omfortably three of four afternoons a week,
and be home in time to dress for dinner! That was what you wanted," he
paused and searched deep into her eyes as she cowered before him, "but
_that was what you couldn't have!_"

"On the whole, I think he's guilty," concluded the judge an hour later,
speaking to Coquenil, who had been looking over the secretary's record of
the examination.

"Queer!" muttered the detective. "He says he had three pairs of boots."

"He talks too much," continued Hauteville; "his whole plea was ranting.
It's a _crime passionel_, if ever there was one, and--I shall commit him
for trial."

Coquenil was not listening; he had drawn two squares of shiny paper from
his pocket, and was studying them with a magnifying glass. The judge looked
at him in surprise.

"Do you hear what I say?" he repeated. "I shall commit him for trial."

M. Paul glanced up with an absent expression. "It's circumstantial
evidence," was all he said, and he went back to his glass.

"Yes, but a strong chain of it."

"A strong chain," mused the other, then suddenly his face lighted and he
sprang to his feet. "Great God of Heaven!" he cried in excitement, and
hurrying to the window he stood there in the full light, his eye glued to
the magnifying glass, his whole soul concentrated on those two pieces of
paper, evidently photographs.

"What is it? What have you found?" asked the judge.

"I have found a weak link that breaks your whole chain," triumphed M. Paul.
"The alleyway footprints are _not_ identical with the soles of Kittredge's
boots."

"But you said they were, the experts said they were."

"We were mistaken; they are _almost_ identical, but not quite; in shape and
size they are identical, in the number and placing of the nails in the heel
they are identical, in the worn places they are identical, but when you
compare them under the magnifying glass, this photograph of the footprints
with this one of the boot soles, you see unmistakable differences in the
scratches on separate nails in the heel, unmistakable differences."

Hauteville shrugged his shoulders. "That's cutting it pretty fine to
compare microscopic scratches on the heads of small nails."

"Not at all. Don't we compare microscopic lines on criminals' thumbs?
Besides, it's perfectly plain," insisted Coquenil, absorbed in his
comparison. "I can count forty or fifty nail heads in the heel, and _none_
of them correspond under the glass; those that should