“Because—well, because the other day I learnt something in confidence concerning it.”
“Concerning the villa!” she gasped, starting and turning to me with a changed expression of fear and apprehension. “What—what were you told? Who told you?”
“Well, probably it is a fact of which you are unaware, for only the police know it, and they have hushed it up,” I said. “After the flight of Nardini the police who went to search the villa and seize his effects made a very startling discovery.”
“Discovery! What did they find?” she inquired eagerly, her face now blanched to the lips.
“The body of a young woman—the young Englishwoman who was your friend!” I said, with my eyes fixed upon her.
She started forward, glaring at me open-mouthed. She tried to speak, but no sound escaped her lips. Her gloved hands were trembling, her dark eyes staring out of her head.
“Then the police have searched!” she gasped at last.
“They know the truth! I—I am—”
And she fell back again into the long deck-chair, rigid and insensible.