Octavius laid the handkerchief on the table with a resolute expression.
"I see I must refresh your memory, Miss Varlins," he said, coolly. "Sebastian Melstane died at Jarlchester on the 13th of November by taking, in all innocence, a morphia pill, which was placed among certain tonic pills he was in the habit of taking. When I find the person who placed the two morphia pills in the box I find the murderer of Sebastian Melstane. Monsieur Guinaud will now resume the story."
Monsieur Judas bowed his head gracefully, and spoke slowly in his vile English.
"At the nights before my frien' Melstane go to Jarlcesterre une dame find him chez lui. I at de vinda stay and overt mes yeux. Mon ami, ce cher Sebastian does go from ze appartement an' zen behold moi ze dame plaze dans un boite à pilules quelque chose, je ne sais quoi."
"Speak English, if you please," said Fanks, sharply.
"Eh, c'est difficile, mais oui. She puts in ze boxes somezing, I knows no wat; zen mon cher ami come again an' ze leave par la fenêtre. I do look after zem, an' see ze mouchoir now wis Monsieur Fanks. Dat is all I speak. La voila."
Roger, who had hitherto kept silent during the whole of this scene, so terrible in its intensity, now sprang to his feet with a cry of rage.
"It's a lie—a lie!" he said, savagely. "Fanks! Marson! you surely don't believe this man—this vile wretch who would sell his soul for money? He killed Melstane himself—I am sure of it!—and tells this lie to ruin an innocent woman and to save his own worthless life. Look at him, all of you? The spy—the traitor—the defamer—the poisoner."
Judas was standing by his chair, breathing heavily, with his face a ghastly white, and his eyes narrowed to their most dangerous expression. So vile, so craven, so treacherous he looked, that all present involuntarily shrank from him with loathing.
"Monsieur!" he said, in his sibilant voice, speaking rapidly in his own tongue, to which he always reverted when excited, "you are a liar and a fool! I did not kill my friend. Bah! I mock myself of that accusation. Think you that I would be here, if I was what you say? What I speak is the truth of the great God! What I declare, I saw! My friend died by the devil-thought of a woman. And that woman is there!"