ed."

"On three, at least," I corrected. And then I told him about the night
before. "I have been thinking hard," I concluded, "and I do not
believe the man at the head of the circular staircase was Doctor
Walker. I don't think he could have got in, and the voice was not his."

Mr. Jamieson got up and paced the floor, his hands behind him.

"There is something else that puzzles me," he said, stepping before me.
"Who and what is the woman Nina Carrington? If it was she who came
here as Mattie Bliss, what did she tell Halsey that sent him racing to
Doctor Walker's, and then to Miss Armstrong? If we could find that
woman we would have the whole thing."

"Mr. Jamieson, did you ever think that Paul Armstrong might not have
died a natural death?"

"That is the thing we are going to try to find out," he replied. And
then Gertrude came in, announcing a man below to see Mr. Jamieson.

"I want you present at this interview, Miss Innes," he said. "May Riggs
come up? He has left Doctor Walker and he has something he wants to
tell us."

Riggs came into the room diffidently, but Mr. Jamieson put him at his
ease. He kept a careful eye on me, however, and slid into a chair by
the door when he was asked to sit down.

"Now, Riggs," began Mr. Jamieson kindly. "You are to say what you have
to say before this lady."

"You promised you'd keep it quiet, Mr. Jamieson." Riggs plainly did
not trust me. There was nothing friendly in the glance he turned on me.

"Yes, yes. You will be protected. But, first of all, did you bring
what you promised?"

Riggs produced a roll of papers from under his coat, and handed them
over. Mr. Jamieson examined them with lively satisfaction, and passed
them to me. "The blue-prints of Sunnyside," he said. "What did I tell
you? Now, Riggs, we are ready."

"I'd never have come to you, Mr. Jamieson," he began, "if it hadn't
been for Miss Armstrong. When Mr. Innes was spirited away, like, and
Miss Louise got sick because of it, I thought things had gone far
enough. I'd done some things for the doctor before that wouldn't just
bear looking into, but I turned a bit squeamish."

"Did you help with that?" I asked, leaning forward.

"No, ma'm. I didn't even know of it until the next day, when it came
out in the Casanova Weekly Ledger. But I know who did it, all right.
I'd better start at the beginning.

"When Doctor Walker went away to California with the Armstrong family,
there was tal