"Do you mean to say that Mr. Pallant told him his enemy was dead?"
"Joad thought that such was the case."
"Then you must see," cried Dora triumphantly, "that such a supposition does away with your theory of monomania. Evidently Mr. Edermont's fear was founded on no fancy, but on fact."
"Well, I will agree with you for the sake of argument;" said Pride hastily; "but granted that all you say is true, it brings us no nearer the solution of the mystery. Admitting that the enemy whom Mr. Edermont feared really existed: if such enemy died, as we suppose Mr. Pallant told our poor friend, who killed him, and verified his lifelong prediction that he would come to a violent end?"
"I understand your meaning," was Dora's reply; "but I do not think all the talking in the world will aid us to discover the actual assassin. What is your belief, Mr. Pride?"
"I cannot say that I have any particular belief, Miss Carew. These criminal problems are too intricate for me."
"Don't you wish to earn the reward?"
"I should not mind doing so," replied Pride, with a good-natured laugh. "No man in his senses would lose the chance of gaining fifty thousand pounds. All the same, I am not clever enough to win it. I do not see where to begin."
"Do you think that the manuscript in the bureau was the motive for the crime?"
"No. Why should anyone have killed Mr. Edermont to gain a worthless manuscript?"