I followed him immediately. He had gained the moon-lighted corridor near his own door, where he stood awaiting me with something in his hand. As I approached, he drew me to the window and showed me what it was. It was the amethyst box, open and empty, and beside it, shining with a yellow instead of a purple light, the little vial void of the one drop which used to sparkle within it. "I found the vial in the bed with the old woman," said he. "The box I saw glittering among Dorothy's locks before she fell. That was why I lifted her." V THREE O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING As he spoke, youth with its brilliant hopes, illusions and beliefs passed from me, never to return in the same measure again. I stared at the glimmering amethyst, I stared at the empty vial and, as a full realization of all his words implied seized my benumbed faculties, I felt the icy chill of some grisly horror moving among the roots of my hair, lifting it on my forehead and filling my whole being with shrinking and dismay. Sinclair, with a quick movement, replaced the tiny flask in its old receptacle, and then thrusting the whole out of sight, seized my hand and wrung it. "I am your friend," he whispered. "Remember, under all circumstances and in every exigency, your friend." "What are you going to do with _those_?" I demanded when I regained control of my speech. "I do not know." "What are you going to do with--with Dorothy?" He drooped his head; I could see his fingers working in the moonlight. "The physicians will soon be here. I heard the telephone going a few minutes ago. When they have pronounced the old woman dead we will give the--the lady you mention an opportunity to explain herself." Explain herself, she! Simple expectation. Unconsciously I shook my head. "It is the least we can do," he gently persisted. "Come, we must not be seen with our heads together--not yet. I am sorry that we two were found more or less dressed at the time of the alarm. It may cause comment." "She was dressed, too," I murmured, as much to myself as to him. "Unfortunately, yes," was the muttered reply, with which he drew off and hastened into the hall, where the now thoroughly-aroused household stood in a great group about the excited hostess. Mrs. Armstrong was not the woman for an emergency. With streaming hair and tightly-clutched kimono, she was gesticulating wildly and bemoaning the break in the festivities which this event must necessarily cause. As Sinclair approached, she turned her tirade on him, and as all stood still to listen and add such words of sympathy or disappointment as suggested themselves in the excitement of the moment, I had an opportunity to note that neither of the two girls most interested was within sight. This troubled me. Drawing up to the outside of the circle, I asked Beaton, who was nearest to me, if he knew how Miss Camerden was. "Better, I hear. Poor girl, it was a great shock to her."