," he whispered excitedly, "I don't give a hang how long you've
had your servants, or how much you trust them. The thing's obvious
anyway. Nora! You saw that?"

Nora nodded. Her eyes were wide.

"What do you mean?" Alsop gasped.

Without answering Garth ran down the hallway and flung the curtain at
the end to one side. Across a wide dining-room he saw a woman, slender
and middle-aged. Her attitude was of flight. Her hand rested on the knob
of the farther door. As Garth called sharply for Alsop she opened the
door and went through. Alsop had only a glimpse.

"It's my housekeeper," he said. "She's worked here for twenty years.
Certainly there's nothing wrong there."

"I wonder." Nora spoke softly. "Such people are clever enough to involve
one's own family against one. She can't leave the house anyway. Suppose,
Jim, we look upstairs."

While Alsop, angry and at a loss, went back to the library, Garth and
Nora climbed to the upper hall. Garth supposed that Marvin would have
made a light for them, but of all the doors that opened from the stair
landing one alone was wide, and no light gleamed through that.

"Marvin!" he called, and again: "Marvin! Marvin!"

He was aware of Nora's shivering. He glanced at her. The color had left
her cheeks.

"Something's wrong up here, Jim," she said. "I know it. I feel it. Don't
you feel anything strange? You heard him come up, and after what Mr.
Alsop said--where is he? Why doesn't he answer?"

Garth stepped forward. Nora reached out and grasped his arms. The
quality of her voice startled him.

"Don't go in there without a light, Jim."

He shook off her hands. He entered the dark room, and immediately he
knew she had been right, that he had advanced too precipitately. He
stumbled against something soft and yielding, and went down, stretching
out his hand to save himself. He knew what his fingers had found. He
snatched them away with a little cry:

"Get back to the hall, Nora!"

But he heard no movement from her, so, since he didn't dare wait, he
took his flashlight from his pocket, pressed the control, and turned the
ray on the features his hand had touched in the dark. Marvin was
stretched, face downward on the floor near the head of the bed. His arm
lay beyond his head, pitiful evidence that he had reached for the
electric light switch which had been just beyond his grasp.

Nora with a reluctant air had come closer. Crying out her horror, she
indicated the collar, at th