see, he seemed no further advanced than he had been at the inquest.
Certainly he had accumulated a mass of evidence, but it threw no light
on the case. From Caranby's romance, it seemed that the dead woman had
been connected with the Saul family. That seemed to link her with
Maraquito, who appeared to be the sole surviving member. In her turn,
Maraquito was connected in some underhand way with Mrs. Octagon, seeing
that the elder woman came by stealth to the Soho house. Mrs. Octagon
was connected with the late Emilia Saul by a crime, if what Caranby
surmised was correct, and her daughter was forbidden to marry Mallow,
who was the nephew of the man who had been the lover both of Miss Loach
and Emilia Saul. Hale and Clancy were playing some game with Basil
Saxon, who was the son of Mrs. Octagon, and he was associated with
Maraquito. Thus it would seem that all these people were connected in
various ways with the dead woman. But the questions were: Had one of
them struck the fatal blow, and if so, who had been daring enough to do
so?

"Again," murmured Jennings, "who touched that bell? Not the assassin,
who would scarcely have been fool enough to call anyone to examine his
work before he had time to escape. Certainly it may have been a woman!
Yes! I believe a man killed Miss Loach, for some reason I have yet to
learn, and a woman, out of jealousy, wishing to get him into the grip
of the law, touched the bell so that witnesses might appear before the
assassin could escape. But who struck the blow?"

This was a difficult question. It could not have been Basil Saxon, for
he was at the Marlow Theatre on that night with his sister. Cuthbert
had no motive, and Jennings quite believed his explanation as to his
exploration of the park between the hours of ten and eleven. Hale,
Clancy and Mrs. Herne were all out of the house before the blow had
been struck, and, moreover, there was no reason why they should murder
a harmless old lady. Maraquito confined to her couch could not
possibly have anything to do with the crime. Mrs. Octagon did hate her
sister, but she certainly would not risk killing her. In fact, Jennings
examining into the motives and movements of those mentioned, could find
no clue to the right person. He began to believe that the crime had
been committed by someone who had not yet appeared--someone whose
motive might be found in the past of the dead woman. Say a member of
the Saul family.

But Maraq