had a note from him?" Philip asked quickly. "From the hospital?" "There was no address on it. I suppose it was from the hospital?" she in her turn asked in quick alarm. "Yes, it wasn't from a prison. When did she get this note?" "Yesterday morning." "Did she show it to you?" "Yes. It simply said he'd had this spill, but was all right, and she wasn't to be alarmed." "He didn't mention incidentally that he'd shot a man?" "Of course not. I don't believe he had." Philip passed this last point. "Well, as he's written once I suppose he'll go on writing. He's heaps better as a matter of fact. So it won't be too hard on her. Anyway, she'll have to grin and bear it." "I did hold out hopes that I might be able to take him back with me," Mollie ventured. "You won't be able to do that," said Philip with decision. "Quite apart from his being fit to travel, we've only gone a certain way in all this, you know. He'll still have matters to explain. And till he does, I'm afraid Audrey Cunningham will have to make the best of things too, like Joan. It wouldn't do her any good to know that Monty was liable to arrest at any moment." "But is he?" said Mollie, startled. "Of course he is. So am I. So are you. So would she be." "But why?" In spite of his explanation, I don't think she understood. I don't think she understands to this day. I don't think that at the bottom of her anti-social heart any woman does. A delayed wedding or a post without a lover's letter is a far greater thing than a capital charge in which all who conspire are principals.