s."

"By the way," said T. B., "his niece was staying with you a few nights
ago, was she not?"

Lady Constance Dex inclined her head.

"She came to a ball I was giving, and stayed the night," she said. "I
motored back to Great Bradley after the dance, so that I have not seen
her since I bade her good night. I am going along to see what I can do
for her," she concluded. She had been speaking very deliberately and
calmly, but now it was with an effort that she controlled her voice.

"I understand, Mr. Smith," she said suddenly, "that you have a small
scent bottle which is my property; Mr. Farrington wrote to me about it."

T. B. nodded.

"It was found in the area of Mr. Farrington's house," he said, "on the
night that the two men were killed in Brakely Square."

"What do you suggest?" she asked.

"I suggest that you were at Mr. Farrington's house that night," said T.
B. bluntly. "We are speaking now, Lady Constance, as frankly as it is
possible for man and woman to speak. I suggest that you were in the
house at the time of the shooting, and that when you heard the shots you
doubled back into the house, through the kitchen, and out again by a
back way."

He saw her lips press tighter together, and went on carelessly:

"You see, I was not satisfied with the examination I made that night. I
came again in the early hours of the morning, when the fog had risen a
little, and there was evidence of your retirement plainly to be seen.
The back of the house opens into Brakely Mews, and I find there are four
motor-cars located in the various garages in that interesting
thoroughfare, none of which correspond with the tire tracks which I was
able to pick up. My theory is that you heard the altercation before the
house, that you came out to listen, not to make your escape, and that
when you had satisfied yourself you hurried back to the mews, got into
the car which was waiting for you, and drove off through the fog."

"You are quite a real detective," she drawled. "Can you tell me anything
more?"

"Save that you drove yourself and that the car was a two-seater, with a
self-starting arrangement, I can tell you nothing." She laughed.

"I am afraid you have been all the way to Great Bradley making
inquiries," she mocked him. "Everybody there knows I drive a car, and
everybody who takes the trouble to find out will learn that it is such a
car as you describe."

"But I have not taken that trouble," said T. B. with a smile.