she had cause enough, even for that."

Ashton-Kirk nodded gravely.

"Cause, yes," said he. "And that is the heart-breaking thing connected
with crime of a certain sort. Sometimes the criminal is much more
innocent than the victim." He sat thoughtful for a space, while the car
bounded forward over the well-kept roads; then he resumed: "I could see,
Scanlon, where and how your thoughts flowed as they did; but I could do
nothing more at the time than tell you to make no snap judgments. The
agitation of Miss Cavanaugh caught your attention in the first place,
and so when we saw a woman's footprints by the rose arbor you concluded
they were hers; we found a small revolver by the fence; that also made
you think of her. When, by means of the particle of mortar on the bar of
the cellar grating at Stanwick, I discovered that the same person who
had prowled about the lawn on the night of the murder had scaled the
scaffolding outside Miss Cavanaugh's window, you fancied this to be
almost positive proof. What you saw at Bohlmier's hotel, and the story
told you by Big Slim, made it almost damning.

"If you had waited, as a man more experienced in such things would have
done," and the investigator smiled at his friend, "you would have saved
yourself a state of mind. The prints at the rose arbor were made by a
certain sort of shoe--a kind which I felt sure Miss Cavanaugh never
wore. Later, in a second visit which I paid to No. 620 Duncan Street, I
found the shoes which made the prints, and still with particles of soil
clinging to them."

Bat caught a little moan from Nora, and he held her cold, limp hand in
his strong, warm one.

"You're sure of that?" said he, to Ashton-Kirk.

"Quite positive. And the matter of the little revolver picked up on the
lawn: that belonged to Fenton; he probably dropped it in scaling the
fence. By means of a strong glass I saw a number scratched on the metal
of the butt. I at once knew this to be a pawnbroker's mark. Fuller,
inside three hours, had located the pawnbroker, and the records of the
place showed the weapon had been sold to Fenton only a little while
before."

"Good work!" admired Bat. "Nice!"

"And speaking of Fenton," went on Ashton-Kirk, "it rather puzzled me at
first how he had been over the ground about the house and left no trace.
But a little attention and look at his feet showed me that I had seen
his tracks all over one side of the lawn--the ones of the man walking on
his toe