r firing the shot, had
involuntarily taken a step or even several steps backward, until his
foot had caught in the loop of electric cord, causing the big lamp to be
thrown violently against the wall near which it stood.... But who?

_Any one of half a dozen people!_ But--_who_?

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Having ticketed the big bronze lamp, which he had brought with him from
the Selim house, and locked it away in the room devoted to "exhibits for
the state," Bonnie Dundee hurried into Penny's office, primed with the
news of his discovery of the secret hiding place and eager to lay his
new theory before the district attorney.

"Bill's gone," Penny interrupted her swift typing to inform him. "To
Chicago. He had only fifteen minutes to make the three o'clock train,
after he received a wire saying his mother is not expected to live. He
tried to reach you at the Selim house, but one of Captain Strawn's men
said you had left."

"I stopped on my way in to get a bite to eat," Dundee explained
mechanically. "I'd dashed off without my lunch, you know."

"Did you find the gun and silencer?" Penny asked.

"No. Whoever used it Saturday afternoon walked out of the house with it,
in plain view of the police, and still has it.... Very convenient, too,
in case another murder seems to be expedient--or amusing."

"Don't joke!" Penny shuddered. "But what in the world do you mean?"

Briefly Dundee told her, minimizing the hard work, the concentrated
thinking, and the meticulous use of a tape measure which had resulted in
the discovery of the shelf between Nita's bedroom closet and the guest
closet in the little foyer.

"I see," Penny agreed, her husky voice slow and weighted with horror.
She sat in dazed thought for a minute. "That rather brings it home to my
crowd--doesn't it?... To think that Dad--!... Probably everyone at the
party--except me--had heard all about Dad's 'simple and ingenious'
arrangement for hiding the securities he sent on to New York before he
ran away.... And no outsiders--nobody but _us_--had a legitimate excuse
for entering that closet.... Not even Dexter Sprague. It's one of his
affectations not to wear a hat--"

"Is it?" Dundee pounced. "You're sure he wore no hat that afternoon? Did
you notice him when he left after I had dismissed you all?"

"Yes," Penny acknowledged honestly. "I paid attention to him, because I
was hating him so. I believed then that he was the murderer, and I was
furious with you