"I think so. It was very dark—but I remember that we had just passed under a number of rose-arches across the path."
"It was, I presume, further away from the house than the spot where the body was found?"
"The body was found close to the river, about half-way between the house and the place where I left her," Tranter replied.
"So we may surmise that she had got about half-way to the house before the attack was made. How far would that actually be?"
"Along those winding paths," Tranter calculated, "I should say roughly about a hundred and fifty yards."
"Did she start to walk to the house immediately you left her?"
"Yes. She started in that direction as I started in the other."
"Then," mused the inspector, "she must have met the criminal, whoever it was, at the most within three minutes of leaving you?"
"Presumably she must," Tranter agreed.
"And was that," pursued the inspector, "about the spot where she might have met the young man, Layton, who was, it appears, being chased out towards the river by Mr. Bolsover?"