He had travelled from Brighton in the next compartment to Tommy and I. Think of it! On that fateful Sunday night I had journeyed with one brother half the way and with the other brother the rest of the way to town. He had heard us having our little discussion. He had heard some of the things we had said to each other--especially some of the very strongest. He had heard the banging of the door as I fell. According to him, the sound had so agitated him that he had not known what to do. He suspected that something had happened, but he had not known what. He owned now that he ought to have given the alarm and stopped the train, but at the moment he lost his presence of mind. On reaching Victoria he found Tommy sitting in the next compartment alone. Blood was flowing from a wound in his cheek. Prisoner's own handkerchief being soaked with blood, witness lent him one of his own--a silk one. On which prisoner threw his bloodstained handkerchief out of the window. At this point, altogether unexpectedly, Sir Haselton Jardine sat down. Mr. Bates got up. As he did so, the witness looked over his shoulder as if he would have liked to have turned tail and run. I saw that Mr. Bates was going to do something to earn his money at last. The witness saw it too. "My learned brother, Mr. Taunton, has brought your story to a point at which it reminds one of those sensational tales which are to be continued in our next. With your permission we will continue it together. You have told us of your charitable loan of a handkerchief--a silk handkerchief. May I take it that you then communicated with the police?" "No." "Then what did you do?" "I had no actual knowledge that a crime had been committed." "I ask you, Mr. Taunton, when you had lent the silk handkerchief, what you did." "I saw the prisoner to a cab." "Then did you communicate with the police?" "I did not." "Then what did you do?" "I accompanied him a short distance in the cab." "Did he give you anything when you parted?" "He gave me his address." "Did he give you anything else?" "He gave me a deposit on my silk handkerchief." "He gave you a deposit on your silk handkerchief. I see. What was the amount of the deposit?" The witness hesitated. "Ten shillings." "Do you swear it was not more than ten shillings?" "It might have been a pound." "Do you swear it was not more than a pound?" "It might have been thirty shillings. I don't exactly remember." "I see. For the first time your memory begins to fail you. Then did you communicate with the police?" "I did not." "What did you do?" "The next day I called on the prisoner at his office at Austin Friars." "Yes. And then?" "I charged him with the murder." "You charged him with the murder. Of course, then, you did communicate with the police?" The witness seemed to find the reiteration trying. He looked around him, as if seeking shelter. "Unfortunately, I did not." "Unfortunately? I see. Unfortunately, what did you do?"