The Coroner, who was also a man of a somewhat stolid cut, proffered him a seat and at once opened fire.

“You will pardon me any inconvenience I may have put you to, Mr. Roberts, when I tell you that Coroner D——­ of Greene County, is anxious to have a few words with you.  He would have visited you at your home; but I induced him to see you here.”

“Coroner D——­ of Greene County!” Mr. Roberts was entirely surprised.  “And what business can he have with me?”

“It is in regard to the suicide of Madame Antoinette Duclos, committed, as you know, a week since in the Catskills.”

“Ah! an extraordinarily sad affair, and of considerable moment I should judge, from its seeming connection with the one previously occurring at our museum.  The girls’ mother, was she not?  Grief evidently unseated her brain.  But—­” here he changed his position quietly but with evident effort:—­“in what manner am I supposed to be in a position to help the Coroner in his inquiry into this case?  I was a witness, together with many others, of what happened after the accident which took place at the museum; but I know nothing of Madame Duclos or of her self-inflicted death, beyond what has appeared in the papers.”

“The papers!  An uncertain guide, Mr. Roberts.  You may not believe it,” Coroner Price remarked with a strange sort of smile, “but there are secrets known to this office, as well as to Police Headquarters, which never get into the most enterprising journals.”

Was this meant to startle the director, and did it succeed in doing so?

It may have startled him, but if so, he made no betrayal of the fact.  His manner continued to be perfectly natural and his voice under full control as he replied that it would be strange if in a case like this they should give out all the extraneous facts and possible clues which might be gathered in by their detectives.

This was carrying the offense into the enemy’s camp with a vengeance.  But the Coroner was saved replying by Mr. Roberts remarking: 

“But this is not an answer to my question.  Why should the Coroner of Greene County want to see me?”

Coroner Price proffered him a cigar, during the lighting of which the former remarked: 

“It’s certainly very odd.  You say that you didn’t know Madame Duclos.”

“No; how should I?  She was a foreigner, was she not?”

“Yes; a Frenchwoman, both by birth and marriage.  Her husband, a professor of languages, was located some sixteen years ago, in New Orleans.”

“I never knew him.  Indeed, I find it hard to understand why I should be expected to show any interest in him or his wife.”

“Well, I will tell you.  You may not have known the Madame; but it is very certain that she knew you.”