"Whatever you tell us, Mrs. Turton," he said, "will be held in the strictest confidence, and the source of our information shall not be divulged. For that I give you my word of honour. And, I need scarcely add, I will see that you come to no harm by anything you may say." "Then the will _is_ lost. I may understand that?" Hewitt's features were impassive and impenetrable. But in Mr. Crellan's disturbed face the nurse saw a plain answer in the affirmative. "Yes," she said, "I see that's the trouble. Well, I know who took it." "Then who was it?" "_Miss Garth!_" "Miss Garth! Nonsense!" cried Mr. Crellan, starting upright. "Nonsense!" "It may be nonsense," the nurse replied slowly, with a monotonous emphasis on each word. "It may be nonsense, but it's a fact. I saw her take it." Mr. Crellan simply gasped. Hewitt drew his chair a little nearer. "If you saw her take it," he said gently, closely watching the woman's face the while, "then, of course, there's no doubt." "I tell you I saw her take it," the nurse repeated. "What was in it, and what her game was in taking it, I don't know. But it was in that bureau, wasn't it?" "Yes--probably." "In the right hand top drawer?" "Yes." "A white paper in a blue envelope?" "Yes." "Then I saw her take it, as I said before. She unlocked that drawer before my eyes, took it out, and locked the drawer again." Mr. Crellan turned blankly to Hewitt, but Hewitt kept his eyes on the nurse's face. "When did this occur?" he asked, "and how?" "It was on Saturday night, rather late. Everybody was in bed but Miss Garth and myself, and she had been down to the dining-room for something. Mr. Holford was asleep, so as I wanted to re-fill the water-bottle, I took it up and went. As I was passing the door of this room that we are in now, I heard a noise, and looked in at the door, which was open. There was a candle on the table which had been left there earlier in the evening. Miss Garth was opening the top right hand drawer of _that_ bureau"--Mrs. Turton stabbed her finger spitefully toward the piece of furniture, as though she owed it a personal grudge--"and I saw her take out a blue foolscap envelope, and as the flap was open, I could see the enclosed paper was white. She shut the drawer, locked it, and came out of the room with the envelope in her hand." "And what did you do?" "I hurried on, and she came away without seeing me, and went in the opposite direction--toward the small staircase." "Perhaps," Mr. Crellan ventured at a blurt, "perhaps she was walking in her sleep?" "That she wasn't!" the nurse replied, "for she came back to Mr. Holford's room almost as soon as I returned there, and asked some questions about the medicine--which was nothing new, for I must say she was very fond of interfering in things that were part of my business." "That is quite certain, I suppose," Hewitt remarked--"that she could not have been asleep?"