He was grovelling on the floor, and 1 assisted him to rise.
"And being not guilty," I said, solemnly, "you were content to remain in hiding while another man was accused of the crime which neither he nor you committed! And being not guilty, you would have waited until he was done to death before you emerged once more into the light of day! I believe you when you say you did not know of your sister's peril, but you knew of the peril in which Edward Layton stood. Don't deny it. Remember, the time of evasion has passed."
"Yes," he murmured, "I knew it."
"Why did you not come forward," I said, indignantly, rushing as if by an inspiration of reasoning to the truth, "to affirm that you and Ida White were in Prevost's Restaurant, in the very room in which Edward Layton and your sister entered, on the night of the 25th of March? Why did you not come forward to affirm that it was you who--by a devilish prompting--took Edward Layton's ulster, unknown to him, from the peg upon which it was hanging, and went out with your paramour to the carriage in which he and your sister had arrived? Answer me. Why did you not do this, to prevent a noble and innocent man from being condemned for a murder which he did not commit?"
"It was no murder!" cried Eustace. "It was no murder! She died by her own hand!"
"She died by her own hand!" I echoed, bewildered by this sudden turn in the complexion of the case.
"Yes," said Eustace, "by her own hand. Upon the table by her bedside there was written evidence of it."
"Which you removed!" I cried.
"No, not I, not. I! Of which she took possession!"
"Speak plainly. Whom do you mean by she--Ida White?"