hich it looks as if he had seen as well as heard.

"I didn't notice it. Is the District Attorney prepared to make the next
move? Mine has failed."

"Not yet. The game is too hazardous. We should only make ourselves
ridiculous in the eyes of the whole world if we should fail in an attack
upon a man of such national importance. After the two inquests and a
letter I hope to receive from Switzerland, we may be in a position to
launch our first bomb. I don't anticipate the act with any pleasure;
the explosion will be something frightful."

"If half you think is true, the unexpected confronting of him with Mrs.
Taylor should produce some result. That's what I reckon on now, if the
business falls first to me."

"I reckon on nothing. Chance is going to take this thing out of our
hands."

"Chance! I don't understand you."

"I don't understand myself; but this is a case which will never come into
court."

"I differ with you. I almost saw confession in his face when he turned
upon me at last with that extravagant expression of admiration for the
woman you say he meant to kill."

"Why did his finger go so continuously to his vest pocket? When you
answer that, I will give a name to what I just called _chance_."

XXX

THE CREEPING SHADOW

Mrs. Taylor suffered a relapse, and the inquest which had been held back
in anticipation of her recovery was again delayed. This led to a like
postponement of an inquiry into the death of Madame Duclos; and a
consequent let-up in public interest which thus found itself, for the
nonce, deprived of further food on which to batten.

Meanwhile, Mr. Gryce was not idle. Anxious to determine just how and
where Madame Duclos' story fitted into the deeper and broader one of the
museum crime, he made use of his fast waning strength to probe its
mysteries and master such of its details as bore upon the serious
investigation to which he was so unhappily committed. When he had done
this,--when he had penetrated, as it were, into the very heart of the
matter to the elimination of all doubt and the full establishment of his
own theory, it was felt that the time had come for some sort of positive
action on the part of those interested in the cause of justice.

This they decided should take the form of a personal interview between
certain officials and Mr. Roberts himself. A lesser man would have been
asked to meet the District Attorney in his office; but in a case of such
moment where the h