e lead in the Hamilton movie, if Sprague
got the job of directing it," Dundee reminded him. "Miles, victim of a
deep-rooted sexual inferiority complex, must have felt sure that Flora,
on discovering she was not legally married, would snatch at the chance
to marry Sprague--which was of course what Sprague had planned in case
Nita published the truth."

"But you were wrong about the secret shelf! The gun was never there!"
Strawn gloated.

"No. But it was the absence of fingerprints on the pivoting panel and
shelf which kept me on the right track. Miles had searched the shelf for
the marriage certificate which he could not know Nita had already
burned. Probably, too, he had written her a few letters during their
short courtship----"

"How was Sprague killed?" Sanderson interrupted impatiently.

Dundee led the way across the basement to a cubbyhole next to the coal
room, entered and came out with a narrow, deep drawer of ebony inlaid
with mother-of-pearl....

"First I must tell you that Miles got the gun out of the lamp that
Saturday night, parking his car at a distance and sneaking into the
house while I was talking with Lydia in the basement. We can guess that
he stowed gun, silencer and electro-magnet in a pocket of his car. At
any rate, he came back noisily enough a little later, to offer Lydia a
job as nurse in his home. Doubtless he assured himself that she knew
nothing, or poor Lydia would have gone the way of her mistress and
Sprague."

"Was Sprague----?" Strawn began.

"Despite my warning," Dundee went on, refusing to be hurried, "Sprague
made a demand for blackmail money upon Miles. It is possible that
Sprague, also sneaking into the house that Saturday night to get his
bag, saw Miles retrieve the gun. At any rate, Sprague knew that Miles
was the only person among all the company who had a real motive for
killing Nita Selim, and he undoubtedly blackmailed Miles as a murderer
as well as a bigamist. Perhaps Miles put him off for a day or two, but
on Wednesday Judge Marshall begged for a bridge game, and Miles seized
the opportunity of again having the original crowd present--a sort of
wall of integrity surrounding and including him. For I don't think he
really wanted to involve his best friends as suspects. I believe he
merely wanted to hide among them--apparently as above suspicion as they
were. And there is safety in numbers, you know.... At any rate, Miles
made an appointment Wednesday afternoon with Spr