"She did call, and she was very kind indeed, thank you," said Miss
Wickham. "I hope she'll come again."

"We shall both be glad to do anything," said Viner. "Please don't
hesitate about sending round for me if there's anything at all I can
do." He followed Mr. Pawle into the square, and turned him towards his
own house. "Come and lunch with me," he said. "We can talk over this at
our leisure."

"Thank you--I will," answered Mr. Pawle. "Very pleased. Between you and
me, Mr. Viner, this is a very queer business. I'm quite prepared to
believe the story that young fellow Hyde tells. I wish he'd told it
straight out in court. But you must see that he's in a very dangerous
position--very dangerous indeed! The police, of course, won't credit a
word of his tale--not they! They've got a strong _prima facie_ case
against him, and they'll follow it up for all they're worth. The real
thing to do, if you're to save him, is to find the real murderer. And to
do that, you'll need all your wits! If one only had some theory!"

Viner introduced Mr. Pawle to Miss Penkridge with the remark that she was
something of an authority in mysteries, and as soon as they had sat down
to lunch, told her of Langton Hyde and his statement.

"Just so!" said Miss Penkridge dryly. "That's much more likely to be
the real truth than that this lad killed Ashton. There's a great deal
more in this murder than is on the surface, and I dare say Mr. Pawle
agrees with me."

"I dare say I do," assented Mr. Pawle. "The difficulty is--how to
penetrate into the thick cloak of mystery."