"Regarding Eric!" I exclaimed. "Oh," continued Isobel, "he may have concealed his views from you, as he knows that you are--a friend of Eric's; but he was less careful about concealing them from me. To all intents and purposes Eric is under police surveillance!" "But this is utterly incredible!" said I. "You don't mean to tell me, Isobel, that Coverly has persisted in his silence respecting his movements last night? If he has done so, in the circumstances he has only himself to thank. Social position and everything else counts for nothing when an inquiry concerning a murder is concerned. He knows that perfectly well." I think I spoke hotly, and certainly I spoke with a certain indignation, for I very strongly resented Coverly's attitude in the case, which could only add to the difficulties and sorrows of Isobel's position. Yet a moment afterwards I regretted that I had done so, for: "Are _you_ going to quarrel with me, too?" she asked pathetically. "What do you mean? Who has been quarreling with you?" "Eric quarreled with me fiercely at the solicitors' to-day, and when I begged of him to be frank respecting his movements last night, his attitude became"--she hesitated--"almost unbearable. He did not seem to realize that I was only thinking of him, nor did he seem to realize the construction which I might have placed upon his silence. I mean, Jack, what can he possibly have to conceal?" Temporarily I felt myself to have become tongue-tied. What _could_ it be that Coverly was concealing? The idea of complicity in the crime I scouted; nothing could have induced me to believe it. Only one explanation presented itself to my mind, as evidently it had presented itself to Isobel's--another woman. However: "You may depend," I said, endeavoring to speak soothingly, "that he has some good and sufficient reason for this silence, and one which is not in any way discreditable. Nevertheless he will have to reconsider his attitude in the near future. Of course there are times when almost every one of us would be hard put to it to establish an alibi if we were called upon to do so--as regards witnesses of our movements, I mean; but at least we can state roughly where we were during any hour of the day, even if we have to trust to luck to find witnesses to prove the truth of words. His attitude of silence, Isobel, is ridiculous." "Have you seen the evening papers?" she asked pathetically. "Some of them," I replied. "They have got my name in already," she continued, "and my photograph appears in one. It is outrageous how they leap at an opportunity for scandal." "It will all be cleared up," I said, speaking with as much confidence as I had at my command. "You know and I know that Coverly is innocent and I don't believe that Gatton thinks him guilty." A while longer we talked and then I returned rather wearily to my chair in the room where the air was still laden with tobacco fumes.