It was at this point that the door of the inspector's room opened and

Colonel Hughes, cool and smiling, walked in. Bray chuckled at sight of

the military man.

"Ah, colonel," he cried, "you make a good entrance! This morning, when I

discovered that I had the honor of having you associated with me in the

search for the captain's murderer, you were foolish enough to make a

little wager--"

"I remember," Hughes answered. "A scarab pin against--a Homburg hat."

"Precisely," said Bray. "You wagered that you, and not I, would discover

the guilty man. Well, Colonel, you owe me a scarab. Lieutenant Norman

Fraser-Freer has just told me that he killed his brother, and I was on

the point of taking down his full confession."

"Indeed!" replied Hughes calmly. "Interesting--most interesting! But

before we consider the wager lost--before you force the lieutenant to

confess in full--I should like the floor."

"Certainly," smiled Bray.

"When you were kind enough to let me have two of your men this morning,"

said Hughes, "I told you I contemplated the arrest of a lady. I have

brought that lady to Scotland Yard with me." He stepped to the

door, opened it and beckoned. A tall, blonde handsome woman of about

thirty-five entered; and instantly to my nostrils came the pronounced

odor of lilacs. "Allow me, Inspector," went on the colonel, "to

introduce to you the Countess Sophie de Graf, late of Berlin, late of

Delhi and Rangoon, now of 17 Leitrim Grove, Battersea Park Road."

The woman faced Bray; and there was a terrified, hunted look in her

eyes.

"You are the inspector?" she asked.

"I am," said Bray.

"And a man--I can see that," she went on, her flashing angrily at

Hughes. "I appeal to you to protect me from the brutal questioning of

this--this fiend."

"You are hardly complimentary, Countess," Hughes smiled. "But I am

willing to forgive you if you will tell the inspector the story that you

have recently related to me."

The woman shut her lips tightly and for a long moment gazed into the

eyes of Inspector Bray.

"He"--she said at last, nodding in the direction of Colonel Hughes--"he

got it out of me--how, I don't know."

"Got what out of you?" Bray's little eyes were blinking.

"At six-thirty o'clock last Thursday evening," said the woman, "I went

to the rooms of Captain Fraser-Freer, in Adelphi Terrace. An argument

arose. I seized from his table an Indian dagger that was lying there--I

stabbed him just above the heart!"




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