“I don't know. I mean, I'm not sure. Somewhere between twelve and one in the morning.”
“At which salubrious hour you were going to knock Arnold up for a friendly chat,” observed Kenneth. “The whole story seems to me to want revision. Personally I should jettison it, and think out a new one. The moths have got at this one pretty badly.”
“Well, I wasn't going to knock Arnold up,” Mesurier said, throwing away his cigarette. “I've - I've been through a pretty bad time over this, I don't mind telling you. Vereker meant to ruin me. He could have, easily. Even if he didn't win his case, the mere fact of my being in such a case would absolutely finish me. I - I was utterly desperate. Didn't know which way to turn. I knew Vereker was going down to Riverside Cottage; I heard him tell Miss Miller so. Of course, I was mad, but I meant to follow him there and shoot him, making it look like a burglary. I'd been to the cottage once. I knew it was fairly remote, and I knew a place where I could hide my car. I thought - if I broke into the place - I could conceal myself behind the bookcase in the hall, and when Vereker came down to investigate, I could shoot him from there and make a getaway before anyone else came on the scene. That's my story, and if you don't like it you can just do the other thing!”
“You've only to tell me what the other thing is and I'll go and do it at once,” promised Kenneth. “The story makes me want to weep. My poor sister!”
“Yes, but there's just one thing,” said Antonia seriously. “It's so dam' silly that people are quite likely to think it's true. Don't you agree, Giles?”
“It's quite possible,” said her cousin.
“Well, if that's your opinion why not let us all in on it?” said Kenneth. “Let's all say we burgeoned off to kill Arnold, but found someone else had done it for us.”
“I shouldn't advise it,” replied Giles. “It's not the sort of story that bears being told a second time.”
“Second time!” exclaimed Kenneth scornfully. “It had whiskers on it when Rudolph dug it up.”
“It happens to be true,” said Rudolph. “And it isn't any weaker than the story you told. Personally I thought that the thinnest thing I'd ever heard.”