The detective answered tolerantly:
"I have found a number of sharp instruments. None of them, however, seems quite slender or round enough. I'll get all that out of my man when I lock him up. I'll get it to-night if he dares come."
"Why," Graham said, "do you announce your plans so accurately to us?"
The detective's level smile widened.
"You shouldn't ask that, Mr. Graham. I've caused the servants to know my plans. Mr. Paredes knows them. I wish every one in the house to know them. That is in order that the murderer, who is in the house, may come if he wishes."
Katherine arose abruptly.
"When you come down to it," she said, "you are accusing one of us. It's brutal, unfair—absurd."
"I am a detective, Miss," Howells answered. "I have my own methods."
Bobby stared at the slight protuberance in the breast pocket of the detective's coat. The cast of his footprint must be secreted there, and almost certainly the handkerchief which had been found beneath the bed. He shrank from his own thoughts.
If he had consciously committed this murder he could understand a desire to get that evidence.