Mrs. May was sitting up in bed. There was a pink spot on either cheek and her dark eyes were blazing.
"I hope nothing is wrong," she said. "It might have been my fancy, but it seemed to me that I heard you call Tchigorsky's name at the top of your voice."
The suggestion was made with a fervent earnestness that the woman could not repress. But Vera did not notice it.
"I did," she said. "I walked into the library, hearing voices there, and in a chair Dr. Tchigorsky was seated. No wonder that I cried out. It was a fearful shock. And when he began to talk I could not believe the evidence of my senses."
The woman asked the question mechanically. She knew perfectly well what the reply would be; she knew that she had been discovered at last, and that the murder of Voski had been turned to good purpose by Tchigorsky. And she knew now who her new ally, Ben Heer, really was.
"Dr. Voski," Vera explained. "I have been hearing all about Lassa and a certain Princess Zara, who seems to be a dreadful wretch. But I fear that I am exciting you. And you haven't drunk your tea."
The woman gulped down her tea and then fell back on her bed, closing her eyes. She wanted to be alone, to have time to think. Danger had threatened her before, but not living, palpitating peril like this. Vera crept away and the woman rose again, but she could not get from her bed.
"That man has beaten me," she groaned. "It is finished for good and all. But their revenge will not be of long duration."
The police had more or less taken possession of Ravenspur. They were everywhere asking questions that Tchigorsky took upon himself to answer.
As he had expected, the note carried by Vera and deposited in the farmhouse garden had been found on one of the bodies. The inspector of police was an intelligent man, and he fell in with everything that Tchigorsky suggested.
"Of course you can't read this book," said the Russian as he handed over the fateful diary for safe custody, "but there are one or two Oriental scholars in London who will bear out my testimony. Have you any doubt?"
"Personally not the least," the inspector replied. "You say it is impossible for that woman to get away?"
"Absolutely impossible. She is safe for days."