"You are a friend of Mr. Herries, and you went to Desleigh, as Inspector Trent told me."
"Quite so. But I was with Inspector Trent at the time Herries escaped out of the window of his bedroom."
"Then you do not know where he is?"
"No!" said the doctor, lying manfully.
Ritson looked depressed.
"That is a pity," he muttered, "for unless I can see him, I don't know how to put things right."
"Explain them to me."
The lawyer turned on his visitor in the twinkling of an eye.
"You do not know where he is?"
Browne was not at all disconcerted, having had one moment in which to think of a plausible answer.