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But when their eyes centered upon the manacled stranger who was then dazedly struggling to a sitting position, Paulson asked: "Who is this?" "This," answered Ashton-Kirk, "is M. Sagon, a fellow lodger of Antonio Spatola, formerly a very close friend of the late Mr. Hume, and once a resident of Bayonne, in France."
Crawford is a traveling man, and is seldom home; but he pays in advance, so I don't never worry about him. Mr. Sagon is what they call an expert. He can't speak much English yet, but sometimes even the government," in an awed tone, "sends for him to come to the customs house to tell them how much diamonds are worth, that people bring in. He works for Baum Brothers and Wright.
Why, Sagon actually had them in his hands." Ashton-Kirk drew a flat packet from his pocket. Opening it he showed that it contained nothing but blank paper. "This is what Sagon found behind the portrait," said he, with a smile. "The real papers I was very careful to remove two days ago. One moment that's the telephone."
"Sagon was one of those convicted. The diamonds which Hume tried to smuggle into this country were to have been turned into money at the time of the gang's arrest and the proceeds spent in their defense. But instead of doing this, Hume left his comrades to their fate and absconded. When Sagon gained his freedom he began a search for Hume, meaning to have revenge.
This search finally led him to Locke as a person who had known Hume, and who would be likely to be able to tell where he could be found." "Sagon has told you this?" queried Pendleton. "Yes; he talked freely, after he saw that his case was hopeless; and he, too, insisted that Locke did not intend to commit murder.
"Sagon had calculated it all very nicely. One night a week Spatola went to play with two compatriots at their rooms; with piano, harp and violin, they gave vent to the harmony that was in them. That was the night for the trio, and Sagon knew it. But In his rage and his desire to prove his standing to Hume, Spatola had forgotten it.
"As I had to take Edyth home last night, and you went bravely away with the police and Sagon, I find myself, as usual, trailing some distance in the rear." Ashton-Kirk regarded the litter of newspapers ruefully: "I gave them the heads of the case very plainly," said he, "but as it was almost the hour for going to press, I suppose they did not get the finer points of my meaning.
As I see it, he hoped to gain the roof unobserved. He knew the house and the habits of the people quite well. No doubt he had a plan, and a good one. He's a thinker, is Mr. Locke." "If he was noticed, he could indicate that he had called to see M. Sagon." "Exactly. But I very much doubt his gaining the roof.
He had no intention of killing Hume." "But why did Sagon do it? he must have had it in mind when he bought the bayonet at Bernstine's," said Pendleton, looking at Ashton-Kirk. "He had. Do you recall how Burgess' report spoke of a league of smugglers in Europe of which Hume was a leading spirit, and also of how they had been captured and nearly all but Hume were tried and convicted?" "Yes."
Ashton-Kirk ran over these quickly; they were mostly upon musical subjects, and in Italian. But some were Spanish, English, German and French. "He was the greatest hand for talking and reading languages," said Mrs. Marx, wonderingly. "I don't think there was any kind of a nationality that he couldn't converse with. Mr. Sagon that lives on the floor below says that his French was elegant, and Mr.
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