"That's nothing. I admire scores of girls, but that doesn't mean matrimony, my son. You are at that age, Owain, when any woman could collar you. I'm glad that this Zara girl had enough sense to cotton to the other man. Madame Alpenny----" Hench rose restlessly. "I'm afraid of her," he interrupted bluntly. "Pooh! Why should you be? She can't force you to marry her daughter." "No." Owain spoke slowly. "It's not that. But the advertisement----" "Well, it had to do with you, certainly, going by the mention of the place where your father passed his youth. But you told her that you did not intend to keep the appointment." "Yes. All the same, I did keep the appointment." "The deuce!" Vane looked surprised. "Well?" "I'm coming to my trouble now," said Hench, picking up one of the newspapers nervously; "read that paragraph." Vane looked at his friend in surprise, and then swiftly made himself acquainted with the information about the Parley Wood murder. He started when he first grasped what the paragraph was about, but afterwards read on slowly to the end. When he knew all about the matter he threw aside the newspaper and looked inquiringly at Hench. "Well?" "Well," repeated Owain, sitting down with his hands in his pockets, "can't you see, Jim? I went to the Gipsy Stile and----" "And murdered this man," finished Vane derisively. "Do you expect me to believe that, you fool?" "No. I'm not given to behaving in that way. But I kept the appointment and I found the corpse." "Oh, the devil!" Vane sat up. "So I said at the time," remarked Hench dryly. "And when Madame Alpenny reads about the crime, she will put two and two together." "They won't make four in her calculations," said Vane swiftly. "After all, you are innocent. She can't prove you to be guilty." "Well, I don't know. The circumstantial evidence is rather strong." "The circumstantial evidence!" Vane stared and reflected. "You had a beard when I saw you last, now----" "I shaved to-day, so that there might be no chance of my being discovered by any description that girl at the Bull Inn might give." "Girl at the Bull Inn? What do you mean?" Hench lost no time but promptly gave a full account of his adventures from the time he left Liverpool Street Station to the moment that he sat down to dinner in the very room in which the two were speaking. Vane interrupted him frequently, and his face grew grave as he recognized that Hench was in a woeful plight. "Of course, I've acted like an ass," confessed Owain in a rueful manner; "but how would you have acted, Jim?" "Sitting in this chair and being wise after the event, I should have faced the thing out," said Vane slowly. "But had I been in your shoes in that wood I should probably have run away as you did." He paused, shook his head, stared at the carpet. "Damn!" he muttered emphatically. "I thought it best to speak to you," murmured Owain anxiously.