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 in this distinctly antagonistic frame of mind? Don’t you know that you act as if you had something to conceal—or if there were something to be concealed, regarding Mr. Locke? Why is that?”

“You’re utterly absurd. As a matter of fact, I know very little about Mr. Locke. We are all good friends, but ours is not an intimate sort of a crowd. I know no more about his private or personal affairs than he knows about mine. I have no idea whether his disappearance is a purely casual one, or whether it is in any way connected with the distressing affair of last night. Indeed, Mr. Hutchins, I have no information that would be of the slightest use to you.”

Hutchins bowed slightly.

“Then I must ask for an interview with Miss Cutler. I am sorry to awaken her, but the law’s demands are inexorable. And she can go to sleep again. The lassitude of the day after a party is not a real malady. If you refuse further, you will make me think there is some other reason”

“Very well,” and Kate Vallon went to fetch Pearl Jane.

The suspiciously quick return of the pair made Hutchins smile inwardly at the story of the sleeping girl, but he made no allusion to that.

“I don’t want to worry or annoy you, Miss Cutler,” Hutchins said with almost kindness, for he saw at once she had doubtless passed a sleepless night. “But if you will tell me your own story—tell me all that is on your mind—it will be so much easier for both of us, than if I have to drag it out piecemeal.”

“I haven’t any story—I haven’t anything to tell,” and the girl gave him a piteous look.

“Let me help you,” and Hutchins was gentleness itself. “