"Tracey, I couldn't. My nerve was already shaken when I left the room with the dead in it. I recognised my peril, seeing I knew who she was--the dead woman, I mean. In the darkness of the hall I was waiting when I heard a woman's voice singing 'Kathleen Mavourneen.' I was so shaken that I scarcely knew what to do. All my desire was to get away from that horrible house. I opened the door, and saw the policeman at the gate. I hesitated and then faced him--the rest you know."
Tracey looked at his pointed boots and considered. "What a fool you were not to steal upstairs and see who was singing. You might have found the murderess."
"Murderess!"
"Yes," said Tracey, getting off the couch, "from the fact of the singing I guess it was a woman who killed Mrs. Brand."
"No," said Arnold decidedly; "if a woman had done so, she certainly would not have risked my return."
"Oh, I guess she knew you were scared to death. And perhaps she believed you had cleared out."
"She would have heard the door close."
"Not she. You closed it quietly, I reckon."
"So quietly that Mulligan did not hear."
"There you see." Luther took a turn up and down the room. "See here, I'm going to camp out here and search."