The Corner House

by Fred M. White

"You used to lock it up in the yard here. We find a fresh cake of blacklead in the scullery, which completely puzzled me for a little time. When I heard about the autocar I knew. But we are getting away from the point. When luck turned against you it did so completely. You got into Isidore's rooms, only to find Mr. Charlton there, who was waiting for him. Again fortune favoured us. Mr. Charlton gave the alarm, and you had to fly. At length the motor was abandoned, and its secret disclosed. You disappeared. Sooner or later I was certain of seeing you again."

"You were. Why? I was quite certain----"

"Because my desperate woman hides by the scene of her crime. I was a little dubious about you because that comes out in my plot. Perhaps you counted upon that, and the fact I should not look for you here, after all. It was a game of subtle cross-purposes. But I did look for you here, and I found you. It is a rather long story that I have had to tell, but it has been necessary. And if I repeated it in a court of law I am afraid it would cause you serious inconvenience."

"It would hang me," Leona cried. "Why should I be afraid to confess it? You have been too strong for me. Every word you have said is true, every step you have taken has been fully justified. I was going to defy you at first, but I am not such a weak and silly fool as that. I have had a clever antagonist who has beaten me all along. I have been criminally careless. If I had taken the trouble I could have evolved as good a plot as one of your own."

"I fancy you could," said Lawrence.

"I am absolutely certain of it. I took you for a dreamer. I argued that if I used this thing you would not be an atom the wiser. People who talk so much about their own work as you do are generally very foolish."

Lawrence looked a little confused for a moment. He knew his own weakness in that respect.

"I have little more to say," he went on. "I have written out a confession for you in a more condensed form than I have explained to you. I thought that you might like to sign it. Not that it much matters whether you do or not."

"The more reason why I should do so," Leona sneered. "If it did really matter, I would see my right arm rotting off before I put a pen to paper. But I have had a most worthy antagonist, and I know the game too well not to play it correctly. Give me a pen and let me finish it."

Lawrence took a fountain pen from his pocket. Without the slightest hesitation and in a good dashing hand Leona Lalage appended her signature. It was a great deal more firm and true than either of the witnessing signatures.