"Were they in the hall before ten o'clock?" asked Gebb.
"Yes, sir. Before ten and after ten. I saw them both."
This unprejudiced testimony put the matter beyond all doubt So Gebb gave the man a florin, and went away quite convinced that Ferris and Edith were innocent. He next called upon Mrs. Presk, and had an interview with that lady, and with her servant. What the landlady told him may be gathered from a conversation later in the day which Gebb had with Edith.
It was in the afternoon when Miss Wedderburn saw him. She was sitting with Arthur in the drawing-room of Mrs. Barrington at Bloomsbury, and they were anxiously discussing the case of Miss Gilmar's death when Gebb was announced. Neither Edith nor her lover was particularly glad to see the detective, as their associations with him had been anything but pleasant. However, Gebb took black looks and short answers as a portion of the ills incidental to his profession, and conversed with the pair in his most amiable and persuasive fashion.
"I have been down to Grangebury to-day," he said, addressing Edith, "and I saw Mrs. Presk, the landlady of your late cousin. From her I obtained a railway ticket, and it is a piece of evidence of such importance that I have come to you and Mr. Ferris about it."
"A railway ticket!" repeated Edith, looking puzzled. "From what station?"
"The ticket," said Gebb, producing it from his pocket-book, "Is dated the twenty-fourth of July, and is a return portion from London to Norminster!"
"It is not mine, then!" cried Miss Wedderburn. "I did not take a return ticket."
"But you came up on the twenty-fourth of July from Norminster, did you not?"
"Certainly; to see Ellen. But I bought a single ticket, second class."