"It's ridiculous, absurd!" Bushnell repeated explosively. "What if Joan's hair is dark? Confound it, you make me downright angry, casting an insinuation like that, just because of an inconsequential thing like a hairpin." Wiggly gave a faint smile which was grim rather than humorous. "I haven't insinuated anything, doctor; just asked a question, that's all. Oh, I admit there's nothing conclusive about a hairpin, and yet--well, there was the Hitchcock case that I mentioned, solved by a black mourning pin." "For murder there's got to be a motive," argued Doctor Bushnell; "no one besides Sarbella had a motive. I don't care what you find, I'd never believe that any one except Sarbella----" The door was flung open with a startling violence, and Kirklan Gilmore lunged into the room, hair disheveled, eyes wide and staring. "What--what does this mean?" he cried hoarsely. "Bates tells me that the constable has arrested Sarbella. Is that true? Come, answer me, what does it mean?" Under his breath the doctor cursed the butler for adding this to the man's nervous strain. "I thought I gave you a sleeping tablet, Kirklan. Bates should not have excited you by----" "Certainly he should have," Gilmore broke in. "I've a right to know what's going on in my own house. Bates was perfectly right; but what does it mean? Bates says that Sarbella was taken away--handcuffed. It's true, isn't it?" Doctor Bushnell nodded. "Yes, Kirklan, it's true; Sarbella is being--ah--detained, pending--well, at least pending further investigation of your wife's murder. Certain things developed which made it advisable and necessary." "Great Lord!" whispered Gilmore, his shaking fingers raking back a tangled shock of hair that fell across his forehead. "You mean--you mean that Sarbella has been arrested for--for that?" His other hand went out, pointing to the couch. "Try and calm yourself, Kirklan," soothed the physician. "I hadn't intended that you should know this until you had pulled yourself together somewhat. I knew that it would be a tremendous shock for you to know that your friend, a guest in your home----" "Why," broke in the novelist, "was Sarbella arrested?" Doctor Bushnell hesitated over the answer, and Wiggly Price drew back to one side, making himself as inconspicuous as possible. "I demand to know," insisted Gilmore, and the doctor saw that there could be no further evasion. "As I told you downstairs, Kirklan," said Bushnell, "we have established beyond all question that it was murder. Since she was killed, some one had to kill her." "But why Sarbella?" the author pressed impatiently.