"Then what it is now requisite to do," said Gerald, joining in the conversation for the first time, "is to reopen the case; to set to work on it, in fact, as if the murder had been committed only last week, instead of twenty years ago."
"That is precisely what I propose to do," said Murray.
"And the first step is----?"
"To find out whether Max Jacoby is living or dead."
"Max Jacoby?" said Miss Bellamy. "I have not heard that name for years; but what a flood of painful reminiscences the mention of it recalls!"
"Who was the man you speak of?" asked Gerald.
"He was the man who murdered Paul Stilling!"
"You stare at me as if you believed me to be still mad," he added, after a pause, addressing himself to Miss Bellamy: "and you ask me in your thoughts, if you do not with your lips, what evidence I can bring to prove the truth of what I have just stated. My answer is, that I cannot adduce one tittle of evidence that would be considered worth a moment's notice in a court of law: but not the less sure am I that he was the man."
Neither Gerald nor Miss Bellamy could help being impressed by his earnestness, however disposed they might be to think that nothing but disappointment could ever issue from it.
"Have you any clue by means of which it may be possible to trace the present whereabouts of this man, Max Jacoby?" asked Gerald presently.