"It might have been from Haskins at that," spoke up Wiggly Price, and he turned to Sergeant Tish. "It was yesterday--Tuesday--that you cornered Haskins in the place you call Eighth Avenue Annie's. What day was it that the swell-dressed woman called on the man at that place?" "Monday," answered Tish. "Ah!" exclaimed the newspaper man triumphantly, and his ears wiggled a bit. "It was Monday that the murdered woman got this letter that Bates tells about. Bates, did she go to New York on Monday?" "I don't think to New York, but she did drive somewhere in the motor--out into the country, I believe she said." "Yes, so she said," nodded Wiggly with meaning emphasis. "That doesn't make it true that she didn't go to New York. Any one accompany her on this motor trip?" "She went alone; she returned late in the afternoon." "Say!" exploded Ham Griggs with a glare. "One would think _you_ was the officer in charge the way you're bustin' in with all these questions." "Just one question more, Constable Griggs," urged Wiggly. "I'm not trying to be officious. Bates, let us suppose for a moment that this man, Don Haskins, did get into the house in some way or another, would he have had time to get down the stairs before you and Mr. Gilmore rushed up--and then let himself out of the house, while you and Mr. Gilmore were upstairs?" Bates debated this question for a moment and then shook his head positively. "He would not," he replied; "but he might have easily found a place to conceal himself in one of the rooms upstairs. There is one bit of detail that I may have forgotten to mention. When Mr. Gilmore and I were about halfway up the stairway, I am positive that I heard a door slam very loudly--very loudly, indeed." "Huh!" grunted the constable. "That don't mean anything much. It might just as well have been Sarbella rushin' back to his room after havin' shot her." And then he indulged in another bit of reasoning which did him credit. "If it was the Gilmore woman who went to see Haskins in New York, we know she wasn't too afraid of him to go see him in that cheap joint Sergeant Tish told us about. And yet she was afraid of the one who come in on her last night--because she screamed. Why did she scream? I'll tell you why she screamed; it was because she knowed that Sarbella had come to kill her! Just put that in your pipe and smoke it a while." "Not a bad deduction," nodded Sergeant Tish, "but the thing that puzzles all of us is--how did Sarbella get the gun away from Haskins? We're just wastin' good time arguing back and forth. Let's go upstairs and see if we can't pick up something new." "The--the body has been removed," the butler informed them. "The undertaker left an hour since. Doctor Bushnell was very careful that nothing else should be disturbed, and the room is locked. Doctor Bushnell----" "And took the key off with him, I suppose," growled Constable Griggs.