A probe in a fresh direction might reach a more vulnerable spot.

“But you had been behind the pedestal?” Dr. Price suggested.

“Yes”—­the quick flush coming again.  “My old timidity led me to conceal myself where I could watch undetected her bright young figure pass from arch to arch along the opposite gallery.  Not till she had got past my line of view did I step out, and then—­then it was to see what I have already told you—­her rush toward the front—­the start she gave—­the fall—­that cruel arrow!  I own that I shrank back into my narrow hiding-place when I realized that all was at an end—­that she was dead.”

“Why?  You had been witness to a deed of blood—­a deed which must have recalled to you the anxiety expressed by the woman whom you regarded as the young girl’s guardian; and yet you shrank back—­out of sight—­away from those who had the right to make inquiries!  How do you explain that, Mr. Travis?”

“I cannot, except that I was so dazed, so stricken, that I was hardly conscious of what I did.  And, sirs, believe me or not, had it not been for the refuge afforded by that narrow space behind the pedestal, I think I should have fallen headlong to the floor.  When I came again to myself, which was after some of the confusion had abated, I had only one thought in mind:  to suppress myself and my story lest some shadow should fall across her sweet purity.  Waiting till the attention of the man you had placed on guard over her body was attracted another way, I slid out and hastened to the front, where I managed to find a quiet room in which to sit down and brood again over my misfortune.  Forewarned, as you have said, and on the spot, with every wish to protect her, I had failed to do so.  I fear it will make me mad some day.”

Had it made him insane already?  Was his story to be trusted?  It was full of incongruities; were they those of a disordered mind?  Such had been the excuse made for Mrs. Taylor when she had been thought guilty of this attack; why should it not be applied to this man who certainly had given evidences of not being of the usual type of young Englishman?  With a sidelong look at Mr. Gryce, which that individual perfectly understood, Dr. Price thanked Mr. Travis for his candor and asked if he could point out the room in which he had sat while their young man had gone through the building checking off the position of everybody in it.

To his surprise, the Englishman answered quite simply, “I will try,” and rose when they rose.

The glances exchanged between the other two men were eloquent.  Where was he about to take them?  Sweetwater was no fool; how had this man of marked appearance and generous proportions managed to elude him?