"Yes. It beats me, sir. What would she want to dong him off for? I reckoned it was the other lady."

"Your exquisite reason, Bailey?"

"Well, look how she carried on," said Bailey disgustedly. "Making a break for her dressing-room and lying away like a good 'un. Now I've seen the statements it looks still more like it."

"And she's one step nearer Mr. Saint's fortune by this—she was his heir after the deceased. And Mr. Saint consults a heart specialist regularly and, no doubt, does not obey his orders. That makes your eyes bulge, doesn't it?"

"I must say it does, sir. Now look at it this way. Suppose my lady Emerald takes Mr. Saint's glove when he's round behind. She's sure to meet him, seeing how things are between them. She plants the gloves and the cartridges somewhere—likely enough in one of the unused drawers of the desk. She's on the stage. She's by the desk. She waits for the lights to be blacked out and then puts on the glove, changes over the cartridges, and drops the gloves in Miss Max's bag. It would look too obvious to leave them near the desk. She knows all this stuff about bad blood between Saint and his nephew will come out. Saint gets rigged out with the hug-me-tight necktie, and she romps home with the dibs."

"Could anything be better put? And I suppose she dips the thumb of the glove into Miss Vaughan's wet-white just to make it more difficult."

"That's the catch in it," admitted Bailey gloomily.

"Look here," said Nigel loudly. "Listen!"

"Ssh!" whispered Alleyn excitedly.

"Don't be silly, now. Listen to me. Miss Vaughan showed you how Surbonadier struck her on the shoulder. Suppose he got the stuff on his hand and—oh no. Sorry."

"As we were, Bailey," said Alleyn.

"We all of us make mistakes, sir," said Detective Bailey kindly.

Nigel looked foolish.

"Well, anyway," he said, "I bet Surbonadier upset the stuff."

"More than likely," agreed Alleyn.

At this juncture Inspector Fox walked in.

"Here's the Props fancier," said Alleyn.

"Good morning, Mr. Bathgate. Yes, that's me. I don't see how you can get past that funny business with the chandelier. And he knew the dummies were in the second drawer. There's motive, behaviour and everything else."

"And the gloves?" Alleyn asked.

"Left on the stage by Mr. Saint, and used by Props for the job."

"And the stage-white of Miss Vaughan, on the glove of Mr. Saint, used by Props for the job?"

"Oh, it was hers, was it?" grumbled Inspector Fox. "Well, Saint must have gone into her room."