nd impassive, betraying the strength of character
and masterful purpose that lay beneath the outward mask.

"Is there anything else I can tell you?" asked Fairholme.

"You are quite sure that his was a nature that could not stoop to a
vulgar intrigue?" said Brett. "Remember that in this relation the finest
natures are prone to err. From long experience, I have learnt to place
such slips in quite another category than mere lapses of criminality."

"Of course any man who knows the world must appreciate your reasons
fully, but from what I know of Jack I am persuaded the thing is quite
impossible. Even if it were otherwise, he would never be so mad as to go
off when he knew that something very unusual and important was about to
occur with reference to a special mission for the successful conclusion
of which he had been specially selected by the Foreign Office."

"Ah, there you touch on the strange happenings of coincidence.
Circumstantial evidence convicts many offenders, but it has hanged many
an innocent man before to-day. I could tell you a very remarkable case
in point. Once----"

But Smith appeared to announce dinner, and Brett not only insisted that
his new acquaintance should dine heartily, but also contrived to divert
him from present anxieties by drawing upon the rich storehouse of his
varied experiences.

The meal, therefore, passed pleasantly enough. Both men arranged to
visit Sir Hubert Fitzjames during the evening and decide on a definite
course of action which would receive the approval of the authorities.
Armed with a mandate from the Foreign Office, Brett could enter upon his
task without fear of interference from officialdom. Nothing further
could be done that night, as the private inquiry agent could not
possibly complete any portion of his house-to-house scrutiny in the
vicinity of the Carlton until the following morning at the earliest.

They smoked and chatted quietly until 7.30 p.m., when Inspector Winter
again put in an appearance, to announce that the coroner's jury had
brought in a verdict of "Wilful murder by some two or more persons
unknown."

The detective was somewhat quieter in manner now that the sensational
turn of events in Paris had assimilated with the other remarkable
features of the crime. Moreover, the presence of a peer of the realm had
a subduing influence upon him, and he had the good taste not to insist
too strenuously that Lord Fairholme's prospective brother-in-law was not