"Bien!" she cried shrilly, with affected carelessness. "Arrest me, if you will! But I tell you that you are mistaken. You have been clever—very clever, all of you; but the assassin was not myself."
The police-officer now spoke to her:
"Then if you yourself are not guilty, you are aware of the identity of the murderer. Therefore I shall arrest you as being an accomplice. It is the same."
"No; I was not even an accomplice," she protested quickly. "I may be owner of this place; I may be a—a person known to you; but I swear I have never been a murderess."
The officer smiled dubiously.
"The decision upon that point must be left to the judges," he answered. "There is evidence against you. For the present that is sufficient."
"Monsieur Cameron has told you that I was threatened with exposure by the young Englishman," she said. "That is perfectly true. Indeed, all that has been said is the truth—save one thing. Neither did I commit the murder, nor had I any knowledge of it until afterwards."
"But the stolen notes were actually in your possession on the following morning," the detective observed in a tone of doubt.
"They were given to me for safe keeping."
"By whom?"