"I intended to wait till the next day, but, as a matter of fact, I became anxious to see if any one was with her, and I went down the stairs." "By means of that secret door. Bawdsey told me." "Well, I crept downstairs, and saw--as I thought--you. It was, of course, Bawdsey. He was standing at the door of the sitting-room. I was afraid lest you--as I thought it was--should see me, so I went upstairs again." "And Bawdsey left the house. However, I never suspected him. I went home and found Mrs. Ward waiting for me. She came to tell me that she had heard from Dorothy that you purposed to stop with Train at Mrs. Jersey's house, and came to warn me." "How good of Mrs. Ward!" "She is a dangerous woman, George. I threw my coat on yonder sofa, and she sat near it. Feeling something in the pocket, her curiosity led her to take out the something when I was absent from the room. It was a stiletto." George started from his seat. "A stiletto?" "Yes." Derrington opened the drawer in his desk and took out the weapon which Mrs. Ward had brought. "This was between the fur and the lining of the coat. What with the weight of the coat and the position of this weapon lying along the bottom of the coat, I never suspected it. I brought it home quite unconsciously. Mrs. Ward found it, took it away with her, and came the other day to accuse me of having murdered Mrs. Jersey." "How dare she do such a thing?" "Oh, Mrs. Ward is capable of all things! However you can see from what I tell you what happened. Bawdsey put the stiletto in my coat and either forgot to take it out or left it there so that I might be incriminated." "Did he tell you this?" "He told me, when I rebuked him too sharply, that he could get me into trouble, and explained how he had been in the house. He also referred to the stiletto. I denied that I had seen it, and it was only when Mrs. Ward brought it the other day that I saw that this part of Bawdsey's story was true." "What did you do?" "I accused him of having killed the woman." "What did he say?" "He denied that he had done so. He declared that he went to Mrs. Jersey's sitting-room door close upon twelve, having let himself in noiselessly by the front door. He discovered Mrs. Jersey lying dead, as she was found in the morning. On the floor was the stiletto. Fearing lest he should be accused of the crime, Bawdsey left the house quickly, but took the stiletto with him so that he might find out who had done the deed. He changed his mind or left it by mistake in my fur coat." "Did he ask money?" "No. He has not done so yet. But he told me very plainly that no one could prove that he had been in the house on that night, and that if he had been seen, the coat would make people think it was I." "Exactly what I did think," said George.