"The notes," she faltered. "My meeting him alone in that empty house. They might suggest I murdered him, if you say he was murdered." Davis smote his forehead in impotent anger at her denseness. "How could you have murdered him when you were at Brighton all the time?" He smote the palms of his hands together. "I will find out who the dead man was, and also the man who forged my name to that letter to the Coroner." He turned to his sister: "As for you, young woman, it may be you will have a bad quarter of an hour, if it all comes out about Roddie. But never mind, you will have a splendid advertisement. The next bunch of letters you get hold of, the price will be twice seven thousand pounds." CHAPTER TWENTY TWO. The following morning Reginald Davis, resolved to unearth the mystery of 10 Cathcart Square, stood in the private room of Mr Bryant of Scotland Yard. He had easily overcome his younger sister's scruples, her terror at having to give evidence in a court of justice, and being forced to disclose certain transactions not too creditable to herself. She had come to see from the point of view artfully suggested by Davis, that, on the whole, it would be a very good advertisement. It might even take her from her place in the chorus to a small acting part, and then her fortune would be made. She might be able to come across another rich man whom she would like well enough to marry, a man quite different from the somewhat invertebrate Roddie. Bryant looked up from his papers, and regarded the young man with his keen and steady gaze. Davis's good looks, and frank air impressed him favourably. "Well, my man, what do you want with me? I don't usually see strangers who approach me in such a mysterious fashion. You would neither state your name nor business, only said vaguely that you wanted to interview me on a matter of great urgency." "I wished to keep my business for your private ear, sir. Can you throw your mind back to a certain gruesome affair that happened at 10 Cathcart Square?" "Certainly, although I was not in charge of the matter. The man was identified as Reginald Davis, who was wanted on a charge of murder, the circumstantial evidence against him being very strong; the verdict returned was one of suicide. If I recollect rightly, he had broken a pane of glass in one of the back windows of the house, unhasped the latch of the window, and cut his throat upstairs after he got inside. The facts were accepted at the time as conclusive evidence of his guilt." "And you recollect, sir, what happened a short time ago with regard to the crime of which Reginald Davis was accused?" "Perfectly. The real criminal has confessed. And this poor devil, overwhelmed no doubt by the circumstantial evidence which told so strongly against him, acted too hastily." "If the police had caught him, he would probably have been hanged by now," said Davis a little bitterly.