to do that, if that were the explanation, why,
then, all the rest was possible. The law of the Apache is the law of the
commonwealth; and he would find that out, as Lovetski had found it
out--too late. If St. Ulmer was in any way implicated, St. Ulmer's
fortune would be _one_ stake. And if this brainless weakling should fall
heir to his father's money, ho! there was the other "stake"; there the
possible motive, there the first connecting link!

Was that Margot's little game? Was that the way the idiot had been
tricked into becoming an accomplice? Just so! let's put the jumbled bits
together and see if they fit; let's sum up two and two and learn if they
really do make four.

First bit: De Louvisan with such a hold upon St. Ulmer that he can
compel his lordship to cancel his daughter's engagement and force her to
accept him as a fiance. Quite so! Second bit: De Louvisan, without any
rupture occurring between himself and St. Ulmer, suddenly murdered in
cold blood. And not only murdered, but spiked up to the wall after the
manner of Lanisterre and other traitors to the Apache. A clear proof
that this De Louvisan himself was an Apache; and being a traitor to the
cause---- Quite so! quite so! Prevented from marrying Lady Katharine,
because that was not part of the agreement; because he was making an
effort to obtain for himself and his own personal use a fortune which it
was intended should come into the commonwealth. Hum-m-m! Those two
pieces seem to fit together. Now for the next:

If St. Ulmer, over whom this De Louvisan undoubtedly had a hold of some
sort, bought that fellow's silence by promising him his daughter for a
wife, then it is quite certain that he was acquiescing in his
traitorship to the Apache and quite willing that the man should have
Lady Katharine's dower for himself. That bit fits also. Now for another:
if in doing that thing this De Louvisan merited the name of traitor, it
must have been that he came between the Apache and the possession of the
St. Ulmer fortune, and if the owner of that fortune had to make terms
such as he did with the man, the inference is as plain as the nose on
your face. In other words, St. Ulmer, too, had reason to dread the
Apache, and there must, therefore, be some connection between him and
Margot. Two and two--and it makes four exactly! St. Ulmer, then, is the
game, St. Ulmer the pivot upon which the whole case revolves.

Where, then, does young Raynor come in? Hum-m-m! Ah!