g and I quarreled. Then it was that I killed
him."

"And what of the other woman?" asked the superintendent.

"What other woman?"

"The veiled woman who was shown up to you by Ivan."

"There was no other woman," said Grell, his lips tightening. "I have
told you as much as I intend to."

"Just as you like. I believe you have told the truth up to a point, Mr.
Grell. It is fair to assume that a blackmailer of Goldenburg's calibre
would have taken precautions lest you should fail to comply with his
demands. Doesn't it appear a fair assumption that he might have taken
steps to arrange the presence of the person most interested, next to
yourself? He probably never mentioned that he had done so until it was
too late for you to stop her. I mean Lady Eileen Meredith."

The table crashed to the floor as Grell, the last remnants of his
self-restraint gone, leapt to his feet. Sir Hilary Thornton sprang
between the two men. Foyle also had risen, and though his face was
impassive the blue eyes were sparkling and his fists were clenched.

"You liar!" raved Grell. "How dare you bring her name into it!"

"This excitement will not advance matters," said Foyle placidly. "Sit
down for a little, Mr. Grell. You cannot prevent the inevitable."

The tense muscles of the prisoner relaxed and a shivering fit shook him
from head to foot. He could see the blow that he had striven to avert
falling while he stood impotent. He had taken every risk, made every
sacrifice man could make, to turn it aside. Now he had been told that he
had failed. It was not easy to admit defeat. His debonair courage had
gone.

Sir Hilary Thornton laid a hand gently on his shoulder. "My dear Mr.
Grell," he said, "I don't want to use the ordinary cant about duty and
all the rest of it. We may sympathise with you--personally, I admire the
attitude you have taken, though perhaps I shouldn't say it--but our own
feelings do not matter the toss of a button. Nothing you can do or say
will swerve us from what we judge to be the interests of justice."

"Let me alone for a little while," answered Grell dully; "I want to
think."

They sent him back to the detention-room where, with a constable seated
opposite to him, he was to spend the night. Foyle rested one arm on the
mantelpiece and kicked the fire viciously into a blaze.

"Ours is an ungrateful business, Sir Hilary," he grumbled, "but I've
never come across a man who put so many difficulties in the way of being