o be in
Nashville. It is absurd to presume that when she let Evelyn go out for
the night she expected to remain alone until morning. Therefore, for the
sake of argument, we will assume that she knew her husband would be back
that night. If that is the case--we are also forced to believe that
there was something sinister about it.

"Fifth--we are fairly positive that she packed a suit-case the morning
before the murder, that the suit-case left the house that morning and
that two days later it mysteriously reappeared--"

"Yes," interrupted Leverage, "and we know that Warren was planning to
make a trip with someone else!"

"Exactly!"

"Which makes it pretty clear," finished Leverage positively, "that Mrs.
Lawrence was the woman in the taxicab!"

CHAPTER XVII

BARKER ACCUSES

The men looked at each other in silence for a minute. Leverage was
sorry for Carroll--sorry because he knew that Carroll was disappointed,
that the boyish detective had hoped against hope that the trail would
lead to some person other than the flaming creature who was Gerald
Lawrence's wife.

It was not that Carroll had become infatuated with her. It was merely
that he liked her--liked her sincerely--and was sorry for her.

The conclusions to be inevitably reached from the premise that Naomi was
the woman in the taxicab were none too pleasant. In the first place there
was the matter of morals involved. It had been pretty well established
that the dead man had planned a trip to New York with someone: there was
the fact that he had purchased a drawing room and two railroad
tickets--only one of which later had been found in his pockets at
midnight that night.

Then there was the circumstance of Mrs. Lawrence packing her suit-case
and taking it, or sending it, from the house during the day--and its
reappearance a couple of days later. It also explained her willingness
that Evelyn spend the night with Hazel Gresham. Knowing that she, Naomi,
was going to leave her home before midnight, she had not wanted her
youthful sister to spend the balance of the night alone--and so had sent
her to the house of a friend. That much was clear--

"It's hell!" burst out Carroll.

"You said it."

"Suppose she _was_ the woman in the taxicab--?"

"Yes--suppose she was: it doesn't prove that she killed Warren?"

"No--but it proves something a good deal worse, Leverage. It proves that
she was going to elope with him."

"It may--we don't _know_!"