ore very probably--press her handkerchief to
her trembling lips.

But the bidding was going on, Karen Marshall piping in her childish
treble: "Three spades!"

Dundee took his place behind her chair, then silently beckoned to Penny
to shift from her own chair opposite Carolyn Drake to the chair Nita
Selim had left to go to her death. She nodded understandingly.

"Double!" quavered Carolyn Drake, next on the left to the dealer, and
managed to raise her eyebrows meaningly to Penny, her partner, who had
not yet changed places.

Penny, throwing herself into the spirit of the thing, scowled warningly.
No exchanging of illicit signals for Penny Crain! But the instant she
slipped into Nita Selim's chair her whole face and body took on a
different manner, underwent almost a physical change. She _was_ Nita
Selim now! She tucked her head, considered her cards, laughed a little
breathless note, then cried triumphantly:

"And I say--_five spades_! What do you think of _that_, partner?"

Then the girl who was giving an amazing imitation of Nita Selim changed
as suddenly into her own character as she changed chairs.

"Nita, I don't think it's quite Hoyle to be so jubilant about the
strength of your hand," she commented tartly. "I pass."

Karen Marshall pretended to study her hand for a frowning instant, then,
under Penny's spell, announced with a pretty air of bravado:

"Six spades!... Your raise to five makes a little slam obligatory,
doesn't it, Nita?"

Carolyn Drake flushed and looked uneasily toward Penny, a bit of by-play
which Dundee could see had not figured in the original game. But she
bridled and shifted her plump body in her chair, as she must have done
before.

"I double a little slam!" she declared. Then, still acting the role she
had played in earnest that afternoon, she explained importantly: "I
always double a little slam on principle!"

Penny, in the role of Nita, redoubled with an exultant laugh, then, as
herself, said, "Pass!" with a murderous glance at Mrs. Drake.

"Let's see your hand, partner," Karen quavered, addressing a woman who
had been dead nearly two hours; then she shuddered: "Oh, this is too
horrible!" as Penny Crain again slipped into Nita Selim's chair and
prepared to lay down the dummy hand.

And it _was_ horrible--even if vitally necessary--for these three to
have to go through the farce of playing a bridge hand while one of the
original players was lying on a marble slab at the morg