Page 144 (1/2)

"Yes," said Mr Ricardo

"Yes; but there was also another question Suppose that Mlle

Celie was, after all, the victi tied upon the sofa; suppose that soround had been made, and that she

had afterwards been carried away, so that the ht be

cleared of all coible why

the other footprints were scored out and hers left The

presuuilt would fall upon her There would be proof

that she ran hurriedly fro into a ain, if that theory were true, then

Helene Vauquier was the accomplice and not Mlle Celie"

"I follow that"

"Then I found an interesting piece of evidence with regard to the

strange wo red hair--a very

iht it best to say

nothing at all It was not Mlle Celie's hair, which is fair; nor

Vauquier's, which is black; nor Mme Dauvray's, which is dyed

brown; nor the charworey It was, therefore, the

visitor's Well, ent upstairs to Mile Celie's roo to the pot of

cream"

"In that room we learnt that Helene Vauquier, at her own request,

had already paid it a visit It is true the Commissaire said that

he had kept his eye on her the whole ti down the road, and that he could not