“Now, however, comes one of the most ingenious features of the affair. This woman, finding next day that her plot to throw suspicion upon Miss Rosselli had failed, turned her attention to myself. She was aware that a slight quarrel had arisen between Reggie and myself regarding his injudicious and futile action in seeking to denounce her, and with others had overheard some high words between us when we had met at the Café de Paris on the day previous to his death. She gave information to the police, and then left the Riviera suddenly. Next day I found myself under observation, and in order to escape arrest induced Mr. Keppel, who has taken a great interest in the affair from the first, and who is one of the trustees under the will of Mr. Thorne, Senior, to conceal me on board his yacht until such time as our inquiries in Paris could be completed. It was ascertained that this woman Fournereau, who had gone to Russia, intended to return to her apartments here upon a date she had arranged with her accomplice, Laumont, therefore I have remained in hiding from the police until to-day. This is her first reception, notice of which was circulated among her friends by means of cipher upon certain tables in the cafés on the grand boulevards.” “But this lady?” I inquired, indicating the handsome woman who had been my travelling-companion in the wagon-lit. “I am the mother of Reginald Thorne,” she herself responded. “You Reggie’s mother!” I cried, scarce able to believe her words. “Yes,” she answered. “Hearing of my poor son’s death, I crossed from New York to Havre and arrived in Nice only to find that the Vispera had sailed. A letter was awaiting me with full explanation, asking me to travel to Marseilles and cross by the mail-steamer to Tunis and there join the yacht. This I did, but in order that my presence should not be known to those on board I was placed secretly in the deck-cabin and never went forth. The blow that had fallen upon me on hearing of poor Reggie’s death, combined with the constant imprisonment in that cabin, I believe upset the balance of my mind, for one night, the night before we put into Leghorn, I became unconscious. I was subject to strange hallucinations, and that night experienced a sensation as though some one was attempting to take my life by strangulation.”