“You are quite certain, Joe?”

“Certain sure, guv’nor.  There ain’t no charnst of me mistaking a man like that.”

Crewe listened intently to Kemp’s evidence, and he watched the man’s face as he swore that he had seen Sir Horace Fewbanks leaning out of the window after Holymead had left the house.  He hastily took out a notebook, scribbled a few lines on one of the leaves, tore it out, and beckoned to a court usher.

“Take that to Mr. Walters,” he whispered.

The man did so.  Mr. Walters opened the note, adjusted his glasses and read it.  He started with surprise, read the note through again, then turned round as though in search of the writer.  When he saw Crewe he raised his eyebrows interrogatively, and the detective nodded emphatically.

Mr. Lethbridge sat down, having finished his examination of Kemp.  Mr. Walters, with another glance at Crewe’s note, rose slowly in his place.

“I ask Your Honour that I may be allowed to defer until the morning my cross-examination of this witness,” he said.  “I am, of course, in Your Honour’s hands in this matter, but I can assure Your Honour that it is desirable—­highly desirable—­in the interests of justice that the cross-examination of the witness should be postponed.”

“I protest, Your Honour, against the cross-examination of the witness being deferred,” said Mr. Lethbridge.  “There is no justification of it.”

“I would urge Your Honour to accede to my request,” said Mr. Walters.  “It is a matter of the utmost importance.”

“Is your next witness available, Mr. Lethbridge?” asked the judge.

“Surely, Your Honour, you’re not going to allow the cross-examination of this witness to be postponed?” protested Mr. Lethbridge.  “My learned friend has given no reason for such a course.”

Sir Henry Hodson looked at the court clock.

“It is now within a quarter of an hour of the ordinary time for adjournment,” he began.  “I think the fairest way out of the difficulty will be to adjourn the court now until to-morrow morning.”

There was a loud buzz of conversation when the court adjourned.  After asking Chippenfield and Rolfe to wait for him, Crewe made his way to Mr. Walters, and, after a few whispered words with that gentleman, Mr. Mathers, his junior, and Mr. Salter, the instructing solicitor, he returned to Chippenfield and Rolfe and asked them to accompany him in a taxi-cab to Riversbrook.

“What do you want to go out there for?” asked Inspector Chippenfield.  “You don’t expect to discover anything there this late in the day, do you?”

“I want to find out whether this man Kemp is lying or telling the truth.”

“Of course he is lying,” replied the positive police official.  “When you’ve had as much experience with criminals as I have had, Mr. Crewe, you won’t expect a word of truth from any of them.”

“Well, let us go to Riversbrook and prove that he is lying,” said Crewe.