sible without
sitting down--it was a way he had, acquired from long patrolling of
city streets.

"You--you'll go with me?" faltered Darcy.

"Yes, to call the cook. _She_ won't run away," and he nodded toward
the dead woman.

"Oh!" There was a world of meaning in Darcy's interjection. "You mean
that I--"

"I don't mean nothin'!" broke in Mulligan. "I leave that to the
gum-shoe men. Come on, if you want to call what's-her-name!"

It took some little time, by calling and pounding outside her door, to
arouse deaf Sallie Page, and longer to make her understand that she was
wanted. Then, just as Darcy had expected, she began to cry and moan
when she heard her mistress was dead, and refused to come from her
room. She had served the owner of the jewelry store for more than a
score of years.

"Hark!" exclaimed Mulligan, as he and Darcy came downstairs after
having roused Sallie Page. "What's that?"

"Some one is knocking," remarked his companion.

"Maybe it's the men from headquarters."

It was--Carroll and Thong, who always teamed it when there was a case
of sufficient importance, as this seemed to be. They were insistently
knocking at the side door, having forced their way through the crowd
that was still there--larger than ever, maintaining positions in spite
of the dripping, driving, drizzling rain.

"Killed, eh?" murmured Carroll, as he bent over the body.

"Gun?" asked Thong, who was making a quick visual inventory of the
interior of the place.

"No; doesn't seem so. Looks more like her head's been busted in. Hit
with something. Doc Warren can 'tend to that end of it. Now let's get
down to business. Who found her this way?"

"I did," answered Darcy.

"And who are you?"

"Her second cousin. Her name was Mrs. Amelia Darcy, and her husband
and my father were first cousins. I have worked for her about seven
years--ever since just after her husband died. She continued his
business. It's one of the oldest in the city and--"

"Yes, I know all about that. Robbery here once--before your time. We
got back some of the stuff for the old lady. She treated us pretty
decent, too. When'd you find her like this?"

"About half an hour ago. I got up a little before six o'clock to do
some repair work on a man's watch. He wanted to get the early train
out of town."

"I see! And you found the old lady like this?" asked Carroll.

"Just like this--yes. Then I called in the milkmen--"

"I saw t