ndition!"

"On the contrary, Leroux!" retorted Exel, standing very upright, and
staring through his monocle; "on the contrary, YOU misconstrue ME! I did
not intend to imply--to insinuate--"

"My dear Exel!" broke in Dr. Cumberly--"Leroux is perfectly well aware
that you intended nothing unkindly. But the poor chap, quite naturally,
is distraught at the moment. You MUST understand that, man!"

"I understand; and I am sorry," said Exel, casting a sidelong glance
at the body. "Of course, it is a delicate subject. No doubt Leroux can
explain."...

"Damn your explanation!" shrieked Leroux hysterically. "I CANNOT
explain! If I could explain, I"...

"Leroux!" said Cumberly, placing his arm paternally about the shaking
man--"you are such a nervous subject. DO make an effort, old fellow.
Pull yourself together. Exel does not know the circumstances--"

"I am curious to learn them," said the M. P. icily.

Leroux was about to launch some angry retort, but Cumberly forced him
into the chesterfield, and crossing to a bureau, poured out a stiff
peg of brandy from a decanter which stood there. Leroux sank upon the
chesterfield, rubbing his fingers up and down his palms with a
curious nervous movement and glancing at the dead woman, and at Exel,
alternately, in a mechanical, regular fashion, pathetic to behold.

Mr. Exel, tapping his boot with the head of his inverted cane, was
staring fixedly at the doctor.

"Here you are, Leroux," said Cumberly; "drink this up, and let us
arrange our facts in decent order before we--"

"Phone for the police?" concluded Exel, his gaze upon the last speaker.

Leroux drank the brandy at a gulp and put down the glass upon a little
persian coffee table with a hand which he had somehow contrived to
steady.

"You are keen on the official forms, Exel?" he said, with a wry smile.
"Please accept my apology for my recent--er--outburst, but picture this
thing happening in your place!"

"I cannot," declared Exel, bluntly.

"You lack imagination," said Cumberly. "Take a whisky and soda, and help
me to search the flat."

"Search the flat!"

The physician raised a forefinger, forensically.

"Since you, Exel, if not actually in the building, must certainly have
been within sight of the street entrance at the moment of the crime, and
since Leroux and I descended the stair and met you on the landing, it is
reasonable to suppose that the assassin can only be in one place: HERE!"

"HERE!" cried Exel