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HE interview with Rannie had wrought a change in the detective's immediate plans, and he resolved not to hold any further conversation with Richard Lorne until he had secured additional data upon which to work. The theory first advanced by Miss Risby was now seemingly corroborated by several inadvertent statements of the crippled boy's, trivial in themselves but of importance when considered with the rest of the evidence.

Everything depended, of course, upon the establishment of a motive. But granted that there were no insurmountable obstructions to the theory, the possible means used to bring about the death of Mrs. Lorne was clear; and the idea which Odell had formed as to the murder of Julian would be as consistent whether Lorne or any other member of the household were guilty.

Then, too, Lorne as well as anyone else might have filed the heavy wire cables which held up the portrait, hoping to encompass Gene's death, and thus defer perhaps indefinitely the accounting of his inheritance which would have been demanded in another month. Titheredge was Lorne's life-long friend; and he as well as the latter's wife had doubtless been satisfied with the statements made from time to time of the administration of the various properties 234