“Not a jarring note,” he remarked.  Evidently he had heard the whole conversation.  “I never for a moment imagined that he knew Madame Duclos.  Any knowledge we gain of her will have to come from Mrs. Taylor.”

“He’s a strong man.  We shall find it difficult to hold our own against him if we are brought to an actual struggle.”

“Why did he run the forefinger of his right hand so continuously into his right-hand vest pocket?” was Mr. Gryce’s sole comment.

By which it looks as if he had seen as well as heard.

“I didn’t notice it.  Is the District Attorney prepared to make the next move?  Mine has failed.”

“Not yet.  The game is too hazardous.  We should only make ourselves ridiculous in the eyes of the whole world if we should fail in an attack upon a man of such national importance.  After the two inquests and a letter I hope to receive from Switzerland, we may be in a position to launch our first bomb.  I don’t anticipate the act with any pleasure; the explosion will be something frightful.”

“If half you think is true, the unexpected confronting of him with Mrs. Taylor should produce some result.  That’s what I reckon on now, if the business falls first to me.”

“I reckon on nothing.  Chance is going to take this thing out of our hands.”

“Chance!  I don’t understand you.”

“I don’t understand myself; but this is a case which will never come into court.”

“I differ with you.  I almost saw confession in his face when he turned upon me at last with that extravagant expression of admiration for the woman you say he meant to kill.”

“Why did his finger go so continuously to his vest pocket?  When you answer that, I will give a name to what I just called chance.”

XXX

THE CREEPING SHADOW

Mrs. Taylor suffered a relapse, and the inquest which had been held back in anticipation of her recovery was again delayed.  This led to a like postponement of an inquiry into the death of Madame Duclos; and a consequent let-up in public interest which thus found itself, for the nonce, deprived of further food on which to batten.

Meanwhile, Mr. Gryce was not idle.  Anxious to determine just how and where Madame Duclos’ story fitted into the deeper and broader one of the museum crime, he made use of his fast waning strength to probe its mysteries and master such of its details as bore upon the serious investigation to which he was so unhappily committed.  When he had done this,—­when he had penetrated, as it were, into the very heart of the matter to the elimination of all doubt and the full establishment of his own theory, it was felt that the time had come for some sort of positive action on the part of those interested in the cause of justice.