s. They quarreled
frequently. On Sunday they fought all day, and Mrs. Ladley told Mrs.
Pitman she was married to a fiend. At four o'clock Sunday afternoon,
Philip Ladley went out, returning about five. Mrs. Pitman carried
their supper to them at six, and both ate heartily. She did not see
Mrs. Ladley at the time, but heard her in the next room. They were
apparently reconciled: Mrs. Pitman reports Mr. Ladley in high good
humor. If the quarrel recommenced during the night, the other boarder,
named Reynolds, in the next room, heard nothing. Mrs. Pitman was up
and down until one o'clock, when she dozed off. She heard no unusual
sound.

"'At approximately two o'clock in the morning, however, this Reynolds
came to the room, and said he had heard some one in a boat in the
lower hall. He and Mrs. Pitman investigated. The boat which Mrs.
Pitman uses during a flood, and which she had tied to the stair-rail,
was gone, having been cut loose, not untied. Everything else was
quiet, except that Mrs. Ladley's dog had been shut in a third-story
room.

"'At a quarter after four that morning Mrs. Pitman, thoroughly awake,
heard the boat returning, and going to the stairs, met Ladley coming
in. He muttered something about having gone for medicine for his wife
and went to his room, shutting the dog out. This is worth attention,
for the dog ordinarily slept in their room.'"

"What sort of a dog?" asked Mr. Howell. He had been listening
attentively.

"A water-spaniel. 'The rest of the night, or early morning, was quiet.
At a quarter after seven, Ladley asked for coffee and toast for one,
and on Mrs. Pitman remarking this, said that his wife was not playing
this week, and had gone for a few days' vacation, having left early in
the morning.' Remember, during the night he had been out for medicine
for her. Now she was able to travel, and, in fact, had started."

Mr. Howell was frowning at the floor. "If he was doing anything wrong,
he was doing it very badly," he said.

"This is where I entered the case," said Mr. Holcombe, "I rowed into
the lower hall this morning, to feed the dog, Peter, who was whining
on the staircase. Mrs. Pitman was coming down, pale and agitated over
the fact that the dog, shortly before, had found floating in the
parlor down-stairs a slipper belonging to Mrs. Ladley, and, later, a
knife with a broken blade. She maintains that she had the knife last
night up-stairs, that it was not broken, and that it was taken fr