I
noticed that the drawer was full of soiled napkins, and I remembered the
bracelet. I hardly know why I decided to go through the drawer again,
after Flannigan had already done it, but I did. I finished my milk and
then, getting down on my knees, I proceeded systematically to empty the
drawer. I took out perhaps a dozen napkins and as many doilies without
finding anything. Then I took out a large tray cloth, and there was
something on it that made me look farther. One corner of it had been
scorched, the clear and well defined imprint of a lighted cigarette or
cigar, a blackened streak that trailed off into a brown and yellow.
I had a queer, trembly feeling, as if I were on the brink of a
discovery--perhaps Anne's pearls, or the cuff buttons with storks
painted on china in the center. But the only thing I found, down in the
corner of the drawer, was a half-burned cigarette.

To me, it seemed quite enough. It was one of the South American
cigarettes, with a tobacco wrapper instead of paper, that Mr. Harbison
smoked.

Chapter XII. THE ROOF GARDEN

I was quite ill the next morning--from excitement, I suppose. Anyhow,
I did not get up, and there wasn't any breakfast. Jim said he roused
Flannigan at eight o'clock, to go down and get the fire started, and
then went back to bed. But Flannigan did not get up. He appeared,
sheepishly, at half-past ten, and by that time Bella was down, in a
towering rage, and had burned her hand and got the fire started, and had
taken up a tray for Aunt Selina and herself.

As the others straggled down they boiled themselves eggs or ate fruit,
and nobody put anything away. Lollie Mercer made me some tea and
scorched toast, and brought it, about eleven o'clock.

"I never saw such a house," she declared. "A dozen housemaids couldn't
put it in order. Why should every man that smokes drop ashes wherever he
happens to be?"

"That's the question of the ages," I replied languidly. "What was
Max talking so horribly about a little while ago?" Lollie looked up
aggrieved.

"About nothing at all," she declared. "Anne told me to clean the bath
tubs with oil, and I did it, that's all. Now Max says he couldn't get it
off, and his clothes stick to him, and if he should forget and strike a
match in the--in the usual way, he would explode. He can clean his own
tub tomorrow," she finished vindictively.

At noon Jim came in to see me, bringing Anne as a concession to Bella.
He was in a rage, and he c