"Bless the man, what I came here for was to help. But I can't do that on half-confidences. You must speak plainly. Now, no more talk. Begin." Hench did as he was ordered, and in a very short time Mrs. Perage was in possession of all facts connected with the advertisement; with the keeping of the appointment and the discovery of the body; and with the schemes of Madame Alpenny. Her strong old face did not betray much emotion, although she was inwardly astonished at the revelations, but she kept her eyes on Owain until he ceased speaking, and then rubbed her nose, as was her custom when perplexed or annoyed. As she made no remark, Hench did so. "What do you think?" "Hum!" said Mrs. Perage, starting from the brown study in which she was involved. "You've brought your pigs to a pretty market, young man. Well, well, we must see what is best to be done." "You don't believe me to be guilty?" "Would I be still sitting here if I did? Don't be a fool. Not that I blame the person who got Madoc out of the way very much. He was such a disagreeable person, that I often thought I'd be hanged for killing him myself." "Mrs. Perage!" "It sounds dreadful, doesn't it?" she said good-humouredly. "But then you see I am a dreadful person in the eyes of many milk-and-water people, because I have my own decided opinions and go my own way. I suppose it's wrong to say a word against the dead, although I don't see why we should talk of nothing but virtues they never possessed while alive. Well, let the man rest; he did a lot of harm when he was alive, and wherever he has gone to, he's making mischief. You didn't murder him, anyhow?" "I certainly did not," answered Hench, smiling. "But the question is, who did?" "Ah"--Mrs. Perage kilted up her dress and folded her hands on her knees--"a very difficult question to answer. But Madame Alpenny didn't, although you seem to have some idea that she is the guilty person." "She knew my uncle and all about the disposal of the property through the confidence made to her by my father twenty years ago." "That doesn't prove that she murdered Madoc. She wanted you to marry her daughter undoubtedly after she laid hold of the clue which led her to learn that you were likely to inherit ten thousand a year. But why should she put her neck in a noose?" "She might have wished me to get possession of the property at once, and have murdered my uncle in the hope that I would go to the spot and then run the risk of being arrested. I believe myself that it was all a plot to get me under her thumb. I _did_ go to the rendezvous and I _am_ implicated. Well?" Mrs. Perage rubbed her nose again. "The devil's in it for trouble," she muttered. "Perhaps I am premature in assuming that this woman is innocent, but it seems incredible that she should run such a risk. I shall have to see her first before I make up my mind. She's clever." "In a foxy sort of way." "Hum! The fox doesn't do things on a big scale in the way of killing."