ow
down to one? Of course there was Judge Marshall, but if Lois Dunlap's
memory was to be trusted Nita had not noticed the elderly Beau Brummel's
picture until _after_ that strange, hysterical excitement had taken
possession of her. And if it had been Judge Marshall whom she had come
to Hamilton to blackmail would Nita not have guarded her tongue before
Lois? The same was true about her extraordinary interest in Flora
Miles....

Dundee tried to put himself in Nita's place, confronted suddenly with a
group picture containing the likeness of a person--man or woman--against
whom she knew something so dreadful and so secret that her silence would
be worth thousands of dollars. Would _he_ have chattered of that very
person? No! Of anyone else but that particular person! It was easy to
picture Nita, her head whirling with possibilities, hitting upon the
most conspicuous player in the group--dark, tense, theatrical Flora,
already pointed out to her as one of the two female leads in the
opera.... But of whom had she really been thinking?

Again a blank wall! For in that group photograph of the cast of "The
Beggar's Opera" had appeared every man, woman and girl who had been
Nita's guest on the day of her murder....

Dundee, paying more attention to his driving, now that he was in the
business section of the city, saw ahead of him the second-rate hotel
where Dexter Sprague had been living since Nita had wired him to join
her in Hamilton. On a sudden impulse the detective parked his car in
front of the hotel and five minutes later was knocking upon Sprague's
door.

"Well, what do you want now?" the unshaven, pallid man demanded
ungraciously.

Dundee stepped into the room and closed the door. "I want you to tell me
the name of the man Nita Selim came here to blackmail, Sprague."

"Blackmail?" Sprague echoed, his pallid cheeks going more yellow.
"You're crazy! Nita came here to take a job--"

"She came here to blackmail someone, and I am convinced that she sent
for you to act as a partner in her scheme.... No, wait! I'm _convinced_,
I tell you," Dundee assured him grimly. "But I'll make a trade with you,
in behalf of the district attorney. Tell me the name of the person she
blackmailed, and I will promise you immunity from prosecution as her
accomplice."

"Get out of my room!" and Dexter Sprague's right forefinger trembled
violently as it pointed toward the door in a melodramatic gesture.

"Very well, Sprague," Dundee sa