"Meaning Stebbins or the Thorpes?" "Oh, no! none of them! But how about some outsider, hired, you know, by somebody in the house." "How'd he get in?" "There's a secret way into this house. You needn't tell me there isn't. Just 'cause you haven't stumbled over it yet! Also, who's doing the hiring?" "You said everything came around toward Landon." "There's motive there. You see, after Mr. Braye, Mr. Landon inherits all the Bruce fortune, and that's millions." "What's the matter with Braye being the murderer? He inherits first." "That's just it. If Mr. Braye wanted to kill his relatives to get the fortune, he wouldn't do it up here, where he's so liable to be suspected. He'd invent some subtler way, or some less suspicious scheme. But Mr. Landon could do it up here, and feel sure the suspicion would fall on Mr. Braye. Then, you see, Mr. Braye gets the money, and later on, Mr. Landon puts him out, too. In some awfully clever way, that can't be traced to him, d'y' see? And, too, Mr. Braye has declared he'll give all the money, if necessary, to discovering the criminal, if there is one. And he said, he'd give what was left to build a hospital. No, he doesn't want the money that came to him in such an awful way, leastwise, not if it throws suspicion on him. He's going to be cleared, or he's not going to use the money for himself. Miss Carnforth told me all that, I've talked a lot with her." "You've talked with all of them, haven't you?" "Yes, indeed. I've babbled on, and most often they tell me a lot that they don't realize. Mrs. Landon, now, she's struggling hard not to suspect her own husband, but Miss Carnforth has said a few things that scare Mrs. Landon 'most to death. Oh, Penny, it's a fearful case! We must fix it up, we must!" "We will, Zizi. There's so much evidence not to be denied, that we must ferret out what it really means. I'm getting a glimmer, but your help is invaluable. That was a stroke of genius for you not to tell of your ghost! Weren't you frightened?" "Not a bit. All I wanted to do, was to find out who it was. But I didn't dare grab at it, for I knew it would get away. I hope it will come again. I'll try to make it speak, and maybe I'll get a line on the voice." "Was it a man or a woman?" "I couldn't tell. The draperies were long and full, and the skull-mask covered the face." "Didn't you see the hand?" "It was lost in the draped shawl. But I'm sure I'll have another visit, and then I'll get more information. You think I did well, oh, Wise Guy?" "I do indeed!" and the approving smile that was Zizi's most welcome reward lighted up the detective's face. Zizi pursued her plan of talking to the various people separately. She gleaned much this way and with her powers of lightning calculation, she put two and two together with astounding results. She even lured the old Professor into a tête-à-tête conversation.