dead girl?" queried the
Superintendent.

"Because he no doubt wished to mystify me in case of my recovery from
the effects of the drug," was my reply. "He was not quite certain of
the effect that the dose might have upon me, so in order to entirely
mislead me, so that if I recovered my statements would be discredited,
he showed me a girl who was still living, though to all intents dead.
Indeed, I have come to the conclusion that, aided by Moroni, he
purposely contrived that I should meet and recognize in Miss Tennison
the girl I had been told was the dead girl Gabrielle Engledue. And I
confess that I have been sorely puzzled all along that the girl whom I
had seen dead was actually alive, even though her mental state was
such as to show that she had met with foul play."

"Yes," remarked Rivero. "The plot was very cunningly conceived,
especially the manner in which you were entrapped and induced to give
the certificate."

"Here is the money which De Gex gave me for my share in the crime," I
said openly, laying the bank notes upon the Superintendent's table. "I
suppose some action will be taken against me, but I am prepared to
take the consequences, now that I have unmasked one of the greatest
and most dangerous criminals of modern times."

"You certainly have done that, Mr. Garfield," remarked Superintendent
Fletcher. "And I venture to think that the part which you have played
in solving this problem will be taken into account when your own
actions are considered."

"It seems to me," remarked Rivero, "that the reason the poison-maker,
Moroni, evinced such a keen interest in Miss Tennison, and his reason
for taking her to a number of specialists was solely in order to gain
their opinions and so further study the effects of the deadly drug
which he prepared."

"I have learnt," I said, "that Moroni was the laboratory assistant of
the late Professor Orosi, the discoverer of the drug."

"Ah! Then of course he knows the secret of its preparation, how to
administer it, and in what doses," remarked Fletcher.

"Even to-day," I said, "I have had yet another attempt upon my life
made by these scoundrels," and from my pocket I drew the little packet
containing the sample cake of toilet-soap, which I displayed to them
all. Then, handling it in the thick brown paper wrapping, I took my
pocket-knife and scraped the soap, quickly revealing a number of sharp
steel points imbedded in it.

"You see there are sharp clippings in