The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1918-07-18
Of the husband whom they had

Sand yet why did that sudden
change take place in met" he
asked. "Why did I 60 against
the evidencef Why did I credit
an incredible factf Why did /
admit the inadmissiblef Why
Well, no doubt, because truth has
an accent that rings in the ears in
a manner all its own. On the one
side, every proof, every fact,
every reality, every certainty on
the other, a story, a story told by
one Of the three criminals, and
therefore, presumptively, absurd
and untrue from start to finish.
But a story told in a frank voice,
q clear, dispassionate, closely
woven story, free from complica-
tons or improbabilities, a story
which supplied no positive solu-
ton, but which, by its very hon
esty, obliged any impartial mind
to reconsider the solution arrived
at. l believed the story"
The explanation which Lupin
gave me was not complete. I
asked:
"And Florence Levasseurf"
"Florence7"
eyes, you don't tell me what
you thought. What was your
opinion about herr Everything
tended to incriminate her not only
in your eyes, because, logically
speaking, she had taken part in
all the attempts to murder you,
but also in the eyes Of the police.
They knew that she used to pay
S%auverand clandestine visits at
his house on the Boulevard Rich
ard Wallace. They had found her
photograph in Inspector Verot's
memorandum book, and then
and then all the rest: your accu-
sations, your certainties. Was all
that modified by Sauverand's
storyF To your mind, was Flor
ence innocent or guilty."
He hesitated, seemed on the
point of replying directly and
frankly to my question, but could
not bring himself to do so, and
said:
81 wished to have confidence.
In order to act, l must have full
and entire confidence, whatever
doubts might still assail me, what
ever darkness might still en-
shroud this or that part Of the
adventure. l therefore believed.
And, believing, l acted according
to my belief"
Acting, to Don Luis Perenna,
during those hours Of forced in
activity, consisted solely in per-
petually repeating to himself Gas
ton Sauverand's account of the
events. He tried to reconstitute it
in all its details, to remember the
very least sentences, the appar-
emily most insignificant phrases.
And he examined those sentences,
scrutinized those phrases one by
one, in order to extract such par
ticle of the truth as they con-
tanned.
For the truth was there. Sau-
verand had said so and Perenna
did not doubt it. The whole sim
lister affair, all that constituted
the cas- of the Mornington inher-
itance and the tragedy Of the
Boulevard Suchet, all that could
throw light upon the plot Matched
against Marie Fauville, all that
could explain the undoing of Sau-
verand and Florence-all this lay
in Sauverand's story. Don Luis
had only to understand, and the
truth would appear like the moral
which we drawfrom some obscure
fable.
Don Luis did not once deviate
from this method. If any objec-
ton suggested itself to his mind,
he at once replied:
every we'll. 1t may be that I
am wrong and that Sauverand's
story will not enlighten me on any
point capable Of guiding me. 1t
may be that the truth lies out
side it. But am l in a position to
get at the truth in any other way
All that | possess as an instrument
of research, without attaching
undue Importance to certain
CLEANS Of light which the regular
appearance Of the mysterious let
tiers has shed upon the case, all
that l possess is CASTOR SAWYER
and's story. Must l not make use
of it?"
And, once again, as when one
follows a path by another persons
tracks, he began to live through
the adventure which Sauverand
had been through. He compared
it with the picture of it which he
had imagined until then. The
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