"Gentlemen, we have heard several stories here to-night, will you listen to mine, and suspend judgment for a few moments?"
"We will hear you," said Mr. Mitchel, marvelling at the man's nerve. The others resumed their seats, all except the detective, who stood just back of his prisoner.
"I will trouble you to fill my glass," said Thauret to the waiter, and after being served, he coolly sipped a mouthful.
"I shall not bore you with a lengthy recital," he began, "I shall simply make a statement. Society, the civilized society of to-day, frowns upon and punishes what it terms 'the criminal class.' Yet how many have ever examined into the existing state of things, and analyzed the causes which make the criminal a possibility? The life of such a man is not so inviting that one would adopt it from choice, one I mean who had moral instincts. With the naturally immoral it would be otherwise, of course. But if one be born immoral, who is to blame? The individual himself, or the antecedents, including both parentage and circumstances? We pity the man who is congenitally tainted with disease, and we condemn that other man who is tainted in morals, though his condition is analogous and traceable to similar causes. Such a man I am. I confess that I am, and always have been a criminal, at least in the sense of acquiring money by what are termed illegitimate methods. But you will say, Mr. Barnes," turning for a moment to the detective, and thus whilst speaking to him, attracting his attention, so that unnoticed he dropped a small white pellet into his glass of wine, "that I worked for the jewelry house. Well, whatever I am, I have aimed to be artistic, as Mr. Mitchel admitted of me a few moments ago. By seeming to earn an honest living, I blinded the keen eyes of the Paris police, so that though many suspicions have been cast in my direction, conviction has always been impossible. So now, whilst pretending to explain to you all, I have explained nothing. I simply designed to prevent conviction of the crimes charged against me, as I do, thus."
With a swift movement he drained his wine-glass, though Mr. Barnes attempted to prevent him. In ten minutes he was dead.