as glancing at the
black headlines, and read:

". . . I have found it to be a real truth that the very sitting by the
river's side is not only the quietest and fittest place for
contemplation, but will invite the angler to it; . . ."

"I'm a fool!" exploded the colonel. "I came here to fish, and, first
click of the reel, I go nosing around on the trail of a murder, when I
vowed I wouldn't even dream of a case. I won't either,--that's flat!
I'll get my rods in shape to go fishing to-morrow. It may clear. Then
Shag and I--"

Slowly the book slipped from his hand. It fell on the bed with a soft
thud, and a breeze from the partly opened window ruffled a page of the
newspaper. The colonel, looking guiltily around the room, walked
nearer to the bed, and then, as stealthily as though committing a
theft, he picked up the _Times_. Softly he exclaimed:

"Gad! what's the use?"

A moment later, pulling his chair beneath an electric light, he began
to read the account of the murder.

Pete Daley's story of the finding of the dead body of the owner of the
jewelry store was a graphic bit of work. He described how Darcy,
coming down in the gray dawn, had discovered the woman lying stark and
cold, her head crushed and a stab wound in her side.

None of the details was lacking, though the gruesomeness was skilfully
covered with some well-done descriptive writing. The wounds seemed to
have been inflicted at the same time--one by the metal statue of a
hunter found on the floor near the body, the other by a dagger-like
paper cutter, admitted to be owned by Harry King, but which, with the
blade blood-stained, was found on the jewelry bench of her cousin James
Darcy.

The solution of the murder mystery depended on the answers to two
questions, the reporter pointed out. First, which wound killed Mrs.
Darcy? Second, who inflicted either or both wounds?

There were ramifications from these beginnings--such as the motive for
the crime; whether or not there had been a robbery; and, if so, by whom
committed. Then, to get to the more personal problem, did either King
or Darcy commit the murder, and, if so, why?

"Um," mused the colonel, reading the _Times_ on the evening of the day
the crime was discovered. "It may turn out to be a mystery after all,
in spite of the two men who are held. Let's see now," and he went on
with his perusal of the paper.

The autopsy had been performed, and Dr. Warren had said either wound
mig