causes of the crime, and the conviction of the persons actually engaged
in it."

"Why did you want to bring Jean de Courtois here?"

"Because he is the connecting link between the one set of circumstances
and the other."

"Is he coming, do you think?"

Steingall looked at the clock, and showed a disappointment which he did
not try to conceal.

"I fear not," he said. "I told Clancy only to try and persuade him to
come. The Frenchman is pretending to be ill, but he is not ill, only
frightened."

"Frightened of what?"

"Of the consequences of his own acts. In a sense, Mr. Hunter was his
ally, but only from a journalist's standpoint, which centered in the
sensation which would be provided by the projected marriage."

Schmidt's eyelids had fallen and risen regularly during the past few
minutes. They dropped now for a longer period than usual. As for Lord
Valletort and his would-be son-in-law, they were profoundly and
unfeignedly ill at ease. Even a British Earl cannot afford to play
fast and loose with the law, and it did seem most convincingly clear
that they had brought themselves within measurable reach of the law by
the tactics they had employed prior to their arrival in New York.

Oddly enough, their own possible connection with the murder of the
journalist was a good deal more patent to them than to Curtis and
Devar, who were vastly better posted in the evidence affecting them.
Still more curiously, not a word had been said about Martiny or Rossi.

"Let us suppose," said Schmidt, when his eyes had opened again, "that
Lady Hermione elects to return to Europe at once with her father, the
Earl----"

Steingall shook his head with a weary smile, and the lawyer's voice
ceased suddenly.

"Out of the question, Mr. Schmidt, out of the question. I am sure of
it. Why, little more than half an hour ago I found her with Mr. Curtis
in their apartments at the Plaza Hotel----"

"Ridiculous!" shrieked Lord Valletort in a shrill falsetto. "My
daughter passed the night in her apartment in 59th Street. I myself
saw her go there."

"Probably. Your lordship would know the facts if you watched her
departure from the Plaza Hotel. But a woman has the inalienable
privilege of changing her mind, and Lady Hermione has returned to her
husband. In fact, I am given to understand that she and Mr. Curtis are
arranging a new marriage, not because the earlier ceremony is illegal,
or can be upset, but in deference to cert