red, crumpling the paper in his
hand. "But this is a very terrible business you are plunging me into. I
sincerely hope that you are not heedlessly misleading me."

"I am correct in my facts, if that is what you mean," said I. "The
stiletto is an English heirloom, and bears on its blade, among other
devices, that of Mr. Grey's family on the female side. But that is not
all I want to say. If the blow was struck to obtain the diamond, the
shock of not finding it on his victim must have been terrible. Now Mr.
Grey's heart, if my whole theory is not utterly false, was set upon
obtaining this stone. Your eye was not on him as mine was when you
made your appearance in the hall with the recovered jewel. He showed
astonishment, eagerness, and a determination which finally led him
forward, as you know, with the request to take the diamond in his hand.
Why did he want to take it in his hand? And why, having taken it, did
he drop it--a diamond supposed to be worth an ordinary man's fortune?
Because he was startled by a cry he chose to consider the traditional
one of his family proclaiming death? Is it likely, sir? Is it
conceivable even that any such cry as we heard could, in this day
and generation, ring through such an assemblage, unless it came with
ventriloquial power from his own lips? You observed that he turned his
back; that his face was hidden from us. Discreet and reticent as we have
all been, and careful in our criticisms of so bizarre an event, there
still must be many to question the reality of such superstitious fears,
and some to ask if such a sound could be without human agency, and a
very guilty agency, too. Inspector, I am but a child in your estimation,
and I feel my position in this matter much more keenly than you do, but
I would not be true to the man whom I have unwittingly helped to place
in his present unenviable position if I did not tell you that, in my
judgment, this cry was a spurious one, employed by the gentleman himself
as an excuse for dropping the stone."

"And why should he wish to drop the stone?"

"Because of the fraud he meditated. Because it offered him an
opportunity for substituting a false stone for the real. Did you not
notice a change in the aspect of this jewel dating from this very
moment? Did it shine with as much brilliancy in your hand when you
received it back as when you passed it over?"

"Nonsense! I do not know; it is all too absurd for argument." Yet he did
stop to argue, sa