help you. Please consider me
an impersonal factor, and let me do all I can for you. For the moment,
let us suppose your surmise is correct. This would, of course, free Mr.
Hall from any implication of crime."

"Yes, and while I can't suspect him of anything like crime, I hate,
also, to suspect him of disloyalty to me."

Her head went up with a proud gesture, and I suddenly knew that the
thought of Hall's interest in another woman, affected her pride and her
sense of what was due her, far more than it did her heart. Her fear was
not so much that Hall loved another woman, as that his secrecy in the
matter meant a slight to her own dignified position.

"I understand, Miss Lloyd, and I hope for the sake of all concerned,
your surmise is not correct. But, with your permission, I feel it my
duty to discover where Mr. Hall was that evening, even if to do this it
is necessary to have professional assistance from headquarters."

She shuddered at this. "It is so horrid," she said, "to spy upon a
gentleman's movements, if he is only engaged in his personal affairs."

"If we were sure of that, we need not spy upon him. But to the eye
of justice there is always the possibility that he was not about his
personal affairs that evening, but was here in West Sedgwick."

"You don't really suspect him, do you?" she said; and she looked at me
as if trying to read my very soul.

"I'm afraid I do," I answered gravely; "but not so much from evidence
against him, as because I don't know where else to look. Do you?"

"No," said Florence Lloyd.

XVIII. IN Mr. GOODRICH'S OFFICE

As was my duty I went next to the district attorney's office to tell
him about Mrs. Cunningham and the gold bag, and to find out from him
anything I could concerning Gregory Hall. I found Mr. Porter calling
there, and both he and Mr. Goodrich welcomed me as a possible bringer of
fresh news. When I said that I did know of new developments, Mr. Porter
half rose from his chair.

"I dare say I've no business here," he said; "but you know the deep
interest I take in this whole matter. Joseph Crawford was my lifelong
friend and near neighbor, and if I can be in any way instrumental in
freeing Florence from this web of suspicion--"

I turned on him angrily, and interrupted him by saying,

"Excuse me, Mr. Porter; no one has as yet voiced a suspicion against
Miss Lloyd. For you to put such a thought into words, is starting a mine
of trouble."

The older man