aw her.
Near her on the floor was the knife. There was blood on the blade. I
picked it up--I saw the handle was notched in three places, and then--"

"Then you suspected me."

"No. Not till I saw you outside."

Cuthbert took a turn up and down the dais much perplexed. "Juliet," he
said. "I swear to you I never killed this woman."

Juliet flew to him and folded him in her arms. "I knew it--I knew it,"
she said, "in spite of the letter--"

"What letter?"

"That accusing you and threatening to tell the police about you if I
did not break the engagement."

"Who wrote it?"

"I can't say, save that it must have been some enemy."

"Naturally," replied Mallow cynically. "A friend does not write in
that way. Have you the letter with you."

"No. It is at home. I never thought of bringing it. But I will show
it to you soon. I wish now I had spoken before."

"I wish to heaven you had!"

"I thought it best to be silent," said Juliet, trying to argue. "I
feared lest if I spoke to you, this enemy, whosoever he is, might carry
out the threat in the letter."

"Is the letter written by a man or a woman?"

"I can't say. Women write in so masculine a way nowadays. It might be
either. But why were you at the cottage--"

"I was not. I went to explore the unfinished house on behalf of Lord
Caranby. I was ghost-hunting. Do you remember how you asked me next
day why I wore an overcoat and I explained that I had a cold--"

"Yes. You said you got it from sitting in a hot room."

"I got it from hunting round the unfinished house at Rexton. I did not
think it necessary to explain further."

Juliet put her hand to her head. "Oh, how I suffered on that day," she
said. "I was watching for you all the afternoon. When you came I
thought you might voluntarily explain why you were at Rexton on the
previous night. But you did not, and I believed your silence to be a
guilty one. Then, when the letter arrived--"

"When did it arrive?"

"A week after the crime was committed."

"Well," said Cuthbert, rather pained, "I can hardly blame you. But if
you loved me--"

"I do love you," she said with a passionate cry. "Have I not proved my
love by bearing--as I thought--your burden? Could I do more? Would a
woman who loves as I do accuse the man she loves of a horrible crime?
I strove to shield you from your enemies."

"I thought you were shielding Basil. Jennings thought so also."

Juliet drew back, looking pa