THE SECRET BAND - Scene 29

• "I will do my best, though no one can be infallible."
• "That is all I expect. I think a woman is more likely to be successful in a thing of this sort, because men are thrown off their guard when they see a petticoat."
• "You may depend upon it that Zini is the culprit," I said. "There was something in his manner last night that indicated he was in a fit state for the commission of any crime, however heinous."
• "You think he is our man?"
• "Unquestionably!"

It was arranged between us before I left the office that I should exert myself to the utmost to prove that Zini was the perpetrator of the crime which had deprived Mantuani of his Iife. I have been engaged in more complicated affairs, and have been tolerably successful in my endeavours, but there was something about Zini which made me think I should come off second best in the encounter.