“You know the main lines of what happened, don’t you?” Alec went on, rather more calmly. “So I needn’t go into details. The wretched woman begged and wept, but it had no more effect upon Stanworth than if he had been a stone image. He just went on smiling that infernal, cynical smile and told her not to make such an unnecessary fuss. Then he made that suggestion to her that you told me about, and for the moment I very nearly saw red. As for her, it finished her off completely. She just crumpled up on the chesterfield and didn’t say another word. A few minutes later she got up and tottered out of the room. Then I came out of my hiding place.” “Good man,” Roger murmured. “Well, of course I knew by this time just how the land lay. I knew what Stanworth was, and I knew where he kept his evidence against these people. I didn’t quite know what I was going to do, but it was pretty clear that something had got to be done. Well, he was a bit startled at first, but recovered himself wonderfully and began to be infernally sarcastic and cynical. I told him that I wasn’t going to stand the sort of thing I’d just seen; and unless he stopped the whole thing and let me burn all the evidence he’d been talking about, I’d go straight to the police and tell them all about it. That seemed to amuse him quite a lot; and he pointed out that if I did that, everything would come to light which all these people had been paying money to keep concealed, and they’d all be very much worse off than before. That had never occurred to me, and I was rather taken aback for the minute; then I told him that if that was the case I’d unlock the safe myself, even if I had to lay him out to get the key. He simply laughed and tossed his keys on the table. ‘That’s the one for the safe,’ he said. ‘I don’t quite know how you’re going to open it as you happen to be ignorant of the combination, but doubtless you have provided for that contingency.’ Of course that took me in the wind again, but before I could answer him I heard somebody coming down the stairs. “‘Ah!’ he said. ‘I was quite forgetting. I’ve got another visitor coming to see me to-night. As you seem to have mixed yourself up in my affairs, the least I can do is to invite you to be present at this interview also. Get behind that curtain again, and I think I can promise you an interesting quarter of an hour.’ “Well, I hesitated, while the footsteps began to cross the hall, till he caught me by the arm and sort of snarled, ‘Get out of sight, you fool. Can’t you see you’ll make it ten times worse for her by letting her see you?’ “Even then I didn’t realise what he meant, but I saw that there was something in what he said, and just managed to get behind the curtain in time. You can imagine what I felt like when the door opened and I saw Barbara come into the room.” “Ghastly!” Roger exclaimed with feeling.