bber heels don't make
much noise."

"They don't, indeed, when you walk on them and not on the soles,"
observed the colonel grimly. "The question is, what do you want to
see?"

"The electric switch on Darcy's table," was the answer. "I couldn't
help hearing what you said, Mr. Kettridge," said Carroll, "and I don't
know as I would have tried not to if I could. This is important. I
rather guess it makes it look a bit bad for your friend, Colonel
Ashley," and there was a sneer in the words.

"Well, I don't know," was the cool response. "The wires, as I
understand it, are to run an electric lathe, and they might easily have
become crossed."

"Oh, yes, of course!" admitted Carroll. "And then, again, they might
have been crossed on purpose. It's a new stunt--electrically shocking
an old lady before you bang her over the head or stab her, but it's a
good one. I'll have a look at that switch. I thought maybe I might
find something interesting here when I heard about the shock to the old
servant, and I didn't miss my guess."

There was nothing for the colonel or Mr. Kettridge to say or do, and
they remained passive while Carroll took his time looking about. Then
he telephoned for Haliday of the prosecutor's office, and also for the
chief electrician of the police signal system, and all three spent some
time looking at the wires and testing them.

"What do you think about it?" asked Mr. Kettridge of the colonel, when
the store was again dim and quiet.

"What do I think? I don't know! I'm going to have a talk with Darcy
in the morning, and if I find he's been deceiving me-- Well, I'll
drop his case, that's all."

If Darcy simulated surprise when, the next morning at the jail, told by
the colonel of what had happened to Sallie Page, the prisoner was a
consummate actor, the detective thought.

"Colonel Ashley!" Darcy exclaimed. "I never knew that my lathe wires
crossed or connected with any circuit that might shock a person. It is
true I had the wires run in secretly, as I didn't want my cousin to
know about them. She didn't favor my experiments on the electrical
lathe, and I had to keep quiet about it.

"But I never strung those wires to shock her, and of course you can
easily imagine I never could plan to injure Sallie Page that way, or
the young lady who was knocked down the other day."

"Well, Darcy, you may be telling the truth, and, again, you may not,"
and the colonel's voice was as noncommittal