“Yes,” replied the young detective. “That is the truth.”
“Then that is your only clew?” asked the chief.
“Yes.”
“To be sure it is a slight one. Was it a lady’s handkerchief?”
“Yes.”
“Then the victim was a woman?”
“We think so.”
The chief was silent a moment.
“Many a dark crime has been covered up in that same way,” he said. “Nothing obliterates the traces of a crime like fire.”
“That is right,” agreed Old King Brady. “The oddest thing of all is that the house was occupied by people who could have had no possible connection with the crime on account of absence.”