48264    I knew Sir Charles's generosity, and I thought that if he heard the story from my own lips he would help me.'

48265    'Then how is it that you did not go?'

48266    'Because I received help in the interval from another source.'

48267    'Why, then, did you not write to Sir Charles and explain this?'

48268    'So I should have done had I not seen his death in the paper next morning.'

48269    The woman's story hung coherently together, and all my questions were unable to shake it.

48270    I could only check it by finding if she had, indeed, instituted divorce proceedings against her husband at or about the time of the tragedy.

48271    It was unlikely that she would dare to say that she had not been to Baskerville Hall if she really had been, for a trap would be necessary to take her there, and could not have returned to Coombe Tracey until the early hours of the morning.

48272    Such an excursion could not be kept secret.

48273    The probability was, therefore, that she was telling the truth, or, at least, a part of the truth.

48274    I came away baffled and disheartened.

48275    Once again I had reached that dead wall which seemed to be built across every path by which I tried to get at the object of my mission.

48276    And yet the more I thought of the lady's face and of her manner the more I felt that something was being held back from me.

48277    Why should she turn so pale?

48278    Why should she fight against every admission until it was forced from her?