"Do you suppose that Madame Marie herself killed Lanwin?"
"Certainly not; she had nothing to gain by doing so, and, moreover, lost a valuable client by Lanwin's death. Marie is fond of money too. She wants to make all she can, so as to marry Jadby. She is strangely infatuated with that rascal."
"Jadby is good-looking in a way," replied Prelice. "Humph! It seems to me that we are as far as ever from learning the truth."
"No doubt," assented his uncle; "still, one thing is certain, that I did not kill Lanwin. As to Agstone——" he hesitated.
"You are not going to confess that you killed him?" said Prelice, with a wry smile.
Haken chuckled. "No; I never tell unnecessary lies. But I certainly saw him dead and Shepworth insensible."
"Oh!" Prelice was quite unmoved, "so you did make use of that key?"
"No," said Haken again, and unexpectedly; "there was no need to. I went down, intending to remonstrate with Shepworth on behalf of Rover, and found that the door was unfastened. I entered, and saw—what you saw—so at once I came upstairs, reclosing the door as I had found it."
"Why didn't you give the alarm?"
"What, with Jadby hanging about, already intending to blackmail me for Lanwin's death? I should have given myself into the hands of the Philistines with a vengeance had I raised the alarm."