Mrs. Parker. It's a long story, but that isn't all of it. The
point was, you see, that by this devious route they hoped to worm out of
Mrs. Parker some inside information about Parker's rubber schemes, which
he hadn't divulged even to his partners in business. It was a deep and
carefully planned plot, and some of the conspirators were pretty deeply
in the mire, I guess. I wish I'd had all the facts about who this
red-haired female Machiavelli was--what a piece of muckraking it would
have made! Oh, here comes the rest of the news story over the wire. By
Jove, it is said on good authority that Bruce will be taken in as one of
the board of directors. What do you think of that?"

So that was how the wind lay--Bruce making love to Mrs. Parker and she
presumably betraying her husband's secrets. I thought I saw it all:
the note from somebody exposing the scheme, Parker's incredulity, Bruce
sitting by him and catching sight of the note, his hurrying out into the
ladies' department, and then the shot. But who fired it? After all, I
had only picked up another clue.

Kennedy was not at the apartment at dinner, and an inquiry at the
laboratory was fruitless also. So I sat down to fidget for a while.
Pretty soon the buzzer on the door sounded, and I opened it to find a
messenger-boy with a large brown paper parcel.

"Is Mr. Bruce here?" he asked.

"Why, no, he doesn't--" then I checked myself and added "He will be here
presently. You can leave the bundle."

"Well, this is the parcel he telephoned for. His valet told me to tell
him that they had a hard time to find it, but he guesses it's all right.
The charges are forty cents. Sign here."

I signed the book, feeling like a thief, and the boy departed. What it
all meant I could not guess.

Just then I heard a key in the lock, and Kennedy came in.

"Is your name Bruce?" I asked.

"Why?" he replied eagerly. "Has anything come?"

I pointed to the package. Kennedy made a dive for it and unwrapped it.
It was a woman's pongee automobile-coat. He held it up to the light. The
pocket on the right-hand side was scorched and burned, and a hole was
torn clean through it. I gasped when the full significance of it dawned
on me.

"How did you get it?" I exclaimed at last in surprise.

"That's where organisation comes in," said Kennedy. "The police at
my request went over every messenger call from Parker's office that
afternoon, and traced every one of them up. At last they found one t