Who murdered Thornton Lyne?"

Milburgh twisted his head slowly towards him and smiled.

"If you could explain how the body was taken from Odette Rider's flat,"
he said slowly, "and left in Hyde Park, I could answer you immediately.
For to this minute, I believe that Thornton Lyne was killed by Odette
Rider."

Tarling drew a long breath.

"That is a lie," he said.

Mr. Milburgh was in no way put out.

"Very well," he said. "Now, perhaps you will be kind enough to listen to
my story."

CHAPTER XXXV

MILBURGH'S STORY

"I do not intend," said Mr. Milburgh in his best oracular manner,
"describing all the events which preceded the death of the late Thornton
Lyne. Nor will I go to any length to deal with his well-known and even
notorious character. He was not a good employer; he was suspicious,
unjust, and in many ways mean. Mr. Lyne was, I admit, suspicious of me.
He was under the impression that I had robbed the firm of very
considerable sums of money--a suspicion which I in turn had long
suspected, and had confirmed by a little conversation which I overheard
on the first day I had the pleasure of seeing you, Mr. Tarling."

Tarling remembered that fatal day when Milburgh had come into the office
at the moment that Lyne was expressing his views very freely about his
subordinate.

"Of course, gentlemen," said Milburgh, "I do not for one moment admit
that I robbed the firm, or that I was guilty of any criminal acts. I
admit there were certain irregularities, certain carelessnesses, for
which I was morally responsible; and beyond that I admit nothing. If you
are making a note"--he turned to Whiteside, who was taking down the
statement in shorthand, "I beg of you to make a special point of my
denial. Irregularities and carelessnesses," he repeated carefully.
"Beyond that I am not prepared to go."

"In other words, you are not confessing anything?"

"I am not confessing anything," agreed Mr. Milburgh with heavy gravity.
"It is sufficient that Mr. Lyne suspected me, and that he was prepared
to employ a detective in order to trace my defalcations, as he termed
them. It is true that I lived expensively, that I own two houses, one in
Camden Town and one at Hertford; but then I had speculated on the Stock
Exchange and speculated very wisely.

"But I am a sensitive man, gentlemen; and the knowledge that I was
responsible for certain irregularities preyed upon my mind. Let us say,
for example, that I knew someb