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Rh new, as though she had just bought them before she came here, Sergeant; and there isn't a letter or scrap of paper in her room. I've been makin' up to Jane to get the dope, like I always do on a case of this kind; and she tells me that Gerda hasn't written a letter nor received one in all the six months she has been here. Now, I ask you, is that usual with servants?" Taylor leaned over the table the better to carry his point. "I've gone through the rooms of many of 'em but this is the first one I ever saw that didn't have a personal thing in it except just clothes and toilet articles all unmarked. The store tabs have even been taken out of the dresses and coats and hats. There's another thing strange about 'em, too; they're all dark and plain but they're fine quality, finer than any ordinary servant would appreciate or pay for; and the toilet articles are real ivory, or I'll eat my hat!"

"Sure you haven't been listening too much to Jane?" Odell looked quizzically at his subordinate. "She's got it in for Gerda and tried to make a mystery of her to me; but I've already interviewed the woman, and although she is a superior sort for a lady's maid her story is straight enough; she gave me a complete account of where she worked before and how she happened to get this place. Lay off her, Taylor; you'll draw a blank there."

It was no part of Odell's plan to have his henchmen get a line on the case and begin to speculate on their own account concerning it; they were there merely to carry out his orders and he would brook no self-appointed assistants as a matter of authority.

"Oh, all right," Taylor responded shortly. "Have it your own way, Sergeant; but if you ask me—"