"I told you that you had not begun at the beginning," he said. "It's
really all summed up in that. You occupied an extraordinary
position. The criminal himself, in the pride of his craft and by
reason of the consuming vanity that finally wrecked him,
deliberately brought you in. It was part of his fun--his art if you
like--that he should involve a great detective for the added joy of
making a fool of him. You were the spice in his bloody cup for
Michael Pendean--the salt, the zest. If he had merely stuck to
business, not a thousand detectives would ever have queered his
pitch. But he was as playful as any other hunting tiger. He rejoiced
in adding a thousand details to his original scheme. He was an
artist, but too florid, too decadent in his decorations. And so he
ruined what might have been the crime of the century. It is just the
touch of human fallibility that has brought Nemesis to many a great
criminal.

"The machinery he employed focussed attention from the first on the
apparent murderer rather than his victim. It appeared impossible to
doubt what had happened and Pendean's death was assumed but never
proved. Particulars concerning Robert Redmayne were abundant; yet,
during the whole course of the official inquiry, none was
forthcoming concerning the supposed victim. Of him you had heard
from his wife; and her original statement to you at Princetown--when
she invited you, doubtless at Pendean's direction, to take up the
case--was masterly because so nearly true in every respect.

"But from the time that I met and spoke with Albert's niece I began
to reflect upon that statement, and my speedy conviction was this:
that a great deal more concerning Jenny's first husband demanded to