The Russian says that he was the only servant in the house.
Certainly, we have found no evidence to show that any other servant
slept here. There could be but one other person who would possess a
key to the house and the letter-box--and he lives in St. Petersburg.
At the time of the murder he was two thousand miles away.' Lyle
interrupted himself, suddenly, with a sharp cry, and turned upon me,
with his eyes flashing. 'But was he?' he cried. 'Was he? How do we
know that last night he was not in London, in this very house when
Zichy and Chetney met?'
"He stood, staring at me without seeing me, muttering, and arguing
with himself.
"'Don't speak to me,' he cried, as I ventured to interrupt him. 'I
can see it now. It is all plain. It was not the servant, but his
master, the Russian himself, and it was he who came back for the
letters! He came back for them because he knew they would convict
him. We must find them. We must have those letters. If we find the
one with the Russian postmark, we shall have found the murderer.' He
spoke like a madman, and as he spoke he ran around the room, with one
hand held out in front of him as you have seen a mind-reader at a
theatre seeking for something hidden in the stalls.
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