Page:Chipperfield--Unseen Hands.djvu/317

Rh penter over the telephone. Miss Meade's was low and clear and softly feminine until she gave that cry outside Rannie's door when she thought he was about to swallow the poisoned broth."

"Oh, Aunt Effie could always do that," said Rannie. "Throw her voice and change its tone, I mean; she used to amuse us when we were kiddies by telling us the story of the three bears—a favorite of ours, I remember—and imitating their growls."

"But how did you first come to suspect her?" Gene asked.

"I did not, until a few hours before I tried that little experiment; but I had already decided that a crazed mind was back of the series of murders and attempted murders. Someone whom I may not name had hinted to me that a member of the household was unquestionably insane, and a little talk which I had with Mr. Titheredge here confirmed the possibility of it." Odell met the attorney's eye and shook his head reassuringly. "Down at Headquarters Peters had told us of a mysterious intruder at the hour of Mrs. Lorne's death, who passed up the stairs to the attic and whom he firmly believed to be a ghost. He did not see it but caught a glimpse of the light it carried and heard it say: 'The first one gone! So shall they all go, one by one!’"

"The she devil!" Lorne groaned. "But what was it that happened a few hours before you tricked her into betraying herself?"

"With Rannie's help I proved yesterday that your eldest stepdaughter was being slowly poisoned by an admixture of white arsenic in her food; and that narrowed the pos-