"Astonish me! _C'est une mauvaise plaisanterie, mon cher_. I am never astonished at anything in this best of all possible worlds. You have not read _Candide_, in which that saying occurs? No. Ah, you should. Voltaire is the most witty of his race. _Eh bien!_ What is your astonishing news?" "I know your history and that of your sisters, and I have learnt how Miss Gordon took the place of Mrs. Moxton to fight her battles." "You know that? Ah, well, Janet must have told you. If she did, she is right. Janet can do no wrong. She is the dearest and most excellent sister in the world." "Are you the best brother to her?" "I? _Mon, ami_, I am a scamp. I have no good in me. If I had it would not be so creditable to Janet that she is fond of me. So she has told you all her intrigues. What can I do?" "Inform me about Busham. You saw him on that night?" "_Oui da!_ He followed that poor Edgar from the station." "How was he dressed?" Zirknitz reflected. "It was cold that night," said he, musingly. "I put on a fur coat. Eh! Ah, yes. Busham had a coat of the same and a tall hat. I can say no more than that." A fur-lined coat, a tall hat. This was precisely the scanty description given by Laura of her momentary glimpse of the assassin. What if the lawyer, after all, should be the guilty person? Full of excitement Ellis detailed to Zirknitz his suspicions, and cited the fact of the red pocket-book. The Austrian uttered an exclamation of astonishment on hearing that this was missing. "Edgar, excellent Edgar, had it in his pocket at the music-hall. Eh! yes, I quite remember. He took out the book to show me a bill." "A bill? What kind of a bill?" "A bill of exchange or a promissory note. Now you speak, _mon cher ami_, it all comes back to me. Edgar showed me the name of his father on the bill and declared that it was forged." "A forged bill!" said Ellis, "and in the pocket-book which was stolen? Ah, this, then, may be the motive for the crime. Zirknitz, did Moxton say who had forged the bill?" "Eh? No. He said, 'My Rudolph, see what I got from Busham this night.'" "Busham! Busham! Could he have forged the bill?" "Eh? No, I think not, or he would not give it to Edgar." "Still, a forged bill, obtained from Busham, and he followed Edgar out of the station. He wore a tall hat and a fur coat. As the assassin was dressed the same it might be--By Heavens! Zirknitz, I believe that Busham is the guilty person, after all." Zirknitz shrugged his shoulders, but did not offer an opinion, and as the doctor did not think that there was anything further to be learnt from him, he rose to go. At the door, however, he paused, and made a chance remark which gained him greater results than any of his previous questions.