me with you?" asked Mr. Mitchel coolly.

"Why do you ask?"

"Because if not, I should like to ask you one or two questions."

"You may do so."

"First, then, as the robbery was committed on a moving train, will you
tell me how you suppose it to have been accomplished, since the
passengers were searched?" Mr. Barnes had his own idea on this subject
which he did not choose to tell. He thought it well, however, to pretend
that he had still another theory. At least he could observe how Mr.
Mitchel received it.

"As you say, all were searched. The first was Mr. Thauret. Nothing was
found. Let us suppose a case. This man Thauret was in the same carriage
with the woman Rose Mitchel. When the train stopped at New Haven,
suppose that he took the satchel, left the train and passed it to you
through the window of your section, thinking that only his carriage
would be searched. After his own examination, he left the train at
Stamford. Why may he not have tapped upon your window and have received
back the satchel?"

"That would make him my accomplice. You are wrong. I do not know the man
at all."

"You admitted having met him when Miss Dora Remsen introduced him to
you."

"Once only. At a gaming table. That is why I was displeased to see him
in the home of my intended. Passing the robbery then, for despite my
denial you may think your explanation correct, and a jury might agree
with you, let us come to the murder. Do you suppose a man would make a
wager to commit a crime, and then go to the extreme of killing a woman."

"I do not! But having committed the robbery, and then having discovered
that this woman, who you say has blackmailed you, had actually taken an
apartment in the same building with your affianced, you may have gone
there to urge her to leave, and have killed her to save yourself."

"Plainly you do not know me. There is one point in what you say which is
interesting. Did I understand that this woman had an apartment in the
Thirtieth Street building."

"Certainly, and you knew it."

"You are mistaken. Let us return to the jewels. You think that these are
the missing gems. If I prove to the contrary, will you agree not to
place me under arrest?"

"With pleasure," said the detective, feeling safe in the idea that what
Mr. Mitchel offered to do was an impossibility.

"Thank you. That gives me my freedom, in exchange for which courtesy I
promise you all the assistance in my power in finding the murderer."