gentlemen, that I had accepted a challenge from the Count, let me
ask you, can you think of any place less likely to have been
appointed or agreed to by me for the encounter than the garden of
the adjutant-general's quarters? Secrecy is urged as the reason for
the irregularity of the meeting. What secrecy was ensured in such
a place, where interruption and discovery might come at any moment,
although the duel was held at midnight? And what secrecy did I
observe in my movements, considering that I drove openly to Monsanto
in a curricle, which I left standing at the gates in full view of
the guard, to await my return? Should I have acted thus if I had
been upon such an errand as is alleged? Common sense, I think,
should straightway acquit me on the grounds of the locality alone,
and I cannot think that it should even be necessary for me, so as
to complete my answer to an accusation entirely without support in
fact or in logic, to account for my presence at Monsanto and my
movements during the half-hour in question."

He paused. So far his clear reasoning had held and impressed the
court. This he saw plainly written on the faces of all - with one
single exception. Sir Terence alone the one man from whom he might
have looked for the greatest relief - watched him ever malevolently,
sardonically, with curling lip. It gave him pause now that he stood
upon the threshold of falsehood; and because of that inexplicable but
obvious hostility, that attitude of expectancy to ensnare and destroy
him, Captain Tremayne hesitated to step from the solid ground of
reason, upon which he had confidently walked thus far, on to the
uncertain bogland of mendacity.

"I cannot think," he said, "that the court should consider it
necessary for me to advance an alibi, to make a statement in proof