Rue Barbette later in the day. He has not been seen since, so the
little scoundrel is either dead or a prisoner in Hussein-ul-Mulk's flat.
As I cannot permit myself to participate in a murder or even in an
illegal imprisonment, I am regretfully compelled this morning to take
the police into my confidence and inform them of an obvious fact which
escaped their penetration yesterday."

Fairholme whistled.

"I must say," he cried, "I gave a passing thought to the incident myself
last evening when your spy reported that the Frenchman remained in No.
11 after the Turks had quitted it."

"Yes," said Brett. "You see, all you need to cultivate is the habit of
deduction, and you will soon become a capital detective."

The earl laughed. "I hope you will tell that to Edith," he said, "and
perhaps you may change her opinion concerning my reasoning capacities.
She thinks I am an awfully stupid chap as a rule."

"That is because she is in love with you," said Brett.

"Well, now, that remark puzzles me more than anything else you have
said." His lordship darted a quick look at the barrister in the
endeavour to learn whether or not he was in a chaffing mood.

"Why should a woman seek to depreciate anything she values?"

"Simply because it denotes a secure sense of complete ownership. Miss
Talbot would never hold such a view of your intellectual powers if you
were merely a friend."

"Well," said the earl dubiously, "that is a new point of view for me at
any rate."

"It is a fact nevertheless. But we have not much time, so we must
reserve any further consideration of feminine inconsistency. The fate of
the Frenchman must be determined to-day, and to decide the question I
must act through the police, so a conversation with our friend the
commissary becomes inevitable. And now to return to the hypothetical
part of my conclusions. I began by assuming that the individual who
planned the Albert Gate outrage and subsequently sought to bamboozle his
employers by palming off on them a set of spurious diamonds, is far too
acute to attempt to dispose of the real gems for many months yet to
come. He obtained sufficient funds from the Turks, in pursuance of what
may be termed the legitimate part of his contract, to enable him to live
for a considerable period without further excitement. Closely associated
with him in the present adventure is La Belle Chasseuse. Neither would
endeavour to procure safety by flight to a foreign country. They