"But Starth did not expect to be killed himself?"
"Oh no! But Berry intended that he should be the victim. That was why Miss Berry made trouble and created rows between Starth and you, Mr. Frank. Berry, at the theatre on the previous night, brought about that quarrel so that you might be accused. Then the next day Starth wrote the letter asking you to visit him. How Starth fancied that the crime was to be brought about I don't know. He drugged you, and then waited for the arrival of Berry to carry on the rest of the plot."
"How did you come to know all this?"
"I gathered it at various times, and thought out the rest," said Tamaroo, nodding. "Of course, some of it is my own fancy."
"Theory," grunted Eustace, admitting, however, that the negro had pieced things together very cleverly. "Well, you went to Sand Lane?"
"Yes. As I thought that this trouble was coming, I pretended to Balkis that I wished to see Starth, and she gave me the tartan ribbon she wore as a sign that I could be trusted."
"In what way?" asked Frank.
Tamaroo shook his head. "I can't tell you that. There was something in Starth's life which Balkis knew, and which gave her a hold over him. He was always afraid of people of my colour. Unless I had taken the tartan ribbon he would not have spoken."
"Did he speak?"
"I never saw him," replied the negro, simply. "I did not get to the house till nearly seven. The window was open, and as I saw no one about, and could get no answer when I rang, I climbed in. I then locked the window, so that no one should enter in that way to interrupt between Starth and myself."