to fall forward on the man who was
fingering his long moustache in a vain effort to frame an answer. But
no, the screen righted itself, and Nugent's tongue moistened his dry
lips into power of utterance.

"Very pretty, very pretty," he said, striving for calm. "But don't you
see, my dear Mallory, that all your midnight madness topples down like a
house of cards unless your daughter's informant--her fellow-prisoner, as
you call him--is a credible witness. I will make you a small wager that
he will never come forward and tell the public the wonderful pack of
lies with which he gulled that charming little girl of yours. I----"

Again that movement in the screen behind Nugent's chair, and this time
with results that shifted the centre of interest with startling
suddenness. Round the corner of the screen came Pierre Legros, gaunt and
haggard, his fierce eyes in accord with the furious spasms that made a
battle-ground of his unshaven face. Nugent, half turning in his chair to
look up at the apparition which had drawn the gaze of the other two,
broke off in the midst of his sneer with a sobbing catch in his throat.

"You say I not come forward to spik the truth?" the Frenchman began, in
a voice that shook with emotion. "I was hide here to do that to you, and
now these gentlemens shall hear the truth also. I only now learn it
myself, for it is different from what I think till now. I say to myself,
messieurs, that this _scelerat_ desire to depart in steamer with Louise
Aubin, but I was wrong. What you say about Ma'amselle Maynard and that
poor Jermicide, monsieur, show me all his wickedness as by flash of
lightning. It is true, gentlemens, that I kill Levison, and that this
Nugent tempt me to it."

The sergeant made a movement, but changed his mind. The man was in the
mood to confess, and confession implied that he meant surrender. No need
to lay hands on him till he had made a little more evidence. Mr. Mallory
stood like a graven image watching Nugent, who, still preserving the
half-turn he had made in his lounge chair, was staring up as if
fascinated by the man at his shoulder.

"It is that I desire to make clean the name of a man who is innocent,"
Legros went on. "This Jermicide--I not know him, I nevair spik with him,
but he do me no wrong, and Pierre Legros is not cruel, messieurs. I
would not that Jermicide suffer for me, who am guilty. Nugent, he send
for me, and pretend he wish to save Louise from the so deceitful
L