vision of the murder story as it had appeared in the
first extra, with additional details supplied by Strawn, and with a line
drawing of the scene of the crime--the trophy room itself and the forked
driveway with its tall yew hedges. A dotted line illustrated Strawn's
theory of Sprague's plan to elude the murderer who had followed him to
the Miles home. Because of the curved sweep of the driveway toward the
main entrance of the house, the tall hedge was less than two feet from
the window with the partly opened screen.

"Captain Strawn's theory," read the text below the large drawing, "is
that Sprague had good cause to fear he was being followed on his way to
the Miles home; that he telephoned for a taxi to wait for him at the
foot of the hill, and that he planned to leave the Miles house by way of
the trophy room window, so that his lurking pursuer might have no
knowledge of his departure. The drawing shows that his proposed flight
would have been protected by hedges until he reached the wooded slope of
the hill, provided his Nemesis was lurking in the opposite hedge across
the driveway, where he could observe every departure from the Miles
home."

"You've sure got a single-track mind, boy," Strawn chuckled. "So you
think those two got married in such a hurry this morning because the law
says a husband or a wife can't be made to testify against the other?"

"Possibly." Dundee grinned, unruffled. "But there is another
possibility--which is why I should like to know who suggested this
sudden wedding. I mean that we can't overlook the possibility that these
two murders made either the bride or the groom feel perfectly safe in
going on with the marriage. Polly Beale and Clive Hammond had been
engaged for more than a year, you know, with no apparent reason for a
long engagement.... As for my having a single-track mind, Captain, what
about you? I have six possible suspects, all of whose names I know, and
you have only one--whose name you do not know, and whose motive you can
only guess at, while _I_ have a perfectly good motive that might fit any
one of my six--blackmail!"

"Is that so?" Strawn growled. "I'm not telling the papers everything,
and if they are satisfied to call these murders '_crimes passionnels_,'
it's all right with me. But I'm not forgetting that Nita Selim banked
ten thousand dollars cash after she got to Hamilton. My real theory now
that Sprague has been killed is that Nita and Sprague had cooked up som