e was
talking to himself on the boat-deck of the _Leofric_; and again, with
the physical fear of the man that always came over her when she had
been near him for a little while. When she spoke to Griggs again the
tone of her voice had changed.

'Please tell me how it could have been done,' she said.

'Easily enough. A steel bodkin six or seven inches long, or even a
strong hat-pin. It would be only a question of strength.'

Margaret remembered Mr. Van Torp's coarse hands, and shuddered again.

'How awful!' she exclaimed.

'One would bleed to death internally before long,' Griggs said.

'Are you sure?'

'Yes. That is the reason why the three-cornered blade for duelling
swords was introduced in France thirty years ago. Before that, men
often fought with ordinary foils filed to a point, and there were many
deaths from internal hemorrhage.'

'What odd things you always know! That would be just like being run
through with a bodkin, then?'

'Very much the same.'

'But it would have been found out afterwards,' Margaret said, 'and the
papers would have been full of it.'

'That does not follow,' Griggs answered. 'The girl was an only child,
and her mother had been divorced and married again. She lived alone
with her father, and he probably was told the truth. But Isidore
Bamberger is not the man to spread out his troubles before the public
in the newspapers. On the contrary, if he found out that his daughter
had been killed--supposing that she was--he probably made up his mind
at once that the world should not know it till he had caught the
murderer. So he sent for the best detective in America, put the matter
in his hands, and inserted a notice of his daughter's death that
agreed with what the doctor had said. That would be the detective's
advice, I'm sure, and probably Van Torp approved of it.'

'Mr. Van Torp? Do you think he was told about it? Why?'

'First, because Bamberger is Van Torp's banker, broker, figure-head,
and general representative on earth,' answered Griggs. 'Secondly,
because Van Torp was engaged to marry the girl.'

'The engagement was broken off,' Margaret said.

'How do you know that?' asked Griggs quickly.

'Mr. Van Torp told me, on the steamer. They had broken it off that
very day, and were going to let it be known the next morning. He told
me so, that afternoon when I walked with him.'

'Really!'

Griggs was a little surprised, but as he did not connect Van Torp with
the possibilit