at was in their minds, Britz proceeded to answer their
unspoken query.

"To attribute the crime to Mrs. Collins or Ward, or to both of them,"
the detective said, "it is first of all necessary to find a motive. Only
one suggests itself. It is that they killed Whitmore to get possession
of his estate.

"We must remember that had Whitmore died intestate, neither of them
would have obtained a penny of his fortune. So that, in order to
establish our motive, it is necessary to prove that they had knowledge
of the contents of the will. All the evidence I have gathered tends to
contradict that assumption. Not only have we the statement of the lawyer
who drew the will, but the actions of Ward and Mrs. Collins subsequent
to the murder belie the theory that they had previous knowledge of the
disposition which Whitmore made of his estate.

"I know of Ward's frantic efforts to get sufficient money to keep his
banking house afloat. And Mrs. Collins's actions after I informed her
that she was the chief legatee proved conclusively that she was as
amazed as the rest of us to find that Whitmore had enriched her. All the
circumstances combine to force us to discard the theory that Ward and
Mrs. Collins expected to profit by Whitmore's death.

"With this theory shattered no plausible motive for their participation
in the murder remains. If they didn't know the contents of Whitmore's
will, then they had every reason in the world for preventing the
merchant's death. Ward was praying for his return, so he might plead
with him to help him out of his financial scrape. Mrs. Collins's love
for Whitmore was intensely genuine, and moreover, it was pure."

Britz paused, noting the bewildered expression on the faces of Manning
and Greig. In their eyes the case had taken on a hopeless, desperate
aspect. By faultless reasoning Britz had established the presumptive
innocence of the very ones among whom he had confidently expected to
find the guilty one.

The chief grew visibly disturbed. So this was the end of Britz's
maneuvering! Failure appeared to be written in large capitals across the
investigation.

"You don't mean to imply that an outsider committed the murder?" Manning
blurted.

"Not for an instant," answered Britz. "I have simply been analyzing the
evidence as it concerns the four suspects individually. Were there
nothing else, I confess we should be compelled to look elsewhere for the
assassin. But all the evidence, taken as a whole,