Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-01-08

had made at the time of the examina- ton of the footprints. However, i'm mediately asked:
 What about that caneT
 'It is still in the hands of Frederic Larsan. He never lets go of It.
 But doesn't it prove the alibi for NJ. Darzac?"
 Not at all. Gently questioned by me. Darzac denied having on that evening or on any other purchased a cane at Cassette's. However" said Rouletabille, "I'll not swear to any thing. NJ. Darzac has such strange fits of silence that one does not know exactly what to think of what he says"
 'To Frederic Larsan this cane must mean piece of very damaging evi- dence. But in what way? The time when it was bought shows it could not have been in the murderers pos session.
 'The time doesn't worry Larsan. He Is not obliged to adopt my theory, which assumes that the murderer got into the yellow room between and 6 o'clock. There's nothing to prevent him assuming that the murderer got in between 10 and II o'clock at night. At that hour M. and Mile. Stangerson, as- sisted by Daddy Jacques, were engag- ed in making an interesting chemical experiment in the part of the labora- tory taken up by the furnaces Larsan says, unlikely as that may seem, that the murderer may have slipped behind them. He has already got the examin- | ing magistrate to listen to him. When one looks closely into it the reasoning is absurd, seeing that the intimate if there is one-must have known that the professor would shortly leave the pavilion and that the friend had only to put of operating till after the pro- fessor's departure. Why should he have risked crossing the laboratory while the professor was in it? And then when he had got into the yellow room
 There are many points to be cleared up before Larsan's theory can be ad- mitted. l shan't waste my time over 1t, for my theory won't allow me to occupy myself with mere imagination. Only, as am obliged for the moment to keep silent, and Larsan sometimes talks. he may finish by coming out openly against M. Darzac if I'm not there," added the young reporter proudly, flor there are surface evi- dences against DarZac much more con- vincing than the cane which remain incomprehensible to me, all the more so as Larsan does not in the least hesi- tate to let Darzac see him with it. understand many things in Larsan's theory, but l can't make anything of that cane"
 "Is he still at the chateauT
 "Yes. He hardly ever quits 1t. He sleeps there, as do, at the request of M. Stangerson, who has done for him what Nj. Robert Darzac has done for me In spite of the accusation made by Larsan that M. Stangerson knows who the murderer is, he yet affords him every facility for arriving at the truth, just as Darzac is doing for me" But you are convinced of Darzac's innocencei'
 At one time I did believe in the pos sibility of his guilt. That was when we arrived here for the first time. The time has come for me to tell you what has passed between M. Darzac and myself"
 Here Rouletabille interrupted himself and asked me if had brought the re- volvers. showed him them. Having examined both, he pronounced them excellent and handed them back to me.
 Shall we have any use for themr asked.
 'No doubt: this evening. We shah pass the night here if that won't tire you?'
 "On the contrary" said, with an expression that made Rouletabille laugh.
 'No, mo-" he said. ''This is no time for laughing. You remember the phrase which was the open sesame of this chateau full of mysteryY
 ''Yes," l said, perfectly, The pres bytery has lost nothing of it's charm nor the garden It's brightness It was the phrase which you found or the half burned piece of paper among the ashes in the laboratory"
 "Yes. At the bottom of the paper. where the flame had not reached, was this date, 23d of October. Remember this date; it is highly important am now going to tell you about that curl ous phrase. On the evening before the crime-that is to say, on the 23d-M. and Mile. Stangerson were at recep- ton at the Elysee. I know that, be- cause I was there on duty. having to interview one of the servants of the Academy of Philadelphia who was be- ing feted there. had never before seen either M. or Mile. Stangerson. was seated in the room which precedes the Salon des Ambassadors, and, tired of being jostled by so many noble per sonages, had fallen into . vague reverie, when I scented near me the perfume of the lady in black.
 ''Do you ask me what is the perfume OF tho lady in hlackY If must suffice