"Obviously," went on the doctor, "an effort has been made to make it appear suicide, but the effort failed; such efforts usually do. It's hard to destroy evidence, next to the impossible. There were but five persons in the house; you and Bates downstairs, your stepmother, Joan and Sarbella upstairs. Taking the list into consideration it was only natural that suspicion should turn to Sarbella. And then----" "But that's not proof, doctor--that's only suspicion," broke in Gilmore. "If you had no evidence, I don't see how you dared----" "We had a little more than that," said Doctor Bushnell with obvious reluctance, realizing that circumstances had made it unavoidable that Kirklan should know the terrible truth about Helen's past life. "You see, Kirklan, we discovered that Sarbella had a motive." "A motive?" Gilmore muttered dully. "What do you mean by that? What reason could he have had? Out with it! Why do you torture me with this suspense?" Doctor Bushnell stepped forward and put a hand on the other's shoulder. "Heaven knows that I wish I could spare you this, Kirklan, but it's bound to come out at the trial and in the newspapers. You were not aware, I suppose, that there was a previous relationship between----" He had phrased it clumsily and Gilmore started back with a shudder, a look of anguished horror on his face. "You mean that Sarbella and my wife were----He lied to me--he lied to me--gave me his word of honor that he had never seen her before. I knew there was something wrong; I saw her face when she met him; I knew----" "No you misunderstand me, Kirklan. There was nothing like that. Perhaps you did not know that Sarbella had a brother, a younger brother named Andrea, who----" "Who shot himself," finished Gilmore. "Yes, I'd heard of it; that happened before I knew Victor. But what has that got to do with this?" "Young Sarbella shot himself because of a woman," went on Doctor Bushnell. "Because a woman, a very beautiful woman whom he loved madly, had misled him about herself. She lied to him, tricked him, and then--the woman's husband came to him and told him the truth." Kirklan Gilmore stared dully; he seemed not to grasp the inference of it all. The room was tensely quiet. "I--I don't understand," he muttered thickly, "what that has to do with Sarbella and my wife." "Andrea Sarbella," the doctor went on gently, "was the idol of his mother and his brother. Shock of the tragedy cost the mother's life, and Victor, it seems, took an oath that he would avenge himself on the woman responsible for his double bereavement." The dawning light of comprehension showed in Gilmore's horror-stricken eyes; a cry arose in his throat, as he staggered back into a chair and buried his head within his hands. "You mean," he choked, "that the woman was--was--my wife!" "Yes, Kirklan, your wife was that woman. Now you can understand why Sarbella has been placed under arrest."