It is supposed that the man was in the apartment when Mrs. Babbington returned to it with the other woman who accompanied her; that she encountered her maid in the corridor or at the door, and that the three entered together; that the thief, being discovered and probably threatened by the three women who found him there, shot them.
The clerk gives only a partial description of the man who asked for Colonel Grafton—et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
No further details of the tragedy can be given until Mrs. Babbington has recovered sufficiently to relate her own experiences, which doubtless will be the case by the time our evening editions are on the street.
The detective laid the paper aside with a mixture of feelings.
There was one, of course, which was not without amusement, that he should be the one to be charged with the crime, and, when he realized that he had gone there without disguise, he saw that it would be well for him to alter his appearance for a few days, until some investigation could be made into the mystery.
That the unidentified dead woman was Miss Nora McQueen he had not a doubt; but who had done the thing?
Some one opened the door at that moment, and Chick entered the room. His first glance alighted upon the paper that the detective had been engaged in reading, and, with a half smile on his face, he asked:
“Well, what do you think of that, Nick? What do you make out of it?�
“Nothing—as yet. How do you read it, between the lines?â€�
“It’s an odd circumstance, isn’t it? I thought at first that that chap who gave the name of Parsons might have been you.�