“What do you mean?”

The Comte’s agreeable smile flashed forth once more.

“Surely it is not necessary to go into details,” he purred. “Seek whom the crime benefits, they say, don’t they? As I said just now, you have come into a lot of money lately.”

Derek laughed.

“If that is all⁠—” he said contemptuously.

But the Comte was shaking his head.

“But it is not all, my dear sir. I should not come to you unless I had much more precise and detailed information than that. It is not agreeable, Monsieur, to be arrested and tried for murder.”

Derek came close up to him. His face expressed such furious anger that involuntarily the Comte drew back a pace or two.