Evening journal., 1922-12-11

in the library Now, II you peease,
monsieur we will look a little at the
indIcatory signs"
He paused.
There Is always this disturbing
feature about circumstantial evil
dence. the trick OF pointing in the
direction that one is going. II one
has a conclusion, one will find that
the circumstantial evidence supports
it. You have a theory, monsieur
that this visitor was Dernburg's as
sassin, and consequently. to you, the
fndicatory evidence supports that
theory. But monsieur. I have the
theory that the visitor was not the
ASSASSIN. and I bid you observe how
the indicatory evidences will turn
themselves about in order to support
the theory which I maintain. Take,
for example, these blood-drops on
the marble floor OF the drawing room.
In support Of your theory they have
fallen by hazard from the assassin's s
knife in his flight. and you would
cite them as confirmatory OF your
theory.
Now, monsieur, 1 would cite them
also as confrmatory OF mine.
''You will observe that each Of
these seven blood-drops has fallen
on a white square OF this checkered
marble floor. There is no drop of
blood on black square. why mon
sieur should these drops appear only
on the white squares? l consider
that fact with my theory in mind. I
because the one who placed them
there wished them to be seen. We
cannot conceive that he would un-
dertake to create evidence against
himself And it is beyond our con-
ception of coincidence that each of
these seven blood-drops should. by |
accident, have fallen precisely on al
white square when there was an
equal number of black squares inter |
venlng. Therefore. monsieur, these /
evidences did not come by chance |
they came by design"
He continued like one who recites
the details of a formula:
I find my theory also confirmed .
at a farther point. You explained I
TO me. when inquired. that the
after fleeing through this
drawing room into the walled gar
den. had escaped by climbing over
the wall. since the gate was nailed
up and had been so nailed up for a
Lone 4fr,,a Nnu~ s,ouefat,r co,~od .
this wall TO be examined The
whole OF the top of it is coated overl
with dust. At no point has any Of
this dust been removed: consequently
the assassin did not escape by climb
ing over the wall for II he had un-
dertaken to climb the wall at any
point. his body in that labor, would
have removed the coating of dust
You see. monsieur, do not find your
indicatory evidences designed to sup
port your theory. They seem rath-
er conclusively to establish my own"
He made vague gesture as
though to dismiss the matter
And So monsieur we find our
selves before the triangular hypo-
thesis! Did l murder Dernburg
Pasha, or did you, or was he, in fact,
murdered at all?"
The Oriental looked at the man in
a sort OF wonder.
He was surely murdered" he
said.
The Prefect of Police spoke like
one in some reflection
1T is by no means certain"
Not certain?" choed the Envoy.
The man is dead"
zone may be dead without having 1
been murdered" replied the Prefect
OF Police. 1T is possible that the
hand that gave Dernbury Pasha his
fatal wound is no longer alive in
this world"
The Turkish Envoy made an ex-
clamation of surprise.
You cannot mean that Dernburg
Pasha was murdered by a dead
mani
The concluding installment of this
ldventure of VI. JonqucIie viii ap-
pear in out next issue.