old thing, monsieur. A mystery to be unravelled. Mr. Brenton
here wishes to retain you in his case."

"And what is his case?" was the answer.

Lecocq was evidently pleased to have a bit of real work given him.

[Illustration: The detective.]

Speed briefly recited the facts, Brenton correcting him now and then
on little points where he was wrong. Speed seemed to think these points
immaterial, but Lecocq said that attention to trivialities was the whole
secret of the detective business.

"Ah," said Lecocq, sorrowfully, "there is no real trouble in elucidating
that mystery. I hoped it would be something difficult; but, you see,
with my experience of the old world, and with the privileges one enjoys
in this world, things which might be difficult to one below are very
easy for us. Now, I shall show you how simple it is."

"Good gracious!" cried Speed, "you don't mean to say you are going to
read it right off the reel, like that, when we have been bothering
ourselves with it so long, and without success?"

"At the moment," replied the French detective, "I am not prepared to say
who committed the deed. That is a matter of detail. Now, let us see what
we know, and arrive, from that, at what we do not know. The one fact, of
which we are assured on the statement of two physicians from Cincinnati,
is that Mr. Brenton was poisoned."

"Well," said Speed, "there are several other facts, too. Another fact is
that Mrs. Brenton is accused of the crime."

"Ah! my dear sir," said Lecocq, "that is not pertinent."

"No," said Speed, "I agree with you. I call it very impertinent."

Brenton frowned, at this, and his old dislike to the flippant Chicago
man rose to the surface again.

The Frenchman continued marking the points on his long forefinger.

"Now, there are two ways by which that result may have been attained.
First, Mr. Brenton may have administered to himself the poison;
secondly, the poison may have been administered by some one else."

"Yes," said Speed; "and, thirdly, the poison may have been administered
accidentally--you do not seem to take that into account."

"I do not take that into account," calmly replied the Frenchman,
"because of its improbability. If there were an accident; if, for
instance, the poison was in the sugar, or in some of the viands served,
then others than Mr. Brenton would have been poisoned. The fact that one
man out of twenty-six was poisoned, and the fact that several people are
to ben