Page:Richard Marsh--The goddess a demon.djvu/162

150 leave this room; and we shan't get there by blinking facts. I say that the cloak's Miss Moore's. You perceive that it's caked with blood."

"I see."

"I believe that blood to be Edwin Lawrence's. The proof is easy; you have only to subject it to a microscopical examination you will know. The stain on my pyjamas came off her cloak. That on the towel was where she wiped her hands, not where I wiped mine. The water in which she washed them I threw into the road. It was bright red. Not only were her hands reeking wet, there were smears upon her face as well."

"Ferguson!"

"Those are the facts. I've made it a rule of my life never to dodge a fact which I don't like; I hit at it. And it's because I hit at those facts that I know they don't mean she killed him; I know she didn't."

"How do you know?"

I laughed.

"Because I know her; perhaps you don't."

"I've known her the better part of my life."

"And I only since last night, when she came through my window with shining hands."

"But how can you know she didn't, unless you know who did? Did you?"

I laughed again.