“Senor Silva repeated the experiment with another set of prints and then with another.  I think there were six altogether, and every one of them was successful.”

“Was Swain’s one of them?” asked Godfrey.

“No; but when Mr. Lester told me that Fred was suspected because of those finger-prints, the thought flashed into my mind that if Senor Silva and Mahbub could imitate those of other people, they could imitate Fred’s, too; and when I looked at the album and found that sheet torn out, I was sure that was what had happened.”

“And so you decided to stay in the house, to win Senor Silva’s confidence by pretending to become a convert, and to search for evidence against him,” I said.  “That was a brave thing to do, Miss Vaughan.”

“Not so brave as you think,” she objected, shaking her head.  “I did not believe that there would be any real danger, with the three servants in the house.  Only at the last did I realise the desperate nature of the man....”

She stopped and shivered slightly.

“Tell us what happened,” I said.

“It was on Sunday afternoon,” she continued, “that I went to Senor Silva and told him that I had decided to carry out my father’s wish, renounce the world, and become a priestess of Siva.  I shall never forget the fire in his eyes as he listened—­they fairly burned into me.”

“Ah!” said Godfrey.  “So that was it!”

She looked at him inquiringly.

“Except upon one hypothesis,” he explained, “that action on your part would have embarrassed Silva, and he would have tried to dissuade you.  He had left him by your father’s will this valuable place and a million dollars.  If money had been all he sought, that would have satisfied him, and he would have tried to get rid of you.  That he did not—­that his eyes burned with eagerness when you told him of your decision—­proves that he loved you and wanted you also.”

A brighter colour swept into Miss Vaughan’s cheeks, but she returned his gaze bravely.

“I think that is true,” she assented, in a low voice.  “It was my suspicion of that which made me hesitate—­but finally I decided that there was no reason why I should spare him and let an innocent man suffer for him.”

“Especially when you loved the innocent man,” I added to myself, but managed to keep the words from my lips.

“As soon as I told him of my decision,” Miss Vaughan continued, “he led me to the room where the crystal sphere is, placed me on the divan, sat down opposite me, and began to explain to me the beliefs of his religion.  Meditation, it seems, is essential to it, and it was by gazing at the crystal that one could separate one’s soul from one’s body and so attain pure and profound meditation.”

“Was that your first experience of crystal-gazing?” Godfrey asked.

“Yes; both he and my father had often tried to persuade me to join them.  They often spent whole nights there.  But it seemed to me that the breaking down of father’s will was due to it in some way; I grew to have a fear and horror of it, and so I always refused.”