"I'm going to take advantage of the hint you just gave me."
"And go to the Kingdon house?"
"Yes. I believe Miss Lawrence is there, myself. I thought so last night when I came to it after following that path through the grove."
"So you'd discovered it, too! Well, I wish you luck. Of course, we may be all wrong. I don't believe there are any other pointers I can give you," he added, "or I'd be glad to. I suppose you saw Mrs. Lawrence?"
"Oh yes."
"How was she affected?"
"Not so deeply as you'd expect," I said.
He gazed at me with narrowed eyes.
"Has it occurred to you, Lester," he said, at last, "that Miss Lawrence may not have gone away of her own accord at all; that there may be a plot against her; that she was forced to go, or perhaps even shut up in some room in the Lawrence house?"
"Yes; I'd thought of it. I even put it to Mrs. Lawrence."