"Yes. You forced her to send away Ferdy, to save her father."
"I did. I want Ferdy to myself, and I have no particular reason to desire the hanging of Mr. Clarke."
"You couldn't hang him if you tried," retorted Clarice, angrily.
"Oh, yes, I could. Suppose--for the sake of argument--that I went to Inspector Tick, of Crumel, with my story of what I saw."
"You saw nothing."
Zara cast a surprised look at Clarice. "Well, I suppose it is to your interest to decline to believe. Nevertheless, what I told Prudence is true for all that."
"Did you really see Mr. Clarke leave The Laurels at two in the morning?"
Zara threw away her cigarette, and rose quietly.
"I really did," she said, in her most decisive tone. "My mother was ill, and I went out for sal volatile. It was a mere chance, of course, that I should be out on that night of all nights. On any other night--at any other time, even--I should have seen nothing. But the Cosmic Powers, for their own ends, and for my benefit, I presume, brought me abreast of The Laurels, when Mr. Clarke was skipping out of the window."
Clarice was greatly startled. "Do you really believe that Mr. Clarke killed my guardian?"