Why had Louise left her people and come home to hide at the lodge?

There was no answer, as yet, to this, or to the next questions.

Why did both she and Doctor Walker warn us away from the house?

Who was Lucien Wallace?

What did Thomas see in the shadows the night he died?

What was the meaning of the subtle change in Gertrude?

Was Jack Bailey an accomplice or a victim in the looting of the
Traders' Bank?

What all-powerful reason made Louise determine to marry Doctor Walker?

The examiners were still working on the books of the Traders' Bank, and
it was probable that several weeks would elapse before everything was
cleared up. The firm of expert accountants who had examined the books
some two months before testified that every bond, every piece of
valuable paper, was there at that time. It had been shortly after
their examination that the president, who had been in bad health, had
gone to California. Mr. Bailey was still ill at the Knickerbocker, and
in this, as in other ways, Gertrude's conduct puzzled me. She seemed
indifferent, refused to discuss matters pertaining to the bank, and
never, to my knowledge, either wrote to him or went to see him.

Gradually I came to the conclusion that Gertrude, with the rest of the
world, believed her lover guilty, and--although I believed it myself,
for that matter--I was irritated by her indifference. Girls in my day
did not meekly accept the public's verdict as to the man they loved.

But presently something occurred that made me think that under
Gertrude's surface calm there was a seething flood of emotions.

Tuesday morning the detective made a careful search of the grounds, but
he found nothing. In the afternoon he disappeared, and it was late
that night when he came home. He said he would have to go back to the
city the following day, and arranged with Halsey and Alex to guard the
house.

Liddy came to me on Wednesday morning with her black silk apron held up
like a bag, and her eyes big with virtuous wrath. It was the day of
Thomas' funeral in the village, and Alex and I were in the conservatory
cutting flowers for the old man's casket. Liddy is never so happy as
when she is making herself wretched, and now her mouth drooped while
her eyes were triumphant.

"I always said there were plenty of things going on here, right under
our noses, that we couldn't see," she said, holding out her apron.

"I don't see with my nose," I remarked. "What have