"The rest was simple—dropping the lavalliere links back of Number Five, placing the lavalliere in the yard of his house, and so on.
"I had one piece of luck which, of course, I did not count on when I first adopted this simple course. That was when Greenleaf asked me to help him in finding the murderer. A confiding soul—your Greenleaf—and insured by nature against brain storms.
"Such a turn was a godsend. I had become the investigator of my own crime.
"There remains to be told only the fact that I made a second trip to Number Five.
"Having come back here in safety, I perceived I had left there without the jewels she was wearing and without those in her jewel cabinet.
"She had brought this cabinet into the living room to show me how her supply of jewelry had been depleted.
"To murder and not get the fruits of it, is like picking one's own pocket. I returned immediately and rectified the mistake.
"Before departing this last time, I switched on the lights to assure myself that I had left only the clue to the negro's presence, none to my own.
"That explains Withers' story of his struggle at the foot of the steps. We really had it.
"In the ordinary course of events, the negro would have gone to the chair.