Two days later, having an afternoon to spare, Gerald chartered a hansom for Amelia Terrace, Battersea, and picked up Ambrose Murray by the way. He had seen enough of Byrne to make him believe that he was a man who might be thoroughly trusted, and he had made up his mind to lay the case before him in its entirety. He left the cab with his companion in it at the corner of the terrace, and three minutes later he was closeted with Mr. Byrne. That gentleman was smoking his long-stemmed pipe with the china bowl. He squeezed Gerald's outstretched hand, and greeted him with one of his expansive smiles, which came and went as suddenly as though produced by a clock-work movement inside his head. "That was a neat stroke of business that we did the other night, sir, though it is I who say it," remarked Mr. Byrne. "Yes; you managed it very cleverly, and it is on that very subject that I have come to see you again." "I am yours to command, Mr. Warburton." "If I recollect rightly, when I saw you before, you gave me to understand that you were in Court on the day that Ambrose Murray took his trial for the murder of Paul Stilling?" "I was in Court at the time, and I retain a very clear recollection of the different features of the case." "Can you tell me what impression you formed at the time as to the guilt or innocence of the prisoner?" "Now you put a very difficult question to me. Anyone who has seen much of criminal trials will tell you what an exceedingly unsafe thing it is to form an opinion from a prisoner's demeanour as to his guilt or otherwise." "Never mind the prisoner's demeanour in this case. I simply want to know what your own impression was, as a result of what you saw and heard at the trial." "Well, the weight of evidence, as no doubt you are aware, was dead against the prisoner, and that very fact will, as a rule, go a long way in the formation of a person's opinion. Still, in spite of that, at the time it was my impression that, whoever else it might have been, Murray was not the murderer." "I am glad to hear you say that," said Gerald, heartily. "Because, after being shut up for twenty years, Murray has escaped from prison." "Phew! That's good news, Mr. Warburton, very good news! I never could see my way to believe that man guilty." "That man it was, and no other, who made the third in our little party the other night." The china pipe had never been so near being broken as it was at that moment. It slipped from Byrne's nerveless fingers, and only the hearthrug saved it. This brought back his presence of mind. "In telling you this," said Gerald, "you will understand at once the amount of confidence which I am placing in your discretion." "Not undeservedly, Mr. Warburton--of that you may rest fully assured!" said Byrne, warmly. "I feel honoured by your confidence in this matter, sir: and if I can be of any further assistance either to you or Mr. Murray, my services are entirely at your command."