I had exhausted¹ my wonder, so I accepted this statement with no more display of surprise than a grim smile.  
"When you failed to identify Howard Van Burnam as the man who accompanied his wife into the adjacent house, I realized that I must look elsewhere for the murderer of Louise Van Burnam. You see I had more confidence in the excellence² of your memory than you had yourself, so much indeed that I gave you more than one chance to exercise it, having, by certain little methods I sometimes employ, induced different moods in Mr. Van Burnam at the time of his several visits, so that his bearing might vary, and you have every opportunity to recognize him for the man you had seen on that fatal night."
 
"Then it was he you brought here each time?" I broke in.
 
"It was he."
 
"Well!" I ejaculated.
 
"The Superintendent³ and some others whom I need not mention,"—here Mr. Gryce took up another small object from the table,—"believed implicitly⁴ in his guilt⁵; conjugal⁶ murder is so common and the causes which lead to it so frequently puerile⁷. Therefore I had[Pg 284] to work alone. But this did not cause me any concern. Your doubts emphasized mine, and when you confided⁸ to me that you had seen a figure similar to the one we were trying to identify, enter the adjoining house on the evening of the funeral, I made immediate⁹ inquiries¹⁰ and discovered that the gentleman who had entered the house right after the four persons described by you was Franklin Van Burnam. This gave me a definite clue, and this is why I say that it was you who gave me my first start in this matter."
 
"Humph!" thought I to myself, as with a sudden shock I remembered that one of the words which had fallen from Miss Oliver's lips during her delirium¹¹ had been this very name of Franklin.
 
"I had had my doubts of this gentleman before," continued the detective, warming gradually with his subject. "A man of my experience doubts every one in a case of this kind, and I had formed at odd times a sort of side theory, so to speak, into which some little matters which came up during the inquest seemed to fit with more or less nicety; but I had no real justification¹² for suspicion till the event of which I speak. That you had evidently formed the same theory as myself and were bound to enter into the lists with me, put me on my mettle¹³, madam, and with your knowledge or without it, the struggle between us began."
 
"So your disdain¹⁴ of me," I here put in with a triumphant¹⁵ air I could not subdue¹⁶, "was only simulated? I shall know what to think of you hereafter. But don't stop, go on, this is all deeply interesting to me."
 
"I can understand that. To proceed then; my first duty, of course, was to watch you. You had reasons[Pg 285] of your own for suspecting this man, so by watching you I hoped to surprise them."
 
"Good!" I cried, unable to entirely¹⁷ conceal¹⁸ the astonishment¹⁹ and grim amusement into which his continued misconception of the trend of my suspicions threw me.
 
"But you led us a chase, madam; I must acknowledge that you led us a chase. Your being an amateur led me to anticipate your using an amateur's methods, but you showed skill, madam, and the man I sent to keep watch over Mrs. Boppert against your looked-for visit there, was foiled by the very simple strategy you used in meeting her at a neighboring shop."
 
"Good!" I again cried, in my relief that the discovery made at that meeting had not been shared by him.
 
"We had sounded Mrs. Boppert ourselves, but she had seemed a very hopeless job, and I do not yet see how you got any water out of that stone—if you did."
 
"No?" I retorted ambiguously, enjoying the Inspector²⁰'s manifest delight in this scene as much as I did my own secret thoughts and the prospect²¹ of the surprise I was holding in store for them.
 
"But your interference with the clock and the discovery you made that it had been going at the time the shelves fell, was not unknown to us, and we have made use of it, good use as you will hereafter see."
 
"So! those girls could not keep a secret after all," I muttered; and waited with some anxiety to hear him mention the pin-cushion; but he did not, greatly to my relief.
 
"Don't blame the girls!" he put in (his ears evidently are as sharp as mine); "the inquiries having proceeded from Franklin, it was only natural for me to[Pg 286] suspect that he was trying to mislead us by some hocus-pocus story. So I visited the girls. That I had difficulty in getting to the root of the matter is to their credit, Miss Butterworth, seeing that you had made them promise secrecy²²."
 
"You are right," I nodded, and forgave them on the spot. If I could not withstand Mr. Gryce's eloquence—and it affected²³ me at times—how could I expect these girls to. Besides, they had not revealed the more important secret I had confided to them, and in consideration of this I was ready to pardon them most anything.
 
"That the clock was going at the time the shelves fell, and that he should be the one to draw our attention to it would seem to the superficial mind proof positive that he was innocent of the deed with which it was so closely associated," the detective proceeded. "But to one skilled in the subterfuges²⁴ of criminals, this seemingly conclusive²⁵ fact in his favor was capable of an explanation so in keeping with the subtlety²⁶ shown in every other feature of this remarkable²⁷ crime, that I began to regard it as a point against him rather than in his favor. Of which more hereafter.
 
"Not allowing myself to be deterred²⁸, then, by this momentary²⁹ set-back, and rejoicing in an affair considered as settled by my superiors, I proceeded to establish Franklin Van Burnam's connection with the crime which had been laid with so much apparent reason at his brother's door.
 
"The first fact to be settled was, of course, whether your identification of him as the gentleman who accompanied his victim into Mr. Van Burnam's house could be corroborated³⁰ by any of the many persons who had seen the so-called Mr. James Pope at the Hotel D——.[Pg 287]
 
"As none of the witnesses who attended the inquest had presumed to recognize in either of these sleek³¹ and haughty³² gentlemen the shrinking person just mentioned, I knew that any open attempt on my part to bring about an identification would result disastrously³⁴. So I employed strategy—like my betters, Miss Butterworth" (here his bow was overpowering in its mock humility); "and rightly considering that for a person to be satisfactorily identified with another, he must be seen under the same circumstances and in nearly the same place, I sought out Franklin Van Burnam, and with specious³⁵ promises of some great benefit to be done his brother, induced him to accompany me to the Hotel D——.
 
"Whether he saw through my plans and thought that a brave front and an assumption of candor³⁶ would best serve him in this unexpected dilemma³⁷, or whether he felt so entrenched³⁸ behind the precautions he had taken as not to fear discovery under any circumstances, he made but one demur³⁹ before preparing to accompany me. This demur was significant, however, for it was occasioned by my advice to change his dress for one less conspicuously⁴⁰ fashionable, or to hide it under an ulster or mackintosh. And as a proof of his hardihood—remember, madam, that his connection with this crime has been established—he actually did put on the ulster, though he must have known what a difference it would make in his appearance.
 
"The result was all I could desire. As we entered the hotel, I saw a certain hackman start and lean forward to look after him. It was the one who had driven Mr. and Mrs. Pope away from the hotel. And when we passed the porter, the wink⁴¹ which I gave him was[Pg 288] met by a lift of his eyelids⁴² which he afterwards interpreted into 'Like! very like!'
 
"But it was from the clerk I received the most unequivocal proof of his identity. On entering the office I had left Mr. Van Burnam as near as possible to the spot where Mr. Pope had stood while his so-called wife was inscribing⁴³ their names in the register, and bidding him to remain in the background while I had a few words at the desk, all in his brother's interests of course, I succeeded in secretly directing Mr. Henshaw's attention towards him. The start which he gave and the exclamation⁴⁴ he uttered were unequivocal. 'Why, there's the man now!' he cried, happily in a whisper. 'Anxious look, drooping⁴⁵ head, brown moustache, everything but the duster.' 'Bah!' said I; 'that's Mr. Franklin Van Burnam you are looking at! What are you thinking of?' 'Can't help it,' said he; 'I saw both of the brothers at the inquest, and saw nothing in them then to remind me of our late mysterious guest. But as he stands there, he's a ---- sight more like James Pope than the other one is, and don't you forget it.' I shrugged⁴⁶ my shoulders, told him he was a fool, and that fools had better keep their follies⁴⁷ to themselves, and came away with my man, outwardly disgusted but inwardly in most excellent trim for pursuing an investigation⁴⁸ which had opened so auspiciously⁴⁹.
 
"Whether this man possessed⁵⁰ any motive⁵¹ for a crime so seemingly out of accordance with his life and disposition⁵² was, of course, the next point to settle. His conduct at the inquest certainly showed no decided⁵³ animosity toward his brother's wife, nor was there on the surface of affairs any token of the mortal hatred⁵⁴ which alone could account for a crime at once so deliberate[Pg 289] and so brutal⁵⁵. But we detectives plunge⁵⁶ below the surface, and after settling the question of Franklin's identity ............