"Now I want you all--and particularly Mr. Davidge--to follow closely what I'm going to tell you," he continued. "I got out of the cab at the station in the High Street, dismissed it, walked a little way along the street, and then crossed over and made for the Herapath Flats--for the estate office entrance. I think you are all very well acquainted with that entrance. You know that it lies in a covered carriage way which leads from the side-street into the big quadrangle round which the flats are built. As I went up the side-street, on the opposite side, mind, to the entrance, I saw a man come out of the covered carriage way. That man I knew!" Burchill made a dramatic pause, looking impressively around him amidst a dead silence. "Knew!" he repeated, shaking his finger at the expectant faces. "Knew well! But--I am not going to tell you his name at this moment. For the present we will call him Mr. X." CHAPTER XXXIV DAVIDGE'S TRUMP CARD Burchill paused for a moment, to give full effect to this dramatic announcement, which, to tell truth, certainly impressed every member of his audience but one. That one skilfully concealed his real feelings under a show of feigned interest. "You never say!" exclaimed Davidge, dropping into a favourite colloquialism of his native county. "Dear me, today! A man that you knew, Mr. Burchill, and that for the present you'll call Mr. X. You knew him well, then?" "Better than I know you," replied Burchill. He was beginning to be suspicious of Davidge's tone, and his resentment of it showed in his answer. "Well enough to know him and not to mistake him, anyhow! And mind you, there was nothing surprising in his being there at that time of night--that's a point that you should bear in mind, Davidge--it's in your line, that. I knew so much of Jacob Herapath's methods and doings that it was quite a reasonable thing for this man to be coming out of the estate offices just before midnight." "Exactly, sir--I follow you," said Davidge. "Ah!--and what might this Mr. X. do then, Mr. Burchill?" Burchill, who had addressed his remarks chiefly to the listeners on the other side of the table, and notably to Cox-Raythwaite, turned away from the detective and went on. "This man--Mr. X," he said, "came quickly out of the door, turned down the side-street a little, then turned back, passed the carriage-entrance, and went away up the street in the opposite direction. He turned on his own tracks so quickly that I was certain he had seen somebody coming whom he did not wish to meet. He----" "Excuse me a moment," broke in Cox-Raythwaite. "How was it X. didn't see you?"