a rat at bay. "So you
intend to save yourself at my expense. But it won't do, my lord. You
wrote that letter, if I carried it to the camp."

"I have admitted to my sister and to Lambert, here, that I wrote the
letter, Silver. I had to, or get into trouble with the police, since
neither of them will listen to reason. But you suggested the plan to get
Pine winged so that he might be ill in my house, and then we could both
get money out of him. You invented the plot, and I only wrote the
letter."

"Augh! Augh!" gulped Silver, unable to speak plainly.

"Do you confess the truth of Lord Garvington's statement?" inquired
Lambert suavely, and fixing a merciless eye on the trapped fox.

"No--that is--yes. He swings on the same hook as I do."

"Indeed. Then Lord Garvington was aware that you shot Pine?"

"I was not! I was not!" screamed the head of the Lambert family, jumping
up and clenching his hands. "I swear I never knew the truth until you
brought the bullet to the library to fit the revolver."

"The--the--bullet!" stammered Silver, whose smooth red hair was almost
standing on end from sheer fright.

"Yes," said Lambert, addressing him sharply. "Kara, under the direction
of Chaldea, found the bullet in the trunk of the elm tree which was in
the line of fire. She came with me to The Manor this morning, and we
found that it fitted the barrel of Lord Garvington's revolver. At the
inquest, and on unimpeachable evidence, it was proved that he fired only
the first shot, which disabled Pine without killing him. The second
shot, which pierced the man's heart, could only have come from the
second revolver, which was, and is, in your possession, Mr. Silver. The
bullet found in the tree trunk will fit no other barrel of no other
weapon. I'm prepared to swear to this."

Silver covered his face with his hands and looked so deadly white that
Lambert believed he would faint. However, he pulled himself together,
and addressed Garvington anxiously. "You know, my lord, that you locked
up the house on that night, and that I was indoors."

"Yes," admitted the other hesitating. "So far as I knew you certainly
were inside. It is true, Noel," he added, catching his cousin's eye.
"Even to save myself I must admit that."

"Oh, you'd admit anything to save yourself," retorted his cousin
contemptuously, and noting the mistake in the wording of the sentence.
"But admitting that Silver was within doors doesn't save you, so far as
I can se