"Wen he sawr Mr. Paslow he made for him, and Mr. Paslow held out my knife--unthinking, like. Alpenny fell on it, and then he struck Mr. Paslow. I never sawr any cove go so mad es Mr. Paslow did. He fair raged, and got the ole man down an' cut his throat." "No, no, no!" cried Beatrice fiercely; "you lie!" "I don't lie, now," said Waterloo sullenly; "it's the truth. And wen Mr. Paslow sawr me comin' over the gate, he bolted, leaving his handkerchief behind." "Ah!" Beatrice remembered what Durban had said about the handkerchief. "Mr. Paslow left that with Mr. Alpenny on the day he quarrelled with him, previous to the death." "Did Mr. Paslow explain that himself?" asked Ruck sneeringly. "No. Durban gave me the explanation. I never spoke to Mr. Paslow of the handkerchief, as I believed Durban." "And Durban told that lie to save your asking Mr. Paslow. Though, I dare say," added the Major with a shrug, "that Paslow would have lied also had you spoken to him." "Go on," said Beatrice, speaking to Waterloo with grey lips. The conviction was forcing itself upon her that, after all, he might be telling the terrible truth. "Wen Mr. Paslow slung his 'ook," said Waterloo, leering, and more at his ease, "he got over the big gate. I dragged Alpenny into the counting-house and laid him out. Then I locked the door, and got away by the underground passage. Outside I heard voices, and saw the Major here." "Quite so," said Ruck courteously; "and now I can tell the remainder of the story. I came down, Miss Hedge, to punish Alpenny, who had been betraying the organisation of which he was the founder." "The Black Patch Gang?" said Beatrice faintly. She felt very ill. "Exactly. Alpenny founded it thirty years ago, and I was one of the earliest members, as was Waterloo here. When Alpenny was stopping at Convent Grange with your father and Mr. Paslow's father, he was even then a receiver of stolen goods, although the operations of the Gang were not so wide then as they have been since. We include all classes amongst us. Tuft the lawyer, who acted for Alpenny, and who got Mr. Paslow out of trouble when he was accused of shoplifting, is one of us; so is his wife, Miss Carr--or, as I should say, Mrs. Paslow. I am the head of the lot. The cabman who drove you here is a member; so is the doctor who attended Miss Carr's double, and who gave a false certificate by my direction." "Why?" asked Beatrice quickly. "Well, if you had procured me the necklace, I would have allowed you to marry Paslow. And then if Miss Carr had married this American, we would have got money out of him. I always," added the Major with a smile, showing his white teeth, "believe in killing two birds with one stone. However, to resume. We are bound by a death-oath not to betray one another. Alpenny made a lot of money, and found that the police were getting to know too much. He decided to bolt. I warned him twice, and the third time the warning was conveyed by Durban, through Mr. Paslow."