"He can do nothing, Pauline. She is dead." Haviland spoke like a man in a daze. "But no matter, we must call him. Shall I?" "No, I will." "Go into her bedroom,--use that telephone by her bedside." Obediently, Haviland went on to the adjoining room, the soft rugs giving forth no sound of his footfalls. The door was ajar, and as he opened it, he called, "Come here, Pauline; look, the night lights are burning, and the bed untouched. She hasn't been to bed at all." "Of course she hasn't. She has her hair as it was last evening. But her comb is broken." "Broken! It's smashed! It's in tiny bits! She has been hit on the head,--don't touch her, Pauline! You mustn't! I'll call Dr. Stanton. You go out of the room. Go and find Anita." But Pauline staid. Turning her back to the still figure in the chair, she gazed curiously at the upset tray on the floor. She stooped, when Haviland's voice came sharply from the next room. "Don't touch a thing, Pauline!" he cried, as he held his hand over the transmitter. She looked up, and then as she saw him turn back to speak into the instrument, she stooped swiftly and picking up something from the floor she hurried from the room. She found Anita on the couch in the hall, and speaking somewhat sharply, Pauline said, "Where's Estelle?" "Mercy! I don't know!" and Anita's blue eyes stared coldly. "How should I know anything about Estelle?" "But she must have brought that tray an hour ago. Did she upset it, or who?" "Pauline, why do you act as if I knew anything about this matter. Is it because _you_ do?" The blue eyes, cold like steel, and the dark ones, flashing fire from their shadows, looked steadily at each other. Gray Haviland came hurriedly out to the hall. "The doctor will be here at once," he said; "and he will call the coroner." "Coroner!" screamed Anita; and ran away to her own room. "Let her alone," said Pauline, contemptuously; "but Gray, we must nerve ourselves up to this thing. Don't you think we ought to--to put away the jewels? It's wrong to let any one come into a room where a fortune in jewels is displayed like that." "But Doctor Stanton said to touch nothing,--nothing at all. You see, Pauline, in a murder case,----" "Oh, I know; 'nothing disturbed till the Coroner comes,' and all that. But this is different, Gray. Doctor Stanton didn't know there are two hundred thousand dollars' worth of jewelry on that--that--on her." "How do you know so exactly?" "I'm not exact, but she has told me times enough that the rope of pearls cost one hundred thousand, and that corsage ornament she is wearing and her rings and ear-rings are easily worth the same sum. I tell you there will be policemen here, and it isn't right to throw temptation in their way." "Besides," and Anita's voice spoke again as she reappeared in the doorway, "besides, Pauline, they are all yours now, and you should be careful of them!"