"There doesn't seem to be a single ray of light," lamented the girl, putting the envelope into her pocket. "Madame Coralie, her assistants, and her husband seem to be all innocent; unless," she added, with a quick look, "there is something in this idea of a prepared alibi." "Well, Miss Toat has learnt nothing likely to show that her surmise is right in that way, Audrey. Badoura apparently knows nothing, or, infatuated with Eddy Vail, refuses to say what she may know. As to Peri Banou, who is dumb, no information can be got from her, although she was in the shop when the crime was committed. She says that she was asleep on a divan, and Zobeide certainly admits that she left her there when she went up to the still-room." "Badoura, Peri Banou, Zobeide," said Miss Branwin, ticking off the quaint and musical names on her fingers. "You have mentioned only three of the assistants. What about the fourth?" "Parizade? Oh! being blind, of course she can see nothing at all. She was behind the curtain in the still-room preparing some wash when Madame Coralie came to speak to her husband. That was about eight o'clock, just before Madame came down to tell you that your mother would remain for the night." "It was about half-past eight that Madame came to the door." "Oh! my dear girl, you must be mistaken. Madame herself and her husband both say it was five or ten minutes after eight o'clock when she came to you." Audrey shook her head vehemently. "Mrs. Mellop will tell you that we did not leave the house until a quarter past eight." "The Pink Shop? That, of course, would make it right." "No, our own house. There was a first piece at the theatre which Mrs. Mellop and I did not care about seeing. We only left in time to get to the theatre by nine, when the chief drama of the evening began. It was nearly half-past eight when we reached the Pink Shop, as it took us ten minutes, more or less, to get to Walpole Lane." "There must be some mistake," said Shawe, rather puzzled by this clear and positive explanation. "Why, Badoura says that Eddy Vail drew her attention to the clock in the still-room, and then it was five minutes to eight. Almost immediately afterwards Madame came up from seeing your mother tucked in for the night, and very shortly went to the shop door to speak to you." "Then the clock in the still-room must be wrong," said Audrey. "Tell Miss Toat what I say, and she may be able to learn if it is so." "Well, and supposing you prove that the still-room clock is wrong?" "Can't you see? In that case Madame Coralie could not have come up from seeing my mother safely to bed, for she must have come up to the still-room at about fifteen or twenty minutes past the hour. And the medical evidence says that my poor mother was murdered at eight o'clock."