"Now let us take the members of the household one at a time. Miss Corbin——"
Fuller waved his hand.
"Oh, she's out of it," said he.
"Very well," said Ashton-Kirk, his white teeth showing in a smile. "Then let us take up Nanon. Here we have a severely religious woman—one who evidently detested her employer, but who served him well and had been many years in the family."
"It looks as though we'd have to pass her, too," said Fuller. "There is no reason why she should murder Dr. Morse that I can see."
Again the other smiled.
"In this you agree with the newspapers, at any rate," said he. "None of them have found occasion to associate her with the matter, either."
"I also agree with the papers in the matter of Warwick," said Fuller. "I know that it's best to start without preconceived notions, but I can't help thinking that, if he's not exactly the man, he knows quite a bit about it all."
"That he has unaccountably disappeared is a bad point against him," admitted Ashton-Kirk. "And that some one resembling him was seen stealing away in the night, carrying a hand-bag, is another and most damaging one. However, as you say, it is best not to start with preconceived notions; and until we are sure that the unknown was Warwick, and that the bag he carried was the missing bag, we'd better not accuse him."
There was a pause; the secret agent looked at the stained blood smear for a moment and then continued: