“’Of course, such a coincidence was much too startling not to be regarded by us all as the ravings of delirium; nor has anything occurred since in the way of communication from, or in regard to the absent one, to show that this so-called warning of death has been followed up by fact.  But, if you test her action by the theory I have just advanced, viz., that the man she called husband was at that moment in the room with us and that these words were a plea to him—­the last appeal of a broken-hearted woman for the support she felt to be her due—­how the atmosphere of unreason and mystery clears itself.  His suggestion that what was needed there was an alienist, and the pitiful efforts she made to exonerate herself without implicating him in the murderous event, fall naturally into place, as the action of a guilty man and the self-denying conduct of a devoted woman.’”

“Romantic! too romantic!” objected the District Attorney.  “I should think we were listening to one of Dumas’ tales.”

“Dumas got his greatest effects from life, or so I have been told,” remarked the Chief Inspector.

Mr. Gryce sat silent.

Suddenly, the District Attorney observed with the slightest tinge of irony edging his tone: 

“I presume you would find a like explanation for the messages she professed to be sending to her husband, when engaged in babbling fool words into the dead girl’s ear.”

“Certainly.  He was there, mark you!  He stood where he could both see and hear her.  All she said and all she did was by way of appeal to him for some token of regret, some sign that he appreciated her reticence; and when she found that it was bringing her nothing, she fainted away.”

“Ingenious, very ingenious, Gryce.  Had you failed to give us proofs connecting this idol of the Republican party with the actual shooting, it would have been simply ingenious and a quite useless expenditure of talent.  But we have these proofs, and while they are mainly circumstantial, they undoubtedly call upon us for some recognition, and so we will hear you out whatever action we may take afterward.”

“But first I should like to ask Mr. Gryce one question,” interposed his assistant.  Then addressing the detective:  “Two mysteries are involved in this matter.  You have given us a clever explanation of one of them, but how about the other?  Will you, before going further, tell us what connection you find between the theory just advanced and the flight and ultimate suicide of Madame Duclos under circumstances which point to a desire to suppress evidence even at the cost of her life?  It was not from consideration for Mr. Roberts, whom you have shown she hated.  What was it then?  Have you an equally ingenious explanation for that too?”