Hannah was deputed to sit beside Mrs Varian, now sleeping again, and the others, including the detectives, gathered round the table. “I’d like the sum of your findings, so far,” Doctor Varian said, raising weary eyes to Potter’s face. “Pretty slim, Doctor,” the sheriff responded. “But, I want to say, right now, that I’ve got to do my duty as I see it. Much as I’d like to spare the feelings of you people and all that, I’ve got to forge ahead and discover anything I may.” “Of course you have, Mr Potter. Don’t think I’d put a straw in the way of truth or justice. But, granting that you may speak with all plainness, where do you come out?” “Only to the inevitable conclusion that Miss Varian killed her father and then killed herself, and her body will yet be found.” “Now, Potter,” Dunn said, slowly, “don’t go too fast. That is one theory, to be sure, but it’s only a theory. You’ve nothing to back it up,—there’s no evidence——” “There’s negative evidence, Bill. Nobody else could get up here to do that shooting, or, if he did, he couldn’t get away again. Say, for a minute, that some intruder might have been concealed in the house, say he shot Mr Varian, how’d he get out of here without being seen, and how did he do for the girl?” “That’s all so,” Bill said, doggedly, “but it ain’t enough to prove,—or, even to indicate that Miss Varian did the shooting. Where’d she get a pistol?” “Pshaw, that’s a foolish question! If she had nerve and ingenuity enough to shoot, she had enough to provide the gun.” “Betty never did such things,” said Janet Varian with spirit. “That girl did sometimes have words with her father,—that’s a mere nothing,—my own daughter does that,—but Betty Varian is a loving, affectionate daughter, and she no more killed her father than I did!” “Small use in asserting things you can’t prove,” said Potter, devoting himself to his supper. “Next thing for me to do’s to see those other people,—the ones that were here this afternoon.” “All right,” said Doctor Varian, “but what do you hope to learn from them? They don’t know as much as we do. I was first on the spot, young Landon, who’s gone home, was here with me, and those others stayed down on the path waiting for us. See them, by all means, but I doubt their helpfulness. Now, aside from that, and granting you get no new evidence, what’s to be done?” “I think,” Potter said thoughtfully, “you’d better offer a reward for any news of Miss Varian. It’s not likely to bring results,—but it ought to be done, I think.” CHAPTER VI The Varian Pearls When Bill Dunn went up on the porch of Mrs Blackwood’s bungalow that evening, he found a group of neighbors there, and was not at all surprised that they were discussing the dreadful affair of Headland House. Claire Blackwood greeted the caller courteously and asked him to go inside the house with her.