"Course! Course!" growled Horace, beginning to rock again. "Lanwin haunted the South Seas. I knew him there. He must have got the herb from Easter Island, as it is the only place it grows in. When I read the girl's yarn of the smoke, I guessed straight off that Lanwin had been trying to induce a trance with the burning herb." "Do you think that Miss Chent murdered him?" "No! The library was filled with the smoke of the herb. Anyone not used to the fumes would go down like a shot, as she did." "Then you believe Miss Chent's story?" asked Prelice eagerly. Horace nodded. "She could not have made up such a clever yarn." "Then why in Heaven's name," questioned the young man, rising, "did you not volunteer your evidence to save her?" "Will it save her?" "Assuredly! Everyone regards her story of being stupefied with the smoke as absurd. If you tell what we saw on Easter Island, in front of the statues----" "Tell it yourself." "I intend to. I am going to the Court now, and you," said Prelice with emphasis, "_you_ are coming with me." Horace knocked the ashes out of his pipe. "Why should I?" he demanded, with a stolid air. "That's a long story," retorted Prelice restlessly. "I can give you ten minutes. Don't talk through your hat." Knowing his man, the visitor did not waste time, but bluntly detailed how he came to be drawn into the Lanwin murder case. But he naturally suppressed his feelings for the beautiful prisoner, and put down his interest, with some emphasis, to pure friendship for Shepworth. On reaching the end of the Hythe portion of the story, he paused to draw breath. "Is that all?" asked Horace grimly. "The first part only," replied Prelice promptly, and narrated the events of the previous night from the time he went to Mrs. Rover's _bal masqué_ to the time he left the Kensington Police Station to call upon his listener. During this latter part of the history Dr. Horace became restless, and wandered about his untidy room, stumbling over obstacles, and softly swearing, with a wonderful command of language. He appeared to be inattentive, but in reality had not lost a single word. When Prelice stopped he came to a halt before the young man. "I'll go with you to the Court," he declared. "The first thing to do is to save the girl. After that we can consider how to get Shepworth out of his difficulty." "He is innocent, of course," observed Prelice, trying to read the rugged face of his new ally. "Never said he wasn't," grumbled the doctor; then reflected for a few moments, raking his long beard with out-spread fingers. "See here," he burst out finally, "will you allow me to engineer this business?" "I shall only be too glad. Are you going to use occult methods?" "I don't need to. I have my own ideas, having read the newspapers." "Then you think that Agstone murdered Lanwin?"