“And from that distance you could hear the voices?”

“Yes.”

“Plainly?”

“Not very.  I could hear the voices, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying.”

“Were they angry voices?”

“They seemed to me to be talking loudly.”

“Yet you couldn’t hear what they were saying?”

“No; I was sixty yards away.”

“You said in your evidence in chief that the talking continued half an hour.  Did you time it?”

“No.”

“Then what made you swear that?”

“I said about half an hour.  I smoked out a pipeful of tobacco while I was standing there, and that would be about half an hour.”  Kemp disclosed his broken teeth in a faint grin.

“What happened next?”

“I heard the front door slam, and I saw somebody walking across the garden, and go into the carriage drive towards the gate.”

“Did you recognise who it was?”

“Yes; Mr. Holymead.”  Kemp looked at the prisoner as he gave the answer.

“You swear it was the prisoner?”

“I do.”

“Let me recall your evidence in chief, witness.  You swore that you identified Mr. Holymead as he went in because he struck a match to look at the time as he passed you, and you saw his face.  Did he strike matches as he went out?”

“No.”

“Then how are you able to swear so positively as to his identity in the dark?”

Kemp considered a moment before replying.

“Because I know him well and I was close to him,” he said at length.  “I was close enough to him almost to touch him.  I knew him by his walk, and by the look of him.  It was him right enough, I’ll swear to that.”

“I put it to you, witness,” persisted Counsel, “that you could not positively identify a man in a plantation at that time of night.  Do you still swear it was Mr. Holymead?”

“I do,” replied Kemp doggedly.

“What did you do then?”

“I stayed where I was.”

“What for?”

“I don’t know.  I didn’t have any particular reason.  I just stayed there watching.”

“Did you think the prisoner might return?”

“No,” replied the witness quickly.  “Why should I think that?”

“How long did you stay watching the house?”

“It might be a matter of ten minutes more.”

“And the prisoner didn’t return during that time?”

“No,” replied the witness emphatically.

“What did you do after that?”

“I went to the Tube station.”

“Prisoner might have returned after you left?”

“I suppose he might,” replied the witness reluctantly.

“Well, now, witness, you say you stayed ten minutes after Holymead left, and during that time Sir Horace opened the window and leaned out of it?”

“Yes.”

“You saw him distinctly?”

“Yes.”

“You are sure it was Sir Horace Fewbanks?”