“The devil you have?” said Mr. Molloy. “Well, you had Ember deceived and that’s a grand feather in your cap, I can tell you. He’s a hard one to deceive is Ember.” Jane gurgled suddenly. “As a matter of fact,” she said, “I deceived you, too. Yes, I did, I really did. You know the morning you went off to America, or rather the morning you went off _not_ to America? At the flat? You said good-bye to me, not to Renata.” “And where was Renata then?” Jane twinkled. “In the safe place,” she said. “I’ll swear it was Renata the night before,” said Molloy. “Yes, that’s clever of you. It was.” Molloy was thinking hard. “And which of you was it in the night when we thought the roof had fallen in, and came into Renata’s room to look out of the window? I’d my heart in my mouth, for I thought it was a bomb. Was it you or Renata sitting up in bed like a ghost?” “That was me,” said Jane. “You couldn’t have been nearly so frightened as I was.” “Then you changed places between eight and eleven that night?” “We changed places,” said Jane, “just as you and Mr. Ember came home. I shut Renata’s door just as you opened the door of the flat. I was in the hall when the lift stopped.” “Then I think I know how you did it,” said Molloy. He seemed interested. “But I’d like to know who put you up to it; and I’d like to know who gave the back entrance away; and I’d like to know how Renata, who hasn’t the nerve of a mouse, got down that blamed fire-escape alone.” Jane dimpled again. “You do want to know a lot, don’t you?” she said. There was a pause. Then Jane said: “And now, what happens next, please?” “That,” said Molloy, “is just what I’m wondering.” “I ought to be getting back, I think,” said Jane. “Ah, ought you now?” said Mr. Molloy thoughtfully. There was another pause. Jane thought she would leave Mr. Molloy to break it this time. She sat considering him. Her eyes dwelt upon him with a calm scrutiny which he found extremely embarrassing. The longer it continued, the more embarrassing he found it. In the end he said: “You want me to let you go?” Jane nodded. “And not tell Ember?” Jane gave another nod, cool and brief. “Oh, the devil’s in it,” said Molloy, with sudden violence. “You don’t need the devil; you’ve got Mr. Ember,” said Jane. “And that’s true enough, for it’s the very devil and all he is, and, if I let you go, I’ll have him to reckon with—some day. I’d rather face the Day of Judgment myself.”