xecution by the soulless mechanism of
the burglar defying-safe. The law of heaven shone forth in triumph and
what was repentant in the errant soul was recalled to where goodness is
omnipotent.

The flame leaped over the three dead bodies and seized upon the
furniture, spreading in all sides. The timbers of the villa were old and
kiln-dried. The proprietor, returning from the station, had a dreadful
beacon to guide him.

All Montmorency turned out of doors to assist in extinguishing the
conflagration. Not often does the quiet suburb treat itself to such
spectacles, and when, to that sensation, was added that of three dead
bodies dragged from the shattered drawing-room where every thing else
was consumed, it may be believed that the night was memorable.

The Daniels were telegraphed to at Paris, and they returned before
midnight. They alone knew that the grief of Clemenceau was given to
Antonino and not to his wife, but the lookers-on were deceived, and many
a man, returning to his slippers and the evening journal, scolded his
wife for having repeated baseless scandals about the proprietor of the
Reine-Claude Villa living on cool terms with his unfortunate wife.

The coroner of Montmorency did not display any broad perception of the
tragedy, although the superfluity of eight inches of Sendlingen's steel
in the side of a young man pronounced dead by asphyxia would have struck
one of the laity. But the reporters of the Paris press were more
perspicacious. They related that an envoy of a foreign union of
unscrupulous capitalists had attempted to rob M. Clemenceau's residence
of his inventions and France of a glory, but had been met by his
dauntless wife and an assistant who had punished the brigand, although
losing their own lives in defence of the patriotic trust. It was formed
convenient to suppress all mention of the fact of the lady being Russian
and the man Italian.

But in his death, Von Sendlingen gained some revenge. The loss of
Antonino the detailed plans delayed Clemenceau in his project. The War
farther threw them back and it was only recently that his perfected
cannon was formally accepted. In all his tribulations and
disappointments, Daniels supported him, for he, too, was an idealist,
and so truly his friend as to defer his own scheme until he should be at
ease.

After the fortuitous meeting of those men had come irresistible
attraction and communion, moral, intellectual and scientific--friendship
to th