"Good God," cried Donald Morris, sitting down suddenly and striking his hand on the arm of Clancy's chair. "Then I was right at first! Something terrible has happened, something complicated and sinister! I had a feeling that it was so when I called you. I----" Peter leaned slightly forward and caught Morris's arm in a steadying grip. "Hold hard, Mr. Morris," he said. "The whole thing may be a mare's nest, only I'll say right now that it does look a bit queer to me. But we won't get anywhere near the solution if we don't start at the beginning. Now let's get down to brass tacks." Clancy felt the muscles under his hand relax somewhat, so he released his hold of Morris's arm and leaned back in his chair. "When you called me on the 'phone, you told me nothing except that you had found a scarf of Miss Blake's stained with blood and that Miss Blake had disappeared, and asked me to come here as fast as possible. I beat it down here and found that the apartment had, apparently, been looted and that neither of the two women who live here were to be found. Though, for the matter of that, have you any definite reason to think that either or both of them may not be back at any moment?" "I think--I believe I have reason to think that Miss Mary Blake intended to go away--or--oh, I don't know just what to think." "But you did expect the sister to be here," insisted Peter. "Yes," Morris nodded. "I think I did expect to find her sister, Anne. And, as you say, for all I know she may come in at any moment----" Peter folded his arms and, gripping his chin in his hand, slowly shook his head. "She won't be back. Not for some time, anyway," he said, deliberately. "I'm pretty sure of that. In fact, I feel positive that neither of the sisters will show up for some little time to come unless their plans change." "Why do you think that?" asked Morris, with a quick, eager frown. "The occupants of this apartment planned to leave it," said Peter, gravely. "They made their plans well in advance, and one of them, at least, was a good housekeeper." "How in the world do you know that?" asked Morris, frankly puzzled. "Perfectly obvious," answered Peter, with a slight shrug. "Didn't you notice the bedroom in there?" He jerked his thumb in the direction of the room adjoining. "I--I don't think I did, particularly," Morris hesitated. "There was so much else----" "I know. But if you'd happened to notice the bed, you'd have seen that it had nothing on it at all but one sheet, and that wasn't put on in the usual way, but was all over it, even covering the pillows. No housekeeper would fix a bed that way if she were coming back to-night, or to-morrow, or any time soon, would she?" "I haven't much experience with that sort of thing," said Morris, "but it doesn't seem as if she would."