“On Miss Templeton’s testimony? Tut, tut, my dear Barrison!” “But, surely, the unknown woman, if you insist on continuing to think her unknown, is the more likely bet of the two?” Inspector Lowry pulled at his cigar, and wrinkled his heavy brows. “Likely! I’m mortally afraid of those ‘likely’ clews! When a thing looks too blamed ‘likely,’ I get scared. Nature and life and crime don’t work that way! Besides,” drawled the inspector, “we’ve not got her, and we _have_ got the other one! There’s everything in possession!” “But you aren’t going to hold Miss Merivale on a mere——” “Hold your horses, boy! We aren’t holding her at all at present. She is as free as air, and will continue to be free for quite a while, anyway. But she’s being watched, Barrison, my boy, she’s being watched every minute. And she’ll go on being watched.” Lowry relighted his defunct cigar. “Incidentally,” he added, “we’ve got a few fresh points on this. You’d be interested in hearing them, I suppose?” “Interested!” “Very well. For one thing, Mrs. Parry, the dresser at the theater, has given us rather an odd piece of evidence. She says that a messenger boy called at Miss Merivale’s dressing room during the evening. She was not in the room at the time, but saw him knock, saw him admitted, and saw him go away.” “Nothing odd in that, surely—on a first night?” “Nothing at all odd. Mrs. Parry also recalls that, when she went in to help Miss Merivale for the last act——” “Miss Merivale had no change for the last act.” “No; so I understand. But she had gone back to her dressing room as usual for a few final touches. She had to alter her make-up slightly, hadn’t she?” “Yes; she had to be rather paler in the last act.” Barrison was somewhat impressed by Lowry’s thorough, even if archaic, way of getting his facts. “Quite so,” said the inspector equably. “Well, Mrs. Parry says that, as she entered the dressing room, she saw Miss Merivale walking up and down the room, evidently very angry. She had a note in her hand, and as she saw the woman, she tore it up in a lot of little pieces, and made an effort to become composed. Then she went hastily over to the dressing table, and caught up something that was lying there.” “Something! What?” “Mrs. Parry does not know. She knows that it was a small object possibly as long as her hand. She does not vouch for its shape. She just saw it in the flash of an eye.” “And what is Miss Merivale supposed to have done with it?” “Miss Merivale put it, very swiftly indeed, into the front of her white gown.” Barrison felt thunderstruck. That pretty, frank-eyed girl! Why, the thing was unbelievable! Impetuously he said: “But, as you’ve impressed on me more than once, the testimony of a single person can’t be conclusive. Suppose——”