"If you will allow me, I will keep to the facts." Tarling could have laughed at the sublime impertinence of the man, but that he was growing irritable with the double strain which was being imposed upon him.

It was probable that, had not this man accused Odette Rider of the murder, he would have left him to make his confession to Whiteside, and have gone alone in his hopeless search for the taxicab driven by Sam Stay.
"To resume," continued Mr.Milburgh, "I took the revolver home.

You will understand that I was in a condition of mind bordering upon a nervous breakdown.

I felt my responsibilities very keenly, and I felt that if Mr.
Lyne would not accept my protestations of innocence, there was nothing left for me but to quit this world." "In other words, you contemplated suicide ?" said Whiteside.
"You have accurately diagnosed the situation," said Milburgh ponderously.
"Miss Rider had been dismissed, and I was on the point of ruin.

Her mother would be involved in the crash--those were the thoughts which ran through my mind as I sat in my humble dining-room in Camden Town.