Selim?... Thanks much,
doctor.... Anything new?... Fine! Thanks again!"

He hung up the receiver and faced Strawn. "Bullet from a Colt's .32," he
said grimly. "I suggest you send one of your men around to the Marshall
home to pick up a bullet that was shot in their damned target practice.
If you send the two bullets tonight, registered mail, to Wright, the
ballistics expert in Chicago, he can probably wire you tomorrow morning
as to whether the same gun was used to fire both."

"Sure, Bonnie," Strawn agreed lugubriously. "I was going to do just
that.... Say, this town is getting to be worse than Chicago!"

When he re-entered the living room Dundee began upon the judge again,
regardless of the fact that the elderly husband was murmuring
consolatory endearments to his young wife.

"Judge Marshall, how many keys are there to the cupboard drawer in which
your gun and silencer were kept?"

"Just one. I have it with me," the old man answered wearily.

"Then when Hinson, your butler, looked for them, he found the drawer
unlocked?"

"He did. I confess to almost criminal negligence--"

"Then so far as you know, the gun and silencer could have been removed
at any time by any guest of yours between noon last Sunday and--today?"
Dundee went on relentlessly.

"I--suppose so. But these people have been my close friends for years,"
the judge answered. "Not one of them, sir--"

"After Mrs. Selim's departure last Sunday, did your other guests remain
for any length of time?"

"For an hour or more, I think. Lois and Peter Dunlap remained for our
two o'clock Sunday dinner, but the others drifted away to various
engagements."

"Did any of you return to the room where the gun was kept?"

"I can speak only for myself and Peter--Mr. Dunlap," Judge Marshall
answered, flushing with indignation. "The two of us went down just
before dinner was served. I wanted to show him some new flies for trout
casting."

"Your home is a popular rendezvous for your intimates, is it not?"

"I pride myself that it is, sir!"

"And guests run in and out, having the freedom of the place?"

"Certainly, sir!... And since I am not so stupid as you imagine, I can
tell you now that I understand the drift of your questions, and can
forestall them: Yes, all of these people--_my friends_!--have had
opportunity to take the gun and the silencer from the cupboard since it
was placed there last Sunday, if it _was_ placed there by Mrs. Selim.
But may I remi