Nye had gone over to the window and was leaning out. He turned and said: “The shutter’s been wrenched off its hinge, and a pane of glass cut out clean as a whistle. That’s where he must have put his hand in to open the window. You didn’t get a sight of his face, sir?”
“No, I didn’t,” replied Sir Hugh, stooping to pick up the dagger at his feet. “I keep telling you he wore a mask. A loo-mask! If there’s one thing above others that I hate it’s a lot of demmed theatrical nonsense! What was the fellow playing at? Highwaymen?”
“Perhaps,” suggested Miss Thane tactfully, “he did not wish to run the risk of being recognized.”
“I dare say he didn’t, and it’s my belief,” said Sir Hugh, bending a severe frown upon her, “that you know who he was, Sally. It has seemed to me all along that there’s a deal going on here which is devilish unusual.”
“Yes, dear,” said Miss Thane, with becoming meekness. “I think your masked man was Ludovic’s wicked cousin come to murder him with that horrid-looking knife you have in your hand.”
“There ain’t a doubt of it!” growled Nye. “Look what’s here, ma’am!” He went down on his knees as he spoke and picked from under the table a scrap of lace, such as might have been ripped from a cravat, and an ornate gold quizzing-glass on a length of torn ribbon. “Have you ever seen that before?”
Sir Hugh took the glass from him, and inspected it disparagingly. “No, I haven’t,” he said, “and what’s more, I don’t like it. It’s too heavily chased.”
Miss Thane nodded. “Of course I’ve seen it. But I was sure without that evidence. He must be feeling desperate indeed to have taken this risk!”
At this moment Eustacie came downstairs again, with Ludovic behind her. Ludovic, in a dressing-gown as exotic as Thane’s, looked amused, and rather sleepy, and dangled a pistol in his right hand. His eyes alighted first on the dagger, which Thane had laid down on the table, and he put up his brows with a rueful expression of incredulity, and said: “What, was that pretty thing meant to be plunged into my, heart? Well, well! What have you got there, Thane?”
“Do you recognize it?” said Miss Thane. “It is your cousin’s quizzing-glass.”