“Curtis Keefe!”
“Oh, no! Miss Lane, are you sure?”
“I am. I discovered it from Mr. Appleby’s private papers, since his death.”
“Does Keefe know it?”
“Of course; but he doesn’t know I know it. Now, see here, Mr. Allen, get this. Mr. Appleby knew it when he came down here. He—this is only my own theory, but I’ll bet it’s the right one—he had discovered it lately; Keefe didn’t know it. My theory is, that he came down here to hold that knowledge as a club over the head of Mr. Wheeler to force him to do his, Appleby’s, bidding in the campaign matters. Well, then—he was killed to prevent the information going any farther.”
“Killed by whom?”
Genevieve shrugged her shoulders. “I can’t say. Any one of the three Wheelers might have done it for that reason.”
“No; you’re wrong. Neither Mr. nor Mrs. Wheeler would have. They’d give up the place at once.”
“Your mental reservation speaks for itself! That leaves Maida! Suppose she knew it and the rest didn’t. Suppose, in order to keep the knowledge from her parents——”
“Don’t go on!” he begged. “I see it—maybe it was so. But—what next?”