ry?"

"Yes, what of it?"

"Ten years ago? Fair? With blue eyes?

"Yes."

"Ah, Mon Dieu! Mon Dieu!" cried Sarah, falling on her knees. Suddenly
she rose. Hastily opening a secretary, she took from it an ebony casket,
which she opened. She took from it diamond necklaces and bracelets,
throwing them on the table in her hurry to reach the bottom.

"Is this she?" she cried, producing a small miniature.

"Yes."

Sarah took out paper and pen and began writing.

"Come," she said, "as you dictate, so I write. A written declaration--"

She did not finish. Screech-Owl brought down her arm and her dagger
entered Sarah's back between the shoulder-blades. She threw out her
hands and fell forward on the table.

Hastily gathering the jewels, the murderess slipped through the door
into the garden and escaped into the dark streets.

That night the police made one of the most notable hauls of the year;
they captured a group of notorious criminals in the act of murdering a
diamond-agent in a low-class resort on the banks of the Seine, among
them all the Martial family. In the cellar they found the blind
Schoolmaster chained to a pillar. He had been confined there by his
former comrades, who feared that in his helpless state he might fall
under the care of honest people and reveal to them the habits of his
associates. He was mad; in his arms he gripped, almost crushed, the dead
and mangled body of Screech-Owl, who, seeking to escape down the cellar,
had stumbled within the captive's reach.

_IV_

For some days Jacques Ferrand's clerks noticed in the notary a curious
change. He denied admission to his clients, though they knew his
interests suffered heavily thereby. His face thinned, his temples
hollowed, his complexion became ghastly yellow. In constant company with
him was a red-bearded man, known as Brodamonte.

Then came the announcement that Germain had been freed from prison, the
charges against him being dropped. Also that Monsieur Ferrand gave a
million francs to found a workingmen's bank where the poor could borrow
without paying interest. Germain was to be cashier.

Ferrand's sufferings were intense. Brodamonte, discovered in a criminal
act by Rudolph, was now his slave, and acted as his agent. Both were
watched by a well-concealed circle of spies. Brodamonte forced Ferrand's
system of restitution, under Rudolph's directions, who had succeeded in
obtaining from the notary by a trick papers which proved his cr