“Hold on—hold on,” exclaimed Tom, recovering from his surprise. “Perhaps some person attending the inquest dropped it?”
“That part of the house was roped off and guarded by policemen.”
“You are right,” agreed Hardy. “I remember the careful arrangements we made to keep the crowd to the left as they entered the house. Besides,” examining the chain closely, “it must have taken a tremendous wrench to break off that link, and the few pieces of furniture on the way to the library and parlor were moved to make room for the people passing back and forth.”
“Exactly,” said Dick. “My theory is that de Morny, after committing the murder, concealed himself behind the armor in the corner by the chimney. In getting up, his chain must have caught and wrenched off the link.”
“But the motive?” demanded Hardy. “Count de Morny is a member of the Diplomatic Corps; there will be an awful howl and international complications unless we have absolute proof of his guilt before we arrest him.”
“Mr. Blake can tell you that Mrs. Trevor and the Count hated each other.”
“Yes, he told me so,” corroborated Tom, as the detective looked at him. “I also overheard the Count threaten her.”
“Gordon was not the only man late in arriving at the Bachelors’ Cotillion that night,” went on Dick. “De Morny never got there until after midnight. He gave very evasive answers to Miss Macallister when she asked what had detained him. We all teased him about his unusual solemnity; and then towards the end of the ball he astonished us by sudden outbursts of hilarity. At the time I attributed them to too many convivial glasses of champagne. But a more sinister cause may have been responsible for his conduct.
“To sum up—we know de Morny hated Mrs. Trevor; we know he threatened her; we know this chain belongs to him; we know one link from it was found in the Trevor house; we know he could have killed Mrs. Trevor that night and have gone afterwards to the ball—it is what Gordon is accused of doing.
“Now, I propose we go to de Morny and demand an explanation. If he cannot give a satisfactory one, Hardy, here, as a representative of the law, can threaten to arrest him.”