“I quite comprehend!” said Mallow grimly.  “We can’t all keep our heads in these difficult situations.  Well?”

“I came out into the garden.  I heard the policeman coming down the lane, and knew I could not escape unobserved that way.  Then if I took the path to the station I fancied he might see me in the moonlight.  I ran across the garden by the wall and got over the fence amongst the corn, where I lay concealed.  Then I saw you coming round the corner.  You climbed the wall and went into the park.  After that I waited till after eleven, when the policeman entered the house, summoned by the servants.  I then ran round the field, sheltered from observation by the corn, which, as you know, was then high, and I got out at the further side.  I walked to Keighley, the next place to Rexton, and took a cab home.  I went straight to bed, and did not see Basil till the next morning.  He told me he had come home later, but he did not say where he had been, nor did I ask him.”

“But I am sure—­unless my watch was wrong, that I climbed the wall at a quarter past ten,” insisted Mallow.

“You might have climbed it again at a quarter to eleven.”

“No!  I climbed it only once.  Which way did I come?”

“Along the path from the station.  Then you walked beside the fence on the corn side, and jumping over, you climbed the wall.”

“Certainly I did that,” murmured Mallow, remembering what he had told Jennings.  “Did you see my face?”

“No!  But I knew you by your height and by the light overcoat you wore.  That long, sporting overcoat which is down to your heels.  Oh, Cuthbert, what is the matter?”

She might well ask this question, for Mallow had started and turned pale.  “Nothing! nothing,” he said irritably.  “I certainly did wear such an overcoat.  I was with Caranby before I went to Rexton, and knowing his room would be heated like a furnace, I took every precaution against cold.”

Juliet doubted this, as she knew Mallow did not coddle himself in any way.  However, she had seen the overcoat too often to mistake to whom it belonged.  Moreover, Cuthbert did not deny that he had jumped the wall in the way she explained.  “Well, now you know all, what will you do?” she asked.

“I really can’t say,” said Mallow, who was trying to conceal his agitation.  “I can’t think who took the knife out of my room.  It was in a trophy of arms on the wall, and I never noticed that it was missing, till Jennings drew my attention to the loss.  Certainly Miss Loach was killed with that knife.”

“I am positive of that,” said Juliet.  “There is blood on the handle.  But you understand why I kept silence?”

“Yes.  But there was really no need.  I shall call and see your mother and insist on her giving her consent to our marriage.  She has no reason to refuse.  Do you know why she objects?”

“No.  She simply says she does not wish me to marry you.”