"I'll tell you, sir, if you'll listen. On the night I left here that Japanese Akira followed me up the road, when I was making for my friend and the trap on the moors."
"Ah!" Theodore groaned. "That was why he went to bed early. I knew that he was up to some game. He pretended to go to bed and--"
"And followed me. Quite right, sir. He did, and he told me all about the murder of my poor mother."
"What?" Colpster gasped. "Are you the person Akira said he would send to tell me all that I wished to know?"
Pentreddle nodded grimly. "I am the person. I went to London next day with Count Akira, and he introduced me to a person who knew all about the murder. I got it written down, signed and witnessed in a proper manner. Then I came here with the Count in his yacht, and arrived just in time to save that devil," he pointed to Theodore, "from committing a second crime."
"A second crime," echoed the Squire, bewildered. "I don't understand."
"It's a lie; a lie," howled Theodore, straining at his bonds. "If I were free I'd dash the lie down your throat."
"And my teeth too, you murdering beast," said Harry, clenching his hands. "I owe you one for the murder of my mother."
Colpster sprang to his feet with surprising alacrity, considering his late exhaustion. "Murder! Did--did--did," he pointed a shaking finger at the mass on the floor, "did he murder Martha?"
"Yes," said Harry sadly.