Atlas Nightshade

Day 121

“I know not,” continued Dupin, “what impression I may have made,

so far, upon your own understanding; but I do not hesitate to say

that legitimate deductions even from this portion of the

testimony—the portion respecting the gruff and shrill voices—are

in themselves sufficient to engender a suspicion which should

give direction to all farther progress in the investigation of

the mystery. I said ‘legitimate deductions;’ but my meaning is

not thus fully expressed. I designed to imply that the deductions

are the _sole_ proper ones, and that the suspicion arises

_inevitably_ from them as the single result. What the suspicion

is, however, I will not say just yet. I merely wish you to bear

in mind that, with myself, it was sufficiently forcible to give a

definite form—a certain tende