ill unfasten him and let him go?"

"But he keeps coming back," protested Leroux, wringing his hands in
mock dismay.

"Spare him, _monsieur_, and God will bless you! You cannot kill him in
cold blood," she cried.

"We will talk about that presently, my dear," he answered. "Go and sit
down like a good child. I have something more to ask this gentleman
before I make my decision."

He picked up a scrap of newspaper from the table and held it before my
eyes, deliberately turning up the oil-lamp wick that I might read it.
I recognized it at once. It was the clipping from the newspaper,
descriptive of the murdered man, which I had cut out in the train and
placed in my pocketbook.

"You dropped this, my friend, when you pulled out your check-book,"
said Simon. "You are a very poor conspirator, Paul Hewlett. Assuredly
I would not have you on my side at any price. Well?"

"Well?" I repeated mechanically.

"Who killed him?" he shouted.

He shook the paper before my eyes and then he struck me across the face
with it.

"Who killed Louis d'Epernay?" he yelled, and Jacqueline screamed in
fear.

"I did," I answered after a moment.

CHAPTER XVIII

THE LITTLE DAGGER

Leroux staggered back against the wall and stood there, scowling like a
devil. It was evident that my answer had been totally unexpected. I
had never seen him under the influence of any overwhelming emotion, and
I did not at the time understand the cause of his consternation.

Jacqueline was clinging to her father, and the old man looked from one
to the other of us in bewilderment, and shook his white head and
mumbled.

"Did you--know this, _madame_?" cried Leroux fiercely to Jacqueline.

"Yes," she replied.

"So this is why you pretended to have forgotten. You remembered
everything?"

"Yes."

"You lied to shield yourself?"

"No, to shield him," she cried. "Because he was my only friend when I
was helpless in a strange city. You did not steal my money, did you,
Paul?" she added, turning swiftly upon me. "No, you have paid me. You
were keeping it for me."

"You lie!" yelled Leroux, and he struck her across the mouth as he had
struck me.

I writhed in my bonds. I pulled the heavy table after me as I tried
impotently to crawl toward him, sending the wheel flying and all the
papers whirling through the air. I cursed Leroux as blasphemously as
he was cursing Jacqueline. I saw a trickle of blood on her cut lip,
and the proud