"Oh, no, you won't, Miss Kingdon," protested Godfrey easily. "We won't consent to be shot at any more to-night. We _have_ some business here, and we're going to stay till it's completed. Since you didn't hear the shot, will you kindly tell us what it was awakened you? Please believe that we shall be glad to be of service to you. I fear you're going to stand in need of us before long." She hesitated, still looking at him; but there was no resisting the stern kindness of his eyes, nor doubting that his warning was in earnest. "I came home about half an hour ago," she began, "or perhaps it's longer than that----" "Was your sister expecting you?" "No; I had intended to stay with Mrs. Lawrence all night. But I found I wasn't needed, and so came home." "The side door was unlocked?" "Yes, and that surprised me for a moment." "Was your sister here at the time?" "She was in the yard--she came in a moment later." Godfrey and I exchanged a glance, which Miss Kingdon intercepted. "Wasn't she in the yard?" she demanded. "What is this mystery?" "We'll tell you in a moment," said Godfrey; "but please let us hear your story first. You had been, you say, at the Lawrence house?" "Yes; Mrs. Lawrence has been very nervous since Marcia disappeared. I had been sitting with her until she went to sleep. I met Mr. Lester there earlier in the evening," she added, and cast me a half-mocking glance. "Yes, he told me," said Godfrey. "He's been having an exciting time to-night. Were you with Mrs. Lawrence last night?" "Yes; I spent the entire night with her." Again we exchanged a glance. "And you say that you expected to stay there again to-night?" "Yes; but my sister hasn't been well for the past two days, so, as soon as Mrs. Lawrence fell asleep and I found she wouldn't need me, I hurried home. I found Harriet very nervous and excited, and finally persuaded her to take a soothing draught and go to bed. I was so tired that I fell asleep almost at once, and I knew nothing more until I was awakened by what seemed to be a kind of drumming on the head-board." She stopped, shuddering. We, too, had heard that drumming! "Yes," said Godfrey. "Your bed, I see, is backed against the closet partition--tight against it. It no doubt makes a kind of sounding-board." "I suppose that's it. I felt for Harriet and found she wasn't there. That startled me wide awake. Again I heard that drumming, and sprang out of bed, lighted the lamp, and rushed to the closet to find that she had----" The words ended in a sob, which she tried in vain to repress. Godfrey bent again over the figure on the bed. "She used what is evidently a curtain cord," he said. "Don't look at her, Miss Kingdon. The death is an easy one, whatever it may appear." "But why did she do it?" demanded Lucy Kingdon. "Why should she get up in the middle of the night, like that, and hang herself? What impulse was it----" She stopped suddenly, regarding us fixedly, her face livid, her eyes agleam.