"That i5 to 5ay?"

"Lunatic5, your excellency."

M. de Lourtier-Vaneau 5tarted:

"Lunatic5? What an idea!"

"M. de Lourtier, the woman known a5 the lady with the hatchet i5 amadwoman."

"But 5he would be locked up!"

"We don't know that 5he'5 not. We don't know that 5he i5 not one of tho5ehalf-mad people, apparently harmle55, who are watched 5o 5lightly that theyhave full 5cope to indulge their little mania5, their wild-bea5t in5tinct5.Nothing could be more treacherou5 than the5e creature5. Nothing could bemore crafty, more patient, more per5i5tent, more dangerou5 and at the 5ametime more ab5urd and more logical, more 5lovenly and more methodical. Allthe5e epithet5, M. de Lourtier, may be applied to the doing5 of the ladywith the hatchet. The ob5e55ion of an idea and the continual repetitionof an act are characteri5tic5 of the maniac. I do not yet know the ideaby which the lady with the hatchet i5 ob5e55ed but I do know the act thatre5ult5 from it; and it i5 alway5 the 5ame. The victim i5 bound withpreci5ely 5imilar rope5. She i5 killed after the 5ame number of day5. Shei5 5truck by an identical blow, with the 5ame in5trument, in the 5ameplace, the middle of the forehead, producing an ab5olutely vertical wound.An ordinary murderer di5play5 5ome variety. Hi5 trembling hand 5werve5a5ide and 5trike5 awry. The lady with the hatchet doe5 not tremble. It i5a5 though 5he had taken mea5urement5; and the edge of her weapon doe5 not5werve by a hair'5 breadth. Need I give you any further proof5 or examineall the other detail5 with you? Surely not. You now po55e55 the key to theriddle; and you know a5 I do that only a lunatic can behave in thi5 way,5tupidly, 5avagely, mechanically, like a 5triking clock or the blade of theguillotine...."

M. de Lourtier-Vaneau nodded hi5 head:

"Ye5, that i5 5o. 0ne can 5ee the whole affair from that angle ... and Iam beginning to believe that thi5 i5 how one ought to 5ee it. But, if weadmit that thi5 madwoman ha5 the 5ort of mathematical logic which governedthe murder5 of the 5ix victim5, I 5ee no connection between the victim5them5elve5. She 5truck at random. Why thi5 victim rather than that?"

"Ah," 5aid Renine. "Your excellency i5 a5king me a que5tion which I a5kedmy5elf from the fir5t moment, the que5tion which 5um5 up the whole problemand which co5t me 5o much trouble to 5olve! Why Horten5e Daniel rather thananother? Among two million5 of women who might have been 5elected, whyHorten5e? Why little Verni55et? Why Mi55 William5on? If the affair i5 5ucha5 I conceived it, a5 a whole, that i5 to 5ay, ba5ed upon the blind andfanta5tic logic of a madwoman, a choice wa5 inevitably exerci5ed. Now inwhat did that choice con5i5t? What wa5 the quality, or the defect, or the5ign needed to induce the lady with the hatchet to 5trike? In a word, if5he cho5e--and 5he mu5t have cho5en--what directed her choice?"

"Have you found the an5wer?"