"It's the stiletto," he cried triumphantly, and clapped it down on the table under the coroner's nose. "When you were asking questions about it, I remembered the unfastened middle window, and wondered if the assassin had opened the same to throw the weapon into the area when he had killed poor Mrs. Pentreddle. I went down and searched, and found it. He must have thrown it out, as I guessed, and then have stepped in to close the window and leave by the front door. There's blood on it, too." "Is this your stiletto, Mrs. Sellars?" asked the coroner, passing it along. The woman shuddered as she took it. "It's mine, sure enough," she said. "And there's blood on the handle. Ugh!" she dropped it. "Martha's blood!" Sammy the playwright was sworn and stated again how he had found the weapon in the area below the iron balcony. "Amongst some rubbish," said Mr. Amersham. "Is the area ever used?" asked the coroner quickly. "No," called out Mrs. Sellars; "the tradespeople go round to the back by the side passage, and the gate in the iron railings round the area has been locked ever since I have been in this house. No one would think of looking for the stiletto there." "The last witness did," said the coroner dryly. "Shows that he's got the makings of a dramatist," said Mrs. Sellars proudly, although no one saw the connection between the coroner's assertion and her comment. One thing was clear from the discovery of the weapon in the area, namely, that Mrs. Pentreddle must have been afraid of an attack, else she would never have armed herself by stealing the dagger from her sister. Also, it was certain that Sammy's shrewd explanation was feasible, and that the assassin, after killing the unfortunate woman, had opened the window to drop the stiletto into the unused area. "The deceased must have expected a visitor on that night," said the coroner musingly, "and probably sent Miss Carrol away so that she could see him undisturbed." "She did not tell me that she expected anyone," said Patricia quickly. "No, she would not, seeing that she evidently desired to have a secret interview. As she was alone in the house, she assuredly must have admitted him." "She could not leave the sofa with her sprained foot," cried Mrs. Sellars. "Perhaps she could not have crawled to the front door," remarked the coroner; "but her will evidently enabled her to crawl to the middle window and open it." "Why should the man have come to the middle window?" "By appointment." "Impossible," said Mrs. Sellars nervously. "In the first place, Martha would have told me had she intended to see anyone, and----" "Pardon me, no, madam," interrupted the coroner sharply. "The very fact that the deceased sent away Miss Carrol showed that she desired the interview to be a secret one." "She would not have admitted a man who intended to murder her." "But she did. No one else could have admitted him, and the fact of the open middle window showed how he was admitted."