u thought she was going out that night?"

"Uh-huh," came the answer between bites at a huge lobster salad.

"What made you think that?"

"Oh! just something. You know, I don't get credit for having eyes, but I
sure have. And I never did understand that business anyway. But then Sis
always has been the queerest thing--ever since she married Gerald.
Say--" she looked up eagerly--"ain't he the darndest old crab you ever
saw in your life?"

"Why, I--"

"Ain't he? Honest?"

"He's not exactly jovial."

"He's a lemon! Just a plain juicy lemon. And I think she was a nut for
marrying him."

"But--" Carroll proceeded cautiously--"you made the remark just now that
something was the queerest thing. What did you mean by that?"

"Oh! I guess I was crazy--or something. But she got sore at me when I
asked her--"

"Who?"

"Sis."

"What did you ask her?"

"Why--" she looked up innocently--"about that suit-case!"

"What suit-case? When was it?"

"It was the day before Mr. Warren died--I always remember everything
now by that date. Anyway--I went in her room that morning to ask
something about what I should take to Hazel's--and what do you think
she was doing?"

"I'll bite," he answered with assumed jocularity--"what was she doing?"

"Packing a suit-case!"

"No?" Carroll was keenly interested--struggling not to show it.

"Yes, sir. I asked her what was she doing it for--and that's when she got
peeved. I told you she was a queer one."

"Indeed she must be. Packing a suit-case--"

"And that ain't all that was funny about that, either, Mr. Carroll."

"No? What else about it was peculiar?"

"That suit-case--" and Evelyn lowered her voice to an impressive
whisper--"was gone from the house the next day--and the day after it
showed up again and when I asked Sis wasn't that funny she told me to
mind my own business!"

CHAPTER XV

A TALK WITH HAZEL GRESHAM

Carroll tried to appear disinterested--strove to make his manner casual;
jocular even. Evelyn was piecing the threads of circumstances together
and the events surrounding the Warren murder were slowly clarifying in
Carroll's brain.

But he knew that now, of all times, he must keep her from thinking that
he had any particular interest in her chatter. She was completely off
guard--and he knew that for his own interests, she must remain so.

So he assumed a bantering attitude--he resorted to what she would have
termed "kidding."

"Aren't you the obse