me immediately here to do my duty and to give what little help
I could to you all in your bereavement. And so here I am. I beg of
you, don't stay in this apartment now. It is no place for a
lady--particularly a lady so highly strung and nervous as yourself."

"But how--did you ever--come to hear about it?" she demanded, stepping
back a pace or two, with her eyes carefully avoiding that Thing which
lay huddled there before them--mute reminder of all the terrors that had
happened the night before. "How could you have known, Mr. Deland----"

"I mentioned the fact of my profession to your stepdaughter yesterday,
and she immediately summoned me here. And, of course, I came. Anything
which I can do...."

"Thank you. But there is nothing--nothing! I came in now because last
night I--dropped my handkerchief, and it was one which I very much
value, because my dear husband gave it to me upon the anniversary of our
wedding-day. Duchesse lace, Mr. Deland, and with my name embroidered
across the corner. And I knew, if the police found it, that I--I should
never get it back again. Everything, you see, becomes a clue, doesn't
it? But it seems not to be here."

Her agitation was very apparent, and Cleek mentally registered the fact
that the excuse was a tame one, and utterly untrue.

"No," he said, "it isn't here, Lady Paula. And, as you say, if it were,
I could not give it to you. Go back to your room, I beg, and lie down.
You look ghastly pale; and after breakfast I shall have need of your
help, believe me. So go, please. And leave me to this gruesome vigil
alone.... Oh, by the way, do you happen to remember, during last
night's many and terrible happenings, whether the will which Sir Andrew
was about to alter (I have the facts of the case, you see, from Miss
Duggan herself) was put away by any member of the family? Because it
isn't here, you know."

He swept his hand out across the desk-top in an expressive gesture. Her
face flushed rosily, and something like a startled light, half of
gladness, half of fear, showed in her wide, velvety eyes. But she shook
her head.

"It was never touched--to my knowledge," she said emphatically. "And I
happen to remember that fact, for in the confusion of everything that
followed, when we were looking at my poor, poor husband, it fell to the
ground, and Maud picked it up again and laid it over there, under those
other things that my husband had been looking into. I noted the fact,
even in my