said, "the famous specialist in
the detection of crime? You know that Brian Sotherst is my brother?"

"Yes," he said, "I know it! I am sorry--very sorry, indeed."

He handed her a chair. She seated herself with a little tightening of
the lips.

"I want more than sympathy from you, Mr. Ruff," she warned him. "I want
your help."

"It is my profession," he admitted, "but your brother's case makes
intervention difficult, does it not?"

"You mean--" she began.

"Your brother himself does not deny his guilt, I understand."

"He has not denied it," she answered--"very likely he will not do so
before the magistrate--but neither has he admitted it. Mr. Ruff, you are
such a clever man. Can't you see the truth?"

Peter Ruff looked at her steadily for several moments.

"Lady Mary," he said, "I can see what you are going to suggest. You are
going on the assumption that Austen Abbott was shot by Letty Shaw and
that your brother is taking the thing on his shoulders."

"I am sure of it!" she declared. "The girl did it herself, beyond a
doubt. Brian would never have shot any one. He might have horsewhipped
him, perhaps--even beaten him to death--but shot him in cold
blood--never!"

"The provocation--" Ruff began.

"There was no provocation," she interrupted. "He was engaged to the
girl, and of course we hated it, but she was an honest little thing, and
devoted to him."

"Doubtless," Ruff admitted. "But all the same, as you will hear before
the magistrates, or at the inquest, she was having supper alone with
Austen Abbott that night at the Milan."

Lady Mary's eyes flashed.

"I don't believe it!" she declared.

"It is nevertheless true," Peter Ruff assured her. "There is no shadow
of doubt about it."

Lady Mary was staggered. For a few moment she seemed struggling to
rearrange her thoughts.

"You see," Ruff continued, "the fact that Miss Shaw was willing to
sup with Austen Abbott tete-a-tete renders it more improbable that she
should shoot him in her sitting room, an hour or so later, and then go
calmly up to her mother's room as though nothing had happened."

Lady Mary had lost some of her confidence, but she was not daunted.

"Even if we have been deceived in the girl," she said,
thoughtfully--"even if she were disposed to flirt with other men--even
then there might be a stronger motive than ever for her wishing to get
rid of Abbott. He may have become jealous, and threatened her."

"It is, of course, possi