For a terrible half-minute the two stared at each other over the dead man.
"You killed him!" whispered Nickie.
The woman tried to moisten her lips again, made an effort to speak, and her voice broke in her throat. She nodded dumbly.
"My God!"
"You-you-what are you going to do?" whispered the woman. "Why don't you call out?" There was a wild hope in her dilated eyes. "You don't! You don't!"
Nickie shook his head. "I don't run for the police?" he said. "No, I am not on speaking terms with the police myself."
"You won't seize me, you won't betray me—you, a clergyman!"
"No." said Nicholas Crips.
The woman moved forward, she laid hands upon him, she looked into his face.
"He was a villain." she said. "He deserved it, but I am a murderess, and you won't—" Her hands gripped him, a new light shone in her eyes.