"Sounds legal, and not quite right, Mr. Inspector. Say, your name's------" "Derrick. Inspector Derrick. I am in charge of the Troy police, and this is the first crime of any sort I have stumbled across here." "Slow lot," commented the American. "In our country we'd have filled the boneyard in six months." "We don't murder on that gigantic scale here, Mr. Tracey," Derrick answered, somewhat dryly. Then he looked steadily and keenly at the man. "I'm going to trust you," he declared. Tracey whistled, and stared doubtfully at the body. "Shouldn't if I were you, sir. Here's a crime, and I know a lot------" "Oh, you do! What do you know?" "What I've told you. I might be an accomplice too, you see, along with the other man." "The murderer?" "No. The rooster who skipped with my car. He didn't stick that poor girl there. Not he. Guess he kept your copper employed in jaw while the real murderer polished off the female. That's how I size up things. Well, sir, and what do you want me to do?" "Fetch a doctor." "Don't know any hereabouts My knowledge of this township is limited to Meadow Lane, and Miss Baldwin's favourite walk across the fields. 'Sides"--he cast a quizzical look at the officer--"I might not come back." "Oh yes, you will. I shouldn't let you go if I wasn't sure you'd return, if only for the sake of your car and the advertisement." Tracey laughed. "Well, where's the medicine man?" Derrick scribbled a few lines on his card, and passed it along. "Go there, and ask Dr. Geason to come here--the sooner the better." "Right, sir!" Tracey rose and looked wistfully down at the dead. "I guess the man who did that would be lynched in our country." "He'll be hanged in this when found," retorted Derrick. "Go, please." When the American was out of the room the inspector resumed his examination. Mulligan returned when he was in the middle of a brown study. "There's nothing to be seen, sir," he reported. "No one in the house. Doors and windows all bolted and barred. Not a sign." "Strange," mused Derrick. "You are sure that the man who came out of the house was speaking with you while the singing was going on?" "I'll take my oath on it, sir. He can't be guilty." "Did he strike you as being confused?" "Not very, sir. He didn't want his face to be seen, though, and kept his hat down on his eyes. He said the lady who was singing was his sister, and that he often came to see her." "H'm! Why should he come to a house which is shut up?" "He had the latch-key." "Hand it over to me," said Derrick, and when in possession of it, took a long look at the size and shape. "New," said he, rapping it on his knuckles. "Hasn't been used much." "Might be polished from too much use, sir," ventured Mulligan. "The edges wouldn't be so rough if it wasn't new." Derrick pointed this fact out. "You don't know the man's name?" "No, sir." "Nor where he lives?" "No, sir; I had no reason to ask him anything."