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Rh the picture that fell down. But that was after the accident to Mr. Lorne."

"At what time did Peters leave the house?"

1 don't know, sir, but it must have been before nine. He slipped away while the doctor was here attending to Mr. Lorne, and none of us saw him go. He didn't say a word to anybody, but just walked out; his things are all here in his room, Jane says. He was the most frightened of us all this week and kept saying that we would be murdered in our beds, but I don't think he meant it; he didn't exactly know what he was afraid of."

She was forcing the volubility, Odell could see; and gradually the look of anticipation was fading from her eyes. Could it be that he had actually seen her somewhere before; that she had recognized him and waited for the recognition to be mutual?He determined to throw out a feeler.

"Gerda, where did you work before coming here?"

"Nowhere. That is, I had been ill for a very long time." She hesitated, but the eager look had come back into her eyes. "Before that I had been maid for a lady here in town for some years."

"Who was she?"

The answer came slowly with a curious, studied evenness of tone.

"A Madame Gael."

"Not Mrs. Quincy Gael who was divorced?"

"Yes, sir. But the divorce came later, after I had been taken ill and gone away."

"Did you ever see or hear of a Mr. Farley Drew in her home?"

I read of him afterwards, sir, of course; but while I