For a moment afterwards Martin Hillyard, Joan and Jenny Prask stood in silence; and in that silence once more Martin's eyes fell upon the key of Stella's room.

The earth had moved since the interrogatory had begun and the sunlight now played upon the key and transmuted it into a bright jewel.

Martin Hillyard stepped forward and lifted it up.

A faint, a very faint light, as from the far end of a long tunnel began to glimmer in his mind.
"I must think it out," he whispered to himself; and at once the key filled all his thoughts.

He turned to Joan: "Will you watch, please ?" He opened the drawer in the table and laid the key inside it.