"I know," interrupted Aurora, glancing at the clock, "don't waste time in talking of Lady Rachel Sandal's death--" "How do you know about that?" stammered Hay, completely nonplussed. "I know a mighty lot of things. I may as well tell you," added Miss Qian, coolly, "since you daren't split, that I've got a lot to do with the secret detective service business. I'm helping another to hunt out evidence for this case, and I guess you know a lot." The man quailed. He knew that he did not stand well with the police and dreaded what this little fluffy woman should do. Aurora read his thoughts. "Yes," she said, "we know a heap about you at the Scotland Yard Office, and if you don't tell me all you know, I'll make things hot for you. This cheating to-night is only one thing. I know you are 'a man on the market,' Mr. Hay." "What do you wish to hear?" asked Hay, collapsing. "All about Mrs. Krill's connection with this murder." "She has nothing to do with it. Really, she hasn't. Aaron Norman was her husband right enough--" "And he ran away from her over twenty years ago. But who told Mrs. Krill about him?" "I did," confessed Hay, volubly and seeing it was best for him to make a clean breast of it. "I met the Krills three years ago when I was at Bournemouth. They lived in Christchurch, you know." "Yes. Hotel-keepers. Well, what then?" "I fell in love with Maud and went to Christchurch to stop at 'The Red Pig.' She loved me, and in a year we became engaged. But I had no money to marry her, and she had none either. Then Mrs. Krill told me of her husband and of the death of Lady Rachel." "Murder or suicide?" "Suicide, Mrs. Krill said," replied Hay, frankly. "She told me also about the opal brooch and described it. I met Beecot by chance and greeted him as an old school-fellow. He took me to his attic and to my surprise showed me the opal brooch. I wanted to buy it for Mrs. Krill, but Beecot would not sell it. When next I met him, he told me that Aaron Norman had fainted when he saw the brooch. I thought this odd, and informed Mrs. Krill. She described the man to me, and especially said that he had but one eye. I went with Beecot to the Gwynne Street shop, and a single glance told me that Aaron Norman was Lemuel Krill. I told his wife, and she wanted to come up at once. But I knew that Aaron was reported rich--which I had heard through Pash--and as he was my lawyer, I suggested that the Krills should go and see him." "Which they did, before the murder?" "Yes. Pash was astonished, and when he heard that Mrs. Krill was the real wife, he saw that Aaron Norman, as he called himself, had committed bigamy, and that Sylvia--" "Yes, you needn't say it," said Miss Qian, angrily, "she's worth a dozen of that girl you are going to marry. But why did you pretend to meet Mrs. Krill and her daughter for the first time at Pash's?"