riday--the ambassador was at his
desk as usual. He dictated a dozen or more letters, and had begun
another--a private letter to his sister in Paris. He was well along in
this letter when, without any apparent reason, he rose from his desk and
left the room, closing the door behind him. His stenographer's
impression was that some detail of business had occurred to him, and he
had gone into the general office farther down the hall to attend to it.
I may say, Monsieur, that this impression seemed strengthened by the
fact that he left a fresh cigarette burning in his ash tray, and his pen
was behind his ear. It was all as if he had merely stepped out,
intending to return immediately--the sort of thing, Monsieur, that any
man might have done.

"It so happened that when he went out he left a sentence of his letter
incomplete. I tell you this to show that the impulse to go must have
been a sudden one, yet there was nothing in his manner, so his
stenographer says, to indicate excitement, or any other than his usual
frame of mind. It was about five minutes of twelve o'clock--high
noon--when he went out. When he didn't return immediately the
stenographer began transcribing the letters. At one o'clock Monsieur
Boissegur still had not returned and his stenographer went to luncheon."

As he talked some inbred excitement seemed to be growing upon him, due,
perhaps, to his recital of the facts, and he paused at last to regain
control of himself. Incidentally he wondered if Mr. Grimm was taking the
slightest interest in what he was saying. Certainly there was nothing in
his impassive face to indicate it.

"Understand, Monsieur," the secretary continued, after a moment, "that I
knew nothing whatever of all this until late that afternoon--that is,
Tuesday afternoon about five o'clock. I was engaged all day upon some
important work in my own office, and had had no occasion to see Monsieur
Boissegur since a word or so when he came in at ten o'clock. My
attention was called to the affair finally by his stenographer, Monsieur
Netterville, who came to me for instructions. He had finished the
letters and the ambassador had not returned to sign them. At this point
I began an investigation, Monsieur, and the further I went the more
uneasy I grew.

"Now, Monsieur, there are only two entrances to the embassy--the front
door, where a servant is in constant attendance from nine in the morning
until ten at night, and the rear door, which can only