"Not very gallant of him to run off in an opposite direction and let the girl shift for herself."
"Oh, I don't know. The girl had to get out of the way, and alone, as soon as possible. Besides, the man may not have run off in an opposite direction. He may simply have jumped off into that low, vacant lot until the gathering of a crowd gave him a chance to get away without being conspicuous." He was watching Lyon closely, but that young man's surprise was too genuine to be mistaken. "Therefore, to return to the question of the coat," he continued, "it is pretty clear that he must have turned it himself."
"But why?"
"As a disguise. To escape being recognized by a young woman who had seen him in a black coat a very short time before. It is possible that he trusted too much to the disguise and so came too near, and so provoked the quarrel which ended so fatally. Even a mild-tempered man doesn't like to be spied upon when he is, we may assume, making love on his own account."
"It seems to me you are assuming that Lawrence killed him, and then building up a scene to fit that theory," said Lyon hotly.
"What makes you think I am assuming it was Lawrence?--Because I suggested he was making love on his own account?"
Lyon felt that he had been trapped. "Well, aren't you assuming it to be Lawrence?" he asked bluntly.
But Bede was never blunt.
"At any rate, we must assume that it was a man who struck the blow."
"Why must we?"