Frank Abbott looked over his shoulder to say,

“We shall certainly want you here as a chaperon if we’re going to interview Gladys-shan’t we, Chief?”

There was an impudent gleam in his eye which drew a frown from his superior officer. Lamb said gloomily,

“I suppose that wasn’t all, or you wouldn’t be wanting us to see her.”

Miss Silver was knitting with great rapidity.

“It was by no means all,” she said. “After boasting that she would be one of the chief witnesses in a big murder trial, she went on to use these words, ‘There’s more than that I could say if I choose, but I’m not saying it yet-I’m keeping it back to make a splash with.’ Polly asked her what she meant. In reply Gladys said that she could put the rope round somebody’s neck if she chose, and she was going to choose all right. She added, ‘There’s someone in this house that’s going to swing for what they done, and it’s me that’s going to put the rope round their neck, and get my photo in all the papers and have everyone talking about me.’ ”

The Chief Inspector pursed up his lips as if he were about to whistle.

“She said that?”

“Word for word.”

“Then we’ll have her in and find out what she meant by it. It mightn’t be very much, you know, if she was boasting like you say. No, there mightn’t be very much to it, but we’ll have her in. Where did you say she was-in the kitchen?”

Miss Silver coughed.

“She was there. But Mrs. Maniple having returned, I think it probable that Gladys will now be somewhere else.”

Wherever she was, it did not take Frank Abbott long to locate her. She could be heard giggling before he opened the door and ushered her into the room, where she looked impudently at Miss Silver, rolled her eyes at the Chief Inspector, and tripped round the table to sink gracefully upon the chair which had been placed for her. Seated, she crossed her legs, bringing a brief skirt several inches above the knee. The blue eyes rolled in Frank’s direction, glanced coyly down at the expanse of silk stocking, and then swam back to his extremely unresponsive profile.

Lamb, reflecting that someone had missed the chance of spanking her when young, thumped the table with a formidable hand, and rapped out,

“Please pay attention, Mrs. Marsh! Sergeant Abbott isn’t here to look at you-he’s here to take down what you say, so I’ll be obliged if you’ll give your mind to it.”

He received a languishing gaze and a giggle.

“You haven’t asked me anything yet-have you?”

“You needn’t trouble about that-I’m going to. Now, Mrs. Marsh, you’ll be so kind as to give me your whole attention. About a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes ago you were in the kitchen talking to Polly Pell-”

Gladys pouted her scarlet lips.

“That’s right-we were having an elevens. Anything wrong about it?”

She didn’t get any answer to that. Lamb looked at her as stolidly as if she had been a rag doll. He said,

“Your conversation was overheard.”

Gladys raised her plucked eyebrows and said in a genteel voice,

“Reelly? I don’t know how people can lower themselves to listen at doors-do you? It isn’t what I’d call naice myself.”

This was too much for Lamb. His eyes bolted perceptibly, and his voice rasped as he said,

“That’s quite enough of that! You were heard to say that you knew more about Mrs. Latter’s death than you had disclosed to the police. You said you could put a rope round the neck of someone in this house and you were going to do it, but you were holding back what you knew because you wanted to make a splash.”

The blue eyes ceased to languish. They showed a calculating gleam.

“You don’t say!”

“Will you explain what you meant?”

“Well-I dunno-”

“I think you’d better. Ever heard of an accessory in a murder case? It means someone who knows something about the murder, either before or afterwards-a person who participates by advice, command, or concealment.” He repeated the last two words in a slow, weighty tone-“Or concealment, Mrs. Marsh. And an accessory can be put in the dock and tried with the principal.” His manner changed suddenly. “But there-I expect you were just doing a bit of boasting, trying to impress that girl Polly. If you really knew anything, a smart girl like you wouldn’t be getting herself into trouble keeping it back. You’d look a lot better in the witness-box than you would in the dock-but I needn’t tell you that. Come now, out with it! You were just boasting, weren’t you?”

She tossed her head.

“It’s a free country, isn’t it? I can say what I like!”

He kept his easy manner.

“You said you could put a rope round somebody’s neck. You can’t say that sort of thing in the middle of a murder case and not be asked what you mean by it. Now-did you mean anything, or didn’t you? If you did, you can only tell it once, you know. No good saving it up to make a splash like you said and finding you’ve landed yourself up to your neck in trouble.” He let her have a moment, and then came back at her with a point-blank, “Have you got anything, or haven’t you?”

She gave him a bright, bold stare.

“Well then, I have.”

“All right, let’s have it.”

Frank Abbott pulled a block towards him and took up his pencil. Gladys watched him out of the corners of her eyes. He was going to take down what she said in shorthand. Then he would type it out, and they would ask her to sign it like they did before. She didn’t care-she might as well tell it now as later. She didn’t want to get into trouble with the police-they could make it ever so nasty for you if you got on the wrong side of them. Good-looking chap that Sergeant Abbott-looked cold enough to freeze you, but you couldn’t always tell by looks-she wouldn’t mind having a date with him. He must be bored stiff at the Bull… She recrossed her legs, hitching her skirt a little higher. A good thing she’d got those new long stockings. Mrs. Latter hadn’t liked the colour and she’d passed them on. Funny to think of her being gone and the stockings still here. A feeling of sincere regret that the source of so many favours should have been removed gave impetus to her decision. She tossed back her mane of hair and said,

“I dunno who heard me talking to Polly, but I don’t need to take any of it back. I know what I heard and I know what I saw, and I know what I think about it. But I didn’t know at the time, so there’s nothing for me to get into trouble about.”

The Chief Inspector was bluff.

“You won’t get into trouble if you haven’t done anything wrong.”

“Me?” She swept her lashes up, and down again-an accomplishment very carefully practised before her looking-glass. “I’m a good girl, I am-anyone’ll tell you that.”

Lamb controlled himself with difficulty.

“Well now, suppose you tell us what you heard and saw.”

“I’m going to. It was on the Tuesday evening-”

“You mean Tuesday this week?”

“Yes, last Tuesday-the day after there was that turn-up in Mr. Antony’s room, and the day before Mrs. Latter was poisoned.”

“All right, go on.”

“Mrs. Latter stayed in her room most of the day. Mr. Latter was out pretty nearly all day. I didn’t know he was in until I come out of Mrs. Latter’s room about seven o’clock and I heard him in Miss Mercer’s bedroom-”

“What’s that?”

Gladys looked through her lashes.

“He was in Miss Mercer’s bedroom on the other side of the landing. The door wasn’t fastened.”

“You listened?”

She tossed her head.

“Seemed funny to me. I thought Mrs. Latter might like to know. Seemed he’d made a lot of fuss about her being in Mr. Antony’s room, and here he was, in with Miss Mercer. Seemed funny to me.”

Lamb stared at her.

“There’s quite a difference between twelve o’clock at night and seven o’clock in the evening, isn’t there? Well, you listened-”

“I thought Mrs. Latter would like to know what they were saying. Ooh-I did get a start!”