e
sort of racket between them, and that when Nita got the chance to come
to Hamilton with Mrs. Dunlap, she jumped at it, and she and Sprague
sprung their racket, whatever it was, either just before or just after
Nita left New York. Probably it was Nita's tip-off and Sprague did the
actual dirty work himself, which explains that telegram that Nita sent
him April 24, just three days after she got to Hamilton. Let's see again
just what it says," and Strawn reached for a copy of the night letter
which Dundee himself had unearthed the day before. "See: '_Everything
Jake so far, but would feel safer you here_--'"

"Yes, I remember the wording quite well," Dundee interrupted. "But you
did not take it so seriously when I showed it to you yesterday. If you
had--"

"All right! Rub it in!" Strawn snapped, flushing darkly. "If I had
assigned a man to 'tail' Sprague, as you suggested, he wouldn't have
been murdered--"

"He probably would have been murdered just the same," Dundee comforted
the older man, "but we might have been lucky enough to have had an
eye-witness."

"Oh, you and your theory!" Strawn growled. "But let me go on.... Nita
meant she would feel safer about Sprague if he was here in Hamilton,
too. But the guy they double-crossed in New York, or worked the badger
game on, or something like that, got on their trail. But it took him
weeks to do it, and Sprague followed Nita's advice. He got here on
Sunday April 27, and on Monday the 28th Nita banked the first $5,000!
Don't you see it, boy? Sprague brought with him the dough they'd got for
their stunt, and thought it was safer for Nita to bank it in her name,
since it wasn't the name she was known by in New York anyway. We've
checked up on Sprague pretty thoroughly. He didn't have a bank book,
either on his body or in his room, and every bank in town denies he had
an account with them."

"If that theory is correct, it makes Nita Selim a pretty low character,"
Dundee mused aloud. "Not only did she kick him out as a lover, but she
double-crossed him as her partner in crime, by willing the whole wad to
Lydia Carr. Sprague must have received quite a shock when he heard
Nita's will read at the inquest."

"Yeah," Strawn agreed. "It looks like Mrs. Dunlap picked a sweet
specimen to make a friend out of.... Well, that's my theory, and I think
it explains everything. Their victim in New York simply hired a gunman,
or come down here himself, when he got on their tracks. Of co