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80 was there, oh, no. I did not know there was such a gentleman." She paused and then added with a curious veiled significance in her tone: "I have worked in various other places, sir, and I have not always been a lady's maid. Once, long before my illness, when I was strong and my nerves were steady, I was an attendant in a private sanitarium."

Odell studied her for a moment. Confound the woman! What was she trying to get at, anyway? He had never been in a sanitarium in his life, either professionally or as a patient. True, he had been in a hospital once, when he had been knifed in pinching Luigi Lombardo the Dago killer, but—

"What kind of a sanitarium?" he demanded.

The eagerness flashed out in her eyes then and she bent toward him and spoke rapidly in a low, meaning tone.

"For the insane, sir. Have you ever seen any crazy people? If you have you never can mistake them, no matter how clever and cunning they are. There is a look in their eyes that gives them away to those who know."

"I've never run up against a case of insanity." Odell's preconceived ideas were in chaos. Clearly the woman did not for a moment think that she recognized him, but she spoke with a purpose. Could it be that she was trying to give him a tip? Her eagerness, her hushed voice, and the light in her eyes showed that she was not talking idly. "Why are you telling me this, Gerda?"

The woman stepped back, and a spot of color came into her sallow cheeks.

"It—it might come in handy in your profession some time, sir. There are more crazy people loose in society