"I fancied I had made a discovery," she said. "It occurred to me perhaps----. But don't let us talk about myself. Has anything happened here?" "Much," Ralph cried. "Great things. The mystery is solved." "Solved?" Marion gasped. "You have found the culprit?" "The culprit is in the house. She is Mrs. May. I prefer to call her Princess Zara; and yet again I might call her Mrs. Ravenspur, wife of the late Jasper Ravenspur. Marion, we have found your mother." Marion said nothing. Her head had fallen forward and she sat swaying in her chair. There was a hard yet pleading look in her eyes. Ralph bent down and drew her none too tenderly to her feet. "The she-wolf is yonder, the cub is here," he cried. "Are you going to speak or shall I tell the story? Speak, or let me do so." Ravenspur sprang forward angrily. "What are you doing?" he cried. "To lay hand on that angel----" "Ay," said Ralph, "an angel truly, but a fallen one--Lucifer in the dust." CHAPTER LVII HAND AND FOOT What did it mean? Why was there all this commotion in the house? And why did everybody leave her so severely alone? These were the questions that Princess Zara, otherwise Mrs. May, otherwise Mrs. Jasper Ravenspur, asked herself. And why had Marion not returned? Oh, it was bitter to lie there fettered hand and foot at the very moment when activity and cunning and action were most imperatively needed. And Tchigorsky was not dead. How she had been tricked and fooled! Fate had played against her. Who could have anticipated that Voski would have come to Ravenspur and met his death there! By this time the sham Ben Heer had all necessary proofs in his hands. The door opened and a resolute-looking woman came in. Her garb was something of the hospital type, yet more severe and plainer. She came in and took her place with the air of one who watches a prisoner. "I do not require your services," the adventuress said coldly. "It is immaterial, madame," was the equally cold reply. "I am sent here to do my duty whether you require my services or not." "Indeed! Am I to regard myself as a prisoner, then?" The other bowed. The bolt had fallen. There was nothing for it but to submit quietly. By this time Tchigorsky's proofs were in possession of the police. The prisoner smiled grimly as she thought how she could escape her foes yet. "What is the confusion in the house?" she asked. "What is your name?" "My name is Symonds. I was fetched here by the inspector of police. The bodies of two Asiatics have been found drowned in the vaults, and they are getting ready for the inquest to-morrow." Once again the defeated murderess smiled. Fate was all against her. Those men had come to do her bidding and had perished. Doubtless the note sent by Vera Ravenspur would be found on one of them, and this would be no more than another link in the long chain.