“The whole affair doesn’t sound likely,” I countered, “and anyway, it doesn’t matter. Somebody did drive that nail, and what it was driven with is unimportant. As far as I can learn, they’ve found nothing conclusive in the way of fingerprints. I’m not keen on those things myself, but in New York they would have been fingerprinting the whole crowd of us.” “Of course, there are no available fingerprints on the nail,” Kee said, “and that’s the only thing that matters. I don’t give a fig for all the feather dusters, flowers, oranges and such things.” “Not even the watch in the water pitcher?” I asked. “Well, yes, I do consider the watch in the water pitcher. In fact, I think that’s the key note of the whole performance.” “You’ve got to tell us why,” I told him. “You can’t say that and leave it unexplained.” “Indeed I can. A real detective never explains his cryptic utterances.” “You’re not a real detective,” I declared, solemnly. “Why not?” and he glowered at me. “Because you look like a detective. You’re tall, and dark and hawk-eyed or hawk-nosed, or hawk-somethinged. Now, a real detective must always look utterly unlike the detective of fiction, and you’re the very image of Sherlock Holmes.” “And I glory in it. But if you flatter yourself you’re my Watson, you must cultivate the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit.” “I thought we were eliminating,” put in Maud. “Who have we eliminated so far?” “Your English is deplorable,” Kee told her, “but I can deduce your meaning. Well, how about eliminating Ames?” “No,” I cried, “he’s the one not to eliminate. There are too many counts against him. I say, let’s begin at the other end of the line. The lesser servants.” “Cut out Sally Bray, then,” Moore advised. “That girl never had the nerve to go a-murdering all by herself.” “Of course not,” I agreed. “Though she may have gone with some companion.” “No, it isn’t plausible. As to the servants, all we can say is that they could have had opportunity. The house servants, at any rate, could have had a duplicate key made to the Tracy suite——” “But that wasn’t needed. So far as we know the door wasn’t locked when the murderer went in. But he left it locked when he came out.” “That’s the point of the whole thing,” Lora said, confidently. “You can’t do this elimination you talk about, for every servant had a motive, if you count greed a motive, and every servant had a chance to get into the room unnoticed. Now it all comes back to the explanation of the intruder leaving the door locked behind him. Give me a possible explanation, Kee.” “There are but two,” he said, thoughtfully. “I am sure there’s no secret passage, for I measured and sounded the walls thoroughly. So it’s either that the criminal had some clever mechanical contrivance with which he turned that key in the door behind him, or he jumped out of the window.” “Into the lake!” cried Lora.