"Hit the floor with it," said Lady Vera, "but don't hold it quite by the end." Dollar bent down and did as directed; at the blow, a poniard flew out of the opposite end to the round knob; the point caught in his sleeve. "That's how it was done," continued Lady Vera. "And I am the person it was done by, Doctor Dollar!" "It was--an accident?" he said, hoarsely. He could look at her as though the accident had not been fatal; he had less command of his voice. "I call it one; the law may not," said she resignedly. "Yet I didn't even know that I possessed such a weapon as this; it was sold to me as a life-preserver, and nothing else, out of a pawnbroker's window, where I happened to see it on the very morning of the raid. I thought it would be just the thing for smashing other windows, especially with that thong to go round one's wrist. I thought, too--I don't mind telling you--that, if I were roughly handled, it was a thing I could use in self-defense as I couldn't very well use a hammer." And here she showed no more shame than a soldier need feel about his bayonet after battle; and Dollar met her eyes on better terms. He had been making mechanical experiments with the life-preserver. Some spring was broken. That was why it became a dagger at every blow, instead of only when you gave it a jerk. "And you were roughly handled by Sergeant Simpkins?" he suggested eagerly. "Very," she said, with a certain reluctance. "But I expect the poor fellow was as excited as I was when I tried to beat him off." "I suppose you hardly knew what you were doing, Lady Vera?" "Not only that, Doctor Dollar, but I didn't know what I had done." "Thank God for that!" "But did you imagine it for a moment? That's the whole point and explanation of everything that has happened. The worst was over in a few seconds, in the thick of that awful fog, but, of course I never dreamt what I had done. I did think that I had knocked him out. But that was all that ever entered my head until this very morning." "Were you close to your broken window at the time?" "Very close, and yet out of sight in the fog." "And you had seen nothing of this man Croucher, and his hand in the affair?" "Not after I'd done my part. I did just before. I'm certain it was the same huge man that they describe. But I heard the whole thing while we were struggling. They were blowing a police-whistle and calling out 'Thieves!' I remember hoping that the policeman would hear them, and let me go. But I suppose his blood was up, as well as mine." "And after you had--freed yourself?" said the doctor, trying not to set his teeth.