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136 crazy about some girl and his brother had taken her from him, it would have been a strong enough motive to at least cause a resumption of the quarrel in the early morning."

"You're trying to convince yourself, Odell," the captain accused him.

"I am trying to find among the tangible clues which I have gathered and from the score of curious, possibly significant things which I observed in that strange household to-day, a single thread that will lead to the truth."

"What curious things?" asked the captain.

"Why is that woman Gerda occupying so menial a position when she is obviously far above it? What did she mean by that veiled hint about insanity? What does the hunchback Rannie know about her? These questions may all be beside the point at issue; yet I feel that in some way they are connected with it, although there is no place for them in the theory that Gene knows anything about the events of the past twenty-four hours, to say nothing of being implicated in his brother's death." Odell rose and began to pace the floor of the office as if the mental struggle within him required some physical expression. "Why did Peters run away? Who telephoned the carpenter to send someone to hang the portrait before it had fallen? Who does Cissie Chalmers fear? Is it Rannie; and if so has she any reason for that fear other than her very evident dislike of him?"

"It looks like a queer tangle, all right," his superior admitted. "You've done a good bit for one day, Odell. After the autopsy on Mrs. Lorne—"

"That can only prove what we know already or else leave us where we are now. Even if there is a negative result, which is almost a foregone conclusion, it cannot disprove