en I'm going to give a little 'turn' of the whole thing
again, and see if we can't reconstruct it a bit. The constable outside
will lend a hand. Here, Peters!"

"Yessir?"

"Get your friend from the outside window for a moment and give a hand to
get--This--out of the room before the ladies come. I want to reconstruct
the whole affair in the presence of all concerned. And we'll take away
all the gruesomeness that's possible.... Poor old chap! Poor old
tight-fisted laird! Eh, man, but you've got a sterner judge to face now
than ever you were yourself! And this time Justice has to be done, and
no gainsaying the fact, either!"

The unpleasant task was barely finished before the sound of footsteps
and the humming of many voices in the hallway without told those within
that the family were reassembling for the "performance." Cleek, with a
hasty glance to see that all was right, threw wide the door.

"Come in, come in," he said in a pleasant, friendly voice. "There's
nothing now to be seen but that which all may see, Lady Paula, so
neither you nor Miss Duggan nor any other member of the party need fear.
If you will all kindly take your places exactly as you took them last
night, I'd be immensely grateful. At any rate, Mr. Narkom here"--he
introduced him to the assembly with a slight bow--"will be able to get
some kind of an idea of exactly how things were when the--tragedy
happened. Hello! Where's Miss--Miss--er--McCall? Wasn't she a member of
the party, too?"

Lady Paula entered the room with a rustling of soft black silk, and came
toward him with sadly smiling countenance.

"I hardly thought, you know, that you would require her presence, Mr.
Deland, and so I told her she might attend to her duties instead. But of
course if you wish----"

"I do wish----"

"Then she shall be immediately sent for. Maud, my dear, will you kindly
call her?"

Maud, thus addressed, turned silently away and went out of the room, but
in a few moments was back again, the slim, shrinking form of the girl
following closely behind her.

Cleek came toward her and smiled down into her pale face.

"If you would be so kind, Miss McCall, as to take up your position as it
was last night when--when the murder was committed, I should be
exceedingly grateful. Thanks very much. You really needn't be so
frightened, you know. It's only a sort of grim dress rehearsal after the
show instead of before. Just to get some sort of idea.

"Now, then, Sir And