Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/257



day "Cupid" heard that Ian Barr had been trapped in France, he made a "find" in the View Tower.

Although the police had reported at first that nothing was visible there which could afford a clue to the mystery, except in the room on the ground floor, Gaylor had never been satisfied. He wanted, if possible, to have a clear case against Barr, whom he now believed to be the murderer of Lady Hereward; and if he could come across any proof that Barr had been in the habit of using the Tower just before the tragedy, it would be a score. Consequently he searched, with the idea ever before him; and from far down between the seat and back of the battered, couch-like sofa in the upper room, he prized out a hairpin.

This was on the afternoon of the day when the news had come from France; and the best thing about the trophy, from the detective's point of view, was that the hairpin appeared to be a new one.

If it had been old, it might have fallen from some woman s head months or years before, and worked its way down into the sofa; but it was new; and it had a certain individuality of its own. As no woman had