“Thank you,” said Fox again, and wrote in his notebook. He looked over the top of his spectacles at Lord Charles.

“And then, my lord? What would you say happened next?”

“What happened next was that I went out to the landing followed by the two boys. My wife and my girls—my daughters—came out of 26 at the same time. I think my youngest boy, Michael, appeared from somewhere but he wasn’t there for long. The lift was returning and was almost up to our landing.”

“Up to the landing,” repeated Fox to his notes. “And who was in the lift, my lord?”

“Surely that’s clear enough,” said Lord Charles. “I thought you understood that my brother and his wife and my son were in the lift.”

“Yes, my lord, that is how I understand the case at present. I’m afraid this will seem very annoying to you but you see we usually take statements separately for purposes of comparison.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Fox. Of course you do. I’m afraid I’m—”

“Very natural, my lord, that you should be, I’m sure. Then I take it that Lady Wutherwood must have begun to scream while the lift was near the bottom of the shaft?”

Lord Charles twisted his mouth wryly and said yes.

“And continued as it returned to your landing?”

“Yes.”

“Yes. Would you mind telling me what happened when the lift stopped at the top landing?”

“We were bewildered. We couldn’t think what had happened, why she was—was making such an appalling scene. She—she—I should explain that she is rather highly-strung. A little hysterical, perhaps. The lift stopped and Henry opened the doors. She rushed out, almost fell out, into my wife’s arms. My son, the twin—I—it’s too stupid that I can’t tell you which it was—came out without speaking, or if he did speak I didn’t hear him. You see I was looking in the lift.”

“That must have been a great shock to you, my lord,” said Fox simply.

“Yes. A great shock.”

“I saw my brother,” said Lord Charles loudly and rapidly. “He was sitting at the end of the seat. The injury—it was there—I saw it—I—I didn’t understand then, that they—my sister-in-law and my son—had gone down in the lift without at first realizing there was anything the matter.”

“When did you realize this, my lord?”

“As soon as my wife had calmed her down a little she began to speak about it. She was very wild and incoherent, but I made out as much as that.”

“You did not question your son, my lord? Whichever son it was,” inquired Fox, as if the confusion of one’s children’s identities was the most natural thing in the world.

“No. There doesn’t seem to have been any time to talk to anybody.”

“And of course if you had questioned him you would have known which he was?”

“Yes,” rejoined Lord Charles evenly, “of course.”

“Did any of the others talk to him, my lord?”

“I really don’t know. How could I? If I had heard that, I would—” He stopped short. “I really can’t tell you more than that.”