each; the
arrow under his coat; and his place of concealment so chosen as to make
his escape feasible the moment that arrow flew from the bow. Had she
entered that section alone--had the arrow found lodgment in her breast
instead of in that of another--nay, I will go even further and say that
had no cry followed his act, an expectation he had every right to count
upon from the lightning-like character of the attack,--he would have
reached the Curator's office and been out of the building before quick
discovery of the deed made his completion of this attempt impossible."

"But the girl did cry out," remarked the Assistant District Attorney.
"How do you account for that, since, as you say, it was not natural for
one pierced to the heart without warning?"

"Ah, you see the big mistake we made,--Correy and all the rest of us. Had
Miss Willetts, or I should say, Mademoiselle Duclos, been the one to let
out that dolorous cry, the man just behind the partition would have been
there almost in time to see her fall. Correy, who started up the stairs
at the first sound, would have been at the gallery entrance before the
man of the arrow could have dropped the hanging over his retreating
figure. But it was not from her lips, poor girl, that this gasping shriek
went up, but from those of the woman who saw the deed and knew from whom
the arrow came and for whom it was meant. How do I know this? Because of
the time which elapsed, the few precious minutes which allowed Mr.
Roberts to get as far away as the court. For she did not voice her agony
immediately. Even she, with her own unwounded heart keeping up its
functions, stood benumbed before this horror. Not till the full meaning
of it all had penetrated her reluctant brain did she move or cry out. How
long this interval was; whether three minutes were consumed by it, or
five, we have no means of telling. She, in her despair, would take no
note of time, nor would Mr. Travis, reeling in the opposite gallery under
the shock of seeing all that he loved taken from him in one awful
minute."

Here the detective turned with great earnestness toward the two
officials.

"This question of time has been, as I have repeatedly said, the greatest
stumbling-block we have encountered in our consideration of this crime.
How could the assassin, by any means possible, have got so far away from
the pedestal, in the infinitesimal lapse of time between the cry that was
heard and the quick alarm which f