As Armitage seized the candlestick and tossed it to one side, the knob of the door turned and the door itself partly opened. He sprang to his feet, pulled Koltsoff to his knees, and as he stood thus the door was pushed wide and Anne Wellington stepped across the threshold. Her face was pale, her eyes were blazing. One hand, holding a heavy package, she held behind her back. With the other she pointed to Prince Koltsoff with the imperiousness of a queen. "What does this mean?" she asked sternly. Behind her in the doorway the tragic face of Sara Van Valkenberg was framed. "This--this scoundrel was trying to murder me." Armitage was looking at her over his shoulder. "Please don't stay here, Miss Wellington. This man stole a very important part of a torpedo that I invented. I am going to make him return it before he leaves this room." "He says what is untrue," said Koltsoff. "It is not his property. And at all events, as I have told him, I do not possess it." The color had returned to Anne's face. She swayed slightly as a great wave of light, of knowledge, passed over her mind. "Oh!" Her lips moved as mechanically as those of an automaton and her face was as expressionless. "Oh!" Her eyes seemed burning through Armitage. "And you made me believe--I mean I thought--I--I--" She bowed her head, trying to stifle tears of shame and indignation. "Don't, Miss Wellington. Don't misunderstand! Wait until I can explain--then you will know. In the meantime I must have that torpedo, that part of it which this Russian spy stole." "It is not yours. It is mine. And I again inform you, I have n't it." Prince Koltsoff's sneering smile had returned. "Wait!" cried Anne, breaking in upon Jack's angry exclamation. She stepped into the middle of the room. "Prince Koltsoff is right. He has n't it. I have it." Slowly she drew her hand from behind her back. "Here it is." Koltsoff stepped forward. "It is mine!" he said. "I gave it in trust to you. I command you to keep it until I ask for it." "He is lying, Miss Wellington. It is mine. I can prove it." "Lying!" exclaimed Anne tragically. "Lying! Every one has lied. Where is there truth in either of you? Where is there chivalry in you and you--" nodding at Armitage and Koltsoff--"who have ruthlessly used a household and a woman to your own ends? Ugh, I detest, I hate you both! As for this," she struck the package with her hand, "I brought it here to give you, Prince Koltsoff. I could n't keep it longer. But now I think I can end your dispute for all time." Quickly she stepped to the open window and raising the bundle high, hurled it out of the window and over the cliffs.