"So he talked, master, and the man wrote for an hour, and then he passed to his fathers, that little white-faced man."
He finished abruptly as was his custom. Tarling took the papers up and opened them, glanced through page after page, Whiteside sitting patiently by without interrupting.
When Tarling had finished the documents, he looked across the table.
"Thornton Lyne was killed by Sam Stay," he said, and Whiteside stared at him.
"But——" he began.
"I have suspected it for some time, but there were one or two links in the evidence which were missing and which I was unable to supply. Let me read you the statement of Sam Stay."
CHAPTER THE LAST
THE STATEMENT OF SAM STAY
"My name is Sam Stay. I was born at Maidstone in the County of Kent. My age is twenty-nine years. I left school at the age of eleven and got mixed up with a bad set, and at the age of thirteen I was convicted for stealing from a shop, and was sent to Borstal Institute for four years.