“Excellent, Sergeant. That’s all we want. I take it you will get the pump away? You needn’t wait for me. I’m going out with Colonel Domlio.” While Coombe was bringing round the car the two men went to the study for the letter. It was just as the colonel had described, and French could see no clue to the sender. They ran out then to the Upper Merton glen and Domlio pointed out the spot at which the alleged incident had taken place. French insisted on his describing the occurrence in the most minute manner. He wished to form an opinion as to whether the man was relating what he had seen or inventing the details as he went along. After half an hour of close questioning on the lines of the American third degree, French had to admit that the affair had either happened as Domlio had said or that it had been rehearsed with great care. On no point was he able to trip the colonel up, and knowing the difficulty of inventing a story in which every detail is foreseen and accounted for, he began to think the tale true. At all events, with the mass of detail he now possessed, a similar examination of Mrs. Berlyn should set the matter at rest. French was in a thoughtful mood as they drove back to Torview. He was up against the same old question which had troubled him so many times in the past. Was his suspect guilty or was he the victim of a plot? The evidence against the man was certainly strong. Seven separate facts pointed to his guilt. French ran over them in his mind: 1. Domlio had the necessary qualifications for partnership in the crime. He knew the _dramatis personæ_ and he was acquainted with the works. He could have ordered the duplicator, and arranged for Berlyn and Pyke to visit Tavistock on the night in question. 2. He was out in his car on that night at the time and for the distance required. 3. He had denied this. 4. When cornered he had told a false story of a search for a lost locket. 5. The clothes of the dead man had been found in the very place where French imagined Domlio would have hidden them. 6. There was a quite adequate motive if, as might well be, Domlio was really attached to Mrs. Berlyn. 7. There was no other person whom French knew of who could have been Berlyn’s confederate. Many and many a man had been hanged on far less evidence than there was here. With this mass of incriminating facts an arrest was amply justifiable. Indeed, a conviction was almost assured. On the other hand, every bit of this evidence was circumstantial and could be explained on the assumption of Domlio’s innocence, by supposing him to be the victim of a conspiracy on the part of the real murderer. French wondered if he could make the man reveal his own outlook on the affair. “Tell me, Colonel,” he said, “did it not strike you as a strange thing that Mrs. Berlyn should stumble at just the point which ensured her falling into your arms?” Domlio slackened speed and looked around aggressively. “Just what do you mean by that?”