Found out! He looked at his finger, touched it with an impersonal curiosity.

He had forgotten all about such a possibility.

Where had he read that there is no crime but leaves some evidence, infinitesimally small though it be, which shall lead to the truth?
After all, he was glad.

The strain, borne so long, was gradually killing him.

A little finger, to have stopped the wheel of so great a scheme! Irony! "Your Highness," he said, his voice soft and strangely clear, "I have been waiting for this hour.