"Will you please make your story as short as possible ?" Milburgh was silent for a moment.
"I am coming now to the most extraordinary fact," he said, "and I would ask you to bear in mind every detail I give you.

It is to my interest that the perpetrator of this terrible crime should be brought to justice----" Tarling's impatient gesture arrested his platitudes, but Mr.Milburgh was in no way abashed.
"When I got back to the mews I found it deserted.

Standing outside the door leading to the storerooms and cellars was a two-seater car.

There was nobody inside or in attendance and I looked at it curiously, not realising at the moment that it was Mr.Thornton Lyne's.

What did interest me was the fact that the back gate, which I had left locked, was open.