"Why didn't you prevent him from strangling Dimsdale?" asked Towton.
"I swear that Hokar had nothing to do with that murder, nor had I."
"Of course, you would say that for your own safety," said Vernon contemptuously; "but how was it that you became possessed of Dimsdale's secret?"
Maunders hesitated. "I am not bound to answer that," he said defiantly.
"If you don't answer me you will answer Drench," threatened Vernon firmly.
"Drench? You would not dare to bring him into this matter?"
"Why not? Dimsdale was blackmailed on account of a certain secret, and, because he would not pay, perished by violence. You know this secret, so the inference is that you----"
"That I ordered him to be strangled?" finished Maunders calmly. "How can that be when Hokar was never near Dimsdale's bungalow in his life, and certainly, as I was with Miss Hest nearly all the evening, I could not have committed the murder myself."
"That remains to be proved," rejoined Vernon, suppressing what Miss Hest had told him of the young man's movements on the fatal night. "And even presuming you are innocent of the actual crime, and that Hokar was not near the house, The Spider, who came to blackmail, must have learned from you the secret which he threatened to disclose."
Maunders was silent for a moment. "You can't prove that I knew about this secret," he said doggedly.