"What about this other sign?" said the doctor, evading a reply. "Well, at first I thought it was a serpent, but as it has four feet and a wriggle of a tail, I conclude it is a lizard. Mere guessing, you understand." "What connection can it have with the letters?" "I don't know. Ask me something easier, or rather," said Cass, with a peculiar smile, "ask Mrs. Moxton. She knows the truth about letters, and lizard and murder. But she won't tell it to you." "Why not?" asked Ellis, angrily. "Because, my poor fellow, I firmly believe that the murderer of Mr. Moxton is the lover of Mrs. Moxton." CHAPTER V MRS MOXTON SEEKS COUNSEL Needless to say, Ellis, in his then state of mind, declined to believe that the widow had intrigued with a lover, or had--according to the theory of Cass--armed his hand with the knife. In her evidence she declared that she knew no one in Dukesfield and went nowhere, and this statement was substantiated by Mrs. Basket. The landlady, with feminine curiosity about matters which did not concern her, was as good as a detective, and from the first coming of the mysterious Moxtons to Myrtle Villa, she had watched their movements. Knowing this, Ellis made a few inquiries when Mrs. Basket was clearing the breakfast-table. Harry having already departed to Fleet Street, the doctor was alone, and conducted the examination as he pleased and at his leisure. Mrs. Basket, only too willing to talk, chattered like a parrot, and, indeed, her green dress with yellow trimmings resembled the plumage of that bird in no small degree. She was a gaudy, irresponsible gabbler. "Bless your 'eart, sir, she didn't know no one," declared Mrs. Basket. "A prisoner in a gaol, that is what she was at Myrtle Viller; not but what she oughtn't to be in a real one. I don't say as that Moxton," Mrs. Basket shivered, "wasn't a brute in his treatment of her, but she did for him as sure as I'm a living woman. She did for him." "The jury did not think so, Mrs. Basket!" Mrs. Basket snorted. "A jury of them swindling tradesmen," said she, contemptuously. "What do they know of it? Mrs. Moxton killed him with the carving-knife, and threw it away arterwards. "How do you know she threw it away?" "'Cos it ain't in the 'ouse. Yes! you may look, an' look, doctor, but it ain't in the 'ouse. I've bin there and know." "You have been in Myrtle Villa?" said Ellis, astonished. "Do you know Mrs. Moxton, then?" "For the sake of law and order and Queen's justice I made it my business to know her, sir. The other morning I went over to offer to buy some of her furniture, 'earing as she was leaving Dukesfield." Ellis jumped up. "She is not leaving Dukesfield," he denied.