"You're going on the wrong tack, or I might," retorted Viner. "But you'll know all in good time. Now, I ask you again--where's Ashton's purse? You know as well as I do that when his clothing was examined, almost immediately after his death, all his effects were gone--watch, chain, rings, pocketbook, purse. If Hyde took the whole lot, do you think he would ever have been such a consummate ass as to wait until next morning to pawn that ring in Edgware Road? The idea is preposterous!" "And why, pray?" demanded Drillford, obviously nettled at the turn which the conversation was taking. "I wonder your own common sense doesn't tell you," said Viner with intentional directness. "If Hyde took everything from his victim, as you say he did, he would have had a purse full of ready money. He could have gone off to some respectable lodging-house. He could have put a hundred miles between himself and London by breakfast-time. He would have had ready money to last him for months. But--he was starving when he went to the pawnbrokers! Hyde told you the truth--he never had anything but that ring." "Good!" muttered Felpham. "Good, Viner! That's one in the eye for you, Drillford." "Another thing that you're forgetting, Inspector," continued Viner: "I suppose you attach some value to probabilities? Do you, as a sensible man, believe for one moment that Hyde, placed in the position he is, would be such a fool, such a suicidal fool, as to tell you about that particular shed if he'd really hidden those things there? The mere idea is absurd--ridiculous!" "Good again, Viner!" said Felpham. "He wouldn't!" Drillford, obviously ill-pleased, put the strongly-smelling paper and the valuables which had been wrapped in it, back in the drawer and turned the key. "All very well talking and theorizing, Mr. Viner," he said sullenly. "We know from his own lips that Hyde did spend the night in that shed. If he didn't put these things there, who did?" Viner gave him a steady look. "The man who murdered and robbed Ashton!" he answered. "And that man was not Hyde." "You'll have that to prove," retorted Drillford, derisively. "I know what a jury'll think with all this evidence before it!" "We shall prove a good many things that'll surprise you," said Viner quietly. "And you'll see, then, the foolishness of jumping at what seems to be an obvious conclusion." He motioned Felpham to follow, and going outside, turned in the direction of the Harrow Road.