"Tell her about it, Gray," said Pauline, and leaving the two together, she went swiftly along the hall to her own room. The alert eyes of the guarding policemen followed her, but also they followed the movements of every one else, and if they had, as yet, any suspicions, no one knew of them. Meantime, the gruesome work of photography went on. Surely never was such a strange subject for the camera! Denuded of her jewels, but still robed in her gorgeous dressing-gown, and still leaning back in her luxurious arm-chair, with that strange smile of happy expectancy, Miss Lucy Carrington presented the same air of regal authority she had always worn in life. Her eyes were widely staring, but there was no trace or hint of fear in her peaceful attitude of repose. "There's no solution!" said Inspector Brunt, deeply thoughtful. "No one could or would crack a skull like that, but an experienced and professional burglar and housebreaker. And such a one could have but one motive, robbery, and the jewels were not stolen!" "Inside job," observed Scofield, briefly, his eyes on his work. "Maybe the burglar was frightened away at the critical moment." "No. Whatever frightened him would be known to some member of the family." "Maybe it is." "Hey? Have you a theory?" and the Coroner looked up suddenly. "Anything but! There's no _possible_ theory that will fit the facts." "Except the truth." "Yes, except the truth. But it will be long before we find that, I'm afraid. It strikes me it's at the bottom of an unusually deep well." "Well, you'd _better_ find it. It'd be a nice how d'y' do for you to fall down on _this_ case!" "There's no falling down been done yet. And it may well be that the very fact of there being such strange and irreconcilable conditions shall prove a help rather than a hindrance." And then, all being in readiness, the lifeless form of Miss Carrington, once the proud domineering autocrat, now laid low, was borne to a distant room, for the autopsy that might cast a further light on the mystery of her tragic death. V A MAN'S GLOVE Inspector Brunt and the young detective, Hardy, were interviewing the members of the household in the library, and the task was not an easy one. The two girls were distinctly at odds, and Gray Haviland, whether authoritatively or not, persisted in assuming a major rôle. "It seems to me," Haviland said, "that it is the most remarkable mystery that has ever occurred in the experience of you police people. Now, I think the wisest plan is to call in a big detective,--no offence, Mr. Hardy,--but I mean a noted fellow, like Stone, say, and let him get at the root of the crime." "I think, Gray," and Pauline looked very haughty, "that any such suggestion would come better from me. I am now mistress of the place, and it is for me to say what we shall do."