But if Miss Loach had not died, Basil would have got into trouble.

He didn't put the matter exactly in these words, but I gathered as much." "Humph!" said Jennings, his eyes on the carpet, "that supplies a motive for Basil killing the old woman." "Nonsense, Basil would not kill anything.

He is a coward." "When a rat is in the corner it fights," said the detective significantly.

"Basil may have been between the devil, represented by Miss Loach, and the deep sea, which we may call Hale.

He may have--" "No! No! No!" said Mallow, "nothing will ever persuade me that Basil is guilty." Jennings looked doubtful.