' he cried, 'should I have chosen that
moment of all others to send my brother back to the grave!' For a moment
the Inspector did not answer him. I do not know if any of you gentlemen
are acquainted with Inspector Lyle, but if you are not, I can assure you
that he is a very remarkable man. Our firm often applies to him for aid,
and he has never failed us; my father has the greatest possible respect
for him. Where he has the advantage over the ordinary police official is
in the fact that he possesses imagination. He imagines himself to be the
criminal, imagines how he would act under the same circumstances, and
he imagines to such purpose that he generally finds the man he wants. I
have often told Lyle that if he had not been a detective he would have
made a great success as a poet, or a playwright.

"When Arthur turned on him Lyle hesitated for a moment, and then told
him exactly what was the case against him.

"'Ever since your brother was reported as having died in Africa,' he
said, 'your Lordship has been collecting money on post obits. Lord
Chetney's arrival last night turned them into waste paper. You were
suddenly in debt for thousands of pounds--for much more than you could
ever possibly pay. No one knew that you and your brother had met at
Madame Zichy's. But you knew that your father was not expected to
outlive the night, and that if your brother were dead also, you would
be saved from complete ruin, and that you would become the Marquis of
Edam.'

"'Oh, that is how you have worked it out, is it?' Arthur cried. 'And for
me to become Lord Edam was it necessary that the woman should die, too!'

"'They will say,' Lyle answered, 'that she was a witness to the
murder--that she would have told.'

"'Then why did I not kill the servant as well!' Arthur said.

"'He was asleep, and saw nothing.'

"'And you believe _that?_' Arthur demanded.

"'It is not a question of what I believe,' Lyle said gravely. 'It is a
question for your peers.'

"'The man is insolent!' Arthur cried. 'The thing is monstrous!
Horrible!'

"Before we could stop him he sprang out of his cot and began pulling
on his clothes. When the nurses tried to hold him down, he fought with
them.

"'Do you think you can keep me here,' he shouted, 'when they are
plotting to hang me? I am going with you to that house!' he cried at
Lyle. 'When you find those bodies I shall be beside you. It is my right.
He is my brother. He has been murdered, and I can