"You can make certain of that by seeing Busham."
Mrs. Moxton looked troubled. "I am afraid," she said faintly. "I am terribly afraid."
"Mr. Busham called on the morning after the murder; he must have learnt then of my loss. Yet he has never repeated his visit, has never written a line. I can't conceive his reason for acting in this way, unless," here she hesitated, "he believes that I murdered Edgar."
"He would not be so foolish as to believe that without evidence, and even if he did, the inquest must have disabused his mind of the idea."
"For all that I am afraid to call. I have heard Edgar talk of Mr. Busham; he is a dangerous man, Dr. Ellis, and for all I know may be laying a trap for me."
"Tell me the truth and I will prevent your falling into this trap."
Mrs. Moxton hesitated, and then burst out defiantly: "What is it you wish to know?"
"Firstly, if you know the meaning of the blood signs on your husband's arm?"
"You!" Mrs. Moxton bit her lip. "What do you know?"
"That the signs stand for the letters R. U. Z. What the lizard, as I think it is, means I don't know. Mrs. Moxton, what is the meaning of the three letters R. U. Z.?"
"Had your husband any friend with a name beginning Ruz, or with initials R. U. Z.?"
"And you don't comprehend either the letters or the cypher?"
This triple denial was so emphatic that Ellis was forced to believe her. Yet it appeared strange that she should be so ignorant of matters which virtually concerned the death of her husband. He looked keenly at her for some sign of confusion, but the brow of Mrs. Moxton was as open as the day. If she lied she was a wonderful actress, but Ellis did not believe that she lied, being too much in love to consider her so deliberately base.
"Well!" said he, making an attempt in another direction to fathom the mystery. "My landlady, Mrs. Basket, called to see you the other day."
"To spy out the land. Oh, I saw through her pretended kindness at once. She wished to find some proof of my guilt, but as I had nothing to conceal I gave her the opportunity of convincing herself that I was innocent."
"The very proof you gave convinced her of your guilt," said Ellis, warmly. "Mrs. Basket is a dangerous woman, Mrs. Moxton; one of those well-meaning people who do so much harm. She has no special grudge against you, but she has got it into her mind that you killed your husband with the carving-knife."