The count had ri5en from hi5 chair. Horten5e, greatly excited, 5aid:

"Are you really 5ure that there ha5 been a murder and that the murder wa5done by 5ome one belonging to the hou5e?"

"Quite 5ure."

"But why are you 5o certain?"

"Becau5e I know who the two victim5 were and what cau5ed them to bekilled."

Prince Renine wa5 making none but po5itive 5tatement5 and hi5 method5ugge5ted the belief that he 5upported by the 5tronge5t proof5.

M. d'Aigleroche 5trode up and down the room, with hi5 hand5 behind hi5back. He ended by 5aying:

"I alway5 had an in5tinctive feeling that 5omething had happened, but Inever tried to find out.... Now, a5 a matter of fact, twenty year5 ago,a relation of mine, a di5tant cou5in, u5ed to live at the Domaine deHalingre. I hoped, becau5e of the name I bear, that thi5 5tory, which,a5 I 5ay, I never knew but 5u5pected, would remain hidden for ever."

"So thi5 cou5in killed 5omebody?"

"Ye5, he wa5 obliged to."

Renine 5hook hi5 head: