hat note is a help to my cause rather than hindrance!"

"I think so, too," said Carlotta.

CHAPTER XII

Wise and Zizi

"Well, Julie, my little girl, the jig is up."

Thorpe spoke despairingly, and Julie knew only too well what he meant.

"They're--they're going----"

"Yes, they're going to arrest me. This is the last call I can pay you."

Julie didn't break down and cry, nor indeed did she show great emotion
of any sort. She set her curved red lips firmly and said, with an air of
determination:

"I'm not sure, Mac, that it isn't better so. I mean now we've something
definite to work against. Father's going to get that Mr. Wise, and he'll
soon get you out of--out of--oh, Mac, will they put you in prison? In a
cell?"

"Yes, dear, until the trial. You see, that little bottle did it for me."

"And somebody put that in your old paint-box! Who did it, Mac?"

"Hastings is the only one I can think of. That man never liked me-- I
don't know why, but he never did. And he adored Gilbert----"

"You don't think he killed Gilbert, then?"

"Oh, Lord, no! He was always fond of him. But he wants to get me in bad,
and so I think he planted that bottle. It must have been planted, Julie,
I never put it there. I never had it in my possession."

"Who did kill Gilbert?"

"I've no idea, but I don't think it was anybody we know. I'm inclined to
the belief that it was some enemy, of long standing. You know Gilbert
Blair's past life was by no means an open book to his friends. He had
turned-down pages that we never knew about or inquired into. It would
not have been impossible for some one to get into his room in the
night----"

"And give him poison? Not likely!"

"But it must have been something of the sort, Julie. Blair never killed
himself."

"No, I suppose not. Oh, Mac, how unfortunate that you and he quarreled
so much. Otherwise they wouldn't have suspected you at all."

"Yes, they would. It's opportunity they consider, exclusive
opportunity."

"And that empty bottle! I should think they'd see that's a plant!"

"They don't see anything an inch away from their noses! I'm the nearest
suspect to hang a charge on, so they choose me."

Thorpe wasn't pettish, but he was discouraged and unstrung. He knew that
his arrest, which was imminent, was, in part, due to the assertions of
the medium and the Ouija Board. These secrets had leaked out somehow,
and though the detective, Weston, would have scorned to acknowled