Yes, the servants had been alarmed, and were searching from room to room! Not an instant was to be lost.
“I have an idea!” exclaimed “The Eel.” “Here, take this, madame,” and he held out his revolver to her with both hands.
But she shrank back.
“Take it—take it, I beg of you,” he implored.
She obeyed, moving like one in a dream.
Swiftly he took up the pearls and, bending, placed them in the dead man’s pocket. Then, having done this, he said:
“Your explanation is quite a simple one. You came in here unexpectedly, and found the man—a perfect stranger to you, and a burglar, evidently, from the fact that he wore gloves—taking your pearls from their case. You demanded them back, but he turned upon you with a revolver. There was a struggle for the weapon. You twisted his hand back, and in the fight it went off. And he fell dead. Keep cool. That is your story.”
“But I——”
“That is the only story, madame,” he said firmly. “It is a lie, I admit—but a white lie—the only explanation you can give, if you would still preserve your secret.”
Footsteps sounded out in the hall, and therefore there was not a second to waste.