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.
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