"Herbert―" he said.
"We knew that Herbert's watch was just ten minutes fast," the doctor said. "He ordered the housemaid to set the grandfather clock; but she discovered that it was wrong, and left the other clocks as they were. And while Herbert was keeping the vigil for the cousin who was too frightened to do it, his cousin was already lying with his neck broken in the Hag's Nook."
"But still I don't see how―" Sir Benjamin paused bewilderedly.
The telephone in the hall rang with a suddenness that made them all jump.
"You'd better answer it, Inspector," suggested the doctor; "it's probably your men phoning here from the rectory.
Saunders had risen now. His fleshy jowls had the look of a sick dog's. He started to say. "Most preposterous! Most — " in a way that sounded horribly as though he were burlesquing his usual voice. Then he stumbled against the edge of the chair and sat down again….
They could bear Inspector Jennings talking in the hall.
Presently he came back into the study, with an even more wooden face.
"It's all up, sir," he said to Dr. Fell. "They've been down in the cellar. The motor-bicycle is broken in bits and buried there. They've found a Browning pistol, a pair of gardener's gloves, some valises full of―"
Sir Benjamin said, incredulous, "You swine "