midnight on Christmas Eve
asked Jorce in a puzzled tone . `` Why , that Count Ferruci has had to do with a crime committed some months ago in Pimlico . A man called Mark Vrain was murdered , as you may have seen in the papers , Doctor , and I believe Ferruci murdered him . '' `` If I remember rightly , '' said Jorce with calmness , `` the man in question was murdered shortly before midnight on Christmas Eve . If that is so , Ferruci could not have killed him , because , as I said before , he was here at half-past ten on that night . '' `` I do n't say he actually killed the man , '' explained Lucian eagerly , `` but he certainly employed some one to strike the blow , else what was he doing in the Jersey Street yard on that night ? You can say what you like , Dr. Jorce , but that man is guilty of Mark Vrain 's death . ''