It wasn't so much
what they have done to me that made me do it. I would have acted
the same if it had been de Moche instead of Lockwood who was
playing on her heart. I was afraid, to tell the truth, that you
wouldn't tell her until it was too late. And she's too good to
throw herself away and allow her fortune to be wasted by a couple
of speculators."
"Very well," said Craig. "For the sake of argument, let us admit
all that. What did you expect to accomplish by it?"
"Why--put an end to it, of course."
"But do you think she was going to accept as truth what you told
her? Would that be natural for one so high-strung?"
"Perhaps not--right away. But I supposed she would come to you--as
I see she has, for you know about it. After that, it was only a
question of time. It may have been a heroic remedy, but the
disease was critical."
"Suppose," suggested Craig, "that, after all, he told her that he
was there in the Museum, but that he did not get the dagger. And
suppose that she believed it. What then?"
Norton looked up quickly. "Did he tell her that?"
"I am supposing that he did," repeated Craig, declining to place
himself in a position which might lead to disclosing how he found
out.
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