“And on such occasions you say that your sister championed Orizaba?”
“Championed is not the word; it is too strong. She took his part, if that expression can be said to mean anything.”
“I understand. Now let us return to the room, and to the moment when you staggered back against the wall with the thought in your mind that your sister would believe that you had carried out your threat and killed Orizaba. Was there any other reason than those you have mentioned why it should suddenly have occurred to you that she would think you guilty of the crime?”
“Yes. One other.”
“What was that?”
“Merely the fact that the very last words I uttered to Mercedes before I left the house last night to attend the banquet referred to such a possibility.”
“How? In what manner? Explain.”
“She came into my room just as I was on the point of leaving it to come here to the city for the banquet. When she entered the room I was seated at my desk engaged in addressing the envelope of a letter I had just written, and which I wished to post when I went out. The casket in which I kept the needle was open on the desk before me——”
“How did that happen?”
“I had opened it to get out a diamond stud which I was then wearing, and I had not yet closed and locked the casket and returned it to its place.”