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 as it is in this case, who can blame them? Lord knows I want to hush up the whole affair—but if it can’t be done, it can’t.”

“Then you think it must all come out?”

“Looks so. I can hush up the women—not one of that Bridge pack but would keep her mouth shut for a few hundred dollars. And they have an affection for Maddy, too. They hadn’t so much when she was alive, but now they’re tender toward her memory. It’s the police who will make the trouble—and the reporters—and worst of all, the exaggeration. If they’d tell the truth—that would be bad enough. But they’ll multiply everything by four and then double it.”

“Yes, I suppose they will. Did you notice that picture of the girl—on the side table in the den?”

“No; what girl?”

The one I told you about, with the queer name—Pearl Jane. She had bobbed hair—rather curly.”

“No, I didn’t see any such picture.”

“Oh, well, I think I set another picture over it, as I was digging about. That’s why. Wild goose chase, going down there at all. But I really thought we might turn up something.”

“There’s no chance for clues, Nick, if that’s what you mean. Whoever killed Maddy was too clever to leave a clue. That much is evident to me.”

“Yes, and to me, too,” said Nelson.