Listen to me. It was I who took that unhappy woman to the place where she met her death. It was I who wrote that name in the register. 

 "I! I, and not that innocent man, was her companion. The waiter, Gaspard, is mistaken. 

 "I am the man who was in room B!" 

 

 CHAPTER IX. 

 HAMMOND'S STORY. 

 The effect of this statement can hardly be exaggerated. 

 It shook the very foundation of the case against the prisoner. If Gaspard's identification could be disproved, it seemed almost sure that Jones was saved. 

 Even though it could be shown beyond a doubt that Corbut had been murdered in a flat which was rented by Jones, that would not prove that Jones had done it. 

 The murderer was evidently the man who had ridden in the cab with Corbut. And Harrigan, the only witness, had failed to recognize Jones as that man. 

 The suspicion must instantly arise that a plot had been carefully laid, with the purpose of putting the crime upon Jones. 

 Some enemy had signed his name on the register, and the same cruel wretch had decoyed Corbut to the vacant flat and murdered him there. It was easy to suppose that the criminal knew the flat to be empty and had obtained a key. 

 It might have been by this secret enemy's connivance that the trunks were removed and sent to Gaspard. 

 But if Hammond was the wretch who had done all this, why had he confessed? 

 All these and many other thoughts must have rushed through the mind of the superintendent, in the pause which followed Hammond's declaration. 

 Byrnes looked at Nick for an explanation. 

 "This is an extraordinary statement, Mr. Hammond," said Nick. "Have you any evidence to support it?" 

 "I have ample evidence. I was seen in the company of the woman now dead, not fifty yards from the restaurant on the night when she met her death. I 

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