face before her.

"Yes," cried Maud, exultingly, "I killed him. My mother suspected me,
but she never knew for certain. Listen. When Hay told me that Krill was
hiding as Norman in Gwynne Street I determined to punish him for his
cruelty to me. I did not say this, but I made Hay promise to get me the
brooch from Beecot--on no other condition would I marry him. I wanted
the brooch to pin Krill's lips together as he had pinned mine, when I
was a helpless child. But your fool of a lover would not part with the
brooch. Tray, the boy, took it from Beecot's pocket when he met with
that accident--"

"How do you know Tray?"

"Because I met him at Pash's office several times when I was up. He ran
errands for Pash before he became regularly employed. I saw that Tray
was a devil, of whom I could make use. Oh, I know Tray, and I know also
Hokar the Indian, who placed the sugar on the counter. He went to the
shop to kill your father at my request. I wanted revenge and the money.
Hokar was saved from starvation by my good mother. He came of the race
of Thugs, if you know anything about them--"

"Oh," moaned Sylvia, covering her face again.

"Ah, you do. So much the better. It will save my explaining, as there is
not much time left before your fool arrives. Hokar saw that I loved to
hurt living creatures, and he taught me how to strangle cats and dogs
and things. No one knew but Hokar that I killed them, and it was thought
he ate them. But he didn't. I strangled them because I loved to see them
suffer, and because I wished to learn how to strangle in the way the
Thugs did."

Sylvia was sick with fear and disgust. "For God's sake, don't tell me
any more," she said imploringly.

But she might as well have spoken to a granite rock. "You shall hear
everything," said Maud, relentlessly. "I asked Hokar to strangle Krill.
He went to the shop, but, when he saw that Krill had only one eye, he
could not offer him to the goddess Bhowanee. He came to me at Judson's
hotel, after he left the sugar on the counter, and told me the goddess
would not accept the offering of a maimed man. I did not know what to
do. I went with my mother to Pash's office, when she was arranging to
prosecute Krill for bigamy. I met Tray there. He told me he had given
the brooch to Pash, and that it was in the inner office. My mother was
talking to Pash within and I chatted to Tray outside. I told Tray I
wanted to kill Krill, and that if he would help me, I would giv