"Oh," cried Darrel, "so you were the red-haired man."

"Yes. I was afraid to go without a disguise lest I should meet Manuel and be questioned by him."

"Why did you return the money?" asked Torry sharply.

"Because I had no use for it, If Julia had lived I should have taken her and the money to Australia as I said before, but as that villain killed her I had no heart to keep it."

"What villain do you mean?"

"The man who killed her."

"Don't you know who it was?"

"If I did," cried Vass, with a light flashing into his usually cold eyes, "I'd murder him."

"You have no suspicion?"

"No; I can think of no one. Julia might have told me the name. I daresay she would have done so, but that the wretch killed her."