Ellery tried to move the inspector. He failed, but he was not inclined to give up hope. He went straight to Scotland Yard and asked for Superintendent Wilson. Reminding that official that, earlier in the day, he had wished him luck in his effort to clear Walter Brooklyn, Ellery obtained without difficulty permission for Joan to see him in his cell. Armed with a signed permit, he drove straight to Liskeard House. He found Joan with his guardian, Harry Lucas, who had brought her back in his car from the court. Lucas, too, had seen the inspector leave the court, and had guessed his purpose. He had also guessed Ellery’s object in leaving a moment later. In the car, he had already told Joan what he feared; and they had agreed that the best thing was to go back to Liskeard House and wait for news. Walter Brooklyn would come there if he was still a free man; and if not, Ellery would either come, or telephone to tell Joan what had happened. Joan therefore received Ellery’s bad news without surprise; and she gave him a grateful kiss—she had told Lucas of their engagement while they were waiting—when he showed her the permit to visit her stepfather Lucas’s car was at the door, and he offered to take Joan round at once. He took the driver’s seat himself, telling his chauffeur to await his return, and Joan and Ellery got in behind. Chapter XVI A Link in the Chain Fred Thomas came away a good deal dissatisfied from his discussion with his client. Walter Brooklyn, he felt, had given him little enough to go upon. He persisted in affirming that he had not been in Liskeard House that night, and in denying absolutely that he had either rung up his Club and given a message or left his walking-stick in Prinsep’s room. Yet surely, Thomas argued, the police, if they had proceeded to the drastic step of an arrest, must have some definite proof that he had been in the house, or at any rate some clear indication of his complicity. He did not believe that his client was being frank with him; and, while he had not said this outright, a hint of what he thought had produced a violent outburst of bad temper from Brooklyn, and almost caused him to tell his legal adviser to clear out and come back no more. This had served to confirm Thomas’s idea that Brooklyn was lying, and his thought, as he went away, was that, if he tried again, probably Brooklyn would tell him the truth when he cooled down and came to realise more fully what his position was. In his experience imprisonment had a wonderfully sobering effect. Meanwhile, Thomas made up his mind to see Carter Woodman, and try to find out from him more definitely how matters stood. Woodman, presumably, would want Walter Brooklyn to get off, even if he believed him to be guilty. He would probably not want a member of the Brooklyn family to be convicted of murder, whatever the truth might be.