ed to place on record a fact
that might later prove damaging.

"Not exactly," answered Haynes, with some hesitation.

"You knew her, of course?" added Craig.

Haynes nodded.

"I wonder if you could locate the Baroness," pursued Kennedy.

Haynes seemed to express no surprise at the obvious implication that she
was missing. "I have no objection to trying," he answered simply; then,
with a glance at his watch, he reached for his hat and stick and
excused himself. "I'm afraid I must go. If I can be of any assistance,"
he added, "don't hesitate to call on me. Delaney and I were pretty
closely associated in this deal and I feel that nothing is too much to
ask of me if it is possible to clear up the mystery of his death, if
there is any."

He departed as quickly as he had come.

"I wonder what he dropped in for?" I remarked.

"Whatever it was, he didn't get it," returned Leslie.

"I'm not so sure of that," I said, remembering the brief telephone
conversation with Madame Dupres.

Kennedy did not appear to be bothering much about the question one way
or the other. He had let his cigar go out during Haynes' visit, but now
that we were alone again he continued his minute search of the premises.

He opened a closet which evidently contained nothing but household
utensils and was about to shut the door when an idea occurred to him. A
moment later he pulled from the mystic depths an electric vacuum cleaner
and dragged it over to the sun-parlor.

Without a word we watched him as he ran it over the floor and walls,
even over the wicker stands on which the plants stood, and then over the
floor coverings and furniture of the other rooms that opened into the
conservatory. What he was after I could not imagine, but I knew it was
useless to ask him until he had found it or had some reason for telling
it.

Carefully he removed the dust and dirt from the machine and wrapped it
up tightly in a package.

We parted from Dr. Leslie at the door of the apartment, promising to
keep in touch with him and let him know the moment anything happened.

At the first telegraph office Kennedy entered and sent off a long
message to our friend Burke of the Secret Service in Washington, asking
him to locate the Baroness, if possible, in that city, and to give any
information he might have about either Haynes or Madame Dupres.

"It's still early in the evening," remarked Kennedy as we left the
telegraph office. "Suppose we drop around to the