“He wasn’t hurt,” said Tab, anxious to relieve her mind, “in fact, he behaved like a brick! Do you mind very much? My telling him, I mean?”

“No,” she said quietly. “He wasn’t hurt?”

Tab laughed.

“It may sound uncomplimentary to you but I am sure that Rex was only temporarily infatuated.”

He saw a smile dawning and took her face between his hands.

“If I were Rex,” he said, “I should hate Tab Holland.”

“Rex is stronger minded,” she said. “Let us go into the garden. I have been thinking things out, and I feel that there is something that you ought to know, and the longer I put it off, the harder it will be to tell.”

He followed her, carrying an armful of cushions, arranged her chair, and sat upon its arm; and then, in the most unconcerned voice, holding no hint of the tremendous statement she was to make, she said:

“I killed Jesse Trasmere.”

XXVII