although I was so late in going home, I was as sober as a man can be, and I think pretty quickly at all times.  I thought at double extra speed just then.  And the first thing I did was to strip the body of every article it had on it—­money, papers, everything.  All these things are safely locked up—­they’ve never been tracked.  Next day, using my facilities as secretary to the Safe Deposit Company, I secured the things in that box.  Then I found out who the dead man really was.  And then I deliberately set to work to throw dust in the eyes of the police and of the newspapers, and particularly in the eyes of young Master Spargo there.  I had an object.”

“What?” asked Breton.

“What!  Knowing all I did, I firmly believed that Marbury, or, rather, Maitland, had been murdered by either Cardlestone or Elphick.  I put it to myself in this way, and my opinion was strengthened as you, Spargo, inserted news in your paper—­Maitland, finding himself in the vicinity of Cardlestone after leaving Aylmore’s rooms that night, turned into our building, perhaps just to see where Cardlestone lived.  He met Cardlestone accidentally, or he perhaps met Cardlestone and Elphick together—­they recognized each other.  Maitland probably threatened to expose Cardlestone, or, rather, Chamberlayne—­nobody, of course, could know what happened, but my theory was that Chamberlayne killed him.  There, at any rate, was the fact that Maitland was found murdered at Chamberlayne’s very threshold.  And, in the course of a few days, I proved, to my own positive satisfaction, by getting access to Chamberlayne’s rooms in his absence that Maitland had been there, had been in those rooms.  For I found there, in Chamberlayne’s desk, the rare Australian stamps of which Criedir told at the inquest.  That was proof positive.”

Spargo looked at Breton.  They knew what Myerst did not know—­that the stamps of which he spoke were lying in Spargo’s breast pocket, where they had lain since he had picked them up from the litter and confusion of Chamberlayne’s floor.

“Why,” asked Breton, after a pause, “why did you never accuse Cardlestone, or Chamberlayne, of the murder?”

“I did!  I have accused him a score of times—­and Elphick, too,” replied Myerst with emphasis.  “Not at first, mind you—­I never let Chamberlayne know that I ever suspected him for some time.  I had my own game to play.  But at last—­not so many days ago—­I did.  I accused them both.  That’s how I got the whip hand of them.  They began to be afraid—­by that time Elphick had got to know all about Cardlestone’s past as Chamberlayne.  And as I tell you, Elphick’s fond of Cardlestone.  It’s queer, but he is.  He—­wants to shield him.”

“What did they say when you accused them?” asked Breton.  “Let’s keep to that point—­never mind their feelings for one another.”