"Did he exonerate the professor?"
"Arnold did not reply immediately to the question. He was thinking what he should say. Finally he resolved to tell the truth.
"The best thing, Laura, is to say what Jasher told us. We wrote it down, and he signed it in our presence lest any one else should be accused of the crime. I don't think any one will be, as the murder has been relegated to obscurity. Still, it is best to be on the safe side. I have the confession here. I will read it to you."
Laura assenting eagerly, Arnold took a sheet or two of foolscap from his pocket and read the confession. It ran as follows:--
"I, Rufus Baldwin, better known as John Jasher, Private Inquiry-Agent, swear as follows, and take my dying oath that what is here set down is true.
"I met Professor Bocaros when I was haunting the place where my wife lived. I got into his confidence, and used to come to his place and talk to him. He never knew that I was Mrs. Baldwin's husband, as I did not think it was necessary to trust him so far. He told me of his difficulties, and of Mrs. Brand getting the fortune. One night he told me how he had discovered that Brand and Fane were the same. I saw a chance of making money. I told him to hint to Mrs. Brand that her husband was deceiving her, and said that if we could bring them together in Ajax Villa, we could make money out of the affair. Bocaros never thought that murder was intended. He merely fancied that I would come to the villa when the two were together and swear to expose the matter to Mrs. Fane and have Fane prosecuted for bigamy if Mrs. Brand did not pay a large sum. He therefore agreed to my plan.
"Now, my idea was to get Mrs. Brand to make a will in favour of the professor and then murder her, so that I might share the money with him. Also to inveigle him to the villa, so that there might be a chance through circumstantial evidence of proving him to be the guilty person. In order to make things safe for myself in case there should be trouble, I arranged in my own mind that Arnold Calvert, a cousin of Mrs. Brand, and Miss Mason, the girl he was engaged to, should be at the villa. Then, of course, Fane would be there. So I resolved that if necessary the crime should be fixed on Mr. Calvert, on Fane, and on Bocaros. Afterwards, had I thought fit, I could have brought home the crime to Mrs. Fane in my character of detective. I was anxious to make a lot of money and to return to the United States, the only place worth living in, to my mind.
"Bocaros, thinking I meant to act straight, did what I told him. He got Mrs. Brand to take an impression of the latch-key belonging to Fane when--as Brand--he slept in the Hampstead house. She did so, and I got Bocaros to have three keys made--one for himself, one for Mrs. Brand, and one extra. He gave one duplicate key to Mrs. Brand, and kept the other. The third key he left in his room. One day I stole it, and then when he asked denied that I had done so. This key I sent to Calvert in the name of Miss Mason, and asked him to be at the villa at half-past nine or thereabouts. I also sent a letter purporting to be from Calvert to Miss Mason, asking her to be at the house at the same hour. Then I got Bocaros to tell Mrs. Brand to write to her husband asking him to come to Ajax Villa on the night of the twenty-fourth of July. My plans were thus arranged to trap the lot, and I could have added Mrs. Fane, as I found she followed her husband to town on that same night. Had she not lost him at Liverpool Street Station, she would have also been implicated in the matter.
"All being thus arranged, I called for Mrs. Brand on the night in question, and took her to the villa. Bocaros was to have met us, but he, being detained at his school, was late. I entered into the villa with Mrs. Brand, using the latch-key. No one saw us. We went to the White Room, and I told her of her husband's villainy. I may here mention that it was the professor who introduced me to Mrs. Brand as the man who knew all about the matter. He did this at my request. I had to manage the matter myself, as I intended murder, and the professor was too squeamish.
"I was in the White Room with Mrs. Brand. She was much disturbed over the matter. Drawing a dagger she had in her pocket, she declared she would kill Fane. I suppose she indulged in this theatrical attitude because she was half a Greek and excitable. The dagger, as she said, was one which had been bought by Mr. Calvert for stage purposes. He left it in her house by mistake. I managed to calm Mrs. Brand, and took the dagger from her. She sat at the piano. I came behind her, and lifted my arm to strike. As the stiletto struck her she gave a cry and turned desperately on me. She clutched at my watch-chain and tore therefrom a locket I wore, which contained a portrait of my wife. I did not discover my loss till afterwards. Then she died. I left her there and went away. Afterwards Fane came and found her dead. He concealed the dagger in the dustbin. While doing this Miss Mason came to the door. Finding that Mr. Calvert was not there she went away. Then the professor, being late, came. I had taken the key from the body of the dead woman, and entered after him. There was no one about. I went upstairs and found Bocaros looking at the dead. I accused him of the deed. He denied it, and indeed was innocent. However, it suited my purpose to accuse him, as it gave me more power. I led him away. Afterwards Calvert came and went away, afraid lest he should be accused. Fane finally escaped by using Tracey's motor-car. So all were out of the house when the body was discovered by Mulligan.