You did not observe the valet, then ?" "No, sir." "Or understand the mystery of the colored lights ?" "No, sir." "Or of the plate of steel and the other contrivances with which your brother enlivened his solitude ?" "I do not follow you, sir." But there was a change in his tone.
"I see," said the inspector, "that the complications which have disturbed us and made necessary this long delay in the collection of testimony have not entered into the crime as described by you.

Now this is possible; but there is still a circumstance requiring explanation; a little circumstance, which is, nevertheless, one of importance, since your wife mentioned it to you as soon as she became conscious.

I allude to the half dozen or more words which were written by your brother immediately preceding his death.

The paper on which they were written has been found, and that it was a factor in your quarrel is evident, since she regretted that it had been left behind you, and he--Do you know where we found this paper ?" The eyes which young Adams raised at this interrogatory had no intelligence in them.

The sight of this morsel of paper seemed to have deprived him in an instant of all the faculties with which he had been carrying on this unequal struggle.