was a happy thought of yours to think of this one. Indeed, everything
we've done has been done on your initiative, and when our friend is
finally brought to justice, the deed will really be due to you, and you
alone."

The defiant look was disappearing from her eyes, and she rose with an
expression of pain.

"Why do you torture me like this?" she said. "After what has happened,
isn't it quite plain that I am his friend, and not his enemy?"

"Perhaps," said the Baron. His face assumed a death-like rigidity. "Sit
down and listen to me."

She sat down, and he returned to his place by the stove.

"I say you gave us the clues we have worked upon. Those clues were
three. First, that David Rossi knew the life-story of Doctor Roselli in
London. Second, that he knew the story of Doctor Roselli's daughter,
Roma Roselli. Third, that he was for a time a waiter at the Grand Hotel
in Rome. Two minor clues came independently, that David Rossi was once a
stable-boy in New York, that his mother drowned herself in the Tiber,
and he was brought up in a Foundling. By these five clues the
authorities have discovered eight facts. Permit me to recite them."

Leaning his elbow on the stove and opening his hand, the Baron ticked
off the facts one by one on his fingers.

"Fact one. Some thirty odd years ago a woman carrying a child presented
herself at the office in Rome for the registry of births. She gave the
name of Leonora Leone, and wished her child, a boy, to be registered as
David Leone. But the officer in attendance discovered that the woman's
name was Leonora Rossi, and that she had been married according to the
religious rites of the Church, but not according to the civil
regulations of the State. The child was therefore registered as David
Rossi, son of Leonora Rossi and of a father unknown."

"Shameful!" cried Roma. "Shameful! shameful!"

"Fact two," said the Baron, without the change of a tone. "One night a
little later the body of a woman found drowned in the Tiber was
recognised as the body of Leonora Rossi, and buried in the pauper part
of the Campo Verano under that name. The same night a child was placed
by an unknown hand in the _rota_ of Santo Spirito, with a paper attached
to its wrist, giving particulars of its baptism and its name. The name
given was David Leone."

The Baron ticked off the third of his fingers and continued:

"Fact three. Fourteen years afterwards a boy named David Leone, fourteen
years of age