The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1926-04-23

ded and mumbled, Monsieur has read
Alright"
though not, Of course concluding the case.
But IL was perfectly evident that those
present were not only profoundly impress
Il oceurred to me az I went away that
Jacques admitting COrentine 70 the seance.
had been a coupe de theatre Of value. The
hOrrid scene she made hsd told seriously
against the woman. The shameful out
burst OF Leasant nature reinforced by years
OF pampered autOcracy, with the language
she had used, served to nulify completely
whatever respect might have been rendered
her limitless wealth.
But there was something even more sig
nificant to the trickery that I was on the
alert to detect. Was 1t not possible that
Jacques stern, peremptOry sllencing Of Au-
guste had in it a motive that was the result
Of a knowledge to which Jacques was not
entitled, since he had not yet read the mind
Of Auguste2 Was not Jacques deliberately
outlining to the old fellow his plea Of self
defense, putting the very words in Au-
guste's MOUTH For all the court knew, and
therefore, all that Jacques could at that
moment pretend to know, Auguste might
have deliberately ambushed Miguel and
knitted him and flung his body over the
cliff. Yet Jacques had concluded his eX-
animation Of the count by stating that the
count believed Auguste to have slain Mi
guel in self-defense.
This reflection brought back all my
doubts in Jacques that were the result Of
/ my hMOW4GukG VI MaB UOyMOOu LLACkEEE-
his passion to impress and mystify and
pose as a magician.
These suspicious Of mine were destined
to be Immediately reinforced. For that
same night the body Of Miguel was hauled
up in a mace, a sort Of fish pound net rig
ged out not far from the foot Of the cliffs,
where the tide made al eddy against the
shore. It was, naturally, well erOded. But
its failure to float was accounted for by
the abdominal cash that looked as if dealt
by the propeller blade Of a owe vessel
r might have been made by the fearful dis
embOWeLling upward stroke known to Latin
sailors. And it struck me that any WhaleT
would know that the bodies Of all crea-
lures whether marine or Of the, terra firma,
float only by virtue Of gases formed with
in them, and that when these are given free
exit, the cadaver sinks.
The surge Of popular feeling turned hard
against COrenCine when, under rigid cross
examination Of the crew Of the PaimLOl, II
I was discovered that the cOdfisher had not
circumnaVigated Jersey at all. Another per
{ jurer broke down and confessed. There
} was a scandal that etnailed great added
cost to COrentine, and in the thick Of it the
? impassiOneG elOQuence OF the celebrated
/ Maitre Robin got Auguste acquitted on 8
D finding Of self-defense.
But, in spite Of IL all, I remained uncOn.
vincer. Now that l knew the answer,
! rested, just as in the Wharf case, in the
z same doubt Of Jacques protested gift.
1 could not decide how much, If any, was
clairVOyance and how much was deduction
. In the Wharf case the clOu had been fol
! me the single nail on which the whole cas-,
I hung. That has been already described
z In this present case it was the reason Civ
= ven by August to account for the elapsed
{ time that it took him to go down the path
+ his height vertigo, a giddinness when look
d ing down by which he vas compelled Il
e halt until it had passed. If he had sai'
s that it was feebleness, or emotion, or a de
a sire to reflect before starting a row, or t
s let his anger cool, or almost anything eX
e cept what he had actually offered, 1 won
t dered IL Jacques would have carried on t
the same ~unravelling Of the tangled skeiI
But giddiness from height was in Au
q guste's case about as convincing a preteXt
{ when one stopped to think about 1t, as i
n a surgeon Of long experience were to plea.