"Then you admit your guilt?"
"No; that is quite another thing. I admit that I was in Heathton on that night when Jarks saw me. What I came for does not concern you, Captain Lestrange; but I can prove also that I was back in Bournemouth before twelve o'clock. You will observe that I can establish an alibi."
"Upon my word, I really believed you guilty!" cried the Captain with sincerity.
"No doubt," was the scornful reply. "The wish is father to the thought. I will thank you not to accuse me falsely again."
"You have to explain away the finding of the lancet."
"That was stolen from my desk, with the key of the vault, by a man called Brown, whom I believe to have been guilty of a crime. You need not try to fasten the guilt upon me! I can defend myself--to use your favorite phrase--in open court, if necessary."
"Your word is enough," protested Lestrange. "I was wrong to accuse you!"
"Very wrong. You did it out of spite----"
"No, no! I really believed----"
"What you wished yourself to believe," interrupted Alan in his turn. "It was my intention to have given you a thrashing, Captain Lestrange----"