"I'll ask Sir Daniel himself if he wrote the letter!"
"He will deny that he did," rejoined Ackworth, quickly.
"You trust a woman to get at the truth, denial or no denial," said Miss Baird, coolly. "And there's another thing, Anthony. Ferdy is perfectly innocent."
"Of course," hesitated the Captain; "still, can you prove it?"
"Very easily. Ferdy came home drunk on the night the crime was committed. I locked him in his own room, and took the key to mine. He could not have got out, and did not, until I released him next morning--hours after the murder was perpetrated."
Anthony nodded his satisfaction. "That settles the business. This letter is all bluff. Anything more?"
Clarice nodded in her turn. "Ferdy was engaged to marry Prudence Clarke," she said.
"Was engaged! Is the engagement at an end?"
"Yes. Had you not come over, I should have sent for you. I saw Prudence to-day, and she declines to marry Ferdy."
"Why, I thought she was in love with him."