"To you, perhaps, not to me," replied Mrs. Moxton, with contempt. "My object is to get free of all this trouble."
"Of course. I will help you; eh, most certainly. But ask me not to meet the police. I do not like the police. For if--"
"Monsieur Zirknitz," said Ellis, cutting short this speech, "how came it that your name was indicated on the dead man's arm?"
The Austrian was in no wise discomposed by this remark. "Ah, Laura spoke to me of that. I do not know; I cannot say. But I think, ah, ma foi, I think."
"What do you think, Rudolph?"
"My sister, I quarrelled with your good husband at the Dukesfield Station, and he went away enraged with me. When Busham struck him in the back--"
"You can't be sure of that," interrupted Ellis, impatiently.
"Eh, but I am sure," insisted Zirknitz, politely; "and Edgar, not seeing who stabbed him so cruelly, thought that I did so. Then he wrote on his arm to tell Laura."
"But why in cryptographic signs?"
"That I cannot say. The sign of a lizard was always the good Edgar's little jest on me. For my name is that of a town in my country where there are many lizards. Edgar found it in a book and always jested. Very little jests pleased the good Moxton. But now I must go," said Zirknitz, rising. "I have told you all you wish. My sister, do you desire me to speak more? No! My good doctor, have you a policeman without for my arrest? No! Ah, then I will take my leave. Not adieu, dear friends, but au revoir."