"And how much have you paid them to tell this lie?" "I have paid them nothing. They are voluntary witnesses. Come, Madame, it is useless for you to deny the truth." "But I do deny it, see you!" she cried excitedly. "I deny it wholly and altogether. My first visit---ah, yes, I say that I did call on your uncle, and he did tell me about the advertisement, but----" "Why did he put in that advertisement?" interrupted Owain sharply. "He wished to see you before revealing himself as your uncle." "He could have appointed the meeting to take place in his house. Why was it arranged to come off in Parley Wood?" "There," said Madame Alpenny with candour, "I cannot help you. But that Monsieur Evans was strange--ah yes, he was dangerous. He told me that he would meet you at the Gipsy Stile, and took me there to show me the place. I went into the wood after I had left the big house." "I am aware of that," said Hench, remembering what Peter had said. "Go on." "You seem to know much," she sneered. "Enough to get you arrested and tried, condemned and hanged," said Hench in a significant tone. "Go on, I tell you." Madame Alpenny snarled, and her eyes glittered viciously. "Don't try to ride the tall horse over me, beast that you are. I am not afraid; no, I am not at all afraid. I do not know why your uncle arranged the meeting for the wood. All I had to do was to draw your attention to the advertisement, which I did. He wrote it out and put it in the journal. For all I know," went on the woman, more or less to herself, "this man wished to kill you, and chose a lonely place to do so." "Why should he wish to kill me?" "Because he hated your father and he hated you, Monsieur. He did not wish you to get the money. I did, because then you could marry Zara and I would be rich for the rest of my life." "That means I would have been under your thumb." "Ah, but no. Why should you be under my thumb? It was gratitude I looked for because I knew what would give you a large fortune. Your uncle would have given you enough to live on--perhaps two thousand a year." "Why so, when he hated me?" "Because I would have persuaded him. I told him about my daughter and how you loved her." "I did not," said Hench quickly and with a frown. "You did; you did. And Monsieur Evans, he said that if he found you a good young man and better than your wicked father, whom your uncle hated, that he would allow you a good income as his heir. For that reason did I agree to him putting in the advertisement and bringing you to meet him in that solitary spot. But it was in my mind to tell you all when I came back." "Why didn't you? It would have saved much trouble." "Because if I had not consented your uncle would never have acknowledged you as his heir or allowed you anything. Then you could not have married Zara and have given me money as I desired. Monsieur Evans was a healthy man, and I saw he would live for many years."