"I refuse--I refuse!"
"Take care," said Durban fiercely, and again coming close to her. "I can make Mrs. Snow tell what she saw on that night."
"I have told all that to my child," quivered Lady Watson, crying with fear.
"But not to the police."
"The police!" echoed the little woman, growing pale under her carefully coloured face, and sinking into a chair.
"Yes. If you did not kill the Colonel, Alpenny did."
"No. I swear he was with me the whole time: he is as innocent as I am. You can do nothing."
"I perhaps cannot prove you guilty," said Durban steadily, "but I can tell the police what Mrs. Snow saw, and get the whole case into the papers."
"Who will care, when the Colonel died so long ago?"
"His death is evidently connected with this Alpenny crime," said Durban harshly, "and so the public will be quite glad to read all about the earlier one. What will your friends say?--who will take your hand when he or she knows what I have to tell about that midnight meeting, and of your projected elopement with the notorious Major Ruck?"