gnorant whether the man,
as seen by him, had been tall or short. And then the manufacture of
the key,--though it was that which made every one feel sure that
Mealyus was the murderer,--did not, in truth, afford the slightest
evidence against him. Even had it been proved that he had certainly
used the false key and left Mrs. Meager's house on the night in
question, that would not have sufficed at all to prove that therefore
he had committed a murder in Berkeley Street. No doubt Mr. Bonteen
had been his enemy,--and Mr. Bonteen had been murdered by an enemy.
But so great had been the man's luck that no real evidence seemed to
touch him. Nobody doubted;--but then but few had doubted before as to
the guilt of Phineas Finn.

There was one other fact by which the truth might, it was hoped,
still be reached. Mr. Bonteen had, of course, been killed by the
weapon which had been found in the garden. As to that a general
certainty prevailed. Mrs. Meager and Miss Meager, and the
maid-of-all-work belonging to the Meagers, and even Lady Eustace,
were examined as to this bludgeon. Had anything of the kind ever
been seen in the possession of the clergyman? The clergyman had been
so sly that nothing of the kind had been seen. Of the drawers and
cupboards which he used, Mrs. Meager had always possessed duplicate
keys, and Miss Meager frankly acknowledged that she had a general and
fairly accurate acquaintance with the contents of these receptacles;
but there had always been a big trunk with an impenetrable lock,--a
lock which required that even if you had the key you should be
acquainted with a certain combination of letters before you could
open it,--and of that trunk no one had seen the inside. As a matter
of course, the weapon, when brought to London, had been kept
altogether hidden in the trunk. Nothing could be easier. But a man
cannot be hung because he has had a secret hiding place in which a
murderous weapon may have been stowed away.

But might it not be possible to trace the weapon? Mealyus, on his
return from Prague, had certainly come through Paris. So much was
learned,--and it was also learned as a certainty that the article
was of French,--and probably of Parisian manufacture. If it could be
proved that the man had bought this weapon, or even such a weapon, in
Paris then,--so said all the police authorities,--it might be worth
while to make an attempt to hang him. Men very skilful in unravelling
such mysteries were sent t