It was impossible to resist such simple logic.  The lines were cleared for urgent official business between London and Washington, and in less than an hour the answer came back, to the effect that Mr. Rufus Van Torp’s statement was correct in every detail; and without any interval another official message arrived, revoking the request for his extradition, which ’had been made under a most unfortunate misapprehension, due to the fact that Mr. Van Torp’s visit to the Secretary of the Treasury had been regarded as confidential by the latter.’

Scotland Yard expressed its regret, and Mr. Van Torp smiled and begged to be allowed, before leaving, to ‘shake hands’ with the three men who had been put to so much inconvenience on his account.  This democratic proposal was promptly authorised, to the no small satisfaction and profit of the three haggard officials.  So Mr. Van Torp went away, and in a few minutes he was sound asleep in the corner of his big motor-car on his way back to Derbyshire.

Lady Maud found Margaret and Logotheti walking slowly together under the trees about eleven o’clock on the following morning.  Some of the people were already gone, and most of the others were to leave in the course of the day.  Lady Maud had just said good-bye to a party of ten who were going off together, and she had not had a chance to speak to Margaret, who had come down late, after her manner.  Most great singers are portentous sleepers.  As for Logotheti, he always had coffee in his room wherever he was, he never appeared at breakfast, and he got rid of his important correspondence for the day before coming down.

‘I’ve had a letter from Threlfall,’ he said as Lady Maud came up.  ’I was just telling Miss Donne about it.  Feist died in Dr. Bream’s Home yesterday afternoon.’

‘Rather unfortunate at this juncture, isn’t it?’ observed Margaret.

But Lady Maud looked shocked and glanced at Logotheti as if asking a question.

‘No,’ said the Greek, answering her thought.  ’I did not kill him, poor devil!  He did it himself, out of fright, I think.  So that side of the affair ends.  He had some sealed glass capsules of hydrocyanide of potassium in little brass tubes, sewn up in the lining of a waistcoat, and he took one, and must have died instantly.  I believe the stuff turns into prussic acid, or something of that sort, when you swallow it—­Griggs will know.’

‘How dreadful!’ exclaimed Lady Maud.  ‘I’m sure you drove him to it!’

’I’ll bear the responsibility of having rid the world of him, if I did.  But my share consisted in having given him opium and then stopped it suddenly, till he surrendered and told the truth—­or a large part of it—­what I have told you already.  He would not own that he killed Miss Bamberger himself with the rusty little knife that had a few red silk threads sticking to the handle.  He must have put it back into his case of instruments as it was, and he never had the courage to look at