Page:Richard Marsh--The goddess a demon.djvu/172

160 Lawrence was murdered within an hour or two of our playing that game of cards. How comes any one to know what was the amount he claimed to have won? No one saw him between the finish of the game and his death, except the man who murdered him."

"Miss Moore saw him—and you."

"Are you suggesting that Miss Moore wrote this letter—or I?"

"I see your point. You infer that whoever did write it killed Lawrence, because it discloses knowledge which could only be in possession of his murderer. There is something in the inference. But, if the thing's so plain, isn't it an act of rashness to have written you at all—rashness which is almost inconceivable?"

"De l'audace—you know the wise man's aphorism, I don't say the thing is plain. On the contrary, I believe it's more obscure than you think. Granting that whoever wrote that letter killed Lawrence—and I fancy you'll find that is the case—the question is who wrote it. It's signed 'The Goddess.' I believe 'The Goddess' was the writer. Query, who's 'The Goddess'? There's the puzzle."

"Are you intentionally speaking in cryptograms? May I ask what you mean?"

"I'm not quite sure that I know myself. I don't go so far as to say that there is anything