Miss Silver coughed in a reproving manner.

“That was not my intention. If Mrs. Herne were your heiress, that might provide a motive for a man who believed that she would be willing to share her inheritance with him.”

With a quick impatient gesture he said,

“A prospective son-in-law is usually prepared to wait for the decent course of nature. I don’t know which of Moira’s young men you imagine would risk a hanging to anticipate it. People do these things in melodrama, not in real life.”

She said soberly,

“Can you pick up a newspaper without finding material for a melodrama? The passions of greed and lust are essentially crude. They do not change.”

He said in a more moderate tone,

“The whole thing is preposterous. To start with, your hypothetical murderer would have to be pretty sure of Moira before he risked his neck by bumping me off. As far as I can see, there isn’t anyone in that position. Men come round her and she amuses herself with them, but there’s never been the slightest sign of anything serious since her husband’s death- not on her side at any rate.”

She did not answer him. She could have told him that he was arguing against his own fear, his own inward doubt, but she remained silent. It was only after an uneasy pause, when he said on a sharpened note, “Well, haven’t you anything to say?” that she spoke.

“Mr. Bellingdon, we are dealing with facts, not fancies. May I remind you of some of them? There was a plan to steal your necklace. The plan provided for the death of the person in charge of it. Mr. Garratt, who was to have been that person, was incapacitated, I believe deliberately. The most likely person to have taken his place was yourself. The person who did take his place was murdered. The whole plan could only have been devised and carried out by someone who was in close touch with your household. So much for the first crime. There has now been an attempt at a second. In this case not only you yourself were clearly aimed at, but Mrs. Scott was involved. Can you neglect the possibility that there may be further attempts, and that she may be involved in those?”

He made an abrupt movement.

“No, I can’t. She must go away.”

“Do you think that she will go?”

Lucius Bellingdon said, “No.”

“Your car has been tampered with and you have had a narrow escape. I gather that the accident which occurred was rendered especially dangerous by the fact that it took place on this particularly steep hill.”

“Yes.”

“Then the question would seem to arise as to whether it would have been possible for the person who tampered with your car to count on your driving down such a hill.”

“Yes, that question might arise.”

“May I ask whether you had planned to go the way you did, and whether anyone knew that you had made such a plan?”

“Yes, it was known. I spoke of it in the drawing-room before lunch. I think you were not present.”

“Will you tell me who were present?”

He said in an even voice,

“I think all the rest of the party.” He ran over the names in an undertone, “Elaine-Hubert- Arnold Bray-Sally Foster and that young Moray-Moira-Wilfrid Gaunt-Annabel-”

She said,

“You see, there is the same pattern. Anyone could have tampered with the car, but only certain people knew that you would be driving down this dangerous hill.”

He walked past her to the window, flung the curtains rattling back, and pushed the casement wide. The wind had dropped and the sky was clear. The smell of the damp earth came in, and a faint herby tang from the rosemary bush against the wall. When he was a boy he had had an ungovernable temper. He had learned to govern it, to harness it to his purposes, to make it do his bidding. It was there at his call. Not for years had it come so near to breaking loose. He stood there mastering it. When he turned and came back to his table he had the look of a man who has the upper hand of himself. His voice was grave and resolute as he said,

“Miss Silver, I offered you a professional engagement, and you accepted it. You have formed certain opinions-you are within your rights in expressing them. I invited you to come down here, and I told you that you would have a free hand. On my part, I have to decide whether I desire the arrangement between us to continue. In the event of my doing so, what have you to offer me in the way of advice?”

Miss Silver’s look was as grave as his own. She said,

“I believe you to be in considerable danger. It is not possible to say just how pressing the danger may be. From the fact that this attempt on you has followed so closely upon the murder of Mr. Hughes, and from the ruthless manner in which that murder was carried out, I am inclined to consider it to be very pressing indeed. In these circumstances, I would strongly urge you to protect yourself by letting it be known that you have made important alterations in your will.”

He gave her a sharp glance.

“Who told you that I was thinking of doing so?”

She smiled faintly.

“No one, Mr. Bellingdon. It occurred to me as advisable.”

After a short silence he said,

“And if I were to let it be known that I intended to alter my will?”

“I should consider that very inadvisable indeed.”

“Yes? On what grounds?”

“I do not really have to tell you that.” Her tone was indulgent.

He said, “No.” And then, “I’ve a good mind to do it all the same. In which case it would be now or never for the hypothetical gentleman whom you suspect of wanting to murder me. If there’s anything in this very unpleasant theory of yours, he’ll either have to get on with the job before I alter my will or give it up.”

“I believe that you would be taking a very great risk.”

“Well, do you know, I’d rather take it and get it over. I’m an impatient man and I don’t like sitting and waiting for things to happen. If there is another attempt, it may provide us with some sort of evidence. This one isn’t going to do much in that line, you know. The garage is a converted coach-house. Parker lives over it. He’s a bachelor, and he has his Sundays off- spends them with relations in Ledlington. The place would be open all day. Moira has a car there, and so has Annabel.”

She made no reply. After a moment he spoke again.

“Well, what about it? I’ve told you my plan. Will you stay and see it through?”

“Do you wish me to do so?”

Oddly enough, he did. She had come nearer to making him lose his temper than anyone had done for years, but he wanted her to stay.

Having said so, he received her acceptance with an unexplained feeling of relief. She had risen to her feet and was going towards the door, when he overtook her. He had an impulse to speak-to voice his anxieties about Annabel, to ask her what could be done to keep her safe, when she anticipated him. At the very threshold she turned and spoke.

“You are in a good deal of concern about Mrs. Scott?”

He said, “Don’t you think I have reason to be?”

“Yes, I think so.”

“I have begged her to go. She won’t hear of it. That is my one objection to this plan of mine-if I speak of altering my will, it may be thought-it will be thought-” Speaking with unusual emotion, he was now unable to proceed.

Miss Silver said, “Yes.”

There was a silence between them. She put out her hand to the door, but she did not open it. Instead she turned again and said,

“A little while ago I angered you by referring to Mrs. Herne’s interest under your will. You have asked me to be plain. You have just admitted that the announcement of a prospective change in your dispositions might bring about another attempt upon your life, and that this attempt might endanger Mrs. Scott. This would implicate either Mrs. Herne herself or someone directly and overwhelmingly interested in her inheritance.”

“Miss Silver-”

“Pray allow me to continue. You said that she has many admirers but no serious commitment to any of them, and that there could be no one sufficiently sure of her interest to risk so much upon it. I agree that anyone who took that risk would have to feel very sure of his claim on her. In fact, I think that only a legal claim would provide a strong enough inducement.”