"I could try the Yard," mumbled Nigel. "But I'll leave it for the moment. Let's have another squint at that paper."

He and Gardener spent the next hour in speculation on the authorship of the letter. Gardener said he didn't think Saint would do it. Nigel said if he was rattled, there was no knowing what he would do.

"If he's a murderer——" he began.

"I'm not sure that he is. Another view is that he's scared I may know something of what Surbonadier found out about him, and thinks I may do exactly what I have done—come clean."

"Did he know you were friendly with Surbonadier?"

"Yes, Arthur introduced us in those days. Afterwards, when I took to the boards, he saw me in the first decent part I played, and remembered me. That's partly how I got my first shop under his management. Not nice to think of now. Arthur resented it very much. He used to tell people I'd got in on his family ticket. God, what a dirty game it is! Do you remember what I said about actors?"

"I do."

"Look at the way they behaved last night, with Surbonadier lying dead on the stage. All of them acting their socks off—except Stephanie."

Nigel looked at him curiously. He seemed to hear Alleyn's sardonic "Lovely exit, wasn't it?" after Miss Vaughan had left the stage. He remembered the curiously seductive note she struck afterwards, in her interview with the inspector. Even he, Alleyn, had stood longer than was necessary with his hand on her bruised shoulder. Nigel thought virtuously of his Angela and felt a little superior.

"I wonder what she's doing?" Gardener said presently. "I wanted to go and see her to-night, but she said she'd ring up."

"What's she so frightened about?" Nigel blurted out. Gardener's face whitened. The look that had been there that morning returned.

"Of course she's frightened," he said at last. "She thinks Alleyn realised Surbonadier was pestering her and threatening her. It wasn't hard last night to see how the land lay. She always made nothing of it to me. Until this morning I didn't realise myself what he was up to. This morning she showed me her shoulder, and told me that after I left her he struck her—the swine! My God, if I'd known that!"

"It's damn' lucky for you that you didn't," said Nigel. "And he's dead now, Felix."

"She told me Alleyn had seen the bruise. She thought Alleyn suspected her. She's terribly highly strung and the shock has been almost overwhelming."

"And you were afraid for her, too?"

"Yes—after this morning. Until then, selfish imbecile that I was, I thought only of myself. That they should even think of her! It's monstrous."