* * * * *

M. Desmalions showed all his admiration by his silence and by certain movements of his head.  And Perenna took a keen enjoyment in the strange fact that he, who was being hunted down by the police a few hours ago, should now be sitting in a motor car beside the head of that same force.

Nothing threw into greater relief the masterly manner in which he had conducted the business and the importance which the police attached to the results obtained.  The value of his collaboration was such that they were willing to forget the incidents of the last two days.  The grudge which Weber bore him was now of no avail against Don Luis Perenna.

M. Desmalions, meanwhile, began briefly to review the new solutions, and he concluded by still discussing certain points.

“Yes, that’s it ... there is not the least shadow of a doubt....  We agree....  It’s that and nothing else.  Still, one or two things remain obscure.  First of all, the mark of the teeth.  This, notwithstanding the husband’s admission, is a fact which we cannot neglect.”

“I believe that the explanation is a very simple one, Monsieur le Prefet.  I will give it to you as soon as I am able to support it with the necessary proofs.”

“Very well.  But another question:  how is it that Weber, yesterday morning, found that sheet of paper relating to the explosion in Mlle. Levasseur’s room?”

“And how was it,” added Don Luis, laughing, “that I found there the list of the five dates corresponding with the delivery of the letters?”

“So you are of my opinion?” said M. Desmalions.  “The part played by Mlle. Levasseur is at least suspicious.”

“I believe that everything will be cleared up, Monsieur le Prefet, and that you need now only question Mme. Fauville and Gaston Sauverand in order to dispel these last obscurities and remove all suspicion from Mlle. Levasseur.”

“And then,” insisted M. Desmalions, “there is one more fact that strikes me as odd.  Hippolyte Fauville does not once mention the Mornington inheritance in his confession.  Why?  Did he not know of it?  Are we to suppose that there is no connection, beyond a mere casual coincidence, between the series of crimes and that bequest?”

“There, I am entirely of your opinion, Monsieur le Prefet.  Hippolyte Fauville’s silence as to that bequest perplexes me a little, I confess.  But all the same I look upon it as comparatively unimportant.  The main thing is Fauville’s guilt and the prisoners’ innocence.”

Don Luis’s delight was pure and unbounded.  From his point of view, the sinister tragedy was at an end with the discovery of the confession written by Hippolyte Fauville.  Anything not explained in those lines would be explained by the details to be supplied by Mme. Fauville, Florence Levasseur, and Gaston Sauverand.  He himself had lost all interest in the matter.