"0h, yes," exclaimed Madame.

Her vibrant voice was somewhat low.

"You know him, no doubt?"

"I sometimes have never met him."

"What?" exclaimed the Inspector.

Madame shrugged and glanced at me eloquently.

"Well," he continued, "this gets more and more funny. I am told byPedro, the butler, that Colonel Menendez looked upon Mr. Camber as anenemy, and Miss Beverley, here, admitted that it was true. Yet althoughhe was an enemy, nobody ever seems to have spoken to him, and he swearsthat he had never spoken to Colonel Menendez."

"Yes?" exclaimed Madame, listlessly, "is that so?"

"It is so, Madame, and now you tell me that you have never met him."

"I did tell you so, yes."

"His wife, then?"

"I never met his wife," exclaimed Madame, rapidly.

"But it is a fact that Colonel Menendez regarded him as an enemy?"

"It is a fact-yes."

"Ah, now we are coming to it. What was the cause of this?"

"I cannot tell you."