"What is it? Perhaps I can help you. The old adage of two heads, you know—"
"Yes. It still holds good. Well, the question I am trying to solve is why did she say: 'No alimony!'"
"'No alimony'?" repeated the colonel, puzzled.
"Yes. Just that. As you may have guessed, it's a divorce case I have just finished, and so quietly that it hasn't become public property yet. When it does it will create a sensation."
"No alimony, eh? I suppose the lady—there is a lady in it, of course?" questioned the colonel.
"Of course—as is usual in a divorce case. And there's no reason you shouldn't know. It's Mrs. Larch, wife of Langford Larch, the wealthy hotel owner. She has just been granted, on my application before the vice chancellor, a separation from her husband, but she refused to accept alimony, and for the life of me, with all Larch's wealth, I can't see why. That's my problem, Colonel!"
CHAPTER XII
THE ODD COIN
Colonel Ashley fished for a time in silence, broken only by the gentle snores of Shag, farther back in the field, and by the murmur of the water. The old colored man, wrapped in a warm coat, for it was not summer yet, seemed to be enjoying his siesta when, with a suddenness that was startling in that solitude, the military detective uttered a cry of:
"I've got it!"