"Then the wet-white. It was spilled after we left the dressing-room. Miss Vaughan said no one but herself and Trixie had been in the room after Surbonadier left it. Gardener was the only person who could have gone there. Anyone else would have run into the Beadles, who stood in the elbow of the passage before they went to the wardrobe-room. Gardener left her in his room to go to the stage. If Props had done the job he would not have gone near the star-room. Nor would Simpson, who was on the stage. Nor would Saint, if he'd come through the proscenium door, which squeaks like sour hell, anyway. But Gardener would."

"You mean," said Nigel, "he left her in his room, went into hers and put on the gloves, made sure there was no one in the passage and darted on to the stage. That was when he got the wet-white on the gloves?"

"Yes."

"What about the threatening letter?"

"Aha! His first bad break. He typed that letter on the stage during the last act for future use in case he wanted to substantiate that little romance of the sore toe. Then he must suddenly have remembered that after the murder he would probably be searched. He had prepared no plan to circumvent that; the whole business of the note was an impromptu effort suggested by his chance encounter in the dark. One imagines him regretting his cleverness then, for he couldn't possibly destroy the paper completely while on the stage. On the spur of the moment, he must have slipped it out of sight somewhere about the desk, perhaps simply in the pile of unused type-paper. After I'd searched him he had the opportunity to retrieve it while he waited on the stage for Miss Vaughan. You told me he always hammered away at the letter Q in that scene. He must have remembered telling you that, and when he recovered the paper he wiped away the prints on the machine from every letter except Q. Most artistic, but fortunately Bailey had already tested the machine, careful creature that he is, and found Gardener's prints all over it. When we tested it again—no prints on any letter but Q. All would have been well if Bailey had been a little less industrious."

"But Stephanie Vaughan's confession——" began Nigel.

"Her confession! Her confession that she'd gone to Surbonadier's flat and tried to get back the forged paper that she knew he kept in his box. Her confession that I'd found her and she hoped she'd bamboozled me into thinking she was after her letters. Her confession that I'd held her in my arms and that I was his worst enemy——" Alleyn stopped short.

There was a long pause, during which Nigel gazed speculatively at his friend.

"And Props?" he said at last.