It was either directly after you came in, or while Bates was absent.

Of course you may have looked out twice.

Did you?
Whether once or twice, why did you do it ?" Theydon's feelings changed rapidly while Winter was delivering this very convincing analysis of a few simple facts.

He had passed at a bound from the detected schoolboy stage to that of a man forcing his way through a thicket who finds himself on the very lip of a precipice.
He remembered hazily that Bates had said something at Waterloo with regard to the manner in which the detectives, especially Furneaux, had questioned him.

But it was too late to apply the warning thus conveyed.
If he faltered now he was forever discredited.