But I didn't, and, in a flash, the air seemed to clear.

Some shadow lifted from my brain, and I was looking at the three men with full and absolute recognition.
The clock on the mantelpiece struck ten o'clock.
The three faces seemed to change before my eyes and reveal their secrets.

The young one was the murderer.

Now I saw cruelty and ruthlessness, where before I had only seen good-humour.

His knife, I made certain, had skewered Scudder to the floor.