his day, between five and six o'clock, you will
see before you, in this room, the person who killed the Mornington heirs.
It is, humanly speaking, impossible that this should not be so.
Consequently, the law will be satisfied in any circumstances. He or I:
the position is quite simple."

M. Desmalions was silent. He gnawed his moustache thoughtfully and walked
round and round the table, within the narrow circle formed by the others.
It was obvious that objections to the supposition were springing up in
his mind. In the end, he muttered, as though speaking to himself:

"No, no. For, after all, how are we to explain that the man should have
waited until now to claim his rights?"

"An accident, perhaps, Monsieur le Prefet, an obstacle of some kind. Or
else--one can never tell--the perverse longing for a more striking
sensation. And remember, Monsieur le Prefet, how minutely and subtly the
whole business was worked. Each event took place at the very moment
fixed by Hippolyte Fauville. Cannot we take it that his accomplice is
pursuing this method to the end and that he will not reveal himself
until the last minute?"

M. Desmalions exclaimed, with a sort of anger:

"No, no, and again no! It is not possible. If a creature monstrous enough
to commit such a series of murders exists, he will not be such a fool as
to deliver himself into our hands."

"Monsieur le Prefet, he does not know the danger that threatens him if he
comes here, because no one has even contemplated the theory of his
existence. Besides, what risk does he run?"

"What risk? Why, if he has really committed those murders--"

"He has committed them, Monsieur le Prefet. He has _caused_ them to be
committed, which is a different thing. And you now see where the man's
unsuspected strength lies! He does not act in person. From the day
when the truth appeared to me, I have succeeded in gradually
discovering his means of action, in laying bare the machinery which he
controls, the tricks which he employs. He does not act in person.
There you have his method. You will find that it is the same
throughout the series of murders.

"In appearance, Cosmo Mornington died of the results of a carelessly
administered injection. In reality, it was this man who caused the
injection to prove fatal. In appearance, Inspector Verot was killed by
Hippolyte Fauville. In reality, it must have been this man who contrived
the murder by pointing out the necessity to Fauville and, so