and as the daylight
vanished above his head, the ring flew from his up-thrown hand, and lay,
the only token of his now blotted-out existence, upon the emerald sward
he had but a moment before pressed with his unsuspicious feet. It
burned--this ruby burned like a drop of blood in the grass, when that
demon came again to his senses, and being a tell-tale evidence of crime
in the eyes of one who had allowed nothing to ever speak against him in
these matters, he stared at it as at a deadly thing directed against
himself and to be got rid of at once and by means which by no
possibility could recoil back upon himself as its author.

"The pigeons stalking near offered to his abnormally acute understanding
the only solution which would leave him absolutely devoid of fear. He
might have swung open the lid of the well once more and flung it after
its owner, but this meant an aftermath of experience from which he
shrank, his delight being in the thought that the victims he saw vanish
before his eyes were so many encumbrances wiped off the face of the
earth by a sweep of the hand. To see or hear them again would be
destructive of this notion. He preferred the subtler way and to take
advantage of old Mother Jane's characteristics, so he caught one of the
pigeons (he has always been able to lure birds into his hands), and
tying the ring around the neck of the bird with a blade of grass plucked
up from the highway, he let it fly, and so was rid of the bauble which
to Mother Jane's eyes, of course, was a direct gift from the heavens
through which the bird had flown before lighting on her doorstep."

"Wonderful!" I exclaimed, almost overwhelmed with humiliation, but
preserving a brave front. "What invention and what audacity!--the
invention and the audacity of a man totally irresponsible for his deeds,
was it not?" I asked. "There is no doubt, is there, about his being an
absolute maniac?"

"No, madam." What a relief I felt at that word! "Since we entrapped him
yesterday and he found himself fully discovered, he has lost all grip
upon himself and fills the room we put him in with the unmistakable
ravings of a madman. It was through these I learned the facts I have
just mentioned."

I drew a deep breath. We were standing in the sight of several men, and
their presence there seemed intolerable. Unconsciously I began to walk
away. Unconsciously Mr. Gryce followed me. At the end of several paces
we both stopped. We were no longer visibl