"He'll have to go, now," he said. "If you're going to employ legal help for him, the solicitor will know where and when he can see him." He paused on his way to the door and looked a little doubtfully at his prisoner. "I'll give you a bit of advice," he said, "not as an official, but as an individual. If you want to clear yourself, you'd better give all the information you can." "I'll send my own solicitor to you, Hyde, at once," said Viner. "Be absolutely frank with him about everything." When Viner was once more alone with Drillford, the two men looked at each other. "My own impression," said Viner, after a significant silence, "is that we have just heard the plain truth! I'm going to work on it, anyway." "In that case, Mr. Viner, there's no need for me to say anything," remarked Drillford. "It may be the plain truth. But as I am what I am, all I know is the first-hand evidence against this young fellow. So he really was a schoolmate of yours?" "Certainly!" said Viner. "His people live, or did live, in the north. I shall have to get into communication with them. But now--what about the information he gave you? This man he saw?" Drillford shook his head. "Mr. Viner," he answered, "you don't understand police methods. We've got very strong evidence against Hyde. We know nothing about a tall man in a white muffler. If you want to clear Hyde, you'd better do what he suggested--find that man! I wish you may--if he ever existed!" "You don't believe Hyde?" asked Viner. "I'm not required to believe anything, sir, unless I've good proof of it," said Drillford with a significant smile. "If there is any mystery in this murder, well--let's hope something will clear it up." Viner went away troubled and thoughtful. He remembered Hyde well enough now, though so many years had elapsed since their last meeting. And he was genuinely convinced of his innocence: there had been a ring of truth in all that he had said. Who, then, was the guilty man? And had robbery been the real motive of the murder? Might it not have been that Ashton had been murdered for some quite different motive, and that the murderer had hastily removed the watch, chain, purse, and rings from the body with the idea of diverting suspicion, and in his haste had dropped one of the rings? "If only one knew more about Ashton and his affairs!" mused Viner. "Even his own people don't seem to know much."