"No," replied Parge; "he denied that. He left the room, according to his own story, about eleven o'clock, and retired to his bedroom. Shortly before midnight, when he was considering how to act, Ellen Gilmar knocked at his door and said that Kirkstone wanted to see him in the smoking-room. Dean descended and found Kirkstone dead. At first he was tempted to give the alarm; but reflecting on the quarrel, which must have been overheard by some of the servants--a fact afterwards proved--and finding that the knife with which the crime had been committed was his own, he fled back to his room. Then Miss Gilmar came to see what had occurred--found the dead body, and gave the alarm. She accused Dean of being the murderer, because she had left Kirkstone alive when she brought the message, and afterwards found him dead when Dean fled from the room." "But how did Dean implicate Laura?" "He declared that he had given her the bowie-knife at her own request to prune some plants with in the conservatory." "Now, that is ridiculous!" cried Gebb. "Of course it is; and a further proof of his own guilt Ladies don't use bowie-knives to prune plants. Dean, however, stated that he left Kirkstone alive when he first retired to his room. Miss Gilmar stated that her cousin was not dead when she conveyed the message to Dean: so for the defence it was maintained that between the time Miss Gilmar left Kirkstone and the time Dean returned to the Yellow Room for the second visit, Laura must have killed her brother with the bowie-knife, which she had obtained two days previously from Dean." "But why should Laura kill her brother?" "Because, as prisoner's counsel argued, it was probable that after the last conversation, Kirkstone fancied that Dean might not pay the money if the marriage came off, so he resolved to stop it by exercising his influence over Laura while there was yet time. Laura, so Dean declared, must have revolted and killed Kirkstone in a moment of uncontrollable anger." "Still, why should she bring the knife into the smoking-room if she committed the crime on the impulse of the moment?" "Dean did not--could not--explain that point," replied Parge, with contempt; "all his defence was that he gave Laura the bowie-knife, that he left Kirkstone alive in the Yellow Boudoir about eleven, and that when summoned by Miss Gilmar he found the man dead. Also, that he held his tongue because he was afraid of being accused, as there had been a quarrel between himself and Kirkstone." "I don't wonder he was afraid," said Gebb, thoughtfully; "and in any case his defence was extremely weak. What evidence did the prosecution bring forward?"