thrust it into my pocket and ran up the passage. I ran into somebody at
the far end--it turns out to have been you. Well, you saw me hurry
off--I got as far away as I could, lest you or somebody else should
follow. I wandered round Westbourne Grove, and then up into the Harrow
Road, and in a sort of back street there I sneaked into a shanty in a
yard, and stopped in it the rest of the night. And this morning I tried
to pawn the ring."

"Having no idea of its value," suggested Viner, with a glance at
Drillford, who was listening to everything with an immovable countenance.

"I thought it might be worth thirty or forty pounds," answered Hyde. "Of
course, I'd no idea that it was worth what's been said. You see, I'm
fairly presentable, and I thought I could tell a satisfactory story if I
was asked anything at the pawnshop. I didn't anticipate any difficulty
about pawning the ring--I don't think there'd have been any if it hadn't
been for its value. A thousand pounds! of course, I'd no idea of that!"

"And that's the whole truth?" asked Viner.

"It's the whole truth as far as I'm concerned," answered Hyde. "I
certainly picked up that ring in that passage, close by this man who was
lying there. But I didn't know he was dead; I didn't know he'd been
murdered. All I know is that I was absolutely famishing, desperate, in no
condition to think clearly about anything. I guess I should do the same
thing again, under the circumstances. I only wish--"

He paused and began muttering to himself, and the two listeners glanced
at each other. "You only wish what, Hyde?" asked Viner.