“It seems to me that the boot is on the other leg,” he said.  “I should like to know what the mischief you mean by wandering around my grounds at this hour of the night without my permission?”

The inspector completed his climb and stood in the little circle of light.  He took note of the rope and of Tallente’s condition.

“My presence here, sir,” the inspector announced, “is connected with the disappearance of the Honourable Anthony Palliser.”

“Confidence for confidence,” Tallente replied.  “So is mine.”

The inspector moved to the palisading.  The top rail had been broken, as though it had given under the weight of some heavy body.  He held up the loose fragment, glanced downwards into the dark gulf and back again to Tallente.  “You’ve been over there,” he said.  “I have,” Tallente admitted.  “I’ve made a search that I don’t fancy you’d have tackled yourself.  I’ve been down the cliff to the beach.”

“What reason had you for supposing that you might discover Mr. Palliser’s body there?” the other asked bluntly.

Tallente sat on the stone seat and lit a cigarette.

“I will take you into my confidence, Mr. Inspector,” he said.  “This afternoon I strolled round here with a lady caller, just before you came, and I fancied that I heard a faint cry.  I took no notice of it at the time, but to-night, after dinner, I wandered out here again, and again I fancied I heard it.  It got on my nerves to such an extent that I fetched Robert here, a coil of rope, put on some shoes with spikes and tried to remember that I was an Alpine climber.”

“You’ve been down to the beach and back, sir?” the inspector asked, looking over a little wonderingly.

“Every inch of the way.  The last eighty feet or so I had to scramble.”

“Did you discover anything, sir?”

“Not a thing.  I couldn’t even find a broken twig in any of the little clumps of outgrowing trees.  There wasn’t a sign of the sand having been disturbed anywhere down the face of the cliff, and I shouldn’t think a human being had been on that beach during our lifetimes.  I have had my night’s work for nothing.”

“It was just the cry you fancied you heard which made you undertake this expedition?”

“Precisely!”

The inspector held up the broken rail.

“When was this smashed?” he enquired.

“I have no idea,” Tallente answered.  “All the woodwork about the place is rotten.”

“Doesn’t it occur to you, sir, as being an extraordinarily dangerous thing to put it back in exactly the same position as though it were sound?”

“Iniquitous,” Tallente agreed.

The inspector made a mental note.  Tallente threw the remains of his cigarette into the sea.  “I am going to bed now.” he said.  “Can I offer you any refreshment, Mr. Inspector, or are your investigations not yet complete?”

“I thank you, sir, but I require nothing.  I have some men up in the wood there and I shall join them presently.  I am staying in the neighborhood.”