"I understand, and you are quite right," murmured Pauline, her manner quiet, her tone even, but in the dark eyes raised to his Fleming Stone saw fear,--definite, unmistakable fear. "Then explain, for I am sure you can, why you suppressed the fact of your own purchase of that paper snake until forced to admit it." "I was afraid." The beautiful face was of a creamy pallor and the scarlet lips quivered. But this evident agitation on Miss Stuart's part did not deter Stone from his probing queries. "Why were you afraid? Afraid of what?" "Afraid that if you knew I bought the snake you would think I was in some way connected with--with the crime----" "But don't you see that to attempt to conceal the fact of your purchase makes any such suspicion more imminent?" "You _don't_ think I would--would----" "I don't want to _think_ anything about it, Miss Stuart. I want to _know_, and I want you to tell me all about your aunt's strange request for you to buy a thing she so feared and abhorred." "I don't understand it myself. But Aunt Lucy was full of vagaries and would often ask me to buy strange or outlandish things for her." "But not of a _reptilian_ nature?" "No, she had never done such a thing before." "Did she give no reason for the request? Make no apology or explanation?" "No. I was just leaving her, when she called me back, and said, 'Won't you stop in at some Japanese shop, and get me a paper snake?' and I exclaimed in surprise at the request. Then she lost her temper and said she supposed she knew what she wanted and for me to get it without further to-do. So I did." "And when you brought it to her?" "She merely took it and laid it in a desk drawer, without even unwrapping the parcel. I never saw it again till I saw it round her neck." "And you do not think she placed it there herself?" "I am sure she did not. The only reason I can ascribe for her wanting it, is that she might have thought her dread of them a foolish whim and determined to accustom herself to the sight of them by means of the harmless toy. That's all I know about that snake, Mr. Stone. But the truth, as I have told it to you, is so strange, so almost unbelievable, that I knew it would only serve to attract suspicion to me, so I denied it. You know Miss Frayne is only waiting to pounce on it as complete evidence of my guilt." "You and she are not good friends?" "We have never been really friendly, though always polite on the surface of things. But she is jealous of me, and tried in every possible way to undermine my aunt's faith and trust in me, and even plotted to have me disinherited and my fortune bequeathed to herself." "An ambitious plan!" "She is ambitious. She intends to marry Mr. Haviland, and she intended to have my half of the Carrington money." "You don't suspect her of the crime!" and Fleming Stone looked up quickly.