istered--by whom? It
was laudanum, and could only be given in a drink. He says he had no
second drink. And by whom? The maid? He says he did not see the maid
again."

"Pardon me, M. le Juge, but do you not give too much credibility to the
porter? For me, his evidence is tainted, and I hardly believe a word of
it. Did he not tell me at first he had not seen this maid after
Amberieux at 8 P.M.? Now he admits that he was drinking with her at the
buffet at Laroche. It is all a tissue of lies, his losing the
pocket-book and his papers too. There is something to conceal. Even his
sleepiness, his stupidity, are likely to have been assumed."

"I do not think he is acting; he has not the ability to deceive us like
that."

"Well, then, what if the Countess took him the second drink?"

"Oh! oh! That is the purest conjecture. There is nothing whatever to
suggest or support that."

"Then how explain the finding of the vial near the porter's seat?"

"May it not have been dropped there on purpose?" put in the Commissary,
with another flash of intelligence.

"On purpose?" queried the detective, crossly, foreseeing an answer that
would not please him.

"On purpose to bring suspicion on the lady?"

"I don't see it in that light. That would imply that she was not in the
plot, and plot there certainly was; everything points to it. The
drugging, the open window, the maid's escape."

"A plot, no doubt, but organized by whom? These two women only? Could
either of them have struck the fatal blow? Hardly. Women have the wit to
conceive, but neither courage nor brute force to execute. There was a
man in this, rest assured."

"Granted. But who? That fire-eating Sir Collingham?" quickly asked the
detective, giving rein once more to his hatred.

"That is not a solution that commends itself to me, I must confess,"
declared the Judge. "The General's conduct has been blameworthy and
injudicious, but he is not of the stuff that makes criminals."

"Who, then? The porter? No? The clergyman? No? The French
gentlemen?--well, we have not examined them yet; but from what I saw at
the first cursory glance, I am not disposed to suspect them."

"What of that Italian?" asked the Commissary.

"Are you sure of him? His looks did not please me greatly, and he was
very eager to get away from here. What if he takes to his heels?"

"Block is with him," the Chief put in hastily, with the evident desire
to stifle an unpleasant misgiving. "We have tou