layed the
symptoms of a radical deafness, glanced up, asking without hesitation:

"You don't suspect anything out of the way, sir?"

Garth studied him narrowly.

"I want to know why the shot wasn't heard. You were here and Mr.
Taylor's mother-in-law. Who else?"

The bony hand snapped to McDonald's ear again.

"Eh? Eh?"

"Speak up," Garth said impatiently. "Who was in the house besides
yourself and Mrs. Taylor's mother?"

"The cook, Clara, sir--only the cook, Clara."

"You're sure?"

"Absolutely, sir. Who else should there be? We've been short of servants
lately."

Garth dismissed him, instructing him to send Mrs. Taylor's mother. While
he waited he stared from the window again, jerking savagely at his watch
ribbon. From McDonald he had received a sharp impression of
secretiveness. He hadn't cared to arouse the servant's suspicions.
Through strategy he might more surely learn whatever the old man had
held back.

Garth swung around with a quick intake of breath. He had heard no one
enter. Through the obscurity, accented rather than diminished by the
circular patch of light around the chair, he could see no one. Yet
almost with a sense of vibration there had reached him through the heavy
atmosphere of the old house an assurance that he was watched from the
shadows. Impulsively he called out:

"Who's that?"

He stepped to the desk so that he could see the portion of the room
beyond the light. It was empty. Garth, as such things go, had no nerves,
but through his bewilderment a vague uneasiness crept.

He sprang back, turning. A clear, girlish laugh had rippled through the
dusk. A high, girlish voice had challenged him.

"Here I am! Hide and seek with the policeman!"

He saw, half hidden in the folds of the curtain at the side of the
embrasure in which he had stood, a figure, indistinct, clothed evidently
in black. He took it for granted McDonald had sent the girl, Clara,
first.

"I wanted Mr. Taylor's mother-in-law," he said. "No matter. Come here,
and let me remind you that humor is out of place in a house of death."

Nevertheless the pleasant laugh rippled again. Slowly the dark figure
detached itself from the shadows and settled in the chair while Garth
watched, his uneasiness drifting into a blank unbelief. He couldn't
accept the girlish laughter, the high, coquettish voice as having come
from the grey, witch-like hag whom the light now exposed mercilessly.

"I am Mr. Taylor's mother-in-law," s