"I have it."
"How does it happen that you have it?"
"At the alarm of fire I left my home and ran to the scene. As I entered the house by the front door, one of the firemen came running out of the bedroom, crying that he had found a dead woman. I ran into the room, and saw Miss Mowbray lying on her face on the floor, at the foot of the bed."
"She was dead then, I suppose?"
"I thought so. I placed my hand on her bare shoulder, and it was cold."
"She had been dead several hours, then?"
"Two or three hours, perhaps, but maybe less, for the room in which she lay was cold, there being no fire in it or in the adjoining rooms."
"What did you do when you found that she was dead?"
"I turned the body over, and saw by the discoloration of her face and the protruding tongue that she had been strangled. Then I discovered the cord, which was sunken deeply into the flesh of her throat, and so hidden that I would not have discovered it had I not seen the end of it."
"What did you do with it?"