"And the last one undoubtedly brought about his death"; Brett spoke so positively that Douglas hitched his chair nearer in his excitement. "After I had finished my interview with Mrs. Owen I asked permission to question her servants. The footman told me that Miss Carew left the dance earlier than the other guests, and that she had to wait a long time for her carriage. He said he called her carriage check number repeatedly, and with no result. That Captain Lane, becoming impatient, put on his overcoat and hat and walked down the street searching for Miss Carew's carriage." "And you think?" broke in Douglas. "That Captain Lane not only found the carriage but the Senator sitting in it, and seized the opportunity to punish him for his deviltry to the girl he loved." A long pause followed as Colonel Thornton and Douglas sat thinking over Brett's startling news. "Where did he get the weapon?" inquired Douglas finally. "Out of Mrs. Owen's library, of course. He may have picked it up in a fit of absent-mindedness and carried it with him." "Did the footman or butler notice anything in his hand when he left the house?" questioned Thornton. "I asked them, and they declared that he carried an umbrella in his left hand, and that they had not noticed whether he was holding anything in his right hand or not. The footman declared that it was raining so hard that it was impossible to see anything clearly. They both said Captain Lane was some fifteen minutes returning to the house." "Did he find the carriage?" "He told the footman that he hadn't, and ordered him to keep calling the number, which he did, and soon after the carriage drove up." "Of all the cold-blooded propositions!" ejaculated Douglas. "Do you honestly mean that you think Lane deliberately put the girl he loved into the carriage to sit beside the man he had just murdered?" "I do," firmly, "and I stake my reputation as a detective that Captain Lane is guilty. You were with me, Mr. Hunter, when I overheard Miss Carew exclaim, as Miss Thornton entered her bedroom on Tuesday--'They quarreled, Eleanor, they quarreled.'" "She may not have been alluding to Captain Lane," declared Douglas stoutly; "she may have referred to Philip Winthrop. He also quarreled with Senator Carew." "Philip is very much in love with Cynthia and wishes to marry her," volunteered Thornton quietly. "Is that why Senator Carew objected to her engagement to Captain Lane?" asked Brett. "Did he wish her to marry Philip Winthrop?" "I never heard that he did"; Thornton paused and reflected a moment. "I might as well tell you, for you will probably hear it from some one else eventually, that there has been a feud of long standing between the Lanes and Carews." Douglas whistled. "A Montague and Capulet affair?" he inquired.