be so worked up by the mere finding of an empty boat. She heard
allusions to names, but they evoked no echo in her mind. At last,
approaching a girl among the sightseers, she put a timid question:

"Can you tell me what is the matter?" she said.

"They've found the boat," came the ready answer.

"Yes, but what boat? Why any boat?"

"Haven't you read about the murder last night. Mr. Van Hofen, who owns
that yacht there, the _San Sowsy_, had a party of friends on board, an'
one of 'em was dragged into the river an' drowned. Nice goin's on. _San
Sowsy_--it's a good name for the whole bunch, I guess."

Winifred did not understand why the girl laughed.

"What a terrible thing!" she said. "Perhaps it was only an accident;
and sad enough at that if some poor man lost his life."

"Oh, no. It's a murder right enough. The papers are full of it. I was
walkin' here at nine o'clock with a fellow. It might ha' been done under
me very nose. What d'ye know about that?"

"It's very sad," repeated Winifred. "Such dreadful things seem to be
almost impossible under this blue sky and in bright sunshine. Even the
river does not look cruel."

She went on, having no time for further dawdling. Her informant glanced
after her curiously, for Winifred's cheap clothing and worn shoes were
oddly at variance with her voice and manner.

At Seventy-second Street Winifred bought a newspaper, which she read
instead of the tiny volume of Browning's poems carried in her hand-bag.
She always contrived to have a book or periodical for the train
journeys, since men had a way of catching her eye when she glanced
around thoughtlessly, and such incidents were annoying. She soon learned
the main details of "The Yacht Mystery." The account of Ronald Tower's
dramatic end was substantially accurate. It contained, of course, no
allusion to Senator Meiklejohn's singular connection with the affair,
but Clancy had taken care that a disturbing paragraph should appear
with the rest of a lurid write-up.

"Sinister rumors are current in clubland," read Winifred. "These warrant
the belief that others beside the thugs in the boat are implicated in
the tragedy. Indeed, it is whispered that a man high in the political
world can, if he chooses, throw light on what is, at this writing, an
inexplicable crime, a crime which would be incredible if it had not
actually taken place."

The reporter did not know, and Clancy did not tell him, just what this
innuendo meant. T