as much wealth as she has herself."

"How do you mean if things go right?" asked the detective.

"Well, if I can perfect the electric lathe I am trying to patent," was
the answer.

"Oh, so that's what King heard about an electric lathe?"

"I suppose so. It's no great secret. I've been working on it for some
time, but my cousin objected to my spending my time that way. She
thought I should devote it all to her interests, even outside the shop.
I told her I had my own future to look to, and we often had words about
that. Last night's quarrel wasn't the first, though she was especially
bitter over my work on the lathe. I have been giving it more time than
usual because it is nearly finished, and I want to get it ready to show
at a big Eastern jewelry convention."

"And what was the talk about money?"

"Well, Mrs. Darcy owed me about a thousand dollars. I had done some
special work on making necklaces for her customers, and she had
promised, if they were pleased, to pay me extra for the exclusive
designs I got up. The customers were pleased, and they paid her extra
for the ornaments. So I demanded that she keep her promise, but she
refused, pleading that many other customers owed her and times were
hard. I needed that thousand dollars to help complete my lathe model,
and--well, we had words over that, too."

"Then, do I understand," summed up Carroll, "that the night Mrs. Darcy
was killed you had a quarrel with her over Miss Mason, and about the
money and because you spent too much time working on your patent lathe?"

"Well, yes, though I don't admit I spent too much time, and I surely
will claim she owed me that money. As for Miss Mason--I'd prefer to
have her name left out," faltered the young jeweler.

"We can't always have what we want," said Thong, dryly. "Was the
quarrel specially bitter?"

"Not any more so than others. I had to speak a little loud, for my
cousin was getting a trifle deaf."

"And after the quarrel you went to bed?"

"Yes."

"And you didn't see your cousin again until--when?" and Carroll looked
Darcy straight in the eyes.

"Not until after she was--dead."

"Um! I guess that's all now."

They let the young man go, back to his room in police headquarters. It
was not a cell--yet, though it would seem likely to come to that, for
Thong observed to his partner as they went downstairs:

"Well, there's a motive all right."

"Three, if you like. But none of 'em hardly stro