ght of the
circumstantial evidence against me, I could not resist the temptation to
make my alibi good. I neither committed that murder nor witnessed it.
The story I told at the inquest of what happened to me and what I did at
Sloanehurst stands. It is the truth."

XIX

"PURSUIT!"

Returning from his trip Sunday morning, the detective, after a brief
conference with Hendricks, had gone immediately to Mrs. Brace's
apartment. She sat now, still and watchful, on the armless rocker by the
window, waiting for him to disclose the object of his visit. Except the
lifted, faintly interrogating eyebrows, there was nothing in her face
indicative of what she thought.

He caught himself comparing her to a statue, forever seated on the
low-backed, uncomfortable chair, awaiting without emotion or alteration
of feature the outcome of her evil scheming. Her hardness gave him the
impression of something hammered on, beaten into an ugly pattern.

Having that imperturbability to overcome, he struck his first blow with
surprising directness.

"I'm just back from Pursuit," he said.

That was the first speech by either of them since the monosyllabic
greeting at the door. He saw that she had prepared herself for such an
announcement; but the way she took it reminded him of a door shaken by
the impact of a terrific blow. A little shiver, for all her force of
repression, moved her from head to foot.

"You are?" she responded, her voice controlled, the hard face untouched
by the shock to which her body had responded.

"Yes; I got back half an hour ago, and, except for one of my assistants,
you're the first person I've seen." When that drew no comment from her,
he added: "I want you to remember that--later on."

He began to whittle.

"Why?" she asked with genuine curiosity, after a pause.

"Because it may be well for you to know that I'm dealing with you alone,
and fairly.--I got all the facts concerning you."

"Concerning me?" Her tone intimated doubt.

"Now, Mrs. Brace!" he exclaimed, disapproving her apparent intention.
"You're surely not going to pretend ignorance--or innocence!"

She crossed her knees, and, putting her left forearm across her body,
rested her right elbow in that hand. She began to rock very gently, her
posture causing her to lean forward and giving her a look of continual
but polite questioning.

"If you want to talk to me," she said, her voice free of all feeling,
"you'll have to tell me what it's