ality of life once more obtruded itself upon
his conscience. All the time Sabatini lounged at his ease and
watched him, always with the faint beginning of a smile upon his
lips.

"What I have told you," the latter continued, after a few moments'
pause, "must not, during these days, pass beyond the four walls of
this singularly uninviting-looking apartment. I have nothing to add
or to take from what I have said. The subject is closed. If you have
more questions on any other subject, I have still a few minutes."

"Very well, then," Arnold said, coming back to his place, "let us
consider the Rosario matter disposed of. Let us go back for a moment
to Starling. Tell me why you and your sister saw danger to
yourselves in Starling's nervous breakdown? Tell me why, when I
returned to Pelham Lodge with her that night, she found a dead man
in her room, a man whose body was afterwards mysteriously removed?"

"Quite a spirited number of questions," Sabatini remarked. "Well, to
begin with, then, Rosario signed his death-warrant the moment he
wrote his name across the parchment which guaranteed the loan. On
the night when you first visited Pelham Lodge we heard the news. I
believe that Lalonde and his friends would have killed him that
night if they could have got at him. Lalonde, however, was a person
of strange and inaccessible habits. He hated all aristocrats, and he
refused even to communicate with me. Speaking for myself, I was just
as determined as Isaac Lalonde that Rosario should never conclude
that loan. I told him so that night--Starling and I together. It was
thought necessary, by those whose word I am content to accept, that
what I had to say to Rosario should come through Starling. It was
Starling, therefore, who told him what his position would be if he
proceeded further. I must admit that the fellow showed courage. He
took a note of Starling's words, which he declared at the time
should be deposited in his safe, so that if anything should happen
to him, some evidence might be forthcoming. The police, without a
doubt, have been in possession of this document, and, curiously
enough, Starling was at the _Milan_ that day. You will perceive,
therefore, that in the absence, even, of a reasonable alibi it might
be difficult to prove his innocence. To our surprise, however, for
we had some faith in the fellow, instead of taking this matter with
the indifference of a brave man, he has chosen to behave like a
child. In his p