“We’re very short-handed. Mr. Jackson, the head clerk, has been laid up. Mr. Stanway, the other partner, is an invalid. He doesn’t come down to the office more than once in a blue moon, but he’s got his room there next to Mr. Holderness. When I joined the firm there was a clerk there called Hood. He told me, making a joke of it, that Mr. Stanway kept a brandy-bottle behind one of the panels in his room. I don’t know how he found out about it, but he took me in and showed me one day when we thought there wasn’t anyone about. It was a regular secret cupboard opening with a spring. There’s a bit of carving you move and the door comes open. Well, he showed it to me, and there was the brandy-bottle like he said. And whilst we were standing looking at it we got an awful start, because there was Mr. Holderness saying something as plain as if he was in the room. Just for a minute we thought he was, and we got the wind up properly. I can’t remember what he said. It was just something like ‘Now where on earth did I put those papers?’-talking to himself, you know. Hood looked at me and put up his hand and shut the panel ever so gently, and we got out of the room as quick as we could. We hadn’t any business to be there, and we wouldn’t have been there, only we thought Mr. Holderness had gone out.”

Miss Silver laid the sleeve of little Josephine’s jacket out flat upon her knee and measured it with her hand. It was still a couple of inches short of the right length. She said,

“You opened the cupboard in Mr. Stanway’s room yesterday and listened to what Mrs. Welby was saying to Mr. Holderness?”

“Yes, I did. I made an excuse to the girl who works in the same room with me. There were some papers Mr. Holderness had asked for, and I said I was going to look for them. I hadn’t ever opened the cupboard since Hood showed it to me, but I remembered how. It opened quite easily, and it didn’t make any noise-I expect Mr. Stanway kept the spring well oiled. Everything was just the same, only the cupboard was empty, the brandy-bottle was gone. And I could see why you could hear what was going on in the next room. The panel had warped and there was a crack all down one side, and there was a knot-hole too. I looked through it, and I could see Mrs. Welby sitting there. When I found I could see her I wasn’t thinking about listening any more-I just wanted to look at her. And then I couldn’t help listening, because Mr. Holderness said in the most-well, the most brutal way, ‘You’ve got yourself into a very dangerous position.’ ”

Miss Silver said, “Oh!” and he caught her up.

“I’ve got to tell you this, but I can’t if you’re going to think anything wrong about Mrs. Welby. Mrs. Lessiter gave her the things, and of course she thought they were hers to do what she liked with, and then Mr. Lessiter came along and he threatened-Miss Silver, he threatened to prosecute.”

“Yes-I was aware of that.”

He stared at her, his lip twitching.

“How anyone could be such-such a devil!”

“Pray go on, Allan.”

“They talked about it, and she said Mrs. Lessiter had given her the things. No, I think that was later-or before-I don’t know which-” He dropped his head into his hands and kept it there, fingers pressing in upon the temples. “She said he had told her he was going to prosecute, and she went to see him.”

“On the night of the murder?”

“Yes. But Miss Cray was there, so she came away.”

“She went back later.”

“You know that?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“I do know it.”

“Yes, she went back. She told Mr. Holderness. She said she was in a very serious position, and he said why should it come out-she could hold her tongue. You know, when I was going over it afterwards, that’s when I began really to think. Up till then I was just frightened-terrified for her- but when he said that, I could see her. She wasn’t frightened, she was enjoying herself. I know how she looks when she’s pleased about something, and she was pleased. She didn’t exactly laugh, but there was that kind of sound in her voice. He said, ‘You can hold your tongue, can’t you?’ and she said, ‘Oh, yes-I have-I do. And I shall go on-unless I simply can’t help myself.’ ” He lifted his head again. “That’s what got me. He was the one who was in a state-she wasn’t. I shifted so that I could see him, and he looked dreadful. I thought to myself, ‘He’s got the wind up,’ and I couldn’t make out why. Then they began to talk about you.”

Miss Silver’s needles clicked. She said,

“Dear me!”

“Mrs. Welby was afraid you were finding out about things. There was something about a memorandum. She called it ‘that damned memorandum,’ and she said you knew about it. And then she said, ‘I wonder if I hadn’t better make a statement to the police and have done with it,’ and Mr. Holderness said it would be extremely dangerous.” His tone became suddenly harder, older. “That made me think some more. I didn’t like the way he said it. It sounded-it seemed ridiculous at the time-but I couldn’t help thinking it sounded as if he was threatening her.”

Miss Silver coughed.

“You interest me extremely.”

Allan Grover went on as if she had not spoken.

“It was when he said ‘dangerous.’ I was watching him through the knot-hole. He looked at her. It scared me, but she wasn’t scared. I moved so that I could see her, and she was laughing. And she said, ‘Dangerous? For whom?’ That’s where I got the feeling that I didn’t really know what they were talking about. It didn’t seem as if it could mean what it seemed to be meaning, because the next thing she said was, ‘If I make that statement I shall have to say what I saw when I came back.’ Mr. Holderness said her words over again, ‘When you came back-’ and she said, ‘I told you Rietta was with him the first time I went, and I told you I came back. I waited whilst she talked to him. It was highly entertaining. He told her he had found the old will he had made in her favour when they were engaged, and, do you know, she tried to get him to burn it! I always knew Rietta was a fool, but I didn’t think anyone could be quite such a fool as that. He told her he’d rather she had the money than anyone else. He said he had found the will when he was looking for the “memorandum.” From what he said, it was there on the table.’ And she said, ‘It was, wasn’t it?’ ” He made an abrupt movement. “When she said that, I didn’t seem to take it in. I don’t know if you can understand. I’ve got a very good memory-I could tell you everything they said and not miss a word.”

Miss Silver inclined her head. She had that kind of memory herself.

He went on.

“I can remember it all, but when I was listening to it it didn’t seem to mean anything. Mrs. Welby went on talking. She said Miss Cray quarrelled with Mr. Lessiter. It wasn’t about the will, it was about Mrs. Welby. Miss Cray wanted him to stop going on about the things his mother had given her, and he wouldn’t. He said he was going to prosecute.” Allan’s voice took on a tone of horror. “And then Miss Cray lost her temper and came out in a hurry. Mrs. Welby had only just time to get out of the way.”

Miss Silver’s needles clicked.

“Yes-I was sure that was how it happened. What did Mrs. Welby do after that? The interval has puzzled me. Did she go in then and see Mr. Lessiter?”

He shook his head.

“No, she didn’t think it was any use-not on the top of that quarrel. She went home and made herself some coffee. She told Mr. Holderness she sat there smoking one cigarette after another and thinking what she could do, and in the end she came round to where she had begun-she must go back and have it out with Mr. Lessiter. By the time she’d made up her mind it was ten o’clock. When she got as far as that, telling Mr. Holderness, he said, ‘That was a pity, Catherine.’ He hadn’t spoken all the time she was telling him until he said it was a pity. I didn’t know what he meant then, but I do now.” A quick shudder went over him. He stared piteously at Miss Silver. “I think that’s when he made up his mind to kill her.”