“I’ll risk it,” said the man suddenly. “It was just as you say. I came in, and went straight to the master⁠—and there he was, dead on the floor and blood all round. Then I got the wind up proper. They’d ferret out my record, and for a certainty they’d say it was me as had done him in. My only thought was to get away⁠—at once⁠—before he was found⁠—”

“And the jade figures?”

The man hesitated.

“You see⁠—”

“You took them by a kind of reversion to instinct, as it were? You had heard your master say that they were valuable, and you felt you might as well go the whole hog. That, I understand. Now, answer me this. Was it the second time that you went into the room that you took the figures?”

“I didn’t go in a second time. Once was enough for me.”

“You are sure of that?”