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OR a moment after Miss Risby's veiled but unmistakably significant statement Odell stared at her while this new and amazing possibility swept over his consciousness. Was the girl lying, deliberately attempting to throw suspicion on Lorne, even as he had an hour before practically accused her?

The detective was forced to admit to himself that she did not appear to be the type of woman who would commit herself in any way without due cause and after careful consideration; yet she had said more than the situation demanded. She might easily have taken refuge in the excuse that she thought Mr. Lorne's presence, or that of any other member of the family except Miss Meade, excited her patient; she need not have volunteered that observation about the bandage.

"You are absolutely sure in your own mind that the bandage was tampered with?" he asked.

The girl shrugged.

"Doctor Adams would tell you that the patient might very well have loosened it in changing her position in bed; but I had applied it myself, and I knew that it had been removed and replaced."

"Did you examine it, Miss Risby? Was there anything 208