“Oh!” Silver’s eyes flashed, and he looked like 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 see.”

“There is no need for Lord Garvington to excuse himself,” spoke up Silver, attempting to enlist the little man on his side by defending him.  “It was proved at the inquest, as you have admitted, Mr. Lambert, that he only fired the first shot.”

“And you fired the second.”

“I never did.  I was inside and in bed.  I only came down with the rest of the guests when I heard the firing.  Is that not so, my lord?”