"In what way?"
"Ah," said Paul, while Sylvia shuddered, "in a strange way. When he fastened the child's lips together, Mrs. Krill said that she would do the same to him one day and with the same brooch."
Hurd uttered an exclamation. "So that was why she wanted the brooch so much?" he exclaimed eagerly.
"Yes. And she told Hay she wanted it though she did not reveal her reason. She said if she got the brooch he would be allowed to marry Maud, with whom Hay was deeply in love. Hay stumbled across me by accident, and I happened to have the brooch. The rest you know."
"No," said Hurd, "I don't know how the brooch came into the possession of Mrs. Krill again, to use in the cruel way she threatened."
"Well," said Sylvia, quickly, "we aren't sure if Mrs. Krill did get the brooch."
"The evidence is against her," said Hurd; "remember the threat—"
"Yes, but wait till you hear Mrs. Purr," said Paul, "but just a moment, Hurd. You must learn how Norman laid the foundations of his fortune."
"Ah, I forget! Well?" and the detective settled himself to listen further.
"He was hard up and almost starving for a long time after he came to London," explained Paul, "then he got a post in a second-hand bookshop kept by a man called Garner in the Minories. He had a daughter, Lillian—"