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Show : Qnnmphs of Qt I Melville Davidson Post ft i922 NEA Service. Inc THE TRIANGULAR HYPOTHESIS The man's looan body aeemid to havfl been packed into his clothing as though undor a pressure. There wa-i the vaKUD note of victory in his' j voice. "Monsieur," he snld: "no dead Frenc hman has eer been valued to I us at le.sa than fifty thousand franca, I , Ho may have been a worthless ven-' I dor of roast chestnut before the Madeleine, but if he died in Stam- , boul. lie was straightaway worth J , fifty thouaand francn- You "w-iu ob-. serve, monsieur, that jour govern- 1 ment has already flxod tho price for j murder " Tho Prefect of Police looked nrm : tho long, empty room at the cloaed i door. "But was this dead man a cltlr.rn I of tho Turkish Empire ? We seem I to have a memory of him." I The Oriental smiled. "Citizens." ho said, "are of I Sro I classes your Foreign ff!ro has laid It down tho citizen which Is born, and tho citizen which Is acquired. Fach are valued to us :.t least flftv thousand francs, as your Bchedulo in tho Indemnities to the Sublime Porto i so clearly set It out. lernburg Pash i ' was acquired, monsieur Hut he Is" dead' And the indemnity for him. os I you have so admirably established U, ' is not subject to a discount. . You came from tho Foreign office, i monsieur?" Tho Prefect of Police bowed. )U I put his hand into the pocket of hid i COat as with a casual geuturc, (in i fingers closing over an article that lay concealed there, j Tho Envoy went oa: , 1 found the Minister DellaBt of j an unfailing courtesy; If a subject of our empire has boon murdered In , Paris, an adequate Indemnity would j bo paid." Tho scene at the Foreign Office when he had been called In before the Minister, came up for an Instant 'to Monsieur Jonquelle. The tall, ; elegant old man had boon profoundly ' annoyed. This murder came at a vexatious moment, at precisely tho moment when tho Foreign Office wai pressing for tho Indemnity on the ' French subjects slain In tftamboul-1 tftamboul-1 The very argument had been un-I un-I fortunate. Stamboul must bo mid ) safe, and here was Paris unsafe! Hero was Dernburg Pasha dead lu I tho Faubourg St. Germain. I Monsieur Jonquc'lle had made no i reply to the Minister. Ho had come , down to the house In the Faubour SL Germain of Paris; he. had gone over it. ho had examined everything; every-thing; but he had made no common'. Either he had arrived at no conclusion, con-clusion, or else he had a largo knowledge knowl-edge of the affair, coupled with BOIUa definite plan. It waa an old house, maintaining In Us essentials a departed elegance. The floor of the drawing-room was of alternate blocks of white and black marble, laid down like a chessboard. chess-board. There was a door at one end loading Into a small-walled garden. I On the other side of the drav.lng-I drav.lng-I room, directly opposite, thero was 1 another doof of precisely the sam'i character leading Into sort "if library the room in which Dernburg Dern-burg had been found In tho morning, dead on tho floor. To the Enyoy of the Turkish government gov-ernment In Paris, this assassination had the aspect of a diplomatic flavor. Ho had gone at once to the Foreign offlco with his demand for an Indemnity, In-demnity, and then he had conic hero ' Into this drawing-room and sat down before the door until tho matter , should bo settled. "Monsieur is satisfied?" he said.' "He has soon everything?" "I have not quite seen everything," replied Monsieur Jonquelle, his Rlance traveling to tho slight bulge In the , man's tight-fitting waistcoat pocket, ! 'but I um entirely satisfied." "The evidences are complete, monsieur," mon-sieur," said tho Envoy, smiling-"Dernburg smiling-"Dernburg Pasha lived alone In this house. Late last night a Frenchman called on him. They were in the room yonder together. The windows were open, although the shuttera wero 1 cloaed. Persons passing on the street heard tho voices distinctly tho voice ' of a Frenchman, monsieur, and tho voice of Lornburg Pasha. Is it not true ?" "Unfortunately, monsieur, we ran- not deny It. It is precisely tho truth." "And It cannot bo denied that , I'ernourg i asna is aoaa. tie was tound this morning on the floor of the library yonder, with his throat cut monsieur has himself observed tho indicatory evidences of this assassination. as-sassination. . The late visitor" he looked up sharply "monsieur admits ad-mits that Jie was a Frenchman?" "Ah, yes." replied the Prefect of Police, "the man was a Frenchman " Tho Envoy went on with his summary sum-mary of tho evidence. "The late visitor a Frenchman, the quarrel, the dead man remaining In the library; the spots of blood on this floor that dripped from the weapon wea-pon In the assassin's hand as he wont out he escaped from the door yonder into tho garden and thence into tho ;r ri- it is all certain, monsieur?" ' It Is all very certain," replied tho Prefect He paused then: "But while the events are certain, j I am not precisely certain that we I have tho samo conception of them. For example, monsieur, will you tell me how, in your opinion tho assassin as-sassin escaped from the garden In'o jthe stamct? This garden was not I used, tho gato leading Into tho stroet ils nailed up. I should be glad I of your opinion on this point." "With pleasure," replied tho Orien-I Orien-I tab "The man escaped from tho garden gar-den In the simplest fashion. Ho Climbed over tli- wall, monsieur Tho ' wall Is of no great height. It is entirely possible." Monsieur Jonquelle lifted his eye- I brows like one relieved from a perplexity. per-plexity. "Quito possible," ho said. "An assassin could have climbed over the wall without tho slightest difficulty. II am obliged for your opinion on jthis manner of escape, monsieur.' For a moment he soemod to re-I re-I fleet, then ho addrossod another i question to tho Envoy. "Monsieur," he said, "there are blood-drops dripped from tho point I looked down at the marble extend-, extend-, Ing to the closed door of the library beyond thorn. "I should bo glad to I know how you think they camo hero." 'TJio explanation Is entirely clear," replied the Turkish Envoy. '"Th.i ns-su-sln went out in hasto with the knife In his hand, and these blood-dropa blood-dropa dripped from tho point of It." "That would bo possible, monslour, " replied Jonquollo. "That might happen'" hap-pen'" Tho Orlonta.1 stooped over a little and glanced along tho floor. "You havo observed thesw blood-Iropn. blood-Iropn. monsieur7 They are quite clar." 1 have ohstorved them eloely ." ' III. U N I lit .Ml Mill UIH THROAT OUT. replied the Prefect of Police. 'There! are seven of ihese blood-drops. They are about the length of a man's step I apart, and they arc each clearly visible visi-ble on B white square of the floor your explannMon seems admirable monsieur." He turned suddenly from a contemplation con-templation of these evidences Into a vague cnsulstry. "Monslour," he said "I have1 thought a great den I about .-hanee , evidences of crime. Do you supposoi there are nny laws of chano The Oriental seemed to reflect. "Tho very word 'chance,' m.OHr sieur," he said, "precludes the run-ning run-ning of any law. Events which result re-sult from the operation of law aro naturally outside of the definition of the word 'chance ' " The Prefect of Police did not pause to discuss this comment; he went on, as though the reply were merely an Interruption of his discourse. "Events." ho said, "all Indicatory evidences In criminal Investigation, , we dlvldo Info two classes; those which happen by design and those which happen by chance. By design de-sign we mean by tho will and lnt.-n-; tlon of some Individual. and by I chance we mean all those events ; which happen outside of such an In-I In-I tentlon. Would you think, monslour, that there would be any dlstlnculsh-! dlstlnculsh-! Ing features. by virtue of which one might put Indicatory evidence , of a crime under one or the other of thepe heads?" Ho continued as though he had en t '-red upon a subject which closoly encaged his attention, 1 "It Is an Immense and fascinating i field for speculation. It seems to M the peraJstent belief of every human Intelligence that it can. by design, create a sequence of indicatory ovl-dehces, ovl-dehces, Which Will havo all the appearance ap-pearance of a happening by chance. ' But nfter long reflection and the study of Innumerable instances, I have come to the conclusion that this thins cannot ho done. It Is my opinion that no human Intelligence cun grasp the rst ramification o! events with a sufficient comprrhon-slon comprrhon-slon to enable it to lay down a sequence se-quence of false evidences that will have, at every point, the aspect of a chance happening." He did not wait for a reply. He aeemed to lose all Interest in tho subject sub-ject With the closing word of his final sentence. He turned abruptly to another phase of tho matter. "Monsieur." he said. "what. In your opinion. was the motive for this death of Dernburg"" The Oriental replied at once. "I do not know that, monslour." he salrl "But does it matter" Vt'o aro not concerned to establish the motive for this murder. I do not care oven to establish the identity nf the assassin. We hnve established estab-lished that he Is French, and that Is sufficient for the Indcjnnity You may determine the motive, if yot like " "I havo already determined it." replied Jonquelle. "And what was It, monsieur, since you have determined It?" "It was despair!" replied tho Prefect Pre-fect of Police. "Do you know what Dernburg Pasha was doing In Paris?" Another Installment of tbK nelvrn-turc nelvrn-turc of C Jonquelle will aptxar In our nexl i Mne. |