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Page 117
"If Menendez has lied upon one point," I returned, "it is permissible
to suppose that his entire story was merely a tissue of falsehood."
"I see. But why did he bring me to Cray's Folly?"
"Don't you understand, Harley?" I cried, excitedly. "He really feared
for his life, since he knew that Camber had discovered the intrigue."
Paul Harley heaved a long sigh.
"I must congratulate you, Knox," he said, gravely, "upon a really
splendid contribution to my case. In several particulars I find myself
nearer to the truth. But the definite establishment or shattering of
your theory rests upon one thing."
"What's that?" I asked. "You are surely not thinking of the bat wing
nailed upon the door?"
"Not at all," he replied. "I am thinking of the seventh yew tree from
the northeast corner of the Tudor garden."
CHAPTER XXIX
A LEE-ENFIELD RIFLE
What reply I should have offered to this astonishing remark I cannot
say, but at that moment the library door burst open unceremoniously,
and outlined against the warmly illuminated hall, where sunlight poured
down through the dome, I beheld the figure of Inspector Aylesbury.
"Ah!" he cried, loudly, "so you have come back, Mr. Harley? I thought
you had thrown up the case."
"Did you?" said Harley, smilingly. "No, I am still persevering in my
ineffectual way."
"Oh, I see. And have you quite convinced yourself that Colin Camber is
innocent?"
"In one or two particulars my evidence remains incomplete."
"Oh, in one or two particulars, eh? But generally speaking you don't
doubt his innocence?"
"I don't doubt it for a moment."
Harley's words surprised me. I recognized, of course, that he might
merely be bluffing the Inspector, but it was totally alien to his
character to score a rhetorical success at the expense of what he knew
to be the truth; and so sure was I of the accuracy of my deductions
that I no longer doubted Colin Camber to be the guilty man.
"At any rate," continued the Inspector, "he is in detention, and likely
to remain there. If you are going to defend him at the Assizes, I don't
envy you your job, Mr. Harley."
He was blatantly triumphant, so that the fact was evident enough that
he had obtained some further piece of evidence which he regarded as
conclusive.
"I have detained the man Ah Tsong as well," he went on. "He was an
accomplice of your innocent friend, Mr. Harley."
"Was he really?" murmured Harley.
"Finally," continued the Inspector, "I have only to satisfy myself
regarding the person who lured Colonel Menendez out into the grounds
last night, to have my case complete."
I turned aside, unable to trust myself, but Harley remarked quite
coolly:
"Your industry is admirable, Inspector Aylesbury, but I seem to
perceive that you have made a very important discovery of some kind."
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