ere for the murderer of Louise Van Burnam. You see I had more
confidence in the excellence of your memory than you had yourself, so
much indeed that I gave you more than one chance to exercise it, having,
by certain little methods I sometimes employ, induced different moods in
Mr. Van Burnam at the time of his several visits, so that his bearing
might vary, and you have every opportunity to recognize him for the man
you had seen on that fatal night."

"Then it was he you brought here each time?" I broke in.

"It was he."

"Well!" I ejaculated.

"The Superintendent and some others whom I need not mention,"--here Mr.
Gryce took up another small object from the table,--"believed implicitly
in his guilt; conjugal murder is so common and the causes which lead to
it so frequently puerile. Therefore I had to work alone. But this did
not cause me any concern. _Your_ doubts emphasized mine, and when you
confided to me that you had seen a figure similar to the one we were
trying to identify, enter the adjoining house on the evening of the
funeral, I made immediate inquiries and discovered that the gentleman
who had entered the house right after the four persons described by you
was _Franklin Van Burnam_. This gave me a definite clue, and this is why
I say that it was you who gave me my first start in this matter."

"Humph!" thought I to myself, as with a sudden shock I remembered that
one of the words which had fallen from Miss Oliver's lips during her
delirium had been this very name of Franklin.

"I had had my doubts of this gentleman before," continued the detective,
warming gradually with his subject. "A man of my experience doubts every
one in a case of this kind, and I had formed at odd times a sort of side
theory, so to speak, into which some little matters which came up during
the inquest seemed to fit with more or less nicety; but I had no real
justification for suspicion till the event of which I speak. That you
had evidently formed the same theory as myself and were bound to enter
into the lists with me, put me on my mettle, madam, and with your
knowledge or without it, the struggle between us began."

"So your disdain of me," I here put in with a triumphant air I could not
subdue, "was only simulated? I shall know what to think of you
hereafter. But don't stop, go on, this is all deeply interesting to me."

"I can understand that. To proceed then; my first duty, of course, was
to watch _you_. You had reasons o