"I don't say that I can," retorted Jasher. "I am simply groping in the dark. But the fact remains that Mr. Fane alone had the latch-key. It must have been out of his possession so that some one could take an impression and have a duplicate made, or----"
"Well, or what?"
"I'll tell you," said Bocaros coming away from the window, "or Mr. Fane must have been the young man who spoke to the officer and who killed the woman--poor Flora."
"You forget," said Arnold coolly, "it was proved that the woman was alive when the young man in question was talking to the policeman."
"On the contrary," said the professor smoothly, "it was proved that the woman--poor Flora--was dead three hours when the woman was singing and the young man luring the policeman away."
"How dare you say that the man lured the policeman away!" cried Arnold furiously; "your ignorance of English law, professor, excuses your loose talk. But you are accusing every one without any basis of fact. What is your opinion, Jasher?"
"I haven't got one as yet," said Jasher, putting his book away and rising; "so far I can't see light. But I will go away and search, and then come back to tell you if I have discovered anything."
"In what direction will you search?" asked Calvert uneasily.
"I shall search in the direction of the latch-key. Fane alone had it, so I want to learn Fane's doings on that night."
"He was at the seaside."