III
Leo Argyle watched the morning light fill the room slowly with dim greylight.
He had thought out everything very carefully.
It was quite clear to him—exactly what they were up against, he andGwenda.
He lay looking at the whole thing as Superintendent¹ Huish would look atit. Rachel coming in and telling them about Jacko—his wildness and histhreats. Gwenda had tactfully gone into the next room, and he had tried tocomfort Rachel, had told her she was quite right to have been firm, thathelping Jacko in the past had done no good—that for better or worse hemust take what was coming to him. And she had gone away easier in hermind.
And then Gwenda had come back into the room, and gathered up theletters for the post and had asked if there was anything that she could do,her voice saying more than the actual words. And he had thanked her andsaid no. And she had said good night and gone out of the room. Along thepassage and down the stairs and past the room where Rachel was sittingat her desk and so out of the house with no one to watch her go….
And he himself had sat on alone in the library, and there had beennobody to check whether he left it and went down to Rachel’s room.
It was like that—opportunity for either of them.
And motive², because already by then he loved Gwenda and she lovedhim.
And there was nobody, ever, who could prove the guilt³ or innocence⁴ ofeither of them.
IV
A quarter of a mile away, Gwenda lay dry-eyed and sleepless⁵.
Her hands clenched⁶, she was thinking how much she had hated RachelArgyle.
And now in the darkness, Rachel Argyle was saying: “You thought youcould have my husband once I was dead. But you can’t—you can’t. You willnever have my husband.”
V
Hester was dreaming. She dreamt that she was with Donald Craig and thathe had left her suddenly at the edge of an abyss. She had cried out in fearand then, on the other side of it, she saw that Arthur Calgary was standingholding out his hands to her.
She cried out to him reproachfully.

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