Kissam, with a brief phrase of greeting, closed the door and sat down. Mr. Janney thought his manner, which was always hard and brusque, was softened by a suggestion of confidence, something of intimacy as one who speaks man to man. It made him nervous and his uneasiness was not relieved in the least by the detective’s words. "I’m glad to find you alone, Mr. Janney. I ’phoned up and heard from Dixon that the ladies were out and that’s why I came. I want to consult you before I say anything to Mrs. Janney." "That’s quite right," said Mr. Janney, then added with a feeble attempt at lightness, "Are you, as the children say, getting any warmer?" "We’re very warm. In fact I think we’ve almost got there. But it’s rather a ticklish situation." Mr. Janney did not answer; he glanced at his shoes, then at the silver on the desk. For the moment he was too perturbed to look at Kissam’s shrewd, attentive face. "It’s so out of the ordinary run," the man went on, "and _so much_ is involved that I decided not to move without first telling you. The family being so prominent—" "The family!" Mr. Janney spoke before he thought, his limp hands suddenly clenching on the arms of the chair. The detective’s eyes steadied on the gripped fingers. "What do you mean? Let me have it straight," said the old man huskily. Kissam put his hand in his hip pocket and drew out an electric torch which he put on the desk. "This torch I myself found two days ago in a desk in Mrs. Price’s room. It was pushed back in a drawer which was full of letters and papers. It fits the description of the torch that was lost by Mrs. Price’s little girl." Mr. Janney’s head sunk forward on his breast, and Kissam knew now that his suspicions were correct and that the old man had known all along. He was sorry for him: "Mrs. Price not being your daughter, Mr. Janney, I decided to come to you. I suspected her after the second day and I’ll tell you why. I had a private interview with that woman Elspeth, Mrs. Janney’s maid, and she told me of a quarrel she had overheard between Mrs. Janney and her daughter. The subject of the quarrel was money, Mrs. Price asking for a large sum to meet certain debts and losses in the stock market which Mrs. Janney refused to give her. That supplied the motive and gave me the lead. The loss of the torch was also significant. The child was confident—and children are very accurate—that she had left it on the table in her nursery when she went to bed. The proximity of the two rooms made the theft of the torch an easy matter. What puzzled me was how Mrs. Price had gained access to the safe, but that was cleared up when the written combination was found in your desk here; and finally I ran across what I should call perfectly conclusive evidence in Mrs. Price’s room. I don’t refer only to the torch, but to the fact that a wrapper that was hanging in the back of one of the closets showed a smudge of varnish on the skirt."