chin' me--sure, I know you've had a couple of dicks shadowing me--I
destroyed it."

"Where are the rest of her letters?"

"Mr. Warren used to burn 'em up careful. He wasn't takin' no chances of
someone findin' 'em and he bein' caught in a scandal--which is why I
think he really cared about her serious. His other lady friends he used
to joke about--but never Mrs. Lawrence. An' the one letter of her's that
I had--I'm betting that he looked for three days without stopping before
he gave it up as a bad job.

"That's the way things was when I seen him begin to make arrangements to
get away from town. It wasn't supposed to be none of my business and Mr.
Warren never was a feller I could ask questions of. When he had something
to tell me, he told it--an' I never got nothin' out of him by askin'.
But, bein' his valet, there was certain things I couldn't very well miss
knowin'. I know his apartment is sublet for the new tenants to come in on
the first of the month, he placed his car with a dealer to be sold and
he didn't order a new one an' he drew a whole heap of cash out of the
bank the day before he was killed.

"Also that day he sent me downtown to do some shoppin'. While I was
downtown I seen him go into the railroad ticket office. I didn't pay much
attention to that then and later on he drove by the house for a minute.
I had taken his laprobe out of the car the night before and forgot to put
it back--so I thought I'd better do it. I went downstairs without his
knowing it--and when I put the laprobe in the car I seen he had a
suit-case in there. An' the suit-case wasn't his, sir--the initials on it
was N.L.--which, if you know, sir--Mrs. Lawrence's name is Naomi.

"That made things pretty clear to me then. He drove off and come back
about a half hour later. I looked when he come back and the suit-case
wasn't in the car no more. And it was then that he handed me a big wad of
wages in advance and told me he wasn't going to need me no more and I
could quit any time after five o'clock in the afternoon."

Barker paused, lighted another cigarette from the stump of the one he
had been smoking--inhaled a great puff, and continued. His manner was
that of a man under great mental stress--as though he was struggling to
recall every infinitesimal detail which might possibly have a bearing
on the case.

"That sort of carries me along to the night, sir--as I left there at
five o'clock and he was still there--tellin' me goodbye and