The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1918-08-15

M. Desmalions remained think
ing for a time and then objected:
"Still, in the letters which he
wrote, M. Fauville accuses his
wife"
HE does"
eve must therefore admit
either that he was right in accus-
ing her or that the letters are
forged?"
"They r not forged. All the
experts have recognized M. Eau,
ville's handwriting"
"Thenf"
"Then-"
Don Luis did not finish his sea-
tence; and M. Desmalions felt the
breath Of the truth f~luttering still
nearer round him.
The others, one and all as
anxious as himself, were silent.
He muttered:
II do not understand"
"Yes, Monsieur lie Prcfet, yea
do. You understand that, if the
sending Of those letters forms an
integrant part Of the plot Matched
against Nine. Fauville and CASTOR
Sauverand, it is because their CON
tents were prepared in such a way
as to be the undoing Of the VIC
Tins"
"What! What! What are you
sayingi"
II am saying what / said be-
fore. Once they are innocent, ev-
erything that tells against them is
part Of the plot"
Again there was a long silence.
The project Of police did not con-
ceal his agitation. Speaking very
slowly, with his eyes fixed ON Don
Luis eyes, he said:
Whoever Che culprit. may be,
l know nothing more terrible than
this work Of hatred"
1T is an even more Improbable
work than you can imagine, Mon
sieur le Prefet," said Perenna,
with growing animation, "and it
is a hatred Of which you, who do
not know Sauverand's confession,
cannot yet estimate the violence.
l understood it completely as I
listened to the man; and, since
then, all my thoughts have been
overpowered by the dominant idea
Of that hatred. Who could hate
like thatf To whose loathing had
Marie Fauville and Sauverand
been sacrificed9 Who was the in
conceivable person whose pervert-
ed genius had surrounded his two
victims with chains so powerfully
forged?
And another idea came to my
mind, Ia earlier idea which had
already struck me several times
and to which I have already re-
serred in Sergeant Mazeroux:s
presence: I mean the really
mathematical character of the ap-
pearance of the letters. I said to
myself that such grave documents
could Mt~bc introduced into the
case at fixed dates unless some
primary reason demanded that
those dates should absolutely be
fixed. What reasor9 IF !, human
agency had been at work each
time, there would surely have been
se.sae irregularity dependent on
this especially after the police had
l,eco'ne c~ognizant Of the piatter
and were present at the delivery
Of the letters.
well" Perenna continued.
I'm spite Of every obstacle, the
letters continued to come. as
though they could not help It.
And thus the reason Of their rom
ing gradually dawned up IN me
they came mechanically, by some
Invisible process set going once
and for all and working with the
blind certainty Of physical law.
This was q case not Of a conscious
intelligence and will, but Just Of
material necessity. It was
the clash Of these two idea-the
idea OF the hatred pursuing the in
nocent and the idea of that ma
chinery serving the schemes Of the
'hater.-it was their clash that
gave birth to the little spark Of
light. When brought into con-
tact. the tWo ideas combined ii MY
mind and suggested the recollec-
ton that Hippolyte Faa.ille was
an engineer by profession r.
Tho others listened to him with