The inspector pressed his hand to his side, and his stern gaze dwelt upon her thoughtfully. "That depends," he answered. "My plain duty is to arrest you." "It doesn't matter," she said wearily. "Nothing can matter now. Give me five minutes and I will be ready to go with you." The inspector read her purpose as an open book. He shook his head. Five minutes--one minute--alone, and such a woman in such a state of mind was ripe for any desperate act. He had no mind to add a suicide to the other complications of his position. "I want to ask you a few questions before I decide what course I shall take. You are not bound to answer them. But I don't suppose that the whole truth can make your position any worse than it is now." If it had been simply a question of any crime that Mrs. Gertstein had committed Labar would have arrested her there and then, without consideration of his sympathies, for or against, in the case. That, as he had said, was his obvious duty. He was in a sense violating his oath as a police officer in not doing so. And in attempting to question her on a matter which in some measure bore upon the charges that he knew should be brought against her, he was flagrantly outside the law. Any one of his Majesty's judges would have commented sternly on such a procedure. Yet, long since, Labar had made up his mind to take the chance. Adèle Gertstein might be mad or vicious or both, but she was a less dangerous person to the community than Larry Hughes. Morally he was justified. All the same, although his course would not have been condemned by his Scotland Yard superiors, or by the Public Prosecutor himself, nothing could save him if any disclosure of this thing should come about. The woman looked up eagerly, snatching at the slightest straw of hope. "Do you mean that if I tell you the truth you will do nothing to me--that no one else will know?" "I can make no promises," he said. She considered with sombre face. "You seem to know most of it," she said at last. "What else is it that you want to know?" "Tell me everything from the time you became acquainted with Larry Hughes in your own words. I will ask you if any points arise on which I am not clear." He had to lean forward to catch her opening sentences. In low tones, and sometimes incoherent sequence, punctuated by occasional questions from him, she told her story. It was much what he expected to hear.