“Get Clayton’s fortune, eh?” he then remarked, picking up a prediction Margate had just made. “So that has been your game, much in line with what you twice have attempted. Do you expect to meet with more success this third time, Margate, that you have declared yourself so boldly?” Margate laughed derisively and pointed to the senseless form of the detective’s assistant. “Does that, with your own situation, look like success?” he questioned, with a mocking sneer. “Oh, I’ve got you this time, Carter, and there is no loophole through which you can escape. You undertook last night to trap me with a ruse, but I have turned the tables on you. I have you where I want you, where I long have wanted you, and, as for the game I am playing--well, I shall make good. I will stake my life upon that.” “Your life may be the price, Margate.” “Not through your agency, Carter.” “You evidently have overlooked one danger with which you are menaced,” Nick said sternly. Margate’s brows knit quickly. “What is that?” he demanded. “The murder of Doctor Thorpe.” “Rot! That cuts no ice.” “No?” “You have dug into that in vain, Carter. You can make nothing of it. You could form no theory consistent with the circumstances. I have been sure of that from the first.” Nick thought of this man’s mother, of her terrible secret, of the trust she had reposed in him, and he withheld the words that would have caused Margate’s evil heart to have sunk like lead. He said simply, yet impressively: “I know more, Margate, than I did at first.” “What do you imply by that?” snapped Margate suspiciously. “I think I now can guess why Doctor Thorpe was killed, and also prove who killed him.” “Rot! What theory have you now formed?” “Madame Clayton telephoned to me, Margate, just before the fatal shot was fired. I heard her voice and the report of the weapon.” “But she spoke only your name,” Margate impulsively cried. “I’m sure of that, and----” “Stop!” Nick sternly interrupted. “You could not be sure of it, could not possibly know it--if you had not been there.” Margate recoiled with a scowl. “You see that you betray yourself, Margate, if that were necessary,” Nick quickly added. “But it is not, Margate, since I now can guess precisely what occurred and what caused the crime.” “You can, eh?” Margate’s voice took on a husky harshness.