“Not in my opinion.”  Inspector Chippenfield’s voice was purely official.

“Why, surely it does!” Rolfe’s glance at his chief indicated that there was such a thing as carrying official obstinacy too far.  “This letter he left behind suggests his guilt, clearly enough.”

“I didn’t notice that,” replied Inspector Chippenfield impassively.  “Perhaps you’ll point out the passage to me, Rolfe.”

Rolfe hastily produced the note again.

“Look here!”—­his finger indicated the place—­“’I’m frightened to stay after what took place in the court to-day,’ Doesn’t that mean, clearly enough, that Hill realised the acquittal pointed to him as the murderer, and he determined to abscond before he could be arrested?”

“So that’s your way of looking at it, eh, Rolfe?” said Inspector Chippenfield quizzically.

“Certainly it is,” responded Rolfe, not a little nettled by his chief’s contemptuous tone.  “It’s as plain as a pikestaff that the jury acquitted Birchill because they believed Hill was guilty.  Holymead made out too strong a case for them to get away from—­Hill’s lies about the plan and the fact that the body was fully dressed when discovered.”

“You’re a young man, Rolfe,” responded Inspector Chippenfield in a tolerant tone, “but you’ll have to shed this habit of jumping impulsively to conclusions—­and generally wrong conclusions—­if you want to succeed in Scotland Yard.  This letter of Hill’s only strengthens my previous opinion that a damned muddle-headed jury let a cold-blooded murderer loose on the world when they acquitted Fred Birchill of the charge of shooting Sir Horace Fewbanks.  Why, man alive, Holymead no more believes Hill is guilty than I do.  He set himself to bamboozle the jury and he succeeded.  If he had to defend Hill to-morrow he would show the jury that Hill couldn’t have committed the murder and that it must have been committed by Birchill and no one else.  He’s a clever man, far cleverer than Walters, and that is why I lost the case.”

“He led Hill into a trap about the plan of Riversbrook,” said Rolfe.  “When I saw that Hill had been trapped on that point I felt we had lost the jury.”

“Only because the jury were a pack of fools who knew nothing about evidence.  Granted that Hill lied about the plan—­that he drew it up voluntarily in his spare time to assist Birchill—­it proves nothing.  It doesn’t prove that Hill committed the murder.  It only proves that Hill was going to share in the proceeds of the burglary; that he was a willing party to it.  The one big outstanding fact in all the evidence, the fact that towered over all the others, is that Birchill broke into the house on the night Sir Horace Fewbanks was murdered.  The defence made no attempt to get away from that fact because they could not do so.  But Holymead vamped up all sorts of surmises and suppositions for the purpose of befogging the jury and getting their minds away from the outstanding feature of the