"I--I don't understand what you mean! Surely Oliver Tropenell was not masquerading as Fernando Apra?" exclaimed Lord St. Amant. "If one can believe a mass of quite disinterested evidence, the two men were utterly unlike!" "That is so, and there was of course a man who masqueraded, and masqueraded most successfully, both in Paris and in London, as Fernando Apra. That man, St. Amant, was----" Lord St. Amant bent forward eagerly while his mind, his still vigorous, intelligent, acute mind, darted this way and that. What name--whose name--was Sir Angus going to utter? He was not long left in suspense. "That man," said Sir Angus slowly, impressively, "was Mrs. Pavely's brother, a certain Gilbert Baynton, who is, we are informed, the business partner of Mr. Tropenell in Mexico. It was _he_ who masqueraded as Fernando Apra. But it was not he who actually fired the pistol shot which killed Godfrey Pavely----" When he had heard the name Gilbert Baynton, it was as if a great light had suddenly burst in on Lord St. Amant's brain. In spite of everything he felt a sharp thrill of relief. "Good God!" he exclaimed. "There's been a terrible mistake--but it's one that I can set right in a very few minutes. Believe me, you're on the wrong track altogether! If murder there was--murder, and not manslaughter, which I venture to think much more probable--then Gilbert Baynton was Godfrey Pavely's murderer. The two men hated one another. It all comes back to me--not only had they a quarrel years ago, but that same quarrel was renewed not long before Godfrey Pavely's disappearance. Nothing--_nothing_--would induce me to believe that Oliver Tropenell is a murderer!" "I'm afraid you'll soon be brought round to believe it," said Sir Angus ruefully. "I am of course well aware of what you say concerning Gilbert Baynton's relations to his brother-in-law. We've already found all that out, especially as we had a willing witness close to our hand. Unfortunately--I say unfortunately, St. Amant, for of course I know he is a thorough bad hat--we have irrefutable evidence that this man Baynton did _not_ commit the murder. He was certainly in Paris at the time when Godfrey Pavely was killed in London." Sir Angus took a turn up and down the room--then he came back to where the other man was sitting.