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Rh that I was no fool and she had better copy Jane's speech the next time I interviewed her. It won't do, my boy. I've got to have the truth."

"Then ask her." Rannie shrugged. "Granted that she may have an ulterior motive, and that I have an inkling of it; you will be making the mistake of your budding career if you try to connect her with our trouble. She is not after our lives, nor the family plate, I can assure you; but further than that, Sergeant, I have nothing to say. Her little game won't hurt any of us, and it is the only oasis of diversion in the desert in which I live. Let her play it out and stick to your own side of the court. I guess you know already that you'll have your hands full."

"Perhaps," Odell conceded good-naturedly. "If the woman isn't up to the sort of mischief that would bring her officially under our notice, the authorities aren't interested in her. There are a few other points I would like to settle in my own mind. Hello, what is this? A medical book?"

He had glanced down as if inadvertently at the volume which he held on his knee, and read the title: "Reference Handbook of the Medical Sciences."

The boy's dark, saturnine face flushed, and he thrust out an imperious hand.

"Give it to me!" he demanded.

You are interested in this sort of thing?" the detective asked as he complied. He had darted a swift glance at the delicate, pointed thumb of the extended hand, and then his eyes traveled to the bookcases which lined the wall. "You have quite a young library here on medicine, haven't you?"