"You have not. I know positively you did not kill your father. But, go on, please, with your recital." "Well, after dinner, Miss Vernon and I sat on the terrace----" Barry paused. "By Jove," he broke out, "how can I tell you the straight truth? It sounds exactly as if Natalie did it!" Alan Ford almost smiled at the boy's impetuous exclamation, but merely prompted him, "Yes. Go right on, remember the truth will help Miss Vernon more than any falsehood possibly could. Have you never heard of seemingly incriminatory evidence of one leading straight to another?" "All right, then. We sat there a long time, and then we talked about--about getting married. I was bothered about it, for Dad had vowed if I married Natalie, he'd cut me out of his will." "That's why you altered the will in Miss Vernon's favour?" "I didn't alter that will! This is man to man, now, Mr. Ford. I'm telling you the truth. I didn't change that will, and Miss Vernon didn't, either. I don't know who did." "We'll find that out. It won't be a great surprise to learn the truth about that." "How do you know it won't? Do you know who did the forgery?" "I think so. Or perhaps there wasn't any forgery. But go on, my dear boy, with your story. I told you, you know, I've not much time to give you." "All right. We talked about getting married, and I got awful mad and I said if Father didn't stop his nonsense with her, I'd kidnap her and run away. And Natalie knew that if we did that, Dad would cut us both out of his will,--and she isn't a bit mercenary, it wasn't that." "What was it, then?" "Why, only that we're--why, hang it all, decent people don't do those things." "Decent people don't commit murder, either," said Ford, very gravely. "No, I know that. Well, Natalie begged me not to quarrel with father,--said she could manage him herself. And I thought she meant by being sweet to him, and all that, and I got mad at her, and--I walked off and left her there." "Without a word?" "No. I told her I was going to give the dogs a run. I was going to, too, but as I walked away, I fell a-thinking, and I just strolled round the place alone." "Whom did you see?" "Nobody at all. Maybe Courtenay or Mr. Wadsworth or some of those people passed me, I don't know. I was just thinking about Natalie, and then Halpin came running out and told me to come in the house, my father was ill." "And you went right in?" "Yes, and when I saw what had happened, I felt afraid Natalie had killed him--and I ran out and tried to make the window frame look as if a burglar had broken in. I suppose it was foolish." "It certainly was. But I don't blame you. It was natural to try to shield the girl you loved from possible suspicion." "Possible suspicion! If you had seen the situation! There were the two women, both shivering with fear and terror, and there was the dead or dying man between them! Why, Mr. Ford, it wasn't suspicion, it was certainty that one or the other had stabbed him!"