to the full glow of the
lanterns and the flare which had been lit close to the door of the dead
man's carriage, conscious that every eye was fixed upon his face and
that the members of the local force were silently and breathlessly
"spotting" him. But in that moment the weird birth-gift had been put
into practice, and Narkom fetched a sort of sigh of relief as he saw
that a sagging eyelid, a twisted lip, a queer, blurred _something_ about
all the features, had set upon that face a living mask that hid
effectually the face he knew so well.

"To business?" he repeated. "Ah, yes, quite so, my dear Cleek. Shall I
tell the ladies and gentlemen of your promise? Well, listen. Mr. Cleek
is more than a quarter of an hour beyond the time he set, but he gave me
his word that this riddle would be solved to-night, to-night, ladies and
gentlemen, and that when I saw him here the murderer would be with him."

"Oh, bless him! bless him!" burst forth Mrs. Brinkworth impulsively.
"And he brings her! That wicked woman! Oh, I knew that she had something
to do with it."

"Your pardon, Mrs. Brinkworth, but for once your woman's intuition is at
fault," said Cleek quietly. "Mademoiselle Fifi is not here as a
prisoner, but as a witness for the Crown. She has had nothing even in
the remotest to do with the crime. Her name was used to trap Lord
Stavornell to his death. But the lady is here to prove that she never
heard of the note which was found on Lord Stavornell's body; to prove
also that, although it is true she did expect to go to a fancy-dress
ball with his lordship, that fancy-dress ball does not occur until next
Friday, the sixteenth inst., not the ninth, and that she never even
heard of any alteration in the date."

"Ah, non! non! non! nevaire! I do swear!" chimed in Fifi herself, almost
hysterical with fright. "I know nossing--nossing!"

"That is true," said Cleek quietly. "There is not any question of
Mademoiselle Fifi's complete innocence of any connection with this
murder."

"Then her husband?" ventured Captain Crawford agitatedly. "Surely you
have heard what Mrs. Brinkworth has said about seeing him in town
to-day?"

"Yes, I have heard, Captain. But it so happens that I know for a
certainty M. Philippe de Lesparre had no more to do with it than had his
wife."

"But, my dear sir," interposed the colonel; "the--er--foreign person at
the station, the little slim man in the Norfolk suit, the fellow with
the little dark mousta