ed
impatiently with every pause as though he would hurry forward the
denouement.

Presently John Lexman went on.

"He slipped from the bed and came across to meet me as I closed the door
behind me.

"'Ah, Mr. Gathercole,' he said, in that silky tone of his, and held out
his hand.

"I did not speak. I just looked at him with a sort of fierce joy in my
heart the like of which I had never before experienced.

"'And then he saw in my eyes the truth and half reached for the
telephone.

"But at that moment I was on him. He was a child in my hands. All the
bitter anguish he had brought upon me, all the hardships of starved days
and freezing nights had strengthened and hardened me. I had come back to
London disguised with a false arm and this I shook free. It was merely a
gauntlet of thin wood which I had had made for me in Paris.

"I flung him back on the bed and half knelt, half laid on him.

"'Kara,' I said, 'you are going to die, a more merciful death than my
wife died.'

"He tried to speak. His soft hands gesticulated wildly, but I was half
lying on one arm and held the other.

"I whispered in his ear:

"'Nobody will know who killed you, Kara, think of that! I shall go scot
free--and you will be the centre of a fine mystery! All your letters
will be read, all your life will be examined and the world will know you
for what you are!'

"I released his arm for just as long as it took to draw my knife and
strike. I think he died instantly," John Lexman said simply.

"I left him where he was and went to the door. I had not much time to
spare. I took the candles from my pocket. They were already ductile from
the heat of my body.

"I lifted up the steel latch of the door and propped up the latch with
the smaller of the two candles, one end of which was on the middle
socket and the other beneath the latch. The heat of the room I knew
would still further soften the candle and let the latch down in a short
time.

"I was prepared for the telephone by his bedside though I did not
know to whither it led. The presence of the paper-knife decided me. I
balanced it across the silver cigarette box so that one end came under
the telephone receiver; under the other end I put the second candle
which I had to cut to fit. On top of the paper-knife at the candle end
I balanced the only two books I could find in the room, and fortunately
they were heavy.

"I had no means of knowing how long it would take to melt the candle
t