is?"

"In the way of my quotation--a corpse. I started my quest two years
ago--over a dead body, torn and mutilated. At the end of the first year
I found another dead body, torn and mutilated. I follow on and on--from
one point to the next point--often with no more than the instinct of the
hunter to guide me. And here, at the end of the second year, there is
yet another dead body, torn and mutilated. It is horrible. I sicken. I
wish I had remained in my retirement."

"What were the two previous crimes?" the inspector asked.

"Two women--two very beautiful women."

Inspector Fay started, staring at him.

"Miss Manderson was a beautiful woman," he said slowly.

Monsieur Dupont's enormous head nodded several times.

"She was," he agreed deliberately. "The most beautiful of the three."

There was silence for a moment. Then the inspector laid a hand on the
Frenchman's shoulder.

"We have worked together a good many times in the past," he said, with
more cordiality than before.

"We have, indeed," Monsieur Dupont responded pleasantly.

"And though your methods were always fanciful compared with our's, I
know enough of your powers to ask you a simple, straight question."

"I am at your service," said Monsieur Dupont.

"You were here on the spot when this crime was committed. Who, or what,
smashed the body of that unfortunate woman to pulp in this garden
to-night?"

Monsieur Dupont's gigantic form seemed to acquire a new, strange
dignity--a solemnity--as though he were in the presence, or speaking, of
something before which humanity must bow its head.

"A Destroyer," he whispered. "A Destroyer who strikes with neither fear
nor compunction--and passes on without pity or remorse. A Destroyer who
is as old as the sins of men, and as young as the futures of their
children."

"You always spoke in parables," the inspector exclaimed irritably. "What
do you mean?"

"I mean," said Monsieur Dupont, "that I believe the thing which passed
through this crooked garden to-night, leaving death so horribly behind
it, is the same thing that has already passed on twice before me, and
left the same death in its wake. I cannot tell you any more. Let us both
go our own ways, as we have done so many times before. I do not wish to
take any credit in this affair. If I am able to prove its connection
with my own case, and to solve it, I shall hand the whole matter over to
you."

The inspector appeared somewhat relieved.

Monsieu