“Could not Singa Phut have done it?” asked Colonel Ashley quietly.

“Singa Phut!” cried both his auditors.

“Yes.  Suppose, after he had left the watch to be repaired with young Darcy, the East Indian happened to think that he had not warned against winding it up, which a jeweler would be most apt to do after making repairs.  Singa Phut had no reason for wishing harm to Darcy.  He may have come to the store late at night intending to warn him to be careful.”

“Well, assuming that, what next?” asked Jack Young.

“Well, Singa, coming say at eleven o’clock to the jewelry store, finds Mrs. Darcy there.  She has picked up the watch—­she must have done that, for it was in her hand.  Singa sees it and fearful of what might happen he rushes in and tries to take it away from her.  She, thinking him a thief, resists and he, fearful that he will be caught and arrested as a robber, struggles to get the watch and to make his escape.

“Now remember that he is of excitable nature, that he is a foreigner, fearful of our laws, and that he knows the deadly nature of the poison in the watch.  Could not he have both struck Mrs. Darcy with the hunter statue and stabbed her in trying to get away from her?  That would account for the killing.”

“But there would have been an alarm—­the struggle would have made a noise,” objected Jack Young.

“Yes, but there are not many people passing the store around midnight.  Every one in the place had gone to bed—­the sleeping rooms are quite a distance from the shop.  Then, too, very little noise may have been made.  I remember in the Peal case two strong and vigorous men battled at midnight, one killing the other, in a store on a main street in a big city.  But trolley cars and autos going past drowned all sounds of the fight.  It may have been so in this case.”

“Are you going to offer that to the jury to clear Darcy?” asked Mr. Kettridge.

“I may have to,” was the colonel’s answer.  “How does it sound to you, gentlemen?”

“Very plausible,” admitted Jack Young.  “But what about the electric wires on Darcy’s table?”

“They are a problem, I admit.  However, though Carroll thinks he can prove they were arranged deliberately to shock any one who, at the proper moment, might touch the showcase, yet I think we can prove that an accidental crossing of perfectly harmless wires to Darcy’s lathe with the city’s electric light circuit may have caused the two accidents.  That is a point I have yet to consider.  But we have settled something regarding the watch, anyhow.  Now, Jack, I want to talk to you about Harry King.”

“He needs to be talked about,” was the response.  “I don’t say he had anything to do with the murder—­especially not after what you have said about Singa Phut.  But Harry King needs watching.”

“I agree with you.  You say he and Larch have been looking at a packet of diamonds?”