ems sure that Ralph Hammond was
mad about Nita Selim."

"So of course he would kill her!" Penny scoffed bitterly.

"Yes, Penny--when he discovered Sprague's easily-recognized cravats
draped over the mirror frame in a bedroom in Nita's house.... For they
were there to be seen when Ralph went into that bedroom yesterday
morning."

"How do you know he saw them?"

"Because he left this behind him," Dundee admitted reluctantly, and
wiped his hands before drawing an initialed silver pencil from his
breast pocket. "I found it under the edge of the bed. The initials are
R. H."

"Yes, I recognize it," Penny admitted, turning sharply away. "I gave it
to him myself, for a Christmas present. I thought I could afford to give
silver pencils away then. Dad hadn't bolted yet--" She crooked an elbow
and leaned her face against it for a moment. Then she flung up her brown
bobbed head defiantly. "Well?"

"Ralph must have been--well, in a pretty bad way, since he loved Nita
and wanted to--marry her," Dundee persisted painfully. "Remember that
Polly Beale found him still there when she stopped to offer Nita a lift
to Breakaway Inn. It is not hard to imagine what took place. We _know_
that Polly curtly cancelled her luncheon engagement with Nita and the
rest of you, and went into town with Ralph, after making sure that Clive
would join them. I saw young Hammond myself for an instant, without
knowing who he was, and I remember now thinking that he looked far too
ill to eat. I was lunching at the Stuart House myself when they came
into the dining room, you know."

"Plenty to hang him on, I see!" Penny cried furiously.

"There's a little more, Penny," Dundee went on. "Polly Beale and Clive
Hammond were mortally afraid that Ralph _would_ come to the cocktail
party! I'm sure Clive made Ralph promise to stay away, and that both
Clive and Polly did not trust him to keep his promise. That is why, I am
sure, Clive beckoned Polly to join him in the solarium, without entering
the living room to speak to Nita. You remember they said they stayed
there all during the playing of--"

"If you call it the 'death hand' again, I'll scream!"

"All right.... They stayed there until Karen discovered the murder. I am
sure they chose that place because of its many windows--they could watch
for Ralph's car, dash out and head him off. Take him away by force, if
necessary, to keep him from making a scene. I believe they knew he had
murder in his heart, and