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Rh bewilderment and a kind of superstitious terror. The queer thing about it is that he is back at his old job, after all." The chief leaned forward in his chair. "I had to let him go, of course; we hadn't a thing to hold him on, and he said he was going back to his sister's; but I put a man on him anyway, so that we could get him if we needed him again. He didn't even want to go to the Meade house for his things, and wouldn't until I told him that we had it guarded inside and out; yet when he got there he stayed; told Taylor that Miss Meade wanted him to, and he thought it was his duty. Funny what an influence that quiet little old maid seems to have on everybody."

Odell looked up at the last observation.

"Miss Meade? She seems to be the least considered of anyone in the household."

"Yet she is running them all now in an unobtrusive way. Porter and Kelly and Smith all tell me the same. I took a run up there myself yesterday afternoon and had a talk with her. She seems quite crushed by the evidence of the attempts on the lives of her nephew and her brother-in-law; and I don't think she believes for a minute that there was anything questionable about the death of the other boy and of her sister. Lorne himself is much better and wants to see you. He sent Titheredge down here for you; but I told him that you were working on the case and might not show up for several days."

"And Gene; did he return to the house the night before last? Is Porter still on the job?"

"Yes, but the kid has turned sulky; shut himself up in his room and wouldn't talk to anybody. Smith sent in his report late last night."