"Oh, I heard from Pa about a week ago. He had been travelling about and hadn't had his mail forwarded. That was the reason why I had had no answer to my numerous telegrams and letters. He says, however, that my divorce is O. K., so you can't get rid of me after all." CHAPTER XVIII THE TRUTH OF THE WHOLE MATTER The Atkinses had departed, and Merritt and I were again alone. "Well," I exclaimed, "the Rosemere mystery doesn't seem any nearer to being solved, does it?" "You ought to be satisfied with knowing that your friend, Mrs. Atkins, is exonerated." "Of that I am heartily glad; but who can the criminal be?" The detective shrugged his shoulders. "You don't know?" I asked. "Haven't an idea," he answered. "But what about that pretty criminal you've been talking so much about?" "Well, Doctor, to tell you the truth this case has proved one too many for me. You see," he went on, settling himself more comfortably in his chair, "there isn't enough evidence against any one to warrant our holding them an hour. Mrs. Atkins knew the man and had a motive for killing him, but had no place in which to secrete the body, nor did she make any effort to obtain that key. Against Argot the case is stronger. One of the greatest objections to the theory that it was he who murdered Brown is that, as far as we can find out, the man was a perfect stranger to him. But as he did not know his wife's lover by sight, it seems to me not impossible that he may have mistaken Brown for the latter, and thought that in killing him he was avenging his honour. The Frenchman is also one of the few persons who could have abstracted the key of the vacant apartment. On the other hand, it would have been impossible for him to have either secreted or disposed of the body without his wife's knowledge. And unless Madame Argot is an actress and a liar of very unusual talent, I am willing to swear that she knew and knows nothing of the crime!" "I am sure of it," I assented.