"Are you well enough to hear?"
"Of course I am," he answered fretfully, for the suspense began to tell on his nerves. "I would rather know the worst and face the worst than be left to worry over these hints. Has the trouble to do with the murder?"
"Yes. And with Mr. Silver."
"Pine's secretary? I thought you had got rid of him?"
"Oh, yes. Mr. Jarwin said that he was not needed, so I paid him a year's wages instead of giving him notice, and let him go. But I have met him once or twice at the lawyers, as he has been telling Mr. Jarwin about poor Hubert's investments. And yesterday afternoon he came to see me."
"What about?"
Agnes came to the point at once, seeing that it would be better to do so, and put an end to Lambert's suspense. "About a letter supposed to have been written by me, as a means of luring Hubert to The Manor to be murdered."
Lambert's sallow and pinched face grew a deep red. "Is the man mad?"
"He's sane enough to ask twenty-five thousand pounds for the letter," she said in a dry tone. "There's not much madness about that request."
"Twenty-five thousand pounds!" gasped Lambert, gripping the arms of his chair and attempting to rise.