“We don’t know, Doctor Merritt,” Landon said, as the other doctor said nothing. “We’ve no idea.” “No idea! A man shot and killed in this lonely, isolated house and you don’t know who did it? What do you mean?” In a few words Varian detailed the circumstances, and added, “We don’t know where Miss Varian is.” “Disappeared! Then she must have shot her father——” “Oh, no!” interrupted Landon, “don’t say such an absurd thing!” “What else is there to say?” demanded Merritt. “You say there was nobody in the house but those two people. Now, one is here dead, and the other is missing. What else can be said?” “Don’t accuse a defenseless girl,——” advised Varian. “Betty must be found, of course. But I don’t for a minute believe she shot her father.” “Where’s the gun?” asked Doctor Merritt. “Hasn’t been found,” returned Varian, briefly. “Mrs Varian, my brother’s wife, is hysterical. I’ve been obliged to quiet her by opiates. Doctor Merritt, this is by no means a simple case. I hope your sheriff is a man of brains and experience. It’s going to call for wise and competent handling.” “Potter is experienced enough. Been sheriff for years. But as to brains, he isn’t overburdened with them. Still, he’s got good horse sense.” “One of the best things to have,” commented Varian. “Now, I don’t know that we need keep Mr Landon here any longer. What do you think?” “I don’t know,” said Merritt, thoughtfully. “He was here at the time of the—crime?” “Yes; but so were several others, and they’ve gone away. As you like, Mr Landon, but I don’t think you need stay unless you wish.” “I do wish,” Ted Landon said. “I may be of use, somehow, and, too, I’m deeply interested. I want to see what the sheriff thinks about it, and, too, I want to try to find or help to find Miss Betty.” “Betty must be found,” said Varian, as if suddenly reminded of the fact. “I am so distracted between the shock of my brother’s death and the anxiety regarding his wife’s condition, that for the moment I almost forgot Betty. That child must be hiding somewhere. She must have been frightened in some fearful way, and either fainted or run away and hid out in the grounds somewhere. I’m positive she isn’t in the house.” “She couldn’t have gone out the back door,” said Landon. “It was locked when I went to it.” “She couldn’t have gone out at the front door or we should have seen her,” Varian added, “She stepped out of a window, then.” “Are you assuming some intruder?” asked Merritt, wonderingly. “I’m not assuming anything,” returned Varian, a little crisply, for his nerves were on edge. “But Betty Varian must be found,—my duty is to the living as well as to the dead.” He glanced at his brother’s body, and his face expressed a mute promise to care for that brother’s child. “But how are you going to find her?” asked Landon. “We saw Miss Varian enter this house——”