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  Judith pressed her hands to her cheeks. ‘It is too terrible! too shocking! Ever since that day Peregrine has been in danger!’

  ‘Hardly that,’ replied the Earl. ‘I have had him carefully watched ever since then. I believe Ned Hinkson has never been a favourite with you, Miss Taverner, but you will admit that his prompt action on Finchley Common last year compensated for his lack of skill on the box. He is by profession a pugilist, and although I have reason to believe that my tiger – a somewhat severe critic – doubts his ability to shine in the Ring, I myself feel that, given a patron, he may do very well indeed.’

  ‘Hinkson!’ Miss Taverner exclaimed. ‘Oh, I have been blind indeed!’

  ‘I am aware that an attempt was once made to hold my cousin up on Finchley Common,’ Bernard Taverner said contempt uously. ‘Is that also to be put to my account?’

  ‘I am quite sure that it might be put to your account,’ replied the Earl, ‘but I scarcely think a jury would be interested. But they might be interested in a certain jar of snuff at present in my possession, and still more interested in the effects of that snuff upon the human system.’

  Bernard Taverner’s hand closed convulsively on the edge of the mantelpiece. ‘I fear I am far from understanding you now, my lord,’ he said.

  ‘Are you?’ said the Earl. ‘Have you never wondered why that snuff did not seem to affect Peregrine? I concede you a certain amount of forethought in thinking of a means of poisoning your cousin through a medium on which I am known to be an expert; but you might have considered, I should have thought, that while I might certainly be suspected of having put up the snuff, if its being poisoned were ever discovered, there was also a strong probability that I should be the very person to make that discovery. The circumstance of the mixture being heavily scented was enough to make me suspicious. I found the opportunity, while he was staying in my house, to abstract Peregrine’s snuff-box. It was a little difficult to determine the exact proportions of the three sorts used in making the original mixture, but I believe I succeeded fairly well. At all events, Peregrine detected no difference.’

  ‘His illness in your house!’ Miss Taverner cried. ‘That cough! Good God, is this possible?’

  ‘Oh yes,’ said the Earl in his matter-of-fact way. ‘Scented snuffs have long been a means of poisoning people.You may remember, Miss Taverner, that I found an excuse to send Hinkson up to Brook Street while you were at Worth?’

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘You wanted the lease of the house.’

  ‘Not at all. I wanted the rest of Peregrine’s snuff. He had told me where the jar was kept, and Hinkson was easily able to find an opportunity to go up to his dressing-room and exchange the jar for another, similar one, that I had given him. Later, when I was in town again, I visited the principal snuff-shops in the whole of London – a wearing task, but one which repaid me. That particular mixture is not a common one; during the month of December only three four-pound jars of it were sold in town. One was bought at Fribourg and Treyer’s by Lord Edward Bentinck; one was sold by Wishart to the Duke of Sussex; and the third was sold by Pontet, in Pall Mall, to a gentleman who paid for it on the spot, and took it away with him, leaving no name. The description of that gentleman with which the shopman was obliging enough to furnish me was exact enough not only to satisfy me, but also to embolden me to suppose that he would have no difficulty in recognising his customer again at need. Do you think a jury would be interested in that, Mr Taverner?’

  Bernard Taverner was still clenching the edge of the mantel piece. A rather ghastly smile parted his lips. ‘Interested – but not convinced, Lord Worth.’

  ‘Very well,’ said the Earl. ‘We must pass on then to your next and last attempt. I will do you the justice to say that I don’t think it was one you would have made had not the fixed date of Peregrine’s marriage made it imperative for you to get rid of him at once. You were hard-pressed, Mr Taverner, and a little too desperate to consider whether I might not be taking a hand in the affair. From the moment of Peregrine’s wedding-day being made known you have not made one movement out of your lodgings that has not been at once reported to me. You suspected Hinkson, but Hinkson was not the person who shadowed you. You have had on your heels a far more noted figure, one who must be as well known as I am myself. You have even thrown him a shilling for holding your horse. Don’t you know my tiger when you see him, Mr Taverner?’

  Bernard Taverner’s eyes were fixed on the Earl’s face. He swallowed once, but said nothing.

  The Earl took a pinch of snuff. ‘On the whole,’ he said reflectively, ‘I believe Henry enjoyed the task. It was a little beneath his dignity, but he is extremely attached to me, Mr Taverner – a far more reliable tool, I assure you, than any of your not very efficient hirelings – and he obeyed me implicitly in not letting you out of his sight. You would be surprised at his resourcefulness. When you drove your gig over to New Shoreham to strike a bargain with that seafaring friend of yours you took Henry with you, curled up in the boot. His description of that mode of travel is profane but very graphic. I am anticipating, however. Your first action was to introduce a creature of your own into Peregrine’s household – a somewhat foolhardy proceeding, if I may say so. It would have been wiser to have risked coming into the foreground at that juncture, my dear sir. You should have disposed of Peregrine yourself. Well, you made arrangements to have Peregrine transported out to sea. Was he then to be dropped overboard? It would be interesting to know what precise fate lay in store for him. I can only trust that it may have befallen Tyler, whose task was undoubtedly to have overpowered Peregrine at a convenient moment during his drive to Worthing, and to have handed him over to the captain of that vessel. To make doubly sure, Tyler tried to drink Hinkson under the table before setting out. But Hinkson has a harder head than you would believe possible, and instead of remaining under the table, he came to me. I waylaid Peregrine on the West Cliff, and requested him to come back with me to my house on a matter of business. Once I had him under my roof I gave him drugged wine to drink, while Henry performed the same office for Tyler. Hinkson then drove Tyler to the rendezvous you had appointed, Mr Taverner, and delivered him up to your engaging friends. It was he who wrote you the message which you thought came from Tyler, telling you that he had done his part, and would meet you in London. Peregrine was carried out of my house that evening and taken aboard my yacht, which was lying in New Shoreham harbour.’

  ‘Oh, how could you?’ Judith broke in. ‘What he must have suffered!’

  He smiled. ‘Charles felt very much as you appear to do, Miss Taverner. Fortunately I am not so tender-hearted. Peregrine has suffered nothing worse than a severe headache, and a week’s cruise in excellent weather. He has not been imagining himself in any danger, for I gave my captain a letter of explanation to be delivered to him when he came to his senses.’

  ‘You might have told me!’ Judith said.

  ‘I might, had I not had an ardent desire to try your cousin into betraying himself,’ replied the Earl coolly. ‘It was with that object that I left Brighton. Charles did the rest. He led Mr Bernard Taverner to believe – did he not, my dear sir? – that he and I had concocted a scheme to lure you to town, and there to force you into marriage with one or other of us. He dropped a special licence under Mr Taverner’s nose and left the rest to his own ingenuity. You took fright, sir, precisely as you were meant to, and this is the outcome. The game is up!’

  ‘But – but you?’ demanded Miss Taverner, in a bewildered voice. ‘Where were you, Lord Worth? How could you know that my cousin meant to bring me here?’

  ‘I did not know. But when Henry was able to report to Charles that your cousin had left Brighton on Saturday night, Charles sent the tidings to me express, and I returned to Brighton on Sunday night, where I have been ever since, waiting for your cousin to move. Henry followed you to the Post Office this morning, witnessed your meeting with Mr Taverner, and ran to tell me of it. I could have overtaken you at any moment during you