as a warning to all villains of all nationalities."

"This is against the law," whined the man, beads of sweat standing on
his forehead. "Give me a knife and let me fight you. You coward!"

"Give Solomon White a pistol, and let him fight you," said the other.
"It is against the law--well, I know it. But it is much more speedy than
the law, my little cabbage!"

He was busy making a slip-knot at one end of the rope, and presently he
had finished it to his satisfaction.

"Raoul Pontarlier," he said, "this is a moment for which I have waited."

The man screamed and twisted his head, but the noose was about his neck
and tightening. Then with a wrench Jack o' Judgment jerked him to his
feet.

"On to the table," he said sternly. "Mount! It is quicker so!"

"I will not, I will not!" yelled the Frenchman. His voice rose to a
shrill scream. "I--help!... help!..."

Half an hour later Jack o' Judgment came down the dark path, stopping
only for a second to look upon the figure of Solomon White.

"God have mercy on you all!" he said soberly, and passed into the night.

CHAPTER XIX

THE COLONEL IS SHOCKED

"The Putney mystery," said the _Daily Megaphone_, "surpasses any of
recent years in its sensational character. There is a touch of the
bizarre in this grim spectacle of the dead man at the door of the empty
house, and the swaying figure of his murderer hanging in the kitchen,
with no other mark of identification than a playing card pinned to his
breast.

"The tragedy can be reconstructed up to a point. Mr. White was evidently
killed in the garden by the Frenchman who was found hanging. The
automatic pistol in his pocket, which had recently been discharged,
might support this theory even if the police had not found tracks of his
feet in the laurels. But who hanged the man Raoul with a hangman's rope?
That is the supreme mystery of all. The Putney police can offer no
information on the subject, and Scotland Yard is as reticent. The
circumstances of the discovery are as follows. At three o'clock on the
morning of the 4th, Police-Constable Robinson, who was patrolling his
beat, entered the garden, as is customary when houses are empty, to see
if any doors had been forced. There had been an epidemic of burglaries
in the region of Putney Heath during the past two or three months, and
the police are exercising unusual vigilance in relation to these houses.
The constable might not have made his inspection that night b