Yet the mystery would have been no less in the case of any other opponent than Captain Tremayne, since it was clear beyond all doubt that a duel had been fought and Count Samoval killed, and no less clear that it was a premeditated combat, and that the deceased had gone to Monsanto expressly to engage in it, since the duelling swords found had been identified as his property and must have been carried by him to the encounter.
The mystery, he repeated, would have been no less in the case of any other opponent than Captain Tremayne; indeed, in the case of some other opponent it might even have been deeper.

It must be remembered, after all, that the place was one to which the accused had free access at all hours.
And it was clearly proven that he availed himself of that access on the night in question.

Evidence had been placed before the court showing that he had come to Monsanto in a curricle at twenty minutes to twelve at the latest, and there was abundant evidence to show that he was found kneeling beside the body of the dead man at ten minutes past twelve--the body being quite warm at the time and the breath hardly out of it, proving that he had fallen but an instant before the arrival of Mullins and the other witnesses who had testified.
Unless Captain Tremayne could account to the satisfaction of the court for the manner in which he had spent that half-hour, Major Swan did not perceive, when all the facts of motive and circumstance were considered, what conclusion the court could reach other than that Captain Tremayne was guilty of the death of Count Jeronymo de Samoval in a single combat fought under clandestine and irregular conditions, transforming the deed into technical murder.
Upon that conclusion the major sat down to mop a brow that was perspiring freely.

From Lady O'Moy in the background came faintly, the sound of a half-suppressed moan.

Terrified, she clutched the hand of Miss Armytage,--and found that hand to lie like a thing of ice in her own, yet she suspected nothing of the deep agitation under her companion's outward appearance of calm.
Captain Tremayne rose slowly to address the court in reply to the prosecution.