mmediately steered for the darkest corner
of the smoking-car, where he sat with his hat well drawn down over
his face."

"Carroll again, by George!" exclaimed the attorney.

"Here is a problem for you to solve," Merrick continued, pointing
to the revolver and box lying side by side. "You think Brown threw
those in the lake. Who was the man that Brown saw standing beside
the lake just before three o'clock in the morning, and what was he
doing? He was tall and dark, and wore a long coat or ulster. Was
that Carroll or Carruthers? Did he throw anything into the lake?
And if so, what?"

Mr. Whitney gazed dubiously at the detective for a moment, then
began to whistle softly, while he slowly shook his head.

"No, Merrick; you've got me there! I never have had enough
experience in this line that I could go into the detail work. I
have to be guided by the main points in the case. Then, again, I
gave Brown's testimony very little thought, as I considered him
unreliable and irresponsible."

"Well, to come back to the 'main points,' then: what reasons have
you for connecting Mrs. LaGrange and Hobson with this affair that
might not apply equally well in the cases of certain other people?"

"What reason? Why, man alive! there is every reason to consider
Mrs. LaGrange the instigator of the whole affair. In the first
place, her one object and aim for the past seventeen or eighteen
years has been to get hold of Hugh Mainwaring's property, to secure
for herself and her son what she calls their 'rights'--"

"That is the point," Merrick interrupted. "You consider her guilty
because she would be interested in securing a hold upon the property,
although she, personally, has no claim whatever. Has it never
occurred to you that there might be others more deeply interested
than she, inasmuch as they have valid claims, being the rightful
heirs?"

"I never thought of such a possibility," said the astonished
attorney; "and I don't know that I understand now to whom you refer."

"I have learned from various reliable sources," the detective
replied, "that Ralph Mainwaring has a younger brother, Harold, who
is as much of a money-lover as himself, though too indolent to take
the same measures for acquiring it. He is a reckless, unprincipled
fellow, and having about run through his own property, I understand,
he has had great expectations regarding this American estate,
depending upon his share of the same to retrieve his waste