"
"Very well. Stage him about nine o'clock. Anything else?"
Mr. Winter pondered a little while; then he addressed Hume hesitatingly:
"Does Mr. Brett know everything that happened after the murder?"
"I think so. Yes."
"Everything! Say three-quarters of an hour afterwards?"
The effect of this remark on Hume was very pronounced. His habitual air of
reserve gave place to a state of decided confusion.
"What are you hinting at?" he cried, striving hard to govern his voice.
"Well, it must out, sooner or later. Why did you go to meet Miss Helen
Layton in the avenue about 1.30 a.m.--soon after Sir Alan's body had been
examined by the doctor?'
"Oh, damn it, man, how did you ascertain that?" groaned Hume.
"I knew it all along, but I did not see that it was very material to the
case, and I wanted to keep the poor young lady's name out of the affair as
far as possible. I did not want to suggest that she was an accessory after
the crime."
Hume was blushing like a schoolboy. He glanced miserably at Brett, but the
barrister was still puffing artistic designs in big and little rings.
"Very well. My reason for concealment disappears now," he blurted out, for
the young man was both vexed and ashamed. "That wretched night, after she
returned home, Helen thought she had behaved foolishly in creating a
scene.
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