"Ye-es," he replied with something of a drawl. "Undoubtedly Mrs. Ballantyne was tried and acquitted"; and he left the impression on the two who heard him that with acquittal quite the last word had not been said. Mrs. Pettifer looked at him eagerly. She drew clear at once of the dispute. She left the questions now to Harold Hazlewood, and Pettifer had spoken with so much hesitation that Harold Hazlewood could not but ask them. "You are making reservations, Robert?" Pettifer shrugged his shoulders. "I think we have a right to know them," Hazlewood insisted. "You are a solicitor with a great business and consequently a wide experience." "Not of criminal cases, Hazlewood. I bring no more authority to judge them than any other man." "Still you have formed an opinion. Please let me have it," and Mr. Hazlewood sat down again and crossed his knees. But a little impatience was now audible in his voice. "An opinion is too strong a word," replied Pettifer guardedly. "The trial took place nearly eighteen months ago. I read the accounts of it certainly day by day as I travelled in the train to London. But they were summaries." "Full summaries, Robert," said Hazlewood. "No doubt. The trial made a great deal of noise in the world. But they were not full enough for me. Even if my memory of those newspaper reports were clear I should still hesitate to sit in judgment. But my memory isn't clear. Let us see what I do remember." Pettifer took a chair and sat for a few moments with his forehead wrinkled in a frown. Was he really trying to remember? His wife asked herself that question as she watched him. Or had he something to tell them which he meant to let fall in his own cautiously careless way? Mrs. Pettifer listened alertly. "The--well--let us call it the catastrophe--took place in a tent in some state of Rajputana." "Yes," said Mr. Hazlewood. "It took place at night. Mrs. Ballantyne was asleep in her bed. The man Ballantyne was found outside the tent in the doorway." "Yes." Pettifer paused. "So many law cases have engaged my attention since," he said in apology for his hesitation. He seemed quite at a loss. Then he went on: "Wait a moment! A man had been dining with them at night--oh yes, I begin to remember." Harold Hazlewood made a tiny movement and would have spoken, but Margaret held out a hand towards him swiftly. "Yes, a man called Thresk," said Pettifer, and again he was silent. "Well," asked Hazlewood. "Well--that's all I remember," replied Pettifer briskly. He rose and put his chair back. "Except--" he added slowly. "Yes?" "Except that there was left upon my mind when the verdict was published a vague feeling of doubt." "There!" cried Mrs. Pettifer triumphantly. "You hear him, Harold." But Hazelwood paid no attention to her. He was gazing at his brother-in-law with a good deal of uneasiness. "Why?" he asked. "Why were you in doubt, Robert?" But Pettifer had said all that he had any mind to say.