I jumped up and shook him by the hand. “So am I, so am I,” I exclaimed.
“But this is a very queer case,” he continued, “and I shall need all the assistance you can give me, if——”
“You shall have it,” I broke in, enthusiastically; “anything I can do. But tell me, first, how you found out about Miss Derwent’s brother?”
“Not so fast, young man! At present, we know nothing about a brother. I only said that I had discovered in the apartment traces of the recent and prolonged presence of a man, and I may add of a man of some means.”
“How did you find that out? Especially about his means?” I inquired, with a smile.
“Quite easily. In the parlor, which was the first room I entered, I noticed that every piece of furniture had been lately moved from its place. Now, this was too heavy a job for a girl to have undertaken single-handed. Who helped her, I wondered? Her visitor of Tuesday evening might have been the person, but for various reasons I was inclined to doubt it. I thought it more likely to have been the woman whose existence your behaviour had led me to infer. I next examined the dining-room. A few crumbs showed that it had been used, but I could find no traces of her mysterious companion. The library had not even been entered. On the floor above, the front bedroom alone showed signs of recent occupation. Two crumpled sheets were still on the bed, and in the drawers were several articles of woman’s apparel. Returning to the lower floor by the back stairs, I found myself in the kitchen. Here, in the most unexpected place, I discovered an important clue.” Mr. Merritt paused, and looked at me with a gleam of triumph in his eye.
“Yes, yes, and what was that?” I inquired, breathlessly.
“Only the odor, the very faintest ghost of an odor, I may say, of cigar-smoke.”
“In the kitchen?” I exclaimed, incredulously.