"He! he! Missie won't," she tittered. "That would never do. He! he!" Wink succeeded nod and meaning smile until she relapsed into a state of quietness; and Parkinson, who had been fascinated by her contortions, was unable to decide whether she was still laughing or had gone to sleep. Carrados stayed a few more minutes and before they left he asked to see the watch. "A unique memento, Mr Whitmarsh," he remarked, examining it. "I should think this would become a family heirloom." "It's no good for anything else," said Whitmarsh practically. "A famous time-keeper it was, too." "The fingers are both gone." "Yes; the glass was broken, of course, and they must have caught in the cloth of my pocket and ripped off." "They naturally would; it was ten minutes past nine when the shot was fired." The young man thought and then nodded. "About that," he agreed. "Nearer than 'about,' if your watch was correct. Very interesting, Mr Whitmarsh. I am glad to have seen the watch that saved your life." Instead of returning to the inn Carrados directed Parkinson to take the road to Barony. Madeline was at home, and from the sound of voices it appeared that she had other visitors, but she came out to Carrados at once, and at his request took him into the empty dining-room while Parkinson stayed in the hall. "Yes?" she said eagerly. "I have come to tell you that I must throw up my brief," he said. "There is nothing more to be done and I return to town to-night." "Oh!" she stammered helplessly. "I thought--I thought----" "Your cousin did not abstract the revolver when he was here on Thursday, Miss Whitmarsh. He did not at his leisure fire a bullet into his own watch to make it appear, later in the day, as if he had been attacked. He did not reload the cartridge with a blank charge. He did not deliberately shoot your father and then fire off the blank cartridge. He _was_ attacked and the newspaper version is substantially correct. The whole fabric so delicately suggested by inference and innuendo falls to pieces." "Then you desert me, Mr Carrados?" she said, in a low, bitter voice. "I have seen the watch--the watch that saved Whitmarsh's life," he continued, unmoved. "It would save it again if necessary. It indicates ten minutes past nine--the time to a minute at which it is agreed the shot was fired. By what prescience was he to know at what exact minute his opportunity would occur?" "When I saw the watch on Thursday night the fingers were not there." "They are not, but the shaft remains. It is of an old-fashioned pattern and it will only take the fingers in one position. That position indicates ten minutes past nine." "Surely it would have been an easy matter to have altered that afterwards?" "In this case fate has been curiously systematic, Miss Whitmarsh. The bullet that shattered the works has so locked the action that it will not move a fraction this way or that."