"This is the most curious inquiry I was ever engaged in," he communed. "Winter, of course, will fasten on to Capella like a horse leech when he knows the facts. Yet Capella is neither a coward nor an ordinary villain. For some ridiculous reason, I have a sneaking sympathy with him. Had he stormed and blustered when I pitched into him to-day I would have thought less of him. And his wife! What mysterious workings of Fate brought those two together and then disunited them? They become fascinated one with the other whilst the brother's corpse is still palpitating beneath that terrible stroke. They get married, with not unreasonable haste, but no sooner do they reach Beechcroft, a house of evil import if ever bricks and mortar had such a character, than they are driven asunder by some malign influence. "And now, after eighteen months, I am asked to take up the tangled clues, if such may be said to exist. It is a difficult, perhaps an impossible, undertaking. Yet if I have done so much in a day, what may not happen in a fortnight!" Long afterwards, recalling that soliloquy, he wondered whether or not, were he suddenly endowed with the gift of prophecy, he would, nevertheless, have pursued his quest. He never could tell. Once securely entrenched in a private sitting-room of the Stowmarket Hotel, the three men began to discuss crime and tobacco. Mr. Winter commenced by being confidential and professional. "Now, Mr. Hume," he said, "as misunderstandings have been cleared, to some extent, by Mr. Brett's remarks, I will, with your permission, ask you a few questions." "Fire away." "In the first place, your counsel tried to prove--did prove, in fact--that you walked straight from the ball-room to the Hall, sat down in the library, and did not move from your chair until Fergusson, the butler, told you how he had found Sir Alan's body on the lawn." "Exactly." "So if a man comes forward now and swears that he watched you for nearly ten minutes standing in the shadow of the yews on the left of the house, he will not be telling the truth?" "That is putting it mildly." "Yet there is such a witness in existence, and I am certain he is not a liar in this matter." "What!" Brett and Hume ejaculated the word simultaneously; the one surprised, because he knew how careful Winter was in matters of fact, the other indignant at the seeming disbelief in his statement. "Please, gentlemen," appealed the detective, secretly gratified by the sensation he caused, "wait until I have finished. If I did not fully accept Mr. Brett's views on this remarkable case, I would not be sitting here this minute. My conscience would not permit it" "Be virtuous, Winter, but not too virtuous," broke in Brett drily.