Mr. Gryce tried to stop him; he would not be stopped. "Spare me, sirs! Spare my wife! Write me down guilty, anything you please, rather than force that young creature to speak----" Here the inspector cut short these appeals which were rending every heart present. "Have you read the newspapers for the last few days?" he asked. "I? Yes, yes, sir. How could I help it? Blood is blood; the man was my brother; I had left him dying--I was naturally anxious, naturally saw my own danger, and I read them, of course." "Then you know he was found with a large cross on his breast, a cross which was once on the wall. How came it to be torn down? Who put it on his bosom?" "I, sir. I am not a Catholic but Felix was, and seeing him dying without absolution, without extreme unction, I thought of the holy cross, and tore down the only one I saw, and placed it in his arms." "A pious act. Did he recognize it?" "I cannot say. I had my fainting wife to look after. She occupied all my thoughts." "I see, and you carried her out and were so absorbed in caring for her you did not observe Mr. Adams's valet----" "He's innocent, sir. Whatever people may think, he had nothing to do with this crime----" "You did not observe him, I say, standing in the doorway and watching you?" Now the inspector knew that Bartow had not been standing there, but at the loophole above; but the opportunity for entrapping the witness was too good to lose. Mr. Adams was caught in the trap, or so one might judge from the beads of perspiration which at that moment showed themselves on his pale forehead. But he struggled to maintain the stand he had taken, crying hotly: "But that man is crazy, and deaf-and-dumb besides! or so the papers give out. Surely his testimony is valueless. You would not confront me with him?" "We confront you with no one. We only asked you a question. 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?"