h, hello,
Captain Strawn!... _What's that?_... Oh, my God!... Where did you say
the body is?"

He listened for a long minute, then, with a dazed "Thanks! I'll be
over," he hung up the receiver.

"Sprague--murdered!" he answered the horrified question in Penny's eyes.
"Body discovered this morning about nine by one of the Miles' maids, in
what you described just now as the 'trophy room'.... Shot--just below
the breastbone, Captain Strawn says."

"The trophy room!" Penny cried. "Then--_that's_ where he was all the
time after he disappeared so strangely last night--"

"Whoa, Penny!" Dundee commanded. "Get hold of yourself! You're shaking
all over.... I want to know everything _you_ know--as quickly and as
accurately as you can tell it. Go right on--"

"Poor Dexter!" Penny groaned, covering her convulsed face with her
hands. "To think that he was _dead_ when we were saying such horrid
things about him--"

"Don't waste sympathy on him, honey!" Dundee cut in, his voice very
gentle but urgent. "If he had heeded my warning Monday he wouldn't be
dead now."

"What do you mean?" Penny gasped, but she was already calmer. "Your
warning--?"

"I had a strong suspicion that he was mixed up with Nita in her
blackmail scheme and I took the trouble to warn him not to try to carry
on with it. Yesterday afternoon I begged Strawn to have him shadowed to
see that he kept out of mischief. I was afraid the temptation would be
too strong for him, but Strawn wouldn't listen to me--still clinging to
his theory of a New York gunman.... Feeling better now, honey? Can you
go on? I want to get out to the Miles house as soon as I can."

"You're getting very--affectionate, aren't you?" Penny gave him a wobbly
smile in which, however, there was no reproof. "I think I can go on
now--. Where was I?"

"Good girl!" Dundee applauded, but his heart was beating hard with
something more than excitement over Sprague's murder. "You'd just told
me about Sprague's warning Karen not to leave the table when she became
dummy after Judge Marshall's little slam bid in spades."

"I remember," Penny said, pressing her fingers into her temples. "But
Karen _did_ leave the table. When Sprague said that awful thing, poor
Karen burst into tears and ran from the porch into the living room, Hugo
started to follow her, but Sprague halted him by apologizing very
humbly, and then by adding: 'I'd really like to see you play this hand,
sir. I believe I've got the cards