s? Have they also been in your possession since she was
killed?"

"Yes; I kept them in an upstairs drawer, which was locked."

"Can you tell me when you last saw the necklace?"

Miss Heredith reflected for a moment.

"Not for some time," she said. "Violet did not care for it, and rarely
wore it."

"The necklace was of pink pearls," Musard explained. "Their value was
more historical than intrinsic, for they had become tarnished with age,
and the setting was old-fashioned. It was for that reason Mrs. Heredith
did not like it. I was going to take the pearls to London the following
day to arrange to have them skinned and reset."

"When I went into poor Violet's room that night to see if she felt well
enough to go to the Weynes' I asked her for the necklace," said Miss
Heredith. "She replied that she would give it to me in the morning. If
she had only given it to me then, she might have been alive to-day."

"I should like to hear more about this," said Colwyn. "Please tell me
everything."

In response Miss Heredith related to the detective all that had passed
between the young wife and herself in the bedroom before dinner on the
night of the murder. Colwyn listened attentively, with a growing sense
of hidden complexities in the crime revealed at the eleventh hour. He
saw that the case took on a new and deeper aspect when considered in
conjunction with the facts which had been so innocently ignored. When
Miss Heredith had finished, he asked her when it was first decided to
send the necklace to London for resetting.

"It was the night before the murder," Miss Heredith replied. "Sir Philip
suggested that Violet should wear the necklace to the dance on the
following night, but Violet said that the pearls were really too dull to
be worn. Mr. Musard agreed with her, and offered to take it to London
and have it cleaned and reset by an expert of his acquaintance. Mr.
Musard had to return to London on the morning after the dance, so that
was the reason why I went into Violet's room before dinner on the night
of the party to ask her for the necklace."

Colwyn considered this reply in all its bearings before he spoke.

"The best thing I can do is to return to London without delay and bring
these additional facts before Scotland Yard," he said. "They have been
misled--unwittingly but gravely misled--and it is only right that they
should be informed at once. I know Merrington, and I will make a point
of seeing him personally