“My God!” I said aloud, “what does it all mean?”
“It means,” said a gruff voice, “that it was lucky I was following you and saw what happened!”
I whirled about, my heart leaping wildly. Detective-Sergeant Durham was standing watching me, a grim smile upon his face!
I laughed rather shakily.
“Lucky indeed!” I said. “Thank God you're here. This pigtail is a nightmare which threatens to drive me mad!”
The detective advanced and knelt beside the crumpled-up figure on the ground. He examined it briefly, and then stood up.
“The fact that he had the missing pigtail in his pocket,” he said, “is proof enough to my mind that he did the murder.”
“And to mine.”
“There's another point,” he added, “which throws a lot of light on the matter. You and Mr. Harley were out of town at the time of the Huang Chow case; but the Chief and I outlined it, you remember, one night in Mr. Harley's rooms?”
“I remember it perfectly; the giant spider in the coffin———”