h setting down my last will and testament, in my own
handwriting. I do here and now solemnly will and bequeath to my faithful
and beloved maid, Lydia Carr, all property, including all moneys, stocks
and personal belongings of which I die possessed--"

"To--_me_?" Lydia whispered. "To me?"

"To you, Lydia," Dundee assured her gravely.

"Then I can have all her pretty clothes to keep always?"

"And her money, to do as you like with, if the court accepts this will
for probate--as I think it will, regardless of the fact that it is very
informal and was not witnessed."

"But--she didn't have any money," Lydia protested. "Nothing but what
Mrs. Dunlap paid her in advance for the work she was going to do--"

"Lydia, your mistress died possessed of nearly ten thousand dollars!"
Dundee fixed her bewildered grey eye with his blue ones. "_Ten thousand
dollars!_ All of which she got right here in Hamilton! And I want you to
tell me how she got it!"

"But--I don't know! I don't believe she had it!"

Dundee shrugged. Either this woman would perjure her soul to protect her
mistress' name from scandal, or she really knew nothing.

"That is all of the will itself, Lydia," he went on finally, "except her
command that her body be cremated without funeral services of any kind,
and that nobody be allowed to accompany the remains to the crematory
except yourself and Mrs. Peter Dunlap, in case her death takes place in
Hamilton--"

"She _did_ love Mrs. Dunlap," Lydia sobbed. "Oh, my poor little girl--"

"And there is also a note for you, which I took the liberty of reading,
in which Mrs. Selim minutely describes the clothes in which she wishes
to be cremated, as well as the fashion in which her hair is to be
dressed--"

"Let me see it!" Lydia plunged forward on her knees and snatched at the
papers he held. "For God's sake, let me see!"

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

"I'll read you the note, Lydia, but I can't let you touch it," Dundee
said sternly, taking good care that she should not touch either the
paper on which the note to herself had been written or the sheet which
contained that strange, informal will. Informal, in spite of the dead
woman's obvious effort to couch it in legal phraseology....

Was Lydia's frenzy assumed? Did she hope to leave fingerprints now which
would account for fingerprints she had already left upon it? Was it not
possible that Lydia's had been the prying fingers which had opened the
envelope after Nita