Nick glanced at the physician, then at the strangely afflicted woman who, so far as was known, had been his one companion at the time of the murder. “Go to the front hall, Chick, and intercept the Claytons when they enter,” Nick abruptly directed. “Detain them in the parlor and break this matter to them as considerately as possible. Don’t let them interrupt me before I have finished my investigations and ended my talk with Mr. Garside.” “Go ahead. I’ll look after them, Nick,” Chick replied, with a nod, while he withdrew to the hall. “Now, Mr. Garside, I want you to be perfectly frank with me,” Nick said impressively. “You have been living here several weeks. You have had a chance to observe these people. Have you ever seen indications of special friendliness between this couple?” “Doctor Thorpe and Mrs. Julia Clayton?” “Yes.” “Why, I cannot say that I have,” faltered Garside, with manifest reluctance. “They appeared to be friends, of course, but--well, nothing more than that.” “Rack your brain,” Nick insisted. “Has Doctor Thorpe been in the habit of calling here in the evening?” “No, he has not. I don’t remember that he has ever done so before.” “It is quite significant that he called this evening, then, when Mrs. Clayton was alone here and when even the servants were absent from the house. Don’t you think so?” “Well, yes,” Garside slowly admitted. “Rack your brain,” Nick repeated. “Can’t you recall any little circumstances, however trivial, denoting that they were particularly friendly, or even secretly so?” Garside’s brows knit perceptibly and a subtle gleam appeared in his dark eyes, now fixed with searching scrutiny on the face of the detective. “Why, since you press me so insistently, Mr. Carter, I confess that I have seen them talking together in the hall at times,” he replied. “When others were not present?” “Yes.” “Anything more?” “I have noticed covert glances, also significant smiles, but I really attached no importance to them.” “What do you now think, Mr. Garside, in view of what has occurred?” questioned Nick. “Be perfectly frank with me.” “Why, I see at what you are driving, of course, and you may be right.” “It looks very much to me as if something occurred which led this woman to kill the physician,” Nick quietly explained. “I found the telephone stand overturned, as if she had attempted to call for aid. She may have shot the physician when he tried to prevent her from using the instrument. This seems to be confirmed by the position of the body between the table and the telephone stand.” “I agree with you,” Garside nodded. “It certainly does.” “Obviously, too, here is the weapon with which the crime was committed,” Nick continued, picking up a revolver from the floor near the telephone stand. “Notice where it is lying, as if she dropped it immediately after the shooting.”