The glass skimmed past Haskins' head, and smashed against the wainscoting. By this time both men were on their feet; Rebb glaring and furious, but Gerald calm. A few drops of the claret had sprinkled his face, and he wiped these off quietly. "There is nothing to be gained by your losing your temper, Rebb," he remarked.  
"Don't tell me what to do or what not to do," raged the Major, striding towards the door, which he locked. "You are in my power here."
 
Haskins sat down again with a contemptuous laugh. "So much so that, if you opened that door to let me out, I should refuse to go. Don't be a fool, Rebb. One would think you were a melodramatic actor. Do you think that I am afraid of you or of a dozen like you? Sit down and let us talk quietly over the matter."
 
Rebb walked forward, and flung himself into a chair, his moustache, somewhat taken aback by Haskins' . Usually, when he asserted his undeniably strong will, his opponents sat down and obeyed. But the Major recognized readily enough that he had a man to deal with, and, moreover, knew that he could not get the better of him by treachery, since the Silbury police were aware of Haskins' whereabouts. The Pixy's House already had an unpleasant reputation, and Rebb did not wish an to take place there. He would willingly have got rid of this man, who so crossed his path, but the risk was too great. And as man to man, Gerald was more than able to hold his own. Rebb was no fool, and, for the moment, he mentally confessed himself beaten.
 
"I ask your pardon for losing my temper," he said, wiping his forehead, "but no man can sit quietly and hear himself accused of woman murder."
 
"Defend yourself then," said Gerald, relighting his pipe, which had gone out during the episode.
 
"There is no need for me to make a defence," the other.
 
"I think there is. Geary may hold his tongue, since he appears to be to you, but his wife, having left her husband, will certainly speak out."
 
"What can she say?" asked Rebb, taking another glass of claret.
 
"That you went to this place on the night, and about the time, of the murder. You went away some time after I left, and did not return until two in the morning."
 
Major Rebb sat looking at the tips of his . He saw well that Gerald was right, and if the young man--as he probably would--supported Mrs. Geary in making trouble, very unpleasant questions might be asked. "Why the devil do you in my business?" he asked, between his teeth.
 
"Because I love Mavis Durham."
 
"She is dead."
 
"You can't be sure of that."
 
"Then you know!" cried the Major, starting to his feet.
 
"Now how should I know anything when you have me from complicity in her flight?" argued Gerald, skirting the subject. "If I had run away with Mavis she would be my wife by this time."
 
"And would have passed her in prison?" Rebb, quite convinced by Gerald's quiet tone.
 
"I think not. I should have fought for my wife. And I intend to search for her and fight for her still."
 
"You'll never find her. If she were alive she would have been captured long ago."
 
"Ah, it would please you, no doubt, to see her hanged."
 
"No! on my soul, no!" cried the Major, beginning to walk to and fro, "I only want to see her happy. She was happy here," he added, as Gerald laughed unpleasantly. "She was happy until you came and disturbed her poor brain."
 
"Her very clever brain!" contradicted the young man acidly. "Pshaw! Major, am I a fool that you should talk to me in this way? Whatever you may state to the outside world, for the sake of your illegal income, you know perfectly well that Mavis is perfectly ."
 
"She is not! Would she have killed Bellaria if sane?"
 
"Oh, you are trying to keep up that fiction also?"
 
"It is not fiction," insisted Rebb, obviously in earnest. "I will admit that the girl's brain was stronger than I chose to tell anyone outside this room. All the same, I believe that, weary of being shut up, she tried to escape on that night. Bellaria came to stop her, and Mavis then must have stabbed her. Remember, Bellaria had Geary's knife."
 
"Do you really believe this?" asked Gerald, quite puzzled.
 
"I swear that I do! Come, Haskins, let us talk plainly, since there is no one to hear us. Don't you believe it yourself?"
 
"No, I do not! You, if anyone, killed Bellaria."
 
"Why should I?"
 
"Because you knew that I would take the girl away and marry her. To put her presumed beyond all doubt you murdered Bellaria, and placed the crime on the poor girl's shoulders. In this way, should she be found, you secure her income for life, since she cannot marry."
 
"That would have been a clever thing for me to do," said Rebb, in a quiet way, "but I had not the brains to conceive such a plot, much less the cleverness to carry it out. I might, in a fit of rage, kill a man capable of defending himself. I certainly should never raise my hand to stab a defenceless woman, whatever I might have."
 
"You were here about the time of the murder?" said Haskins, and he wrinkled his brow in perplexity. Rebb very earnestly.
 
"I was--since Mrs. Geary has let the cat out the bag I may as well confess, and you will see how groundless your suspicions are. It was long after ten o'clock when I left the Devon Maid, and I took a lantern with me."
 
"Why did you go at all?"
 
"To search for your confounded canoe. Geary told me about it, and so did Bellaria, who learned where it was hidden from Mavis."
 
"Yes. I told Mavis. Well?"
 
"Well, I wanted to find it and break it up, so that you should no longer get across the pool and climb the wall. I walked over the hills, and lost my way for a time. It was close upon twelve o'clock when I got to the pool. I searched for the canoe and could not find it. I heard a inside the grounds of this house----"
 
"And you went to see what it was?"
 
"Not at the moment. I knew that Bellaria, being always terrified, for reasons you need not know----"
 
"Pardon me, I know all about the Tána Society."
 
Rebb looked astonished, but made no comment, being too occupied in himself. "Then you know that she suffered greatly from nerves, and was afraid of being discovered and killed. Often she at night, as Mavis told me, and at times, when here late, I heard her myself. I therefore merely thought that Bellaria was in one of her mad fits and went on searching. About one o'clock I climbed the bank and, crossing the stream by the bridge to Leegarth, I went to the gate of the Pixy's House, wondering if you had dared to come there, after seeing me. I found the gates opened and Bellaria dead. As I was stooping over the body, Geary came running from the house. He said that he had followed me to tell about your shooting him in the arm, and on finding Bellaria's body he had gone to look for Mavis. She had vanished. I searched the house also, and could not find her. I therefore came back to Denleigh with Geary, making him promise to say nothing of our midnight visit."
 
"Why?" asked Gerald straightly.
 
"Why?" echoed the Major, looking surprised, "when you were with my affairs? Had you known of that visit at the time, you would have denounced me to the police, and I should have had great difficulty in clearing myself. I held my peace. And I tell you that I really believed, as I believe now, that Mavis had stabbed Bellaria, so as to get her liberty."
 
"Why did you not believe that some emissary of the Tána Society had found out Bellaria's hiding place and had killed her?"
 
"You mean Venosta?" said Rebb hurriedly; "well I own that, after the first shock of surprise, I did suspect Venosta, as Mrs. Crosbie had shown me the coral hand, and had told me the use she put it to."
 
"Did she know about the society?" asked Gerald. "She declared that she was ignorant of its existence."
 
"So she was. But I knew about the society at Naples fifteen or sixteen years ago, when I rescued Bellaria from its clutches. No; I don't believe Venosta killed Bellaria, although he would have done so, I am sure, had he known where she was hiding. But he did not, and who could have told him? Not Mrs. Crosbie--although you mentioned Bellaria's name and whereabouts, confound you!--as Mrs. Crosbie knew nothing of the Tána Society. Well, Haskins, you must see now that I am innocent."
 
"It looks like it, I admit. But everything fitted in so well with your plans that I naturally thought you guilty."
 
"Then you see that I am no............