"I think Mr. Burchill is the most likely person to tell you what there is to tell," she said. "His friend----" "Ah!--the gentleman at the other end of the table, no doubt," observed Davidge. "How do you do, sir? And what might that gentleman's name be, now?" Burchill, who had been watching the detective carefully, threw away his cigarette and showed an inclination to speak. "Look here, Davidge!" he said. "You know very well why you're here--you're here to hear the real truth about the Herapath murder! Mrs. Engledew told you that this afternoon, when she called on you at Scotland Yard. Now the only two people who know the real truth are myself and my friend there--Mr. Dimambro." Selwood and Cox-Raythwaite, who until then had remained in ignorance of the little foreigner's identity, started and looked at him with interest. So this was the missing witness! But Davidge remained cool and unimpressed. "Ah, just so!" he said. "Foreign gentleman, no doubt. And you and Mr. Dimambro are the only persons who know the real truth about that little affair, eh, Mr. Burchill. Very good, so as----" "As Mr. Dimambro doesn't speak English very well----" began Burchill. "I speak it--you understand--enough to say a good many words--but not so good as him," observed Mr. Dimambro, waving a fat hand. "He say it for me--for both of us, eh?" "To be sure, sir, to be sure," said Davidge. "Mr. Burchill is gifted that way, of course. Well, Mr. Burchill, and what might this story be, now? Deeply interesting, I'll be bound." Burchill pulled a chair to the table, opposite Selwood and the Professor. He put the tips of his fingers together and assumed an explanatory manner. "I shall have to begin at the beginning," he said. "You'll all please to follow me closely. Now, to commence--Mrs. Engledew permits me to speak for her as well as for Mr. Dimambro. The fact is, I can put the circumstances of the whole affair into a consecutive manner. And I will preface what I have to say by making a statement respecting a fact in the life of the late Mr. Herapath which will, I believe, be substantiated by Mr. Selwood, my successor as secretary to the deceased gentleman. Mr. Herapath, in addition to being an authority on the building of up-to-date flats, was also more or less of an expert in precious stones. He not only bought and sold in these things, but he gave advice to his friends in matters relating to them. Mr. Selwood has, I am sure, had experience of that fact?" "To a certain extent--yes," agreed Selwood. "But I had not been long enough in Mr. Herapath's employ to know how much he went in for that sort of thing."