.

The old mansion had been in every way changed, and the basement was
now the abode of swarming Celestials, who had tinkered its space
up to suit themselves. There were no traces of the crime left!

And so, reluctantly, Manager Witherspoon ceased to pry into the
private life of Arthur Ferris. McNerney stoutly maintained the
thesis to the last, that Ferris and Fritz Braun were strangers.

"The women both prove it," urged the officer.

"And yet some still unfathomed game of Ferris made him Clayton's
secret enemy. Ferris wanted that beautiful heiress; he wanted
to completely estrange and supplant Clayton, and so to reach old
Worthington's millions. For that, he clung to the unsuspecting
comrade of his bachelor life. Look to the West for light in this!
Believe me, if any one knows, it is Miss Worthington! She is one
woman in a million, a woman who does not talk!"

"What do you mean, Dennis?" sharply said the young lawyer.

The simple policeman stoutly answered, "I observed that Miss Alice
seemed to have gained a great mastery over Counselor Stillwell and
her Detroit lawyers.

"She was with her father for hours before he died, and I'm of the
opinion that he told her many things that none of the lawyers even
dream of, secrets that perhaps even you do not suspect! I'm only
a plain policeman, yet strange schemes are in these millionaires'
heads often.

"The great man had his own private uses for Ferris, and for the
Senator uncle, who knows what great designs ended with his death.

"Believe me, she is following out her father's last advice; and if
she lets Ferris off easy, you must do the same!

"As for Fritz Braun, he at first only intended, evidently, to lure
poor Clayton into the Art Gallery or his own drug-store, through
this pretty Hungarian, and, from a study of Clayton's habits, change
the valises and so rob him by the old trick! The bunco game!

"But fortune willed otherwise, and Braun took the chance of
Clayton's faith in the girl. He did not know that Clayton was so
fondly devoted to the woman.

"The murder was a sudden inspiration, arising from Clayton's headlong
imprudence.

"And Braun knew nothing of old Worthington's designs, nor Clayton's
past history. What more Miss Worthington may know, you will never
know, much as she esteems you, unless she wills. For she is a very
resolute character, and I believe that she is quietly managing
Stillwell and the other lawyers in her own way.

"It's cl