his uncle?"

She spoke very quietly, but, too, very earnestly. Murder is an ugly
word; I marvelled that she did not shrink from it.

"Why are you so anxious to know, Miss Cooper?" I temporized--"out of
friendship for Mr. Maillot?"

"No," frankly meeting my intent look, "though that would be a sufficient
reason." She paused a moment, biting her under lip in the intensity of
her musing. Then,--

"Mr. Swift, I 'm going to be perfectly candid with you; I 'm going to lay
bare my mind--and my feelings. I pray that you will do the same by me.
Am I presuming too much?"

Lay bare my feelings--great heavens! She would have thought me crazy.
In a sense, Torquemada himself could scarcely have made me more
uncomfortable; but I would not have had that delightful _tete-a-tete_
broken in upon for anything in the world.

"I realized this morning," she proceeded, after I had clumsily begged her
to, "that Royal is in a desperate plight, though why or how he came to be
I can't understand.

"I realized, too, that the story he told will appear incredible--even
ridiculous--to anybody who does not know him. I do know him"--I could
well believe that!--"and for that reason, nothing short of an admission
of guilt from him would cause me to consider him as a participant--in any
capacity, Mr. Swift--in last night's tragedy."

"Your loyalty does you credit," I murmured, for lack of anything better
to say.

"Loyalty?" she cried, with emotion. "Oh, Mr. Swift! That's not the
word! It's not loyalty that moves me to speak in Royal's behalf,
although I would do much for him in any case. But--Belle--"

She was stopped by a sudden accession of feeling, and I tried to inject
into my demeanor the encouragement she quite plainly needed.

"Before you go on," I quietly observed, "I will say that Mr. Maillot
impressed me very favorably."

"Yes," quickly; "I also perceived that. It was that circumstance which
finally overcame my reluctance to intrude upon you. You were greatly
puzzled, though, baffled, by his extraordinary story."

"Not baffled, I trust," I said.

"Well, no; perhaps not baffled. But the extravagant recital that fell
from his lips must have seemed to you fantastically improbable.

"It is chiefly for Belle Fluette's sake, however," she pursued, "that I
want to learn--oh, everything about this dreadful affair--all the little
details. I want to enlist your sympathies for Royal; not against him."

It was a relief when