hat
led to Bruce's apartment. None of them led to Mrs. Parker's home.
The rest were all business calls and satisfactorily accounted for. I
reasoned that this was the one that involved the disappearance of the
automobile-coat. It was a chance worth taking, so I got Downey to call
up Bruce's valet. The valet of course recognised Downey's voice and
suspected nothing. Downey assumed to know all about the coat in the
package received yesterday. He asked to have it sent up here. I see the
scheme worked."

"But, Kennedy, do you think she--" I stopped, speechless, looking at the
scorched coat.

"Nothing to say--yet," he replied laconically. "But if you could tell me
anything about that note Parker received I'd thank you."

I related what our managing editor had said that morning. Kennedy only
raised his eyebrows a fraction of an inch.

"I had guessed something of that sort," he said merely. "I'm glad to
find it confirmed even by hearsay evidence. This red-haired young lady
interests me. Not a very definite description, but better than nothing
at all. I wonder who she is. Ah, well, what do you say to a stroll down
the White Way before I go to my laboratory? I'd like a breath of air to
relax my mind."

We had got no further than the first theatre when Kennedy slapped me on
the back. "By George, Jameson, she's an actress, of course."

"Who is? What's the matter with you, Kennedy? Are you crazy?"

"The red-haired person--she must be an actress. Don't you remember the
auburn-haired leading lady in the 'Follies'--the girl who sings that
song about 'Mary, Mary, quite contrary'? Her stage name, you know, is
Phoebe La Neige. Well, if it's she who is concerned in this case I don't
think she'll be playing to-night. Let's inquire at the box-office."

She wasn't playing, but just what it had to do with anything in
particular I couldn't see, and I said as much.

"Why, Walter, you'd never do as a detective. You lack intuition.
Sometimes I think I haven't quite enough of it, either. Why didn't I
think of that sooner? Don't you know she is the wife of Adolphus Hesse,
the most inveterate gambler in stocks in the System? Why, I had only
to put two and two together and the whole thing flashed on me in an
instant. Isn't it a good hypothesis that she is the red-haired woman
in the case, the tool of the System in which her husband is so heavily
involved? I'll have to add her to my list of suspects."

"Why, you don't think she did the shoo