look
things over as per request."

"Have you made your report to Mrs. Burton?"

"Now, look!" exclaimed the big man. "Don't call her that! She was
Burton's wife for one week, and that's the extent of her use of the
name."

"Very well," nodded Ashton-Kirk. "Cavanaugh is a good old name, and is
sounded just as easily."

"Yes, I called on her after I got back," said Bat. "But I had only a few
minutes to talk to her; it was at the theatre, for she had a rehearsal
to-day, you see."

"Was there anything new to tell her?"

Here Bat related to the investigator the details of what he had seen and
heard at the Burton home; Ashton-Kirk listened attentively; now and then
a pointed question came through the little clouds and rings of smoke
with which he had surrounded himself, but, save for this, he made no
interruption until Bat had finished.

"Dr. Shower, eh?" said he, after a little pause. "I'm rather well
acquainted with his method, and the fact that he's been given charge of
the coroner's examination isn't a very hopeful sign. He's a sort of
pedant, who has come to think that the mixture of medical learning and
knowledge of police conventions which he possesses makes him a paragon
of efficiency."

"I noticed that he had a confident kind of a way with him," said Bat.

"Confidence is an excellent thing," spoke Ashton-Kirk. "A man does not
go far without it. But the sort kept in stock by Dr. Shower is rather a
hindrance. When he has once arrived at a conclusion, he shuts his eyes
and stops his ears to everything else. Osborne, now, is different; while
he's a plodding kind of a fellow with very little imagination, he's
shrewd enough to accept advantages wherever he finds them." The speaker
added another cloud to those already hovering about him. "Miss Cavanaugh
was satisfied with what you told her, I suppose?"

But Bat shook his head, and a good part of the old troubled look
returned.

"She wasn't. As a matter of fact I could see that it worried her. When I
left her she was fidgeting; and if Nora does that, something's wrong.
But the worst didn't happen until about a half hour ago. I was back at
my place, and the 'phone bell rang. When I went to it I found it was
Nora calling. And she was all excited once more."

"Ah!" said Ashton-Kirk, expectantly, "excited!"

"She started off by asking me to forgive her, and saying she must be a
great bother to me. But something had happened--something that had
scared her. As sh