y it
happened is this. Aunt Selina had Mr. Hale and Mr. Clancy and Mrs.
Herne to their usual game of whist. Clancy, as it appears from the
report of what the new parlor-maid overheard, quarrelled with Hale and
Mrs. Herne. They left before ten o'clock. At all events, when she
entered the room in answer to my aunt's summons, she found only Mr.
Clancy, and aunt was scolding him for having provoked Mrs. Herne by
contradicting her. Apparently Mrs. Herne had gone away under the wing
of Hale. Then aunt sent Clancy away at ten o'clock. The parlor-maid
returned to the kitchen and there had supper. She heard the bell ring
at eleven, and found aunt dead in the sitting-room, stabbed to the
heart."

"Heard the bell ring?" echoed Juliet. "But how could aunt ring if she
had been killed?"

"She might have rung as she was dying," said Basil, after a pause. "It
seems she was seated near the button of the bell and could have touched
it without rising. She might have rung with a last effort, and then
have died before the parlor-maid could get to the room."

"Or else," said Mr. Octagon, anxious to prove his perspicuity, "the
assassin may have stabbed her and then have touched the bell."

"What!" cried his step-son derisively, "to summon a witness. I don't
think the assassin would be such a fool. However, that's all that can
be discovered. Aunt Selina is dead, and no one knows who killed her."

"Was the house locked up?" "The front door was closed, and the windows
were bolted and barred. Besides, a policeman was walking down Crooked
Lane a few minutes before eleven, and would have seen anyone leaving
the house. He reported that all was quiet."

"Then the assassin might have rung the bell at eleven," said Peter.

"Certainly not, for he could never have escaped immediately afterwards,
without the policeman seeing him."

"He might have got out by the back," suggested Juliet.

"My dear girl, what are you thinking of. That wall round Lord
Caranby's mansion blocks any exit at the back. Anyone leaving the
house must go up the lane or through that part at the bottom. The
policeman was near there shortly before eleven and saw no one leaving
the house."

"But, look here," said Mr. Octagon, who had been ruminating; "if, as
the doctor says, death was instantaneous, how could your aunt have rung
the bell?"

"Yes," added Juliet. "And even had death not taken place at once, it
could not have been more than a few minutes befor