"Hang you officer! Would I have stayed quietly in the drawing-room had I guessed for one moment that a murder was being committed?" demanded Lemby fiercely, and clenching his fist as if about to strike. "Wyke saw me in the drawing-room when he arrived, and while we were talking there came a ring at the door. Excusing himself, and asking me to stay where I was until he came back, he went down the stairs. I waited and waited until I was tired. Then I heard the woman shrieking, although I did not hear what she said." "I said 'murder,'" observed Mrs. Vence, "and said it loudly, too." "Not loud enough for me to hear, however," retorted Lemby, "or I should have been down before. However, as Wyke did not return, I suspected, from the voices and the shrieks of this old thing, that something was wrong, so came down to investigate. Well?" "Ho!" said Jervis, as he saw no reason to disbelieve the plain statement. "You will have to wait, sir, until my superior officer comes along. I have sent the postman to the telegraph office to wire for him." "Of course I'll wait, dash you! Do you think I am going to leave this house without finding who has murdered my poor friend? Why are you waiting here, officer? Why don't you catch the villain?" "'Taint easy to catch a man as has gone off on a foggy night on a bicycle, sir," said Jervis, drily. "I can't tell in which direction he's gone." "You could trace a Government bicycle because of the colour." "I have wired to my sergeant to watch Redleigh Station for a red-painted bike, sir. The assassin may go to Redleigh to catch the express to London." "Not he, unless he's a born fool," retorted Lemby contemptuously, "and his action in using the bike to escape shows that he isn't a fool by any means. I don't think that you'll nab him easily." He stopped, then looked at the corpse at his feet with marked emotion. "I suppose poor Wyke is dead?" "Stone dead. He's been stabbed to the heart, as you see. Look for yourself." "No." Lemby shrank back. "I don't meddle with corpses in charge of the law. I think you should get a doctor." "Go for a doctor, Mrs. Vence," said Jervis, quickly, and thinking that this was good advice. "Bring him here immediately." "Me!" cried Mrs. Vence, in her usually shrill tones. "Why, I'm a stranger in this place but a month. I don't know where the doctor's to be found, 'specially I on this misty night. Go yourself, or send this gent." "I can't go myself, and the gent doesn't leave this house until my sergeant arrives," said Jervis, grimly. Lemby drew himself up. "Officer, do you suspect me, dash you?" "I suspect no one, at present. I don't know enough."