As no one else moved to do it, I stepped to the door of the butler's pantry, and summoned the head waiter of the caterer. "Where are the house servants?" I asked him. "There aren't any, sir," he replied, looking shudderingly at the grisly form on the floor. "No servants? In a house of this type! What do you mean?" "That's true," said Mrs. Reeves, breaking her silence, at last. "Miss Van Allen has a very capable woman, who is housekeeper and ladies' maid in one. But when guests are here, the suppers are served from the caterer's." "Then call the housekeeper. And where is Miss Van Allen herself?" "She's not in the house," said the policeman Breen, returning from his search. "Not in the house!" cried Mrs. Reeves. "Where is she?" "I've been all over--every room--every floor. She isn't in the house. There's nobody upstairs at all." "No housekeeper or maid?" demanded Mason. "Then they've got away! Here, waiter, tell me all you know of this thing." The Italian Luigi came forward, shaking with terror, and wringing his fingers nervously. "I d--don't know anything about it," he began, but Mason interrupted, "You do! You know all about it! Did you kill this man?" "No! Dio mio! No! a thousand no's!" "Then, unless you wish to be suspected of it, tell all you know." A commotion at the door heralded the coroner's arrival, also a detective and a couple of plain clothes men. Clearly, here was a mysterious case. The coroner at once took matters in his own hands. Inspector Mason told him all that had been learned so far, and though Coroner Fenn seemed to think matters had been pretty well bungled, he made no comment and proceeded with the inquiries. "Sure there's nobody upstairs?" he asked Breen. "Positive. I looked in every nook and cranny. I've raked the whole house, but the basement and kitchen part." "Go down there, then, and then go back and search upstairs again. Somebody may be hiding. Who here knows Miss Van Allen the most intimately?" "Perhaps I do," said Mrs. Reeves. "Or Miss Gale. We are both her warm friends." "I'm also her friend," volunteered Bert Garrison. "And I can guarantee that if Miss Van Allen has fled from this house it was out of sheer fright. She never saw this man until to-night. He was a stranger to us all." "Where's the housekeeper?" went on Fenn. "I think she must be somewhere about," said Mrs. Reeves. "Perhaps in the kitchen. Julie is an all round capable woman. When there are no guests she prepares Miss Van Allen's meals herself. When company is present the caterer always is employed." "And there are no other servants?" "Not permanent ones," replied Mrs. Reeves. "I believe the laundress and chore boy come by the day, also cleaning women and such. But I know that Miss Van Allen has no resident servant besides the maid Julie."