"I was to remind you—from him—that—not long before the ending of the Siege, a lady who is now a near connection of yours sustained a terrible bereavement through the—infernally dastardly crime of a—person then unknown!"
Saxham's vivid eyes leaped at the speaker's as if to drag out the knowledge he withheld. But Bingo was balancing the glossy triumph of a Bond Street hatter, and looked at it and not at the Doctor, who said:
"You refer to the murder of the Mother-Superior at the Convent of the Holy Way on February the —th, 1900. And you say a person then unknown.... Has the murderer been arrested?"
Major Bingo shook his head.
"He hasn't been arrested, but his name is known. You remember the runner who came in from Diamond Town with a letter for a man called Casey? Not long after—after my wife was exchanged for a spy of Brounckers'?"
"I did not see the man myself," returned Saxham, "but I perfectly recollect his getting through."
Major Bingo said:
"I thought you would. Well, the letter was a blind; the bearer an agent of the firm of Huysmans and Eybel, sent to make certain of our weakest points before they put in the attack on the Barala town; and—that's the man who committed the murder!"
"The man who committed the murder?"
Saxham's vivid eyes were intent upon the Major's face. The Major coughed, and went on: