heirloom. All this happened not two hundred
yards from Villa Pianezzo under the darkness.

Then I rowed ashore swiftly, returned the boat to the beach
unobserved, hid my disguise in my pocket and strolled to a familiar
inn. I had occupied but twenty-four minutes from the time of setting
out under Brendon's eyes while he sat in the garden. I stopped at
this _albergo_ for a considerable period, that a sufficient alibi
might be established and the moment of my arrival there prove
uncertain, should any future question ever arise concerning it. Then
the crash came. I returned home suspecting nothing--to fall like
Lucifer, to find all lost, to hold my dead wife in my arms and know
that, without her, life was ended for me.

In seemly, splendid fashion she passed and it shall not be recorded
that the man this glorious woman loved made an end of his days with
less distinction and propriety. To die on the gallows is to do what
many others have done; I will condescend to no such ignominy. Ganns
understood me well enough for that. Did he not warn the police how I
had been a dentist, and advised them to examine my mouth with care?
He alone realized something of my genius, but not all. Only our
peers can judge us; and such men as I come like lonely comets into
the atmosphere of earth and lonely pass away. Our magnitude
terrifies--and the herd of men thanks God when we disappear. Indeed
I was unusually blessed, for I had a greater than myself for
companion on my voyage. Like twin stars we cast a blended light; we
shone and vanished together, never to be named apart henceforth.

Let not my legacy to Peter Ganns be forgotten, or that I appoint
Mark Brendon executor and residuary legatee. With him I have no
quarrel; he did his best to save the situation for us. You ask, "How
shall a man condemned to death and watched day and night that he may
lay no hand upon himself--how shall this man make his own
departure?" Before these words are read throughout the world, you
will learn the answer to that question.

I think there is nothing more to say.

"_Al finir del gioco, si vede chi ha guadagnato._" "At the end of
the game we may see the winner." But not always, for sometimes the
game is drawn and honours are easy. I have played a drawn game with
Peter Ganns and he will not pretend a victory, or withhold the first
applause where it belongs. He knows that, even if we were equal, the
woman was greater than either of us.