m."

CHAPTER XVI

THE THIRD PAIR OF BOOTS

The wheels of justice move swiftly in Paris, and after one quiet day,
during which Judge Hauteville was drawing together the threads of the
mystery, Kittredge found himself, on Tuesday morning, facing an ordeal
worse than the solitude of a prison cell. The seventh of July! What a date
for the American! How little he realized what was before him as he bumped
along in a prison van breathing the sweet air of a delicious summer
morning! He had been summoned for the double test put upon suspected
assassins in France, a visit to the scene of the crime and a viewing of the
victim's body. In Lloyd's behalf there was present at this grim ceremony
Maitre Pleindeaux, a clean-shaven, bald-headed little man, with a hard,
metallic voice and a set of false teeth that clicked as he talked. "Bet a
dollar it's ice water he's full of," said Kittredge to himself.

When brought to the Ansonia and shown the two rooms of the tragedy,
Kittredge was perfectly calm and denied any knowledge of the affair; he had
never seen these holes through the wall, he had never been in the alleyway,
he was absolutely innocent. Maitre Pleindeaux nodded in approval. At the
morgue, however, Lloyd showed a certain emotion when a door was opened
suddenly and he was pushed into a room where he saw Martinez sitting on a
chair and looking at him, Martinez with his shattered eye replaced by a
glass one, and his dead face painted to a horrid semblance of life. This
is one of the theatrical tricks of modern procedure, and the American was
not prepared for it.

"My God!" he muttered, "he looks alive."

Nothing was accomplished, however, by the questioning here, nothing was
extorted from the prisoner; he had known Martinez, he had never liked him
particularly, but he had never wished to do him harm, and he had certainly
not killed him. That was all Kittredge would say, however the questions
were turned, and he declared repeatedly that he had had no quarrel with
Martinez. All of which was carefully noted down.

[Illustration: "A door was opened suddenly and he was pushed into a room."]

While his nerves were still tingling with the gruesomeness of all this,
Lloyd was brought to Judge Hauteville's room in the Palais de Justice. He
was told to sit down on a chair beside Maitre Pleindeaux. A patient
secretary sat at his desk, a formidable guard stood before the door with a
saber sword in his belt. Then the examination