"He's gone!" Rees choked. "He's gone!"
Phipps suddenly found vigour once more in his arm. He struck the table.
There was a note of triumph in his brazen tone.
"My God, Wingate," he cried, "you've killed him! You'll swing for this job, after all!"
There followed a few moments of tense and awestruck silence. Then an evil smile parted Rees' lips, and he looked at Wingate with triumphant malice.
"This is murder!" he exclaimed.
"So your excellent uncle has already intimated," Wingate replied. "I am sorry that it has happened, of course. As for the consequences, however, I do not fear them."
He crossed the room and rang the bell. Once more a servant in plain clothes made his appearance with phenomenal quickness.
"Send to her ladyship's room," Wingate directed, "and enquire the name and address of Lord Dredlinton's doctor. Let him be fetched here at once. Tell two of the others to come down. Lord Dredlinton must be carried into his bedroom."
The man had scarcely left the room before the door was opened again and Grant himself appeared. This time he closed the door behind him and came a little way towards Wingate.
"Inspector Shields is here, sir," he announced in an agitated whisper.