"I can't exactly tell you," replied the young man, who did not wish to say too much about the Tána Society, lest Mrs. Crosbie, who owned the coral pin, might be implicated, "but Bellaria hinted that she was afraid, and Miss Durham told me that her nurse would never venture out after dark. Why, then, should she have come to the gate?" Morgan reflected, and pulled his white moustache. "Probably Miss Durham was seized with a mania for killing and chased her nurse through the house. Miss Bellaria would then run into the garden to escape, and so was struck down on the very threshold of yonder gate. I daresay she was trying to get out and summon assistance from the village." "You make out a very pretty case against Miss Durham, Mr. Inspector." Morgan would have replied, but at this moment one of the constables who had been hunting in the long grass on the left hand of the gate cried out triumphantly, and held up a knife. "Here it is, sir," he said. In another moment Morgan was holding in his hand a yellow-handled knife, of a very deadly description, which had bloodstains on the blade. "I see," said the officer gravely, "this is undoubtedly the weapon used. It seems to me that the woman was stabbed, and then the assassin--Miss Durham, for a thousand--flung the knife aside into that long grass, before running away. Very natural, very natural; she would not care to carry with her such evidence of her guilt." "Guilt which has yet to be proved," said Gerald hotly. An argument ensued, in which Haskins decidedly got the worst. The inspector, and indeed everyone else, scouted the idea of Mavis' innocence. She had pursued Bellaria to the gates and, having killed her, had got rid of the knife by flinging it into the long grass. Then she had fled, not daring to face the consequences of her crime. "In which case," cried Gerald furiously, "she must be sane. A madwoman would not be afraid to remain, being ignorant of the heinousness of the offence." Morgan shook his head, still unconvinced. And indeed Gerald saw that things looked very black indeed against the girl he loved. It was on the tip of his tongue to denounce Geary as the owner of the knife: but he could not prove this without the evidence of Mavis, and moreover he thought it wiser to keep silent as to his suspicions until he consulted Macandrew and could get legal advice. The situation was too dangerous to be dealt with hurriedly.