intend to let things go so far as that.

"In the Ladleys' room that Sunday morning, we worked it all out. The
hardest thing was to get Jennie Brice's consent; but she agreed,
finally. We arranged a list of clues, to be left around, and Ladley
was to go out in the night and to be heard coming back. I told him to
quarrel with his wife that afternoon,--although I don't believe
they needed to be asked to do it,--and I suggested also the shoe or
slipper, to be found floating around."

"Just a moment," said Mr. Holcombe, busy with his note-book. "Did you
suggest the onyx clock?"

"No. No clock was mentioned. The--the clock has puzzled me."

"The towel?"

"Yes. I said no murder was complete without blood, but he kicked on
that--said he didn't mind the rest, but he'd be hanged if he was going
to slash himself. But, as it happened, he cut his wrist while cutting
the boat loose, and so we had the towel."

"Pillow-slip?" asked Mr. Holcombe.

"Well, no. There was nothing said about a pillow-slip. Didn't he say
he burned it accidentally?"

"So he claimed." Mr. Holcombe made another entry in his book.

"Then I said every murder had a weapon. He was to have a pistol at
first, but none of us owned one. Mrs. Ladley undertook to get a knife
from Mrs. Pitman's kitchen, and to leave it around, not in full view,
but where it could be found."

"A broken knife?"

"No. Just a knife."

"He was to throw the knife into the water?"

"That was not arranged. I only gave him a general outline. He was to
add any interesting details that might occur to him. The idea, of
course, was to give the police plenty to work on, and just when
they thought they had it all, and when the theater had had a lot of
booming, and I had got a good story, to produce Jennie Brice, safe
and well. We were not to appear in it at all. It would have worked
perfectly, but we forgot to count on one thing--Jennie Brice hated her
husband."

"Not really hated him!" cried Lida.

"_Hated_ him. She is letting him hang. She could save him by coming
forward now, and she won't do it. She is hiding so he will go to the
gallows."

There was a pause at that. It seemed too incredible, too inhuman.

"Then, early that Monday morning, you smuggled Jennie Brice out of the
city?"

"Yes. That was the only thing we bungled. We fixed the hour a little
too late, and I was seen by Miss Harvey's uncle, walking across the
bridge with a woman."

"Why did you meet her openly, and