"Warrender," continued Mr. Beauchamp, "himself almost as great a villain as you, knew the truth these twenty years. But he kept silence in order to terrorize me, to extort money from me. It was he who proposed that I should escape you by feigning death, knowing, as he did, that I was innocent. Well, he has been punished!"
"I did not kill him, at all events!" cried Lestrange savagely.
"I know you did not; you were not in England at the time. But you killed Achille. Yes, you left the room where Zelia lay dead, you found Achille senseless on the veranda, and you stabbed him to the heart. Warrender saw you commit the crime. It is all set out here, and signed by Warrender, in the presence of two witnesses. Can you deny it?"
Lestrange moistened his dry lips, looked at Sophy, at Beauchamp, then suddenly shook off Alan's hold.
"No, I don't deny it," he said in a loud, harsh voice. "You have been one too many for me. I am so poor as to be almost starving, so I don't care what becomes of me. Hang me if you like. I hate you, Beauchamp--I have always hated you, the more so when I found how much Zelia cared for you. And I loved her, though that was not the reason I killed her husband; for she was dead then, and could never be mine. But I killed him so that blame might rest on you. And I wanted the custody of the child, because I should have been able to handle the money. I found Achille senseless where you had knocked him down. I did not intend to do it; but I had a knife--and the devil put it into my head to stab him. Then you fled, and the murder was laid at your door."
"And had you not done me harm enough, wretched man, without hunting me down?" said Beauchamp sternly.
"I wanted money," he cried recklessly. "I saw your portrait in the paper, and I arranged with Barkham, who was as hard-up as I, that we should come to England and get some of your money. He played the traitor, and wrote you that letter--why, I don't know, as he stood to make as much as I did. But for that letter I should have found you alive, and I should have forced you to pay me. As it turned out, you escaped me."
"And will you escape me, do you think?" asked Beauchamp with emphasis.
"I don't know--I don't care. Call in the police and have me arrested if you like. I have played a bold game, and lost--do your worst!"
He folded his arms, and stared defiantly at the man whose life he had ruined.