"Did she steal the knife also?" "No, I think Mr. Spruce stole that; took it off the table one day, and slipped it up his sleeve. He killed the old cove with it, as you know, and left it in the body. I knowed it was Mrs. Tesk's carving-knife all along." "Does Mrs. Tesk know all this now?" asked Owain quickly. "Yes, sir. Mother went and told her, though I didn't wish to split on Amelia, who's only a gel after all. Mrs. Tesk said as she was sorry and asked me to go back, which I have done, sir." "Well, then, Bottles, I am going to take you away from there and send you to school. Also I intend to settle a small income on your mother so that she need not work any more at the Bijou Music-hall. Finally, I will arrange with my lawyers to invest a sum of money for you so that you may be able to start life with something in hand. What do you wish to be?" "I think if Bottles is wise he will be a detective," suggested Vane. Bottles turned a shining face towards the speaker. "That's just what I want to be, sir. I can do it, I'm sure." "I think so also," remarked Mrs. Perage gruffly. "But I hope Peter doesn't want to be one also. I can't have a juvenile Vidocq in my house." "Oh, Peter ain't got no ambitions, mum," said Bottles contemptuously. "He's just as pleased as Punch to stay on with you and rise to be a butler and a footman." "I'll look after Peter," said Mrs. Perage, nodding briskly. "He has also had a share in this business which has cleared up the mystery, and he deserves to be rewarded. But see here," she added sharply, "why didn't you tell the police immediately about the murder?" "Because I wanted to see what that little cove would do, mum. I guessed from his disguise that he intended to make out that Madame Alpenny had murdered the old cove. But I didn't think he'd accuse Mr. Hench there." "Mr. Evans, Simon," corrected Gwen quickly. "That is his real name." "I think I shall always be Hench to Bottles," said Owain, laughing. "He can call me what he likes as he has done so much for me. But you would have saved a lot of trouble, Bottles, if you had told the police at once." "So the Inspector said, sir," grinned the boy. "He gave me what-for, he did. But I wanted to see the game out, sir." Owain saw that Bottles would persist in regarding the whole dreadful business as a game, in spite of its terrible termination, so he left the subject alone. "But you might have guessed, my detective friend, that Spruce would accuse me, as he wanted to get my money. He committed the murder to trap me." "I thought he'd do that through Madame Alpenny when you married Miss Zara," was the boy's reply, promptly given. "As you'd never have liked your mother-in-law to be hanged. You didn't mind my giving the address I got from Peter to Madame Alpenny and the little cove, did you, sir?" "I did when I was in the dark. But now I see that you did so deliberately."