him. You were the spice in his bloody cup for
Michael Pendean--the salt, the zest. If he had merely stuck to
business, not a thousand detectives would ever have queered his
pitch. But he was as playful as any other hunting tiger. He rejoiced
in adding a thousand details to his original scheme. He was an
artist, but too florid, too decadent in his decorations. And so he
ruined what might have been the crime of the century. It is just the
touch of human fallibility that has brought Nemesis to many a great
criminal.

"The machinery he employed focussed attention from the first on the
apparent murderer rather than his victim. It appeared impossible to
doubt what had happened and Pendean's death was assumed but never
proved. Particulars concerning Robert Redmayne were abundant; yet,
during the whole course of the official inquiry, none was
forthcoming concerning the supposed victim. Of him you had heard
from his wife; and her original statement to you at Princetown--when
she invited you, doubtless at Pendean's direction, to take up the
case--was masterly because so nearly true in every respect.

"But from the time that I met and spoke with Albert's niece I began
to reflect upon that statement, and my speedy conviction was this:
that a great deal more concerning Jenny's first husband demanded to
be known. Do not suppose that I was on the track of the truth at
that period. Far from it. I only desired more data and regarded the
history of Michael Pendean as being of doubtful value, since his
wife alone was responsible for the details. It seemed to me
absolutely necessary to learn more than she was prepared to tell. I
had questioned her, but found her either ignorant of much concerning
him--or else purposely evasive. Of her three uncles, only Robert had
ever seen Michael Pendean. Neither Bendigo nor dear Albert had set
eyes on him; and that fact, though of no significance at first, of
course, became very significant indeed at a later stage of my study.

"I went first to Penzance and devoted several days to learning all
possible particulars of the Pendean family. On examining Michael
Pendean's ancestry, as a preliminary to finding out everything
remembered of Pendean himself, I at once made a highly important
discovery. Joseph Pendean, Michael's father, was often in Italy on
his pilchard business for the firm, and he married an Italian woman.
She lived with her husband at Penzance and bore him one son, and a
daughter who died