"The Countess was with you. Why?"
"There was a book in your rooms which she wished to see--a poetry book, eh?--with a date on one page, and a plan of Castle Lukstein on the page opposite. My mistress was at your lodging with some company that afternoon."
"True," said I, interrupting him. "She proposed the party herself."
"Well, it seems that she got no chance of examining the book then. But she unlocked the garden door. You had told her where you kept the key."
I recollected that I had done so on the occasion of her first visit.
"And so Countess Lukstein and yourself were in the room when I passed through that night."
Otto began to chuckle again.
"'Twas lucky you came down in the dark, and didn't stumble over us. Lord! I thought that I should have burst with holding my breath."
"Otto," I said, "tell me the whole story; how your suspicions set towards me, and what confirmed them."
"Very well," said he, after a pause, "I will; for my mistress consulted me throughout. But you will get no sleep."