The point would, I saw, act just as the fang of a snake, for the thimble, when placed on the finger and pressed upon the flesh of the victim, would inject the poison into the blood, causing almost instant collapse and death. The puncture made by such a fine point would be indistinguishable, and the action of the poison, as we afterwards learnt, was so similar to several natural complications that at the post-mortem examination the doctors would fail to distinguish the real cause of death. She held the diabolical thimble forth to us to examine, saying: “The mode in which this was used upon the unfortunate M’sieur Thorne was undoubtedly as follows. He had seated himself at the table with his back to the door when Laumont, watching his opportunity, crept in with the thimble upon his finger, and ere his victim was aware of it he had seized him by the collar from behind and pressed the point deep into the flesh behind the right ear, at a spot where the poison would at once enter the circulation. You will remember that the doctors discovered a slight scratch behind the ear, and attributed it to having been received in the struggle which they believed had taken place. But there was no struggle. As has been proved by the medico-legist who has examined this most deadly but inoffensive-looking weapon, any one struck by it would become paralyzed almost instantly, therefore the chair was broken by him as he fell against it in fatal collapse.” “And the stolen notes? What of them?” asked old Mr. Keppel anxiously. “Ah!” she answered. “Those accursed notes! On the following morning Laumont came to me and handed me the money, saying that as I knew the truth regarding the crime he would trust me further and give the money into my safe-keeping. I took it, for, truth to tell, I knew that he could make some very unwelcome revelations to the police regarding this place and the character of the play here. Therefore I decided that, after all, silence was best, even though I held in my possession the thimble which, I presume, in his hurry to escape from the room fell upon the floor and rolled away. I took the notes, and for some days kept them, but finding that the police were making such active inquiries I returned them to him, and he then resolved upon giving them to Miss Rosselli, either in order to further baffle the detectives or to throw suspicion upon her. He told her some extraordinary story about meeting in London, merely, of course, to put the police off the scent and cause them to believe that the money was stolen by English thieves! Soon afterwards I knew that M’sieur Cameron was aware of the manner in which his friend had been cheated here, and then, in fear of being arrested on suspicion, I fled to Russia, arranging with my friends to return here on the first of May--to-day.”