"Then Julian himself must know," I cried.
"Tis a simple thought," said he. "If you will pardon the hint, you discover what is obvious with a singular freshness."
I understood that I had brought the rejoinder upon myself by my interruption, and so digested it in silence.
"The second point," he continued, "is interesting as a----" he made the slightest possible pause--"a coincidence. Sir Julian Harnwood was arrested at six o'clock in the morning, not in his house, but something like a mile away, on the King's down. 'Tis a quaint fancy for a gentleman to take it into his head to stroll about the King's down in the rain at six o'clock of the morning; almost as quaint as for an officer to go thither at that hour to search for him."
An idea sprang through my mind, and was up to the tip of my tongue. But I remembered the fate of my previous suggestions, and checked it on the verge of utterance.
"You were about to proffer a remark," said Mr. Vincott very politely.
"No!" said I, in a tone of indifference, and he smiled.
Then his manner changed, and he began to speak quickly, rapping with his fist upon the table as though to drive home his words.
"The truth of the matter is, Mr. Buckler, Sir Julian went out that morning to fight a duel, and his antagonist was Count Lukstein, who came over to England six months ago in the train of the Emperor Leopold's ambassador. Ah! you know him!"
"No!" I replied. "I know of him from Julian."