the temple. 

 The face was that of a woman of twenty-five years. She had very abundant hair of a light corn color, which clustered in little curls around her forehead, and was gathered behind in a great mass of plaited braids. 

 She reclined in a large easy-chair, in a natural attitude, but the pallid face, the fixed and glassy eyes, and the grim wound upon the temple announced, in unmistakable terms, the presence of death. 

 Nick drew a long breath and set his lips together firmly. He had felt that something was wrong in that house. The waiter who had run across the sidewalk and got into that carriage had borne a guilty secret with him, as the detective's experienced eye had instantly perceived. 

 But this was a good deal worse than Nick had expected. He had looked for a robbery, or, perhaps, a secret and bloody quarrel between two of the waiters, but not for a murder such as this. 

 One glance at the woman showed her to be elegant in dress and of a refined appearance. 

 She could have had nothing in common with the missing Corbut, unless, indeed, he was other than he seemed. 

 Certainly, whatever was Corbut's connection with the crime, there was another person, at least, as intimately concerned in it. And he, too, had fled. 

 Where was the man who had brought this woman to this house? How was it possible to account for his absence except by the conclusion that he was the murderer? 

 That was the first and most natural explanation. Whether it was the true one or not, the man must be found. 

 Nick turned to Gaspard. The head waiter had sunk down on a chair by the table and seemed prostrated. 

 From previous experience Nick knew Gaspard to be a man without nerve, and he was not surprised to find him prostrated by this sudden shock. 

 There was a bottle of champagne standing in ice beside the table. The detective opened it and made Gaspard drink a glass of the sparkling liquor. 

 It put a little heart into the man, and he was able to answer questions. 

 Nick, meanwhile, closed the door of the room. Apparently the tragedy was known only to Gaspard and himself and to the guilty authors of it. 

 

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