“And you think?” broke in Douglas.
“That Captain Lane not only found the carriage but the Senator sitting in it, and seized the opportunity to punish him for his deviltry to the girl he loved.”
A long pause followed as Colonel Thornton and Douglas sat thinking over Brett’s startling news.
“Where did he get the weapon?” inquired Douglas finally.
“Out of Mrs. Owen’s library, of course. He may have picked it up in a fit of absent-mindedness and carried it with him.”
“Did the footman or butler notice anything in his hand when he left the house?” questioned Thornton.
“I asked them, and they declared that he carried an umbrella in his left hand, and that they had not noticed whether he was holding anything in his right hand or not. The footman declared that it was raining so hard that it was impossible to see anything clearly. They both said Captain Lane was some fifteen minutes returning to the house.”
“Did he find the carriage?”
“He told the footman that he hadn’t, and ordered him to keep calling the number, which he did, and soon after the carriage drove up.”
“Of all the cold-blooded propositions!” ejaculated Douglas. “Do you honestly mean that you think Lane deliberately put the girl he loved into the carriage to sit beside the man he had just murdered?”