"Oh no! I wouldn't say that at all, sir! Not unless I was sure of my facts, that is," he added thoughtfully. "Still, watches do lose sometimes, and we have to be so careful in the Department, you know. So I've set a couple of my people on to see if they can't find someone to corroborate your statement."
The Prince said in rather a high-pitched voice: "This is to insult me! Am I then suspected of having murdered my host? It is iniquitous! It is, in fact, quite laughable, when one considers that it is not I who have the motive for killing that unfortunate! I do not pretend to know anything, but I find it strange that the poor foreigner must be suspected rather than a man who has been detested by Carter; or than Miss Cliffe, who inherits Carter's fortune; or than - for one must be frank - Miss Fanshawe, who was on the spot, and knows well how to handle a gun!"
"You've got me quite wrong, sir," said the Inspector. "I've got a natural mistrust of watches, that's all. Yes, what do you want?"
This question was addressed to the butler, who had come into the room. Peake said stiffly that Sergeant Wake wished to speak to him.
"You can send him in here," replied the Inspector, adding kindly to the Prince: "I dare say he's found someone to corroborate your evidence, sir. He's a very able young fellow, my Sergeant."
Sergeant Wake, however, had not found any such person. He had found instead the son of the local publican, who had informed him that he had been out walking with his young lady on Sunday afternoon, along the road from Stilhurst to Kershaw, and had seen Miss Fanshawe's car, with a strange gentleman at the wheel, travelling towards the village just after five o'clock.
"It's a lie! I denounce it!" exclaimed the Prince, grasping the back of a chair.
"Well, and what makes him so sure it was after five?" inquired the Inspector.
"He states that both him and his young lady had heard the village church clock strike the hour about ten minutes before," replied Wake. "Very positive, he is."
Inspector Hemingway looked at the Prince. "I had a notion all along that watch of yours wasn't to be trusted,"