‘It was when we came back from Newmarket. That evening I was alone in my study. Bridget had been very inconsiderate all day, leaving us and going off with a young man of whom I could not approve. My wife had taken her part against me. I was alone in my study. I found myself looking at the French writing-cabinet. There was something different in the arrangement of the pieces in front of it. I went to re-arrange them, and being there I tried the hidden drawer. It was empty! I tell you the letter was there the day before. I saw it there. The day before I had been very angry with my wife. She had been cruel to me. I am very sensitive and my nerves are shattered. I am alone. Terribly lonely. Nobody cares what becomes of me. She was so thoughtless and cruel. So I looked at the letter because the letter gave me comfort. It was there the night before. And do you know who was alone in my room on May the ninth?’

‘Yes,’ said Alleyn. ‘I am glad you, too, remember. It was Mr Colombo Dimitri.’

‘Ah,’ said Carrados shakily. ‘Ah, now we’re getting at it. Now, we’re getting at it.’

‘I am afraid I do not understand,’ said Dimitri. ‘Is Sir Herbert perhaps ill?’

Carrados slewed round and again he pointed at Dimitri.

‘You stole it, you filthy dago. I know you stole it. I have suspected it from the first. I could do nothing—nothing.’

‘Excuse me, Mr Alleyn,’ said Dimitri, ‘but I believe that I may charge Sir Herbert Carrados with libel on this statement. Is it not so?’

‘I don’t think I advise you to do so, Mr Dimitri. On the other hand I shall very strongly advise Lady Carrados to charge you with blackmail. Lady Carrados, is it a fact that on the morning of May twenty-fifth, when Lord Robert Gospell paid you a visit, you received a blackmailing letter?’

‘Yes.’

‘Do you believe that the only source from which the blackmailer could have got his information was the letter lost on the day of Captain O’Brien’s accident?’

‘Yes.’

Alleyn took an envelope from his pocket, handed it to her.

‘Was the blackmailing letter written in a similar style to this?’

She glanced at it and turned her head away.

‘It was exactly like that.’

‘If I tell you that the lady to whom this letter is addressed had been blackmailed as you have been blackmailed and that we have positive evidence that the man who wrote this address was Colombo Dimitri, are you prepared to charge him with blackmail?’

‘Yes.’

‘It is completely false,’ said Dimitri. ‘I shall certainly sue for libel.’

His face was ashen. He put his bandaged hand to his lips and pressed it against them.