"Anything but! There's no possible theory that will fit the facts." 

"Except the truth." 

"Yes, except the truth. But it will be long before we find that, I'm afraid. It strikes me it's at the bottom of an unusually deep well." 

"Well, you'd better find it. It'd be a nice how d'y' do for you to fall down on this case!" 

"There's no falling down been done yet. And it may well be that the very fact of there being such strange and irreconcilable conditions shall prove a help rather than a hindrance." 

And then, all being in readiness, the lifeless form of Miss Carrington, once the proud domineering autocrat, now laid low, was borne to a distant room, for the autopsy that might cast a further light on the mystery of her tragic death.

A MAN'S GLOVE 

Inspector Brunt and the young detective, Hardy, were interviewing the members of the household in the library, and the task was not an easy one. The two girls were distinctly at odds, and Gray Haviland, whether authoritatively or not, persisted in assuming a major rôle. 

"It seems to me," Haviland said, "that it is the most remarkable mystery that has ever occurred in the experience of you police people. Now, I think the wisest plan is to call in a big detective,--no offence, Mr. Hardy,--but I mean a noted fellow, like Stone, say, and let him get at the root of the crime." 

"I think, Gray," and Pauline looked very haughty, "that any such suggestion would come better from me. I am now mistress of the place, and it is for me to say what we shall do." 

"I know it," and Haviland looked no whit abashed, "but you know Carr Loria is equally in authority, even if he isn't here, and you see----" 

"I don't see that Carr's absence gives you any authority!" 

"But it does, in a way. As Miss Lucy's man of affairs, I ought to look out for the interests of her heirs, at least, for the absent one. I'm sure Loria would want to do everything possible to find the murderer." 

"Has this nephew been notified yet?" asked Inspector Brunt. 

"Yes," returned Pauline; "we've telephoned a cablegram to the city to be sent to him in Egypt. But I don't know when he will get it, nor when we'll get a response." 

"Where 

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