The Jap looked at him with growing intelligence in his eyes.
"Me no kill. Mistah Mowbray kill with cord. I see him, and he tly to kill me."
Ted looked at Mowbray, who had straightened up and was listening.
Then he nodded his head, and signaled to Ted to give him a drink of water. After he had drunk he seemed stronger.
"Come here," he said, in a hoarse whisper. Ted went to his side.
"I might as well confess," he said. "It will make the end easier. I will be dead in a few minutes, for I am mortally wounded. I would have released that poor devil of a Japanese, but I hadn't the strength to go to him."
"Take it easy," said Ted.
"I murdered Helen Mowbray by strangling her with a cord," he said, after a pause. "I did it because I had gambled away everything I had and needed money—and she wouldn't give it to me.
"I lived for many years in India, and there I became a member of the sect known as the Thugs, who use a cord to strangle their victims. She cast me off, and when she refused to help me I became enraged and killed her. I am sorry now, for she was a fine woman, but I needed money."
"Then Farnsworth had nothing to do with it?" asked Ted.