ining friends, it
seemed.

"It was a fine night; I established myself out of sight under the
doorway of an unfinished house opposite, and waited. I don't know why;
perhaps I fancied that when his friends were gone, the fineness of the
night might induce Monsieur Steinmetz to take a stroll, and that then I
should be able to gratify my curiosity. You see, I knew that if he were
my man, I should know him directly. I waited a good while: shadows
crossed the lighted blinds; once a big, broad shadow appeared there,
that made me fancy I mightn't have been waiting for nothing after all,
somehow. Presently Monsieur Steinmetz's guests departed, and in a little
while after there appeared on the little balcony of Monsieur Steinmetz's
apartment _the man I wanted_. There was a moon that night, and the cold
white light fell on the great yellow face, with the full lustful lips,
and the full cruel chin, just as I had seen the light fall on it in my
dream. It was the same face, Bertie; the same face, the same man. I
couldn't be mistaken. I had no doubt; I _knew_ that the assassin of my
wife, of that tender, innocent, helpless child, stood there, twenty
yards from me, on that balcony.

"I had got myself pretty well in hand; and it was as well. I never
moved. The face I knew turned presently toward the spot where I stood
hidden,--the face I had seen in my dream, beyond all doubting. The evil
gray eyes glanced carelessly into the shadow, and up and down the quiet
street; and then Monsieur Steinmetz, humming an air, got inside the
window again, and closed it after him. Once more the great burly shadow
that had at first told me I should not wait in that dark doorway in vain
crossed the blinds; and then it disappeared. I saw my man no more that
night; but I had seen enough. I knew who he was now, and where to find
him.

"As I walked along home I thought what I would do. I quite meant to kill
Monsieur Steinmetz; but I also meant to have no _demeles_ with an
Imperial Procureur and the Cour d'Assizes for doing so. I didn't want to
murder him, either. I thought I would wait a little for the chance of a
suitable opportunity for settling my business satisfactorily. And I did
wait. I turned this delay to account, and got together a case of
circumstantial evidence against my man that, though perhaps it might
have broken down in a law-court, would have been alone amply sufficient
for me.

"The reason why Lucille's visits to the banker's house ceas