w do you know that?" asked the Commissioner, surprised.

Tarling laughed.

"The absence of laundry marks shows that she washes her silk garments at
home, and probably her handkerchiefs also, which places her amongst the
girls who aren't blessed with too many of this world's goods. The fact
that it is silk, and good silk, and that the handkerchiefs are good
linen, suggests a woman who takes a great deal of trouble, yet whom one
would not expect to find over-dressed. Have you any other clue?"

"None," said the Commissioner. "We have discovered that Mr. Lyne had
rather a serious quarrel with one of his employees, a Miss Odette
Rider----"

Tarling caught his breath. It was, he told himself, absurd to take so
keen an interest in a person whom he had not seen for more than ten
minutes, and who a week before was a perfect stranger. But somehow the
girl had made a deeper impression upon him than he had realised. This
man, who had spent his life in the investigation of crime and in the
study of criminals, had found little time to interest himself in
womanhood, and Odette Rider had been a revelation to him.

"I happen to know there was a quarrel. I also know the cause," he said,
and related briefly the circumstances under which he himself had met
Thornton Lyne. "What have you against her?" he said, with an assumption
of carelessness which he did not feel.

"Nothing definite," said the Commissioner. "Her principal accuser is the
man Stay. Even he did not accuse her directly, but he hinted that she was
responsible, in some way which he did not particularise, for Thornton
Lyne's death. I thought it curious that he should know anything about
this girl, but I am inclined to think that Thornton Lyne made this man
his confidant."

"What about the man?" asked Tarling. "Can he account for his movements
last night and early this morning?"

"His statement," replied the Commissioner, "is that he saw Mr. Lyne at
his flat at nine o'clock, and that Mr. Lyne gave him five pounds in the
presence of Lyne's butler. He said he left the flat and went to his
lodgings in Lambeth, where he went to bed very early. All the evidence we
have been able to collect supports his statement. We have interviewed
Lyne's butler, and his account agrees with Stay's. Stay left at five
minutes past nine, and at twenty-five minutes to ten--exactly half an
hour later--Lyne himself left the house, driving his two-seater. He was
alone, and told the butler he was go