ard the door behind me open and close quickly. I turned, but
not sharply enough to see who the intruder was.

"Then the idea came to me that I must get quietly out of the place. So
far as I knew I was the only person who could guess that Mr. Grell had
been blackmailed and so supply a motive for the crime. I slipped
downstairs and went home. You will understand my state of mind. At about
eleven o'clock I thought of a possible chance of speaking to Mr. Grell.
I rang up his club. Sir Ralph Fairfield answered. He assured me that Mr.
Grell had been there all the evening, but was too busy to speak to me. I
was unspeakably relieved.

"Then in the morning, he, Sir Ralph Fairfield, came to see me. I partly
guessed his mission, but the full shock came when he told me that it was
Mr. Grell who was murdered. I think I must have been mad at the time. I
said nothing about my own discovery--if Mr. Grell had been blackmailed,
I did not want any details to come out. Besides, it seemed obvious to me
that Fairfield had said Grell was at the club in order to shield
himself." She flushed slightly. "I knew Sir Ralph loved me. I thought he
was guilty and--and denounced him.

"I continued to believe that until the Princess Petrovska came to me
with a note from Mr. Grell bidding me trust her. I gave her my jewels,
and she told me he could communicate with me by cipher. I returned to my
first idea that he had killed Goldenburg--the Princess told me the
murdered man's name--rather than submit to blackmail. I determined to do
all I could to help him, for, murderer or not, I loved him--I loved him.
You know how our attempt to communicate by cipher failed.

"A day or two ago he sent me a note--a mysterious note--saying we were
both in danger. I could not understand that part of it, but it was clear
he wanted money. I could not get it except by putting my father's name
to a cheque. You know all about that. I took a taxicab and arranged to
meet him at Putney."

"You went to the General Post Office before that," interposed Foyle.

"Yes, I wanted to order a motor-car to meet us at Kingston. I thought it
safer to do it from a public-call office so as to leave as little trace
as possible. I picked Mr. Grell up at Putney, and gave him the money.
Neither of us referred directly to the murder during the journey. He
told me that he was making for his place in Sussex, and should there
make a plan for getting out of the country. He argued that the less I