Now I see that it is." The solicitor looked straight at Thresk.
"I knew from Mrs.Repton that you dined with the Ballantynes that night, but she was sure that you knew nothing of the affair.

You had left the tent before it happened." "That is true," answered Thresk.
"Yet you have evidence which will acquit Mrs.Ballantyne ?" "I think so." "How is it, then," the lawyer asked, "that we have heard nothing of this evidence at all from Mrs.Ballantyne herself ?" "Because she knows nothing of it," replied Thresk.
The lawyer pointed to a chair.

The two men sat down together in the office and it was long before they parted.
Within an hour of Thresk's return from the solicitor's office an Inspector of Police waited on him at his hotel and was instantly shown up.
"We did not know until to-day," he said, "that you were still in Bombay, Mr.Thresk.We believed you to be on the Madras, which reached Marseilles early this morning." "I missed it," replied Thresk.

"Had you wanted me you could have inquired at Port Said five days ago." "Five days ago we had no information." The native servants of Ballantyne had from the first shrouded themselves in ignorance.

They would answer what questions were put to them; they would not go one inch beyond.