let passed.
Jake's aim might be improved. Not that I am anxious for it."

"Jake? Do you mean the clerk? Did he fire at you?"

"Yes, while I was on the roof engaged in rescuing one of the women."

"The miserable cur! You arrested him, of course, as soon as you could
lay your hands on him?"

"Yes. He's back of me in this outhouse."

"And Quimby? What about Quimby?"

"He's missing."

"And Mrs. Quimby?"

"Missing, too. They are the only persons unaccounted for."

"Lost in the fire?"

"We don't think so. He was the incendiary and she, undoubtedly, his
accomplice. They would certainly look out for themselves. Doctor Golden,
it was not for insurance money they fired the place; it was to cover up
a crime."

The coroner, more or less prepared for this statement by what
Hammersmith had already told him, showed but little additional
excitement as he dubiously remarked:

"So you still hold to that idea."

Hammersmith glanced about him and, catching more than one curious eye
turned their way from the crowd now rapidly collecting in all
directions, drew the coroner aside and in a few graphic words related
the night's occurrences and the conclusions these had forced upon him.
Doctor Golden listened and seemed impressed at last, especially by one
point.

"You saw Quimby," he repeated; "saw his face distinctly looking toward
your room from one of the stable windows?"

"I can swear to it. I even caught his expression. It was malignant in
the extreme, quite unlike that he usually turns upon his guests."

"Which window was it?"

Hammersmith pointed it out.

"You have been there? Searched the room and the stable?"

"Thoroughly, just as soon as it was light enough to see."

"And found----"

"Nothing; not even a clue."

"The man is lying dead in that heap. She, too, perhaps. We'll have to
put the screws on Jake. A conspiracy like this must be unearthed. Show
me the rascal."

"He's in a most careless mood. _He_ doesn't think his master and
mistress perished in the fire."

"Careless, eh? Well, we'll see. I know that sort."

But when a few minutes later he came to confront the clerk he saw that
his task was not likely to prove quite so easy as his former experience
had led him to expect. Save for a slight nervous trembling of limb and
shoulder--surely not unnatural after such a night--Jake bore himself
with very much the same indifferent ease he had shown the day before.

Doctor Golden surveyed him with becomi