the hour when its perpetrator
has already made out an indisputable _alibi_."

"I don't know what you think of it all, of course," added the funny
creature as he fumbled for his coat and his gloves, "but I call the
planning of that murder--on the part of novices, mind you--one of the
cleverest pieces of strategy I have ever come across. It is one of those
cases where there is no possibility whatever now of bringing the crime
home to its perpetrator or his abettor. They have not left a single
proof behind them; they foresaw everything, and each acted his part with
a coolness and courage which, applied to a great and good cause, would
have made fine statesmen of them both.

"As it is, I fear, they are just a pair of young blackguards, who have
escaped human justice, and have only deserved the full and ungrudging
admiration of yours very sincerely."

He had gone. Polly wanted to call him back, but his meagre person was no
longer visible through the glass door. There were many things she would
have wished to ask of him--what were his proofs, his facts? His were
theories, after all, and yet, somehow, she felt that he had solved once
again one of the darkest mysteries of great criminal London.

CHAPTER XXXI

THE DE GENNEVILLE PEERAGE

The man in the corner rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and looked out upon
the busy street below.

"I suppose," he said, "there is some truth in the saying that Providence
watches over bankrupts, kittens, and lawyers."

"I didn't know there was such a saying," replied Polly, with guarded
dignity.

"Isn't there? Perhaps I am misquoting; anyway, there should be. Kittens,
it seems, live and thrive through social and domestic upheavals which
would annihilate a self-supporting tom-cat, and to-day I read in the
morning papers the account of a noble lord's bankruptcy, and in the
society ones that of his visit at the house of a Cabinet minister, where
he is the most honoured guest. As for lawyers, when Providence had
exhausted all other means of securing their welfare, it brought forth
the peerage cases."

"I believe, as a matter of fact, that this special dispensation of
Providence, as you call it, requires more technical knowledge than any
other legal complication that comes before the law courts," she said.

"And also a great deal more money in the client's pocket than any other
complication. Now, take the Brockelsby peerage case. Have you any idea
how much money was spent over tha