Cyril tried to control his rising excitement. "You knew, however, that Arthur owned one?"
"Yes, but I never knew where he kept it."
"You are sure you have not forgotten——"
"No, no!" she interrupted him. "My memory is perfectly clear up to the time when Arthur seized me and threw me on the floor."
"After that you remember nothing?"
"Oh, yes, I have a vague recollection of a long walk through the dark—of a train—of you—of policemen. But everything is so confused that I can be sure of nothing."
Cyril paced the room deep in thought.
"It seems to me incredible," he said at last, "that if you did not even know where to look for a pistol, you should have found it, to say nothing of having been able to use it, while you were being beaten into unconsciousness by that brute."
But Anita only shook her head hopelessly.
"It is extraordinary, and yet I must have done so. For it has been proved, has it not, that Arthur and I were absolutely alone?"