which, in such a man, seemed like
the strange hallucination of a poet--Bernardet did not doubt for a
moment the reality of this phantom which had appeared in the retina of
the eye. It was nothing more, that eye removed by the surgeon's scalpel,
than an avenging mirror. It accused, it overwhelmed! Jacques Dantin was
found there in all the atrocity of his crime.

"When I think, when I think that they did not wish to try the
experiment. It is made now!" thought Bernardet.

M. Ginory had strongly recommended that all that part of the examination
should not be made public. Absolute silence was necessary. If the press
could have obtained the slightest information, every detail of the
experiment would have become public property, and the account would have
been embellished and made as fantastic as possible. This would have been
a deep mine for Edgar A. Poe, who would have worked that lode well and
made the Parisians shudder. How the ink would have been mixed with
Rovere's blood! It was well understood that if the suspected man would
in the end confess his guilt, the result of the singular scientifically
incredible experiment should be made known. But until then absolute
silence. Every thing which had been said and done around the dissecting
table at the Morgue, or in the Examining Magistrate's room, would
remain a secret.

But would Dantin confess?

The next day after M. Ginory had put him under arrest Bernardet had gone
to the Palais for news. He wished to consult his chief about the "Woman
in Black," to ask him what he thought of the article which had been
published in the paper by Paul Rodier. M. Leriche attached no great
importance to it.

"A reporter's information. Very vague. There is always a woman,
_parbleu!_ in the life of every man. But did this one know Dantin? She
seems to me simply an old, abandoned friend, and who came occasionally
to ask aid of the old boy"----

"The woman noticed by Moniche is young," said Bernardet.

"Abandoned friends are often young," M. Leriche replied, visibly
enchanted with his observation.

As for Dantin, he still maintained his obstinate silence. He persisted
in finding iniquitous an arrest for which there was no motive, and he
kept the haughty, almost provoking attitude of those whom the Chief
called the greatest culprits.

"Murderers in redingotes believe that they have sprung from Jupiter's
thigh, and will not admit that any one should be arrested except those
who wear s