"Strange!" murmured Jennings, "can't you tell the exact time?"
"Not to a minute. It was shortly after ten. I can't say how many minutes. Perhaps a quarter of an hour. But not suspecting anything was going to happen, I didn't look at my watch."
Jennings looked thoughtfully at the carpet. "I wonder if the assassin escaped that way," he murmured.
"Which way?"
"Over the wall and through the park. You see, he could not have gone up the lane or through the railway path without stumbling against that policeman. But he might have slipped out of the front door at half-past ten and climbed as you did over the wall to cross the park and drop over the other. In this way he would elude the police."
"Perhaps," said Cuthbert disbelievingly; "but it was nearly eleven when I left the park. If anyone had been at my heels I would have noticed."
"I am not so sure of that. The park, as you say, is a kind of jungle. The man might have seen you and have taken his precautions. Moreover," added the detective, sitting up alertly, "he might have written to Miss Saxon saying he saw you on that night. And she—"
"Bosh!" interrupted Mallow roughly, "he would give himself away."
"Not if the letter was anonymous."
"Perhaps," said the other again; "but Basil may have been about the place and have accused me."