"Good talk, Julie, but does it mean anything!" asked her father, giving her a look of gentle sadness.
"I'll make it mean something! That thick-witted detective doesn't know a thing! Now, I don't believe in the hypnotism theory——"
"Why, Julie," said her mother, "I've heard you say you believed in hypnotism!"
"Oh, yes, I do, but I mean not in this case. Nobody hypnotized McClellan to kill Gilbert. I'm sure of that, and I wish you wouldn't repeat it, Mac. People will only laugh at you."
"Well, what are you going to do, my child?" asked her father.
"Oh, I don't know! I'm desperate,— I will find out something!"
"Of course you will, Julie, for I'll help you."
It was Thorpe who spoke, and he seemed to have suddenly acquired a new energy.
"I'm going to turn detective myself," he went on. "We'll work together, Julie, and,— Mr. Crane, if we succeed,— I mean succeed in freeing myself from suspicion——"
"And finding the real criminal," put in Crane with a very serious face.