He hastens back to the house, tears the leaf from the
album of finger-prints and prepares the rubber gloves. That night, he
follows you when you leave the house; he overhears your talk in the
arbour; and he finds that there is another reason than that of
jealousy why he must act at once. If your father is found to be
insane, the will drawn up only three days before will be invalid.
Silva will lose everything--not only you, but the fortune already
within his grasp.
"He hurries to the house and tells your father of the rendezvous. Your
father rushes out and brings you back, after a bitter quarrel with
Swain, which Silva has, of course, foreseen. You come up to your room;
your father flings himself into his chair again. It is Silva who has
followed you--who has purposely made a noise in order that you might
think it was Swain. And he carries in his hand the blood-soaked
handkerchief which Swain dropped when he fled from the arbour.
"Up to this point," Godfrey went on, more slowly, "everything is
clear--every detail fits every other detail perfectly. But, in the
next step of the tragedy, one detail is uncertain--whose hand was it
drew the cord around your father's throat? I am inclined to think it
was Mahbub's.
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