“You cared much for him?  Forgive the question.”

“I admired him and I had a good influence over him.  There were fine things in him—­great bravery and honesty.  Yes, I loved him and was proud of him.  I think he would have become calmer and less excitable and impatient in time.  Doctors had told him that he would outgrow all effects of his shock.”

“Was he a man you can conceive of as capable of striking or killing a fellow creature?”

The lady hesitated.

“I only want to help him,” she answered.  “Therefore I say that, given sufficient provocation, I can imagine Bob’s temper flaring out, and I can see that it would have been possible to him, in a moment of passion, to strike down a man.  He had seen much death and was himself absolutely indifferent to danger.  Yes, I can imagine him doing an enemy, or fancied enemy, a hurt; but what I cannot imagine him doing is what he is supposed to have done afterwards—­evade the consequence of a mistaken act.”

“And yet we have the strongest testimony that he has tried to conceal a murder—­whether committed by himself, or somebody else, we cannot yet say.”

“I only hope and pray, for all our sakes, that you will find him,” she replied, “but if, indeed, he has been betrayed into such an awful crime, I do not think you will find him.”

“Why not, Miss Reed?  But I think I know.  What is in your mind has already passed through my own.  The thought of suicide.”

She nodded and put her handkerchief to her eyes.

“Yes; if poor Bob lost himself and then found himself and discovered that he had killed an innocent man in a moment of passion, he would, if I know him, do one of two things—­either give himself up instantly and explain all that had happened, or else destroy himself as quickly as he could.”

“Motive is not always adequate,” Brendon told them.  “A swift, passing storm of temper has often destroyed a life with no more evil intent than a flash of lightning.  In this case, only such a storm seems to be the explanation.  But how a man of the Pendean type could have provoked such a storm I have yet to learn.  So far the testimony of Mrs. Pendean and the assurances of Inspector Halfyard at Princetown indicate an amiable and quiet person, slow to anger.  Inspector Halfyard knew him quite well at the Moss Depot, where he worked through two years of the war.  He was apparently not a man to have infuriated Captain Redmayne or anybody else.”

Mark then related his own brief personal experience of Redmayne on the occasion of their meeting by the quarry pools.  For some reason this personal anecdote touched Flora Reed and the detective observed that she was genuinely moved by it.

Indeed she began to weep and presently rose and left them.  Her parents were able to speak more freely upon her departure.

Mr. Reed indeed, from being somewhat silent and indifferent, grew voluble.