“Your information is entirely correct so far, Mr. Carter. I will add to it in that particular. He had with him the equivalent of two hundred thousand dollars in cash in your money. He also had in his possession at that time certain jewels which were the property—or had been—of a family that had suffered exile. Those jewels had been forfeited to the crown together with other possessions, and——” “My dear sir, what has all this to do with our matters?” “Bear with me a moment, please.” “Go on, then.” “The jewels which my father displayed with seeming recklessness were of very great value—they were worth another sum equal to the amount he had with him in cash. My father was not a person given to needless display, and so you may assume that there was a definite purpose in his conduct in making a display of them, and in his reckless expenditure of money also. All that formed a part of his mission there.” “I understand you. Well?” “Now, will you tell me what more you heard about his death?” “No. I will not say any more on the subject now.” “Then I will tell you—for I perceive that you hesitate only to spare my feelings, and I honor you for it. While in Paris, he was very much in the company of a woman who had at that time, and has since had, many names. To the police she was known as ‘The Leopard.’ Am I correct?” “Quite so.” “My father made his home in a palace which he had taken, furnished, in the Faubourg St. Germain. He was found dead in the library of that palace one afternoon, with a bullet hole in his brain. There was a pistol beside him, and a partly written note on the table near him, telling that he had decided to kill himself. The last person who was in his company before that happened was ‘The Leopard,’ the beautiful young woman in whose company he had been seen so often. “But she had been gone from the house a long time before the shooting was supposed to have taken place, and although she was taken to the prefecture of police and closely questioned, not a thing could be determined against her. Is that substantially what was told to you by the chief, Mr. Carter?” “Yes.” “Did he inform you also that not one centime of the money, and not one trace of the jewels, could be found after the death of my father?” “Yes.” “Thank you. That is all I care to ask you about the circumstance at the present moment; but I wish to add to it one statement of my own.” “Well?”