orgets every other consideration and in five minutes has started
for Bellagio. The boat is quickly in mid-lake under the darkness and
there Albert meets his death and burial. Pendean undoubtedly
murdered him with a blow--probably just as he murdered Robert and
Bendigo Redmayne; then, no doubt, he used weights, heavy stones
brought for the purpose, and sank his victim in the tremendous
depths of Como. He was soon back again with a clean boat and his
disguise in his pocket. He had an alibi also, for we found out that
he had been drinking for more than hour at an _albergo_ before he
came back to the villa."

"Thank you," said Brendon humbly. "There can be no doubt that it was
so. And now I will ask a final favour, Ganns. What happened has made
my mind a blank in some particulars. I should be thankful and
grateful if you would retrace your steps when you were in England. I
want to go over that ground again. You will not be at the trial; but
I must be; and, praise God, this is the last time I shall ever
appear in a court of law."

He referred to a determination that he had already expressed: to
leave the police service and seek other occupation for the remainder
of his life.

"That's as may be," answered Peter, bringing out the gold snuffbox.
"I hope you'll think better of it. You've had a bitter experience
and learned a great deal that will help you in business as well as
in life. Don't be beaten by a bad woman--only remember that you had
the luck to meet and study one of the rarest female crooks our
mysterious Creator ever turned out. A face like an angel and a heart
like a devil. Let time pass and presently you'll see that this is
merely a hiatus in a career that is only begun. Much good and
valuable work lies before you; and to abandon a profession for which
you are specially suited is to fly in the face of Providence
anyway."

After a pause and a long silence, while the train sped through the
darkness of the Simplon tunnel, Peter retraced the steps by which he
had been enabled to solve the riddle of the Redmaynes.

"I told you that you had not begun at the beginning," he said. "It's
really all summed up in that. You occupied an extraordinary
position. The criminal himself, in the pride of his craft and by
reason of the consuming vanity that finally wrecked him,
deliberately brought you in. It was part of his fun--his art if you
like--that he should involve a great detective for the added joy of
making a fool of