"Because she is innocent. Circumstantial evidence may exist alike against the innocent and the guilty; real evidence only against the guilty. I mean to say that as I am firmly convinced Miss Dare once regarded you as guilty of this crime, I must be equally convinced she didn't commit it herself. This is unanswerable."
"You have stated that before."
"I know it; but I want you to see the force of it; because, once convinced with me that Miss Dare is innocent, you will be willing to tell all you know, even what apparently implicates her."
Silence answered this remark.
"You didn't see her strike the blow?"
Mansell roused indignantly.
"No, of course not!" he cried.
"You did not see her with your aunt that moment you fled from the house immediately before the murder!"
"I didn't see her."
That emphasis, unconscious, perhaps, was fatal. Gryce, who never lost any thing, darted on this small gleam of advantage as a hungry pike darts upon an innocent minnow.