The thing was closing in. The conspirators knew well enough that they were being played with, with the cold ferocity of a cat with a mouse. They were brave still. They preserved their pitiful pretences, but to the heart of each of them a little icicle had come.
"It was after midnight before he had finished his supper?" Admaston said.
"When?" Ellerdine inquired.
"Last night," Admaston rapped out.
"Dicky?" Lady Attwill said. "Why, he didn't have any supper last night."
"Not a bally mouthful," said Lord Ellerdine, shaking his head mournfully.
"Collingwood told me," Admaston remarked, "that you had just finished supper, well after midnight."
"Well, that was a whopper," said Lady Attwill.
"He didn't know," Ellerdine spluttered in.
"Oh! I thought not," Admaston said. "But you all stayed here last night."