“She was up at Flint House on that night, and now she is not to be found.  Surely that is enough?”

“This is not a straightforward case.  It’s going to prove a very complicated one.  But I have come to the conclusion that the quickest way to get at the truth is to find Sisily Turold.  Her flight suggests that she is implicated in the crime in some way, and it may even mean that she is guilty.”

“Do not the circumstances point to her guilt?”

“Circumstances can lie with the facility of humanity, at times.  Moreover, we do not know all the circumstances yet.  But let us examine the facts we have discovered.  We believe that the girl visited her father’s house on the night of his death, and has since disappeared.  We must assume that it was she who was seen listening at the door during the afternoon by Mrs. Pendleton, because that assumption provides strong motive for the murder by giving the key of interpretation to Miss Turold’s subsequent actions.  We must picture the effect of that overheard conversation on the girl’s mind.  She had been kept in ignorance about the secret of her birth, and she suddenly discovers that instead of being a prospective peeress and heiress, she is only an illegitimate daughter, a nameless thing, a reproach in a world governed by moral conventions.  Her prospects, her future, and her life are shattered by her father’s act.  The effect might well be overwhelming.  She broods over the wrong done to her, and decides to go to Flint House that night and see her father, though not, I think, with the premeditated idea of murder.  Her idea was to plead and remonstrate with him.”

“Why do you think that?” asked Dawfield.

“She could not have foreseen that her absence from the hotel would pass unnoticed.  That was pure luck, due to Mrs. Pendleton’s chance visit to Flint House.  It was just chance that the girl did not encounter her aunt there.  She must have got away from Flint House shortly before Mrs. Pendleton arrived.  But the strongest proof that there was no premeditation is to be found in the fact that Miss Turold made the journey openly, in a public conveyance.”

“And returned the same way,” put in Dawfield.

“I confess that her action in taking that risk after the murder strikes me as remarkable,” observed Barrant thoughtfully.  “But she would be anxious to return as speedily as possible, and perhaps she was aware that the last wagonette from St. Fair to Penzance is generally empty.  But we can only speculate about that.  She must have reached Flint House not later than half-past eight or perhaps a few minutes earlier, if she walked quickly across the moors.  I ascertained that by taking the same wagonette last night, and walking across the moors from the cross-roads, as she did.  The murder was not committed until half-past nine, according to the stopped clock, which is another point suggesting lack of premeditation.  Let us assume that up to the time she arrived at Flint House she