t the person for whom he
asked, and with whom he spent some twenty minutes in this very room, was
Mr. James B. Coulson of New York."

"Seated on this very couch, sir!" Mr. Coulson declared, striking the arm
of it with the flat of his hand,--"seated within a few feet of where you
yourself are at this present moment."

The Inspector nodded.

"Naturally," he continued, "when I became aware of so singular an
occurrence, I felt that I must lose no time in coming and having a few
more words with you."

Mr. Coulson became meditative.

"Upon my word, when you come to think of it," he said, "it is a
coincidence, sure! Two men murdered within twenty-four hours, and I seem
to have been the last person who knew them, to speak to either. Tell
you what, Mr. Jacks, if this goes on I shall get a bit scared. I think I
shall let the London business alone and go on over to Paris."

The Inspector smiled.

"I fancy your nerves," he remarked, "are quite strong enough to bear the
strain. However, I am sure you will not mind telling me exactly why Mr.
Richard Vanderpole, Secretary to the American Embassy here, should have
come to see you on Thursday night."

"Why, that's easy," Mr. Coulson replied. "You may have heard of my
firm, The Coulson & Bruce Company of Jersey City. I'm at the head of a
syndicate that's controlling some very valuable patents which we want to
exploit on this side and in Paris. Now my people don't exactly know how
we stand under this new patent bill of Mr. Lloyd George's. Accordingly
they wrote across to Mr. Blaine-Harvey, putting the matter to him, and
asking him to give me his opinion the moment I arrived on this side. You
see, it was no use our entering into contracts if we had to build the
plant and make the stuff over here. We didn't stand any earthly show of
making it pay that way. Well, Mr. Harvey cabled out that I was just to
let him know the moment I landed, and before I opened up any business.
Sure enough, I called him up on the telephone, an hour or so after I got
here, and this young man came round. I can tell you he was all right,
too,--a fine, upstanding young fellow, and as bright as they make em.
He brought a written opinion with him as to how the law would affect our
proceedings. I've got it in my room if you'd care to see it?"

Mr. Jacks listened to his companion's words with unchanged face.

"If it isn't troubling you," he said, "it would be of some interest to
me."

Mr. Coulson rose to hi