Carolyn Wells

“ Is it Bob Moore, Molly."
"Yes, ma'am," said the girl, in a low tone, and with a very apparent look of relief.
"Then it isn't," said Zizi triumphantly; "I know by the way you speak! Who is it?"
"It isn't anybody," Molly said, but she said it with a furtive glance at their faces in turn; with a hesitating air of uncertainty as to what course to take; with a futile attempt at her old impudent manner. "I'm not really married; lots of us girls wear a wedding ring to fool people." ”

“ Moore said he was in a quandary. Full of detective interest, he longed to work on the case, and felt sure he could be of use to the police, but the attitude of Julie deterred him.
"You see, she's my girl," he said frankly to Corson. "And she does act queer! I don't understand her, but I can't dig into this thing and maybe run up against something she doesn't want me to!"
"You have faith in her own innocence, then?"
"Oh, yes,—that is, she wouldn't kill a man! And yet,—who can say that? In a fit of anger a woman would do anything,—more especially, if she wasn't alone." ”

“ Wise began, trying to sound formal and awe-inspiring. "Have you, Mrs Everett, any grounds for such accusation other than a foolish speech about wishing the man was dead?"
"No," was the sulky answer; "that is, I have no definite grounds, but I've known Letitia Prall for many years and I know her to be quite capable of murder or any other crime!"
"A belief in capability is not evidence," said Wise, sternly, and turned to Letitia. ”

“ Miss Prall almost shrieked the words. "He is not and never will be. The death of his uncle, deplorable as are the circumstances, leaves Mr Bates free to pursue his occupation with all his time and attention. He will not think of other matters for a year at least, and then the lady in the case will not be Miss Everett!"
The Grenadier sat stiffly upright, and her black beady eyes, darted from her nephew's face to that of the detective as if challenging contradiction from either of them. ”

“ You know perfectly well, Adeline, that saying I wish a person dead, is merely a habit of mine,—as you say 'I nearly died when I heard it!' Now, you didn't nearly die at all, and death is not so trivial as we seem to think it, when we talk so at random. Lots of people, especially women, throw around phrases such as, 'I thought I'd die,' or 'I could kill you for that,' without any real meaning to the words at all. So, once and for all, Adeline Everett, stop using those silly phrases as evidence of my criminal tendencies! ”

“ But she was not to be caught. "My theory is," she smiled, "that as Goethe says, 'We are all capable of crime, even the best of us.' I truly think that most human beings could commit crime, given sufficient motive and opportunity."
"All very fine in theory," said Gibbs, smiling, "but are you willing to assert that Miss Prall or—or yourself, would be capable of the murder of Sir Herbert Binney, if you had a perfect opportunity and if you considered your motive strong enough?" ”

“ Why do you touch him before the police arrive?"
"Good Lord, how you startled me!" exclaimed Doctor Pagett, who in his absorption had not heard her approach. "I have a perfect right to examine the body, ma'am," he went on indignantly. "Do you suppose I don't know my business?"
"I've always heard no one must touch a murdered man until——"
"Then how are we to know it is a murder?" he countered, looking at her keenly. "Will you read that paper, Miss Prall? Don't touch it!"
"Women did this," she read, aloud. ”

“ Because you know Miss Prall only as a tenant of this house. You know nothing of what she may be capable of when her spirit is fired. And as far as I'm concerned, it's far easier to believe that she did it, than that it was the work of some foolish little girls scarcely out of their teens! Miss Prall is not only a strong-minded woman, and a strong-muscled woman, but she has a strong personality with practically illimitable powers of loving and hating. For her the sun rises and sets in young Bates, and in the other direction she is all wrapped up in her hatred of Mrs Everett. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Buns,—Binney's Buns! for her gifted inventive genius!
This impending disaster together with a new and regrettable development affecting the Feud had thrown Miss Prall into a state of nervous agitation quite foreign to her usual condition of calm superiority.
"Masculine management and skill!" she repeated, with a fine scorn; "because not every woman is fitted by nature and circumstances to conduct affairs of importance it does not follow that there are not some feminine spirits with all the force and power of the other sex!" ”

“ Zizi cried. "Why 'women,' then?"
"Now, look here, Ziz," and Wise replaced the mirror, "get it in your head that women may have been interested in getting this recipe. To suppose a woman may have been acting for a man, while possible, is not probable."
"Why not? Suppose a woman, say a working girl, so devoted to a man that she'd commit murder at his bidding——"
"No man could be such a coward as that!"
"Oh, Penny, what an exalted opinion you have of your sex! Of course he could! A man who would murder would use a woman to help him murder. ”

“ Get out, Eliza!" as Miss Gurney reappeared at the door. "I told you to get out! Now, stay out! Get away from me, Richard; you can't help any by trying to fawn around me! You don't know what you've done,—I grant you that! You don't know—you can't know,—how you've crucified me!"
Springing up from her chair, Miss Prall darted from the room, and out into the hall. Down one flight of stairs she ran, and furiously pealed the bell of Mrs Everett's apartment on the floor below. ”

“ 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! ”

“ But Sir Herbert was as obstinate as his nephew and Miss Letitia Prall more so than either of them.
Her unflinching and persistent adherence to her decisions was clearly shown in the matter of the long continued feud. Not every woman could meet an opponent frequently and casually for twenty years or so, and pursue an even tenor of enmity.
In the same social circles, Miss Prall and Mrs Everett attended the same teas, luncheons and bridge parties, yet never deviated one jot or one tittle from their original inimical attitude. ”

“ The elevator had stopped at the tenth floor, and Vail had left the car, but he stood waiting till the enthusiastic Moore should pause.
"Oh, well, go on,—what were you saying?"
"Only this, sir. To me, a good detective story is not the one that keeps you guessing,—nor the one that keeps you in fearful suspense as to the outcome, but the one that gives you a chance to solve the riddle yourself. The one that puts all the cards on the table, and gives you a chance at it." ”

“ Mrs Macey was a shrewd, capable woman, or she would not have been housekeeper at The Campanile. She looked in cold disdain at the glowing little face of the girl who unceremoniously invaded her room, and stared with increasing interest as the visitor talked.
"You see," Zizi said, nodding her correctly hatted little head, "I've just simply got to be taken in somewhere in the house, and it might as well be here. I'm too young to have an apartment by myself, and I'll promise you won't regret any 'small kindnesses' you may show me. ”

“ The angular, spare figure of the spinster, upright in a straight-backed chair, was not of a demeanor to put a man at ease, but Corson showed no uneasiness, and almost lolled in his seat as he cast a slow glance at her.
"Naturally," he began, "what I want to know is, and what I propose to find out is, who killed Sir Herbert Binney. And what I want to know here is, anything any of you can tell me that will throw any light, side light, or full glare, on the question."
"We don't know anything that is illuminating in any way," Miss Prall informed him. ”

“ 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 shall never marry you without the consent of my mother and your aunt, and you know it!"
"I do know it, Dork, and that's what breaks me all up. Confound that old Feud! But, I say, Uncle Binney is on our side. I sounded him and he approves of my marrying at once,—doesn't care who the girl is,—and will make me his heir and all that,——"
"If you give up your inventing and go into his Bunny business."
"Yes; that's his game. Shall I do it?"
"No! A thousand times no. I don't want to marry a bakery!"
"And anyway, it wouldn't help the Feud——"
"No; nothing will help that. ”

“ You know to liken one woman to another in appearance doesn't necessarily accuse her of murder."
"No, that's true. Well, the woman I saw could be said to be like Kate Holland or Miss Prall either, in general outline, which is all I could discern of face or figure. But I can't see what either of those women would be doing prowling about the halls at two A. M."
"Unless it was in connection with the murder," Zizi said, straightforwardly. "They all have declared they were in bed and asleep but who's to witness that?"
"In the very nature of things, nobody," Vail said. ”

“ Mrs Everett was honestly blank.
"Between Richard and Dorcas."
"Why, he doesn't know Dorcas."
"He has seen her, and anyway, he'd approve of any nice girl that Rick cared for. You see, Sir Herbert wanted the boy to marry and settle down and become the American branch of Binney's Buns."
"My daughter the wife of a baker! No, thank you! You know me, Letitia Prall, well enough to know my ambitions for Dorcas. She shall marry the man I choose for her,—and he will not be a baker! Nor," and her face was drawn with sudden anger, "nor will he be Richard Bates!" ”

“ I don't care whether it's wise or not. You make me disgusted with detective work! Why do you go around sneaking up on any woman you can hear of? Why don't you go about it from the other side? Find a motive for the murder and then find the criminal who had the motive! Don't suspect this one because she studied nursing and that one because the old gentleman kissed her! It isn't a unique case, my uncle's fancy for chorus girls,—but it by no means indicates the result of murder! Get the weapon, then find its owner. Get a clue,—a real, material clue, and then trace the criminal. ”

“ Zizi looked up at this, and said, "You could fool a man, Miss Prall, but you couldn't fool me."
"Why not, child?" and the older lady looked at her curiously.
"Because one woman understands another. And I know that if you planned to or wanted to kill a man, you would choose to do it in some less conspicuous place than the onyx lobby."
"Nonsense, Zizi," Wise said, "no one would choose their own apartment——"
"No; but Miss Prall would have waited for a chance on some of these upper floors,—she never would have arranged the scene downstairs." ”

“ Zizi began.
"All the house girls?" asked Vail, quickly.
"I'm not sure about that, but I mean the elevator girls, the telephone girls, the news-stand girls and the pages. I don't know anything about the upstairs maids, chambermaids, cleaners, and such. But there's been no suggestion of those."
"Why should there be?" said Bates, impatiently. "I know myself, no stupid little servant killed my uncle. It was done by some one with brains, with power, with influence. He was not a man to be killed for some petty reason; he was a man of big interests in a business way, and of wide experience socially. ”

“ Mrs Everett began to say, "Oh, no, my child," but before she could protest Dorcas and Zizi had left the room.
"You see," Zizi began to the other girl as they went to Zizi's room, "Molly is crooked."
"Lame?"
"No," and Zizi smiled at such ignorance of crime slang. "No, that means she isn't honest or, rather, honorable. She makes up yarns to suit herself, and often to suit some one else who pays well for being suited. Now, we'll get her in here and quiz her, and you say little or nothing at first, until we see what's doing." ”

“ Who told you I was the heir?"
"Everybody knows it,—it's in all the papers."
"I haven't looked at a paper! Lord, I don't think I can!"
"Better not; they're not pretty reading."
"What do you mean? Any aspersions against my uncle's character?"
"No, not that. But when the word women occurs in connection with the murder of a rich and influential man, there's bound to be surmise,—at least."
"Oh, I suppose so. Well, do you want me down here? I'd like to go up to see my aunt."
"Wait a minute. Have you ever thought, Mr Bates, that the feud between your aunt and Mrs Everett is a mighty queer affair?" ”

“ Zizi faced her squarely and with a sharp look said, "You know, Mrs Everett, you're making a very grave accusation. Do you really think Miss Prall is——"
"Yes, I do! That man was killed. He said women did it. There are no women sufficiently interested in his death to be suspected of it except Letitia and Eliza Gurney. So, much as I hate to think so dreadfully of any woman, I've no choice but to suspect them. ”

“ If you're innocent it can do you no harm, and if the one you tell us of is innocent it can do her no harm."
"But it may stir up suspicion quite wrongly," objected the girl.
"Then the suspicion will fall to the ground. Don't be afraid; you are only helping justice along. If it's a real help you must give it, and if not, it won't be followed up."
But Richard Bates looked grave.
"Oh, I don't know, Gibbs," he said; "somebody must have started this trend toward my aunt, and it's made me pretty miserable already. Now, need we take up a new trail with only a sort of surmise on this girl's part. ”

“ Granting some women wanted to kill that man, or had determined to kill him,—or even, killed him on a sudden irresistible impulse, what more conducive to an opportunity than this house late at night? The great lobby, guarded, as it is at that hour, by only one man and he often up in the ascending elevator car. You see, the women could easily have been in hiding in that onyx lobby. ”

“ Richard silenced her with a look.
"Julie," he said, sternly, "don't you dare mention one word of Kate Holland in connection with this matter! If you do, I'll tell both Moore and the house management of your Chinatown trip."
"That's right," agreed Gibbs. "You're not to mix into this thing in any way, Julie. You run along now, and remember, it's just as Mr Bates said; if you breathe a word of anything you've heard or said in here with us, we'll show you up good and plenty, and we may do a little exaggerating, too! Is it a bargain?" ”