any--more," Karen whimpered.

Ignoring Judge Marshall's blustering, Dundee continued softly: "You
don't want the wrong person to be accused of this terrible crime, do
you, Mrs. Marshall?... Of course not! And you _do_ want to help us all
you can to discover who really killed Mrs. Selim?"

"I--I suppose so," Karen conceded, on a sob.

"Then I'll help you. I'll go to the bedroom with you," Dundee promised
her with a sigh of relief. To the others he spoke sharply:

"Go back to the exact positions in living room and dining room and
solarium, that you occupied when Mrs. Marshall ran from the room."

"I think you're overdoing it, Bonnie," Captain Strawn protested.
"But--sure I'll see that they mind you."

With Karen Marshall clinging to his arm, Dundee walked down the hall,
beyond the staircase to an open door on his left--a door guarded by a
lounging plainclothesman. Seated at the dressing-table of the guests'
lavatory was Flora Miles, her sallow dark face so ravaged that she
looked ten years older than when he had first seen her an hour before.

"So you were in here when you heard Mrs. Marshall scream, Mrs. Miles?"
Dundee paused to ask.

"Yes--yes!" she gasped, rising. "And that horrible man has made me stay
in here--. Of course, the door was closed--before. I telephoned home to
ask about my children, and then I came in here to--to do my face over--"

"You didn't hear your husband arrive?"

"No,--I didn't hear him arrive," Flora Miles faltered, her handkerchief
dabbing at her trembling, over-rouged lips.

"I--see," Dundee said slowly.

He stepped into the little room, leaving Karen to stand weakly against
the door frame. Without a word to Mrs. Miles he looked closely at the
top of the dressing-table and into the small wastebasket that stood
beside it.

"You--you can see that I cold-creamed my face before I put on fresh
powder and--and rouged," Flora Miles pointed out, with an obvious effort
at offended dignity. "After I came back, while you were making those
poor girls play the hand over again, I went through the same
motions--because you told all of us to behave exactly as we had done
before--"

"I--see," Dundee agreed.

Pretty clever, in spite of being almost frightened to death, Dundee said
to himself. But he had been just a shade cleverer than she, for he had
been in this room ahead of her, and there had been no balls of greasy
face tissue in the wastebasket then!

He was passing out of the room, off