have another theory," Mr. Thauret almost sneered.

"I have and it is the correct one," retorted Mr. Barnes, "but I prefer
not to disclose it."

"I think you are quite right, Mr. Barnes," said Emily. "In fact, knowing
you by reputation as a man of great shrewdness, I have not thought that
you were telling us your true ideas. It would have been foolish to do
so."

"Perhaps, though sometimes what seems foolish, may be wise."

"Quite true. And now gentlemen, I regret the necessity of dismissing
you, but I have a ball on hand for to-night, and must beg you to excuse
us, that we may prepare for it. You know in the fashionable world we
train for a ball, as athletes do for their sports. You will forgive my
sending you away?"

This was her way and men never resented it. They simply obeyed. Mr.
Barnes was delighted that both the other men would leave with him. He
had prepared a trap for Mr. Mitchel, but now he would entice two birds
into it.

CHAPTER VI.

MR. BARNES'S TRAP.

It must not be supposed from what has been related, that Mr. Barnes had
lost any of his old time skill. That he did not yet quite understand the
case upon which he was working, is little to be wondered at when it is
remembered that less than two days had elapsed since the robbery had
occurred, and that a great part of this time he had necessarily been
absent from the city upon another case.

After his disappointment at discovering that the button which he had
found was less valuable than he had at first supposed, he had decided
upon a mode of procedure from which he hoped to gain much. He had seen
many men flinch when brought unexpectedly into the presence of their
murdered victim. He knew that many in a fit of passion, or even in cold
blood, might have the nerve to take human life. Few resisted a shudder
when shown the ghastly, mutilated, perhaps decomposing corpse. When he
left the hotel that morning it was about ten o'clock. Whilst he had been
convinced by Mr. Mitchel that the button found at the scene of the
murder was not one of the original set, or rather that it could not be
proven that it had been, he was equally satisfied, that the fact that
it presented a portrait of Miss Remsen was significant. Thus, after all,
it was possible that Mr. Mitchel had murdered the woman, or at least he
had visited the apartment. In either case, supposing that he knew the
woman was dead, it would be idle to take him up three flights of stairs
to con