Mrs. Lock shuddered.
Just then a knock came to the door. The servant announced that Miss Ida had returned and wished to report.
“Admit her,” was Nick’s command.
CHAPTER X.
CHICK SUPPLIES THE FINAL PROOF.
Ida was introduced to Mrs. Lock, and then she proceeded to make her report.
She had visited the dead girl’s boarding-place in Harlem, where she learned that Estelle was in the habit of spending the night elsewhere, occasionally at the house of an aunt somewhere in the suburbs, it was understood.
She had gone away the night previous to remain with this aunt, but returned unexpectedly quite late. She told her room-mate that her aunt was not at home.
For the first time Miss Langdon had a pistol in her possession with her initials, “E. L.,” engraved on the handle.
Her room-mate said Estelle explained that she bought the pistol to shoot cats, which annoyed them, at nights, from the back yards.
To prove her sincerity, she had gotten up in the night, and fired a shot at a serenading feline.[{59}]