"I've got to speak, Ricky," Miss Prall said, but her tone was not angry now. She seemed to have changed her mood and was half frightened, half sad. "I've got to speak, to save myself. Don't you see that if that paper-cutter points towards me,—as Mr Gibbs implies, I must tell what I know——"

"What you know," assented Bates, "but not what you suspect."

"Yes, ma'am, what you suspect," directed the detective. "The time has come, Miss Prall, when suspicions must be voiced, whether true or not, in order that we may prove or disprove them."

"Then get up your own suspicions," cried Bates. "Find your own suspects and prove their guilt or innocence."

"We're doing that," Gibbs said, quietly, "but we necessarily depend also on the statements of witnesses."

"But Miss Prall isn't a witness."

"Not an eye-witness, perhaps, but a material witness, if she knows anything that we want to know."

"She doesn't know anything you want to know," exclaimed Eliza Gurney, coming into the room. "But Kate Holland does! If you're anxious for information get that girl and quiz her!"

"Hush up, Eliza," stormed Letitia. "What did you learn in at the Everett's, Mr Gibbs?"

"I learned that you said you'd kill Sir Herbert Binney yourself, if you were sure you wouldn't be found out."

"What!" Miss Prall turned perfectly white, but whether with rage or fear, Gibbs didn't know. "She said that! The little devil! Just let me get at her, once!"

"Didn't you make that remark?"

"I did not; but she did, and then, I said I would, too. Neither of us meant it, really, but that's what was said. The woman is so clever it makes her doubly dangerous!"

"But it's a queer thing for two ladies to be talking about killing anybody."

"Nonsense! It's done all the time. It doesn't mean they'd really do it—though sometimes I have thought——"

"Aunt Letty!" put in Bates, beseechingly.

"I will speak, Richard! Sometimes I have thought that Adeline Everett would be capable of—of anything! Those sleek, fat, complacent people are the very worst sort! I bluster out frankly, but that oily, deceitful woman,—and that Kate of hers,—well, if you want to know my suspicions,—there they are."

"Then, Miss Prall," Gibbs looked straight at her, "here's the situation. Both you and Mrs Everett expressed a willingness to kill Sir Herbert Binney,—no matter if it was not meant. Both of you may be said to have had a motive; both of you could have found opportunity. And, finally, each of you claims to suspect the other. Now, granting for argument's sake that one of you is guilty, would not the plausible procedure be to pretend to suspect the other?"

"Of course it would," Eliza Gurney declared. "And since Mrs Everett is the guilty party,—I see it all now! She casts suspicion toward Miss Prall! Of course, Mrs Everett didn't do it herself, but that Kate Holland did! She is a fiend incarnate, without heart or soul! She is——"

"There, there, Eliza, you'd better be still," Miss Prall warned her. "If you go on like that, Mr Gibbs will think you're protesting too much!"

As a matter of fact, that's just what Gibbs was thinking, and he looked sharply at Letitia, marveling at her cleverness. If she had been instrumental in the death of Sir Herbert, surely this was just the way she would conduct herself. She was deep as well as clever, and Gibbs began to see light.

He was convinced now that the criminals were of a more subtle type than young girls in their teens could possibly be, and the affair, to his thinking, was narrowed down to the households of these two women who were each other's enemies.

He reasoned that the only way to learn anything from such dissemblers as they all were, was to catch them off their guard, and he greatly desired to get the rival factions together, in order that anger or spite might cause one or other to disclose her secret.

"Perhaps," Gibbs said, "it might be well for us to go to Mrs Everett, or send for her to come here, and so get the testified statement as to these assertions of willingness to kill. I don't think they're customary among the women of your class."

"You doubt my word!" flared up Letitia Prall. "Let me tell you, Mr Gibbs, that I refuse to have it corroborated by that woman! I tell you the truth,—she is incapable of that!"

"That's why I want to give you a chance to refute her, to deny her to her face——"

"Never! I don't want to see her! She shall not enter my door! Her very presence is contaminating! Adeline Everett! She is a slanderer——"

"Wait a moment, Miss Prall. What she has said of you, you have also said of her!"

"But I speak truth; she tells falsehoods. Nobody ever believes a word she says!"

"Of course not!" chimed in Eliza. "Adeline Everett is a whited sepulcher,—a living lie!"

Even more belligerent than the words was the tone and the facial expression of the speaker. Miss Gurney was not a beautiful woman at best, and her rage transformed her into a veritable termagant. Her sparse gray hair fell in wisps about her ears and her head shook in emphasis of her objurgations, while her pale blue eyes blinked with fury as she strove to find words harsh enough.

"Eliza!" and Miss Prall's warning tone was quiet but very stern. "Stop that! You only make matters worse by going on so! If you can't keep still, leave the room."

Eliza sniffed, but ceased her talk for the moment, at least.

"Now, Miss Prall," Gibbs resumed, "it is necessary, in my opinion, to have an interview at which both yourself and Mrs Everett are present. I have a right to ask this, and I offer you the choice of going there, or sending for her to come here."

"I won't do either," snapped Letitia. "I refuse to go to her home, and I certainly shall not let her enter mine."

"But, don't you see that is most damaging to your own side of the story."

"What do I care? Don't think you can frighten me, young man! Letitia Prall is quite able to take care of herself."

"That may be, but you are not able to defy, successfully, the course of the law. If I insist on this interview, I think, Miss Prall, you will be obliged to consent."

"And if I refuse?"

"Then, I am sorry to tell you, your refusal must be set aside, and you will, I am sure, see the advisability of accepting the situation."

"Oh, come, Auntie," said Bates, "you're making a lot of unnecessary trouble. Neither you nor Mrs Everett had any hand in this murder,—the mere idea is ridiculous! and if you have the interview Mr Gibbs wants, it will soon be over and then you will both be freed from suspicion and can go on with your silly 'feud.' That is a foolish thing, but trivial. This other matter is serious. You must get it over with at once,—for all our sakes."

"I won't." And Miss Prall set her lips obstinately.

Gibbs rose abruptly and left the room.

"He's gone for Mrs Everett," said Richard, looking severely at his aunt. "Now, you must be careful, Aunt Letty. If you don't look out, they'll accuse you of the murder, and though you'll disprove it, it will mean a whole lot of trouble for us all."

Letitia Prall adored her nephew, and, too, she saw there was no use of trying to avoid the meeting with Mrs Everett. It was bound to be brought about, sooner or later, by the determined Gibbs, and it might as well be gone through with.

She sat still, thinking what attitude it was best to assume, and she decided on continued silence.

"Eliza," she warned, "don't talk too much. You'll get us in an awful predicament if you're so free with your tongue. First thing you know, you'll tell——"

"Hush, they're coming!" and in a moment Gibbs rang the bell.

Richard admitted him, and with him came both Adeline Everett and the maid, Kate.

"I didn't invite your servant," was Miss Prall's only word of greeting, accompanied by a scathing glance at Kate.

"You didn't invite me," Mrs Everett returned, pertly, "and I shouldn't have come if you had, except that I was commanded to appear by a representative of the law. I don't see, though, why I should be mixed up in your murder case."

"It isn't my murder case any more than it is yours, Adeline Everett," her enemy faced her. "I understand you're suspected of being——"

"Oh, don't, Aunt Letitia," begged Richard, who was always distressed if obliged to be present when the two "got going," as Eliza called it. "Now, please, auntie,—please, Mrs Everett, can't you two forget your private enmity for a few minutes and just settle this big matter? Disarm the suspicions of Mr Gibbs by telling the truth, by stating where you all were at the time of the murder, and so, get yourselves out of all touch with it. Truly, you will be sorry if you don't. You don't realize what it will mean if you have to be mixed up in all sorts of witness stands and things."

"Go ahead, Mr Gibbs," and Miss Prall glared at the detective. "We owe this unpleasant scene to you,—make it as short as possible."

"I will," and Gibbs' sharp eyes darted from one face to another, for this was his harvest time, and though he expected to learn little from the wily women's speech, he hoped for much from their uncontrollable outbursts of anger or their involuntary admissions.

It was a strange gathering. Letitia Prall sat on a straight-backed chair, erect and still; but looking like a leashed tiger, ready to spring.

Beside her, trying hard to keep quiet, was Eliza Gurney, small, pale, and with a distracted face and angry eyes that darted venomous glances at the visitors.

Mrs Everett had chosen for her rÔle an amused superiority, knowing it would irritate Letitia Prall more than any other manner. She smiled and quickly suppressed it, she stared and then dropped her eyes and she would impulsively begin to say something and then discreetly pause.

All this Gibbs took in and Richard, seeing the detective's interest, became alarmed. He felt sure there was something sinister concealed in the minds of some or all of the women present and his heart sank at the possible outcome of things.

It was inconceivable that his aunt was in any way concerned in the murder, yet it was even worse to imagine the mother of Dorcas mixed up in it. Of course, it couldn't be that either of them was really implicated, but he had to recognize the fact that Gibbs was sufficiently convinced of such implication to call this confab.

And it was a confab. The detective did not ask direct questions, but rather brought out voluntary remarks by adroitly suggesting them.

"Now, that paper-knife——" he began, musingly.

"Is what they call a clue," said Mrs Everett. "I know nothing of such things,—I can't bear detective stories, but if a paper-knife was used to kill somebody, I should think the owner of the weapon must be more or less suspected."

"Of course you think that, because you're suspected yourself," said Letitia, coldly; "naturally you think you can cast suspicion toward me, but you can't, Adeline Everett! I gave that paper-cutter to Sir Herbert to get it mended——"

"Oho! Is that the story you've trumped up! Clever, my dear, but too thin. Can't you see, Mr Gibbs, that that is a made-up yarn? She knows Sir Herbert can't deny it, and no one else can. So she thinks she's safe!"

"Well, she isn't," and Kate Holland gave Miss Prall a triumphant glare. "That knife will hang her yet! She not only tried to make up a plausible story about the thing, but she tried to fasten the guilt on me by saying I have surgical skill! Ha, ha,—because I took a nurse's training,—I'm to be suspected of murder! A fine how-do-you-do! Let me tell you, Miss Prall, you overreached yourself! I've been to see Dr Pagett about it, and he says that while the fatal stroke may have been delivered by somebody who knew just where to strike, yet, on the other hand, it might have been the merest ignoramus, who chanced to strike the vital point! So, your ladyship, your scheme to inculpate me falls through!"

Gibbs listened eagerly, gathering the news of Dr Pagett's decision, and learning, too, that this maid of Mrs Everett's was of a far higher mentality than the average servant.

"I scorn to reply," Miss Prall said, looking over the head of the triumphant Kate. "I do not converse with servants."

"Perhaps it would be well to dismiss both my servant and yours," drawled Mrs Everett, maliciously. "Let Kate and Eliza both leave the room."

"I'm no servant!" cried Miss Gurney, bristling; "I'm Miss Prall's companion, quite her equal——"

"And think yourself her superior," interrupted Mrs Everett, with her most annoying chuckle. "Well, Eliza, I look upon you as just as much a servant as my Kate,—more so, indeed, for you can't hold a candle to Kate for intelligence, education or——"

"Or viciousness," Letitia broke in. "Now, Mr Gibbs, I decline to talk to or with either of my unwelcome visitors. If you have to conduct this official inquisition, go on with it, but I refuse to speak except to answer your questions. Eliza, you are not to talk, either."

"Good!" said Gibbs, "just what I want." And he spoke sincerely, for he began to see that he would learn little from the display of rancor and temper that moved them all.

He put definite and straightforward questions, and elicited the information that they were all in their beds and asleep at the hour of the murder. This could not be corroborated from the very nature of things, but he let it pass.

There was fierce disagreement as to which had first declared a willingness to kill Sir Herbert Binney, and which had said she, too, was inclined to the deed, but it was admitted that such hasty and unconsidered declarations had been made.

In fact, the gist of the long and difficult grilling was an apparent determination on the part of each one of the two factions to accuse the other, and a most plausible and complacent assumption of innocence by both.

This seemed a non-committal situation, but Gibbs did not deem it such. He was definitely persuaded as to the guilty party, and his satisfied nods and approving smiles showed Richard Bates plainly which way the detective's opinions leaned.

And the young man was thoroughly frightened. Though, for his part, it would be a difficult matter to make a preference between the belief in the guilt of his aunt or the guilt of the mother of the girl he loved.

And the trend of Gibbs' investigation led surely to one or the other. The use of the paper-cutter that Miss Prall admitted having given into Sir Herbert's keeping gave wide-spread opportunity. Any one desiring to kill the man had a means provided, that is, reasoning that Sir Herbert had the knife with him for the purpose of getting it mended.

Again, that story might be pure fabrication, in which case the suspicion swung back to Miss Prall and Eliza.

It was Gibbs' theory that the unintelligible letters of the dead man's message implied two women and the attempted direction was to get both. This, he argued, meant either Miss Prall and Eliza Grundy or Mrs Everett and her faithful aide, Kate Holland.

It seemed to him that the case narrowed itself down to these women, either pair of which had both motive and opportunity.

The affair between Bates and Dorcas was, of course, known to both guardians, though they tried to disbelieve it, and probably didn't know to what lengths it had already gone. But Mrs Everett knew that Sir Herbert approved the match and doubtless feared that her modern and up-to-date daughter might take the reins in her own hands. Therefore her desire to have Sir Herbert removed was explainable. She felt sure that without his Uncle's insistence on Richard's entering the Bun business, the young man would return to his inventions and so forget Dorcas in his work. At least, that's the nearest Gibbs could come to her motive, though he felt sure there was more to be learned regarding that. Mrs Everett was deep and very plausible of manner. She had, he knew, underlying motives and hidden capabilities that would lead her, with the assistance of the Amazonian Kate, anywhere.

On the other hand, Miss Prall wanted the old man out of the say, so that her nephew would lack his advice and assistance concerning the affair with Dorcas, and the aunt felt that, with Sir Herbert out of it, she could easily persuade Richard to return to the great work in which he was so deeply interested and forget the girl. Moreover, she knew that Mrs Everett, no more desiring the marriage of the young people than she did herself, was planning to move away, and then all would be well.

The motives were not altogether clear, but, Gibbs reasoned, there must be many points that were hidden and would remain so, with these clever women to guard them.

He tactfully tried to draw them out, but with even greater tact they evaded and eluded his questions and contradicted each other and occasionally,—and purposely,—themselves, until the detective began to think the determined masculine mind is no match for the equally determined Eternal Feminine.

Indeed, involuntarily and almost unconsciously, they joined forces against him, and presently found themselves aiding each other, which, when they realized it, made them more angry,—if possible,—than before.

At last Mrs Everett looked at her watch.

"I've an appointment that I'm anxious to keep," she said, drawlingly; "as you don't seem to be getting anywhere, Mr Detective, can you not let me go, and finish up this absorbing discussion with Miss Prall?"

"You're quite mistaken in assuming that I'm not getting anywhere, Mrs Everett," returned the nettled detective, "but you may go if you wish. In fact, I allow it, because I have learned about all there is to learn,—not so insignificant an amount as you imply."

Mrs Everett looked at him sharply and was momentarily disconcerted enough to gasp out:

"Oh, have you a clue?"

"Several," Gibbs returned, carelessly. "Nothing that I care to make known, but I've found out enough to set me on the right track."

Covertly he watched the faces to see how this struck the two principals.

With little result, for Mrs Everett, regaining her poise, merely smiled in an exasperating way, and Miss Prall looked coldly disinterested.

"Wonderful characters," Gibbs commented to himself, for he had never before met women who could so perfectly hide their feelings.

And he was sure that one of them, at least, was hiding her emotion; that one of them was really aghast at the thought of exposure and was trying with all her powers to conceal her dismay.

The maid, Kate, and the companion, Eliza, merely mirrored the other's calm. Eliza, glancing at Miss Prall, took her cue and looked disdainful of the whole affair. Kate Holland curled a scornful lip and nodded her head in Miss Prall's direction.

And yet, if one pair were guilty the other two were innocent. Collusion between the two factions was unthinkable. But Gibbs had made up his mind, and he rose and opened the door.

"If you must keep your appointment, Madame, you are excused. I may say that you are under surveillance, but I have little fear of your trying to get away secretly, and unless you do, you will not be bothered in any way."

"Your surveillance does not interest me," and, with a sublime disregard of all present, Mrs Everett swept out of the room, followed by the large and somewhat ungainly Kate.

"I don't want to discuss this thing," Gibbs began, as he himself prepared to leave,—"but——"

"I don't want to discuss it either," said Bates, and his tone was full of indignation. "There is no room for discussion after this asinine performance of yours! You're not fit to be a detective! You get some ladies together and badger them into all sorts of thoughtless, unmeant admissions and call that testimony! I'm surprised at you, Gibbs. And I tell you frankly what I mean to do. I'm going out,—right now,—to get a detective who can detect! A man who knows the first principles of the business,—which you don't even seem to dream of! I've had enough of your futile questioning, your unfounded suspicions, your absurd deductions! I'm off!"