not at first. Not, in fact, till some time after I began my work
on the case. I knew Mr. Hardy had been murdered before I knew anything
else about him."

She was intensely white, but she was resolute.

"Who told you he was murdered?"

"No one. I discovered the evidence myself."

He felt her weaken and grow limp beside him.

"The--the evidence?" she repeated faintly. "What kind--of evidence?"

"Poison."

He was watching her keenly.

She swayed, as if to faint once more, but mastered herself by exerting
the utmost of her will.

"Poison?" she repeated, as before. "But how?"

"In a box of cigars--a birthday present given to your uncle."

It was brutal--cruelly brutal--but he had to test it out without
further delay.

His words acted almost with galvanic effect.

"Cigars! His birthday! My cigars!" she cried. "Jerold, you don't
suspect me?"

The car was starting across the bridge. It suddenly halted in the
traffic. Almost on the instant came a crash and a cry. A dainty
little brougham had been crushed against another motor car in the jam
and impatience on the structure. One of its wheels had lost half its
spokes, that went like a parcel of toothpicks.

Garrison leaped out at once, and Dorothy followed in alarm. In the
tide of vehicles, blocked by the trifling accident, a hundred persons
craned their heads to see what the damage had been.

A small knot of persons quickly gathered about the damaged carriage.
Garrison hastened forward, intent upon offering his services, should
help in the case be required. He discovered, in the briefest time,
that no great damage had been done, and that no one had been injured.

Eager to be hastening onward, he turned back to his car. Almost
immediately he saw that the chauffeur's seat was empty. Dorothy had
apparently stepped once more inside, to be screened from public view.

Hastily scanning the crowd about the place, Garrison failed to find his
driver. He searched about impatiently, but in vain. He presently
became aware of the fact that his man had, for some reason, fled and
left his car.

Considerably annoyed, and aware that he should have to drive the
machine himself, he returned once more to the open door of the auto,
intent upon informing Dorothy of their loss.

He gazed inside the car in utter bewilderment.

Dorothy also was gone.

CHAPTER XX

NEW HAPPENINGS

Still puzzled, unable to believe his senses, Garrison made a second
qui