if the contention is raised that no connection has been shown to
exist between Mrs. Taylor and this foreign Madame, save such as was made
by the death of Madame's child, I must retort by asking who warned Madame
Duclos of the fatal occurrence at the museum in time for her to flee
before even our telephone messages reached her hotel? Gentlemen, there is
but one person who could have done this--our chief witness, Ermentrude
Taylor. She alone had not only the incentive, but the necessary
opportunity. Coroner Price as well as myself made a great mistake when we
allowed Mrs. Taylor to go home alone that day."

"Very likely." This from the Chief Inspector. "But if the information I
have received on this point is correct, she seemed at that time to be so
entirely dissociated with a deed whose origin had just been located in
the opposite gallery, that you have no real cause to blame yourselves in
this regard."

"True; our minds were diverted. But you are waiting for me to explain
what I mean by opportunity. Since my attention has been drawn to Mrs.
Taylor again, I have been making inquiries. The chauffeur who drove her
to her hotel has been found, and he admits that she stopped once on her
way home, to buy some coffee. He watched her as she went into the store
and he watched her as she came out; and he smelled the coffee. Happily,
the interest he took in her as a sick woman intrusted to his care was
strong enough for him to remember the store. It was one with two
entrances, front and back; and next door to it there is a public building
with a long row of telephone booths on the ground floor. If I read the
incident aright, she bought her coffee, ordered it ground, slipped out at
the rear door and into the adjoining building, where, unnoticed and
unheard, she called up the Universal and got into communication with
Madame Duclos. When she returned it was by the same route. She did not
forget her coffee nor give way under the great strain to which she had
subjected herself till she reached her own apartment."

"Clever."

"And true, gentlemen; I will stake my reputation on it, unable as I am to
explain every circumstance, and close up every gap. Have you any further
questions to ask or shall I leave you to your deliberations?"

XXIX

A STRONG MAN

An hour later when the Chief Inspector rose to depart, it was with the
understanding that until their way cleared and their duty in this matter
had become inevitable, no wo