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"Well, what have I done?" he asked "Come! tell me!"

"You have destroyed a clue," replied Ricardo impressively

The deepest dejection at once overspread Hanaud's burly face

"Don't say that, M Ricardo, I beseech you!" he implored "A clue!

and I have destroyed it! But what kind of a clue? And how have I

destroyed it? And to what mystery would it be a clue if I hadn't

destroyed it? And ill becoo back to Paris,

and say in the Rue de Jerusaleood friends, for M Ricardo knows that I destroyed a clue

Faithfully he promised me that he would not open his mouth, but I

destroyed a clue, and his perspicacity forced hirow red

Hanaud turned with a smile to Besnard

"It does not really matter whether the creases in this cushion

remain," he said, "we have all seen thelass in his pocket

He carried that cushion back and replaced it Then he took the

other, which lay at the foot of the settee, and carried it in its

turn to theThis was indented too, and ridged up, and just

at the marks the nap of the silk orn, and there was a slit

where it had been cut The perplexity upon Hanaud's face greatly

increased He stood with the cushion in his hands, no longer

looking at it, but looking out through the doors at the footsteps

so clearly defined--the foot-steps of a girl who had run fro into aback the cushion, laid it carefully down Then

he stood erect, gazed about the rooht

force its secrets out from its silence, and cried, with a sudden

violence: "There is soentlemen, which I do not understand"