‘I will keep quiet no longer,’ boldly rising and facing Vandeloup, with her hands clenched at her sides; ’I have tried to shield you faithfully through all your wickedness, but now that you accuse me of committing a crime, which accusation you know is false, I accuse you, Gaston Vandeloup, and your accomplice, yonder,’ wheeling round and pointing to Pierre, who shrank away, ’of murdering Randolph Villiers, at the Black Hill, Ballarat, for the sake of a nugget of gold he carried.’

Vandeloup looked at her disdainfully.

‘You are mad,’ he said, in a cold voice; ’this is the raving of a lunatic; there is no proof of what you say; it was proved conclusively that myself and Pierre were asleep at our hotel while M. Villiers was with Jarper at two o’clock in the morning.’

‘I know that was proved,’ she retorted, ’and by some jugglery on your part; but, nevertheless, I saw you and him,’ pointing again to Pierre, ‘murder Villiers.’

‘You saw it,’ echoed Vandeloup, with a disbelieving smile; ’tell me how?’

‘Ah!’ she cried, making a step forward, ’you do not believe me, but I tell you it is true—­yes, I know now who the two men were following Madame Midas as she drove away:  one was her husband, who wished to rob her, and the other was Pierre, who, acting upon your instructions, was to get the gold from Villiers should he succeed in getting it from Madame.  You left me a few minutes afterwards, but I, with my heart full of love—­wretched woman that I was—­followed you at a short distance, unwilling to lose sight of you even for a little time.  I climbed down among the rocks and saw you seat yourself in a narrow part of the path.  Curiosity then took the place of love, and I watched to see what you were going to do.  Pierre—­ that wretch who cowers in the corner—­came down the path and you spoke to him in French.  What was said I did not know, but I guessed enough to know you meditated some crime.  Then Villiers came down the path with the nugget in its box under his arm.  I recognised the box as the one which Madame Midas had brought to our house.  When Villiers came opposite you you spoke to him; he tried to pass on, and then Pierre sprang out from behind the rock and the two men struggled together, while you seized the box containing the gold, which Villiers had let fall, and watched the struggle.  You saw that Villiers, animated by despair, was gradually gaining the victory over Pierre, and then you stepped in—­yes; I saw you snatch Pierre’s knife from the back of his waist and stab Villiers in the back.  Then you put the knife into Pierre’s hand, all bloody, as Villiers fell dead, and I fled away.’

She stopped, breathless with her recital, and Vandeloup, pale but composed, would have answered her, when a cry from Pierre startled them.  He had come close to them, and was looking straight at Kitty.

‘My God!’ he cried; ‘then I am innocent?’

‘You!’ shrieked Kitty, falling back on her bed; ‘who are you?’