"You say that Mr. Bellingham could not have left the house because you were watching all the time. Where were you while you were watching?"
"I was in the kitchen. I could see the front gate from the kitchen window."
"You say that you laid the table for two. Where did you lay it?"
"In the dining-room, of course."
"Could you see the front gate from the dining-room?"
"No, but I could see the study door. The study is opposite the dining-room."
"Do you have to come upstairs to get from the kitchen to the dining-room?"
"Yes, of course you do!"
"Then might not Mr. Bellingham have left the house while you were coming up the stairs?"
"No, he couldn't have done."
"Why not?"
"Because it would have been impossible."
"But why would it have been impossible?"
"Because he couldn't have done it."
"I suggest that Mr. Bellingham left the house quietly while you were on the stairs?"
"No, he didn't."
"How do you know he did not?"
"I am quite sure he didn't."
"What makes you feel sure he did not?"
"I am quite certain he didn't."
"But how can you be certain?"
"Because I should have seen him if he had."
"But I mean when you were on the stairs."
"He was in the study when I was on the stairs."
"How do you know he was in the study?"
"Because I showed him in there and he hadn't come out."
Mr. Loram paused and took a deep breath, and his lordship flattened his eyelids.
"Is there a side gate to the premises?" the barrister resumed wearily.
"Yes. It opens into a narrow lane at the side of the house."
"And there is a French window in the study, is there not?"
"Yes; it opens on to the small grass plot opposite the side gate."
"Were the window and the gate locked, or would it have been possible for Mr. Bellingham to let himself out into the lane?"
"The window and the gate both have catches on the inside. He could have got out that way, but, of course, he didn't."
"Why not?"
"Well, no gentleman would go creeping out by the back way like a thief."
"Did you look to see if the French window was shut and fastened after you missed Mr. Bellingham?"
"I looked at it when we shut the house up for the night. It was then shut and fastened on the inside."
"And the side gate?"
"That was shut and latched. You have to slam the gate to make the latch fasten, so no one could have gone out of that gate without being heard."