“I do not really know that these will help you-or Mr. Allan Grover. They were my mother’s. Since my sister does not care to wear them, I keep them here, and sometimes please myself with looking at them. They are not of any great value.”

At the back of the safe two cardboard shoe-boxes stood one upon the other. As Drake reached for them, Mr. Holderness’s hand came out of his pocket. He walked round to the other side of the chair and sat down. Drake lifted the first box clear and raised the lid. March saw a crumpled mass of tissue paper, Drake’s hand with the reddish hairs on the back taking it away, and under the paper a gold foot gleaming, the long line of bare shining limbs-a golden rose-crowned Summer, ten inches high.

Drake said, “There’s another, sir,” but before the paper had fallen from the companion Spring, Mr. Holderness groaned and slumped sideways in his chair.

Miss Silver was alone in Mrs. Voycey’s drawing-room. It being Monday, Cecilia had gone forth with a shopping-basket to the Stores, from which she would presently return replenished with groceries and gossip. Miss Silver, for this time, had excused herself.

“I should, perhaps, write a letter or two, so I feel that I would on the whole prefer to stay at home this morning, if you will not think me rude, my dear Cecilia.”

Mrs. Voycey did not think it at all rude. Stimulating as she found dear Maud’s company, it would have made it difficult for her to have a heart-to-heart talk with Mrs. Grover, and a heart-to-heart talk she meant to have. On Bessie Crook’s authority Maud Silver had sent for Allan Grover yesterday evening, and when she, Bessie, had returned after a good hour in Mrs. Grover’s parlour, not only was Allan still there, but the Chief Constable’s car at the door, and he and Inspector Drake in the drawing-room for the best part of three-quarters of an hour. And when Mrs. Voycey got home from the evening service all dear Maud could say was, “My dear Cecilia, I would tell you if I could, but at present it is all very confidential.”

Cecilia Voycey had always been told that discretion was a virtue. She would not for the world have denied or questioned it. All the same there are virtues which are very well in the abstract, but which, encountered in the flesh, can be a source of extreme irritation. Maud was perfectly right of course, but Cecilia felt the need of an uninhibited gossip with Mrs. Grover.

Miss Silver sat in the drawing-room and knitted. She was well away with the second sleeve of little Josephine’s jacket, and hoped to finish it before lunch. She would then crochet an ornamental edging all round and furnish it with bows of washing ribbon, after which she could start upon the knickers. The day being chilly, a small fire of logs burned on the hearth, which was set with bright rose-coloured tiles. They did not quite strike the same key as the damask curtains, which in their turn just failed to hit it off with the paeonies, roses and other floral adornments which bloomed so brightly on every chair and sofa. Miss Silver, who liked colour and liked it in profusion, considered the whole effect very tasteful, very bright. She had inhabited some drab schoolrooms in her time.

She knitted, but her thoughts were far away. She did not exactly expect a visit, but she thought it possible that she might receive a telephone call.

When Randal March came into the room she rose to meet him and gave him her hand. He clasped it strongly, held it for a little longer than usual, and said in a tone of extreme gravity,

“Well, you were right.”

As he released her and moved over to the fire, she said,

“Did you arrest him?”

“No. He had cyanide on him. He is dead.”

“How extremely shocking!”

“It will save a lot of scandal, but of course-it shouldn’t have happened.”

She seated herself. He dropped into the chair on the other side of the hearth and went on speaking.

“You know, he put up such a good case that I began to think I was heading for a crash. Even if Allan Grover’s evidence had been admitted it could have been torn to shreds. Nobody loves the eavesdropper-and a clerk eavesdropping on his employer!” He made a gesture. “If it hadn’t been for your backing, I would never have taken it as far as I did this morning, and right in the middle I got one of the worst hollow sinkings I can remember. The fellow was so respectable, so imposing, so virtuously indignant-it just didn’t seem possible.”

“What happened, Randal?”

“We had a search-warrant. He opened his safe and stood back to watch us whilst we turned it out. At some point in the proceedings he must have walked round his chair and sat down with his back to us. He had the poison on him, and he must have taken it when Drake fetched out the two shoe-boxes which were right at the back of the safe. Remember the gold Florentine figures-the four Seasons? There were two of them in each box. We had just got Summer out, when he groaned and fell over.”

Miss Silver repeated a previous comment.

“Very shocking indeed.”

March said grimly, “I shall probably be criticized for having allowed it to happen.”

“You can hardly be said to have allowed it.”

“No, but I was off my guard. The fact is, my mind was a good deal taken up with the idea that we had bitten off more than we could chew.”

“My dear Randal!”

“Sorry-it slipped out. Anyhow that’s what I was feeling like. And then Drake was opening one of those shoe-boxes, and I saw a golden foot sticking out. Holderness must have seen it too, and once anyone had seen it the game was up. I ought to have gone over to him at once, but I took just that first moment to feel relieved and to see the figure come out of the box, and by that time the mischief was done. Now why in heaven’s name did he take those figures to start with, or having taken them, why did he keep them?”

Miss Silver gave a gentle cough.

“I imagine that there may have been two reasons. The loss of the figures would suggest a burglary. And without doubt Mr. Holderness would be aware that they were extremely valuable. He may have thought that he would be able to dispose of them abroad by some roundabout method-there are ways in which these things can be done. As far as keeping them in his safe is concerned, where else would you expect him to keep them? The possibility of suspicion falling on him would not, I think, have entered his mind. He could lock the figures away and feel quite secure. And so he would have been if it had not been for Allan Grover and your search-warrant.”

He smiled at her.

“You are too modest. The proper ending to that sentence is-‘if it hadn’t been for Miss Maud Silver.’ And as to its being my search-warrant, I can tell you there was a time when I came very near to disowning it. I had some embittered thoughts about my own weakness in having given way to your very considerable pressure. May I ask now what you did expect us to find?”

“Just what you did find, Randal.”

“The figures?”

“If Mr. Holderness was the murderer, I had no doubt that they would be there. And after hearing Allan Grover’s story I had no doubt that Mr. Holderness was the murderer.”

“Then it comes back to ‘if it hadn’t been for Miss Maud Silver.’ ”

She was knitting industriously. Over the clicking needles she shook her head.

“Oh, no-I can claim no credit. I merely noticed one or two points, and having met Allan Grover, I thought it might be helpful if I could have a talk with him.”

Randal March continued to smile at her with a good deal of affection. He leaned forward now and said,

“Ah-those points. Are you going to tell me what they were? I should very much like to know.”

“Certainly, if you wish it. As you are aware, I came to the case with a perfectly open mind. I knew none of the people, I had no preconceived ideas, and I was therefore very much on the alert for the impressions which I was bound to receive. To begin with Miss Cray. I found it quite impossible to believe that she had any guilty knowledge. I found her open, candid, honest, and extremely scrupulous about involving anyone else. It was quite out of the question that she should have taken those Florentine figures or committed a murderous attack upon Mr. Lessiter.”