Daily Arizona silver belt., 1909-01-10

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 When l returned to, the great gal lery," continued Rouletabille, II saw no more of M. Robert Darzac, and was not to see him again until after | the tragedy at the Chandler. Made moiselle was near MT. Rance, who was talking with much animation. his eyes 1 during the conversation glowing with singular brightness. Mile. Sanger son, thought, was not even listening to what he was saying. her face eX- pressing perfect indifference. His l face was the red face of a drunkard. l When NJ. and Mile. Stangerson left he
 went to the bar and remained there. 1 joined him and rendered him some lit- tie service in the midst of the press Ing crowd. He thanked me and told me he was returning to America three days later-that Is to say, on the 26th, the day after the crime. l talked with him about Philadelphia. He told me he had lived there for five and twea- ty years and that 1t was there he had met the illustrious Professor Sanger son and his daughter. He drank n great deal of champaigne. and when I left him he was very nearly drunk.
 "Such were my experiences on that evening. and I leave you to imagine what effect the news of the attempted on me--with what force those words pronounced by Nj. Robert Darzac, Must l commit a crime. then. to win you? recurred to me. It was not this phrase, however, that l repeated to | him when we met here at Chandler. The sentence of the presbytery and the bright garden sufficed to open the gate of the chateau. If you ask me if be- lieve now that M Darzac is the mur- derer l must say l do not. l do not think ever quite thought that At the time I could not really think seriously of anything, had so little evidence to go on, but needed to have at once the proof that he had not been wounded in the hand.
 When we were alone together told him how I had chanced to overhear a part of his conversation with Mile. | Stnngerson in the garden of the Elysee, | and when l repeated to him the words, Must I commit crime. then, to win your he was greatly troubled, though much less so than he had been by hear ing me repeat the phrase about the presbytcry What threw him into state of real consternation was to learn from me that the day on which he had gone to meet Mile. Stangerson at the Elysee was the very day on which she had gone to the postoff1ce for the letter. 1t was that letter per haps which ended with the words, I The presbytery has lost nothing of Its charm nor the garden Its brightness My surmise was confirmed by my find l Ing, if you remember. In the ashes of the laboratory the fragment of paper dated Oct. g. The letter had been written and withdrawn from the post office on the same day.
 "There can be no doubt that on re- turning from the Elysee that night Mile. Stangerson had tried to destroy that compromising paper. 1t was in vain that M. Darzac denied that that l letttE nh0ttNti to NV with the crime. told him that in an affair so filled with mystery as this he | had no right to hide this letter: that was persuaded It was of considerable l importance that the desperate tone In which Mile. Stangerson had pronounc- ed the phrase; that his own tears and 1 the threat of crime which he had professed after the letter was read all these facts tended to leave no room | for me to doubt. NJ. Darzac became more and more agitated, and I deter mined to take advantage of the effect ! I had produced on him. You were on the point of being married, monsieur said negligently and without looking at him. and suddenly your marriage | becomes impossible because of the l writer of that letter-because as soon as his letter was read you spoke of tha necessity for crime to win MllA Stangerson. Therefore there Is some one between you and her--some one who is preventing your marriage with her; some one who has at tempted to Kill her so that she should not be able to marry And I concluded with these words: Now, monsieur. you have only to tell me in confidence the name of the murderer l The words l had uttered must have I struck him ominously, for when , turned my eyes on him I saw that his face was haggard, the precipitation 1 standing on his forehead and terror l showing in his eyes.
 Monsieur he said to me. I am ! going to ask of you something which ! may appear insane. but in exchange | for which l place my life in your :. hands. You must not tell the magis-
 trates of what you saw and heard in the garden of the Elysee: neither to
 them nor to anybody. l swear to you l that am innocent, and know. feel, 1 that you believe me, but l would rath- CT be taken for the guilty man than see justice go astray on that phrase,
 "The presbytery has lost nothing Of it's charm nor the garden it's bright.
 ncss." The judges must know noth- 1 Ing about that phrase. All this mat II |