secret there. Its contents are common property, I should say. It was Mrs. Arnold, the sister-in-law, who dropped me the first hint; and Floyd himself has owned that his uncle made a will three weeks ago, cutting him down to $20,000."

"How did the professor come to postpone his will-making so long?"

"Satisfied, I suppose, with the laws of intestate descent."

"The other heir gets it all?"

"Harry Arnold? No. I believe some goes to charity, the servants and so on. A $10,000,000 cake will cut up into several neat slices, you know." But the thoughts of the district attorney seemed to move habitually on a higher plane.

"Floyd was a sister's son. Perhaps that is why the professor preferred him to his cousin," he said.

"A life-long preference which does not appear in his testament, however."

"But why did he cast him off at the eleventh hour?"

"The boy didn't know enough to groom and currycomb the old gentleman properly. Only 21, you know, and self-willed. That's in the Arnold blood. Besides, he's a socialist or anarchist, I'm told, and keeps company with a photographic retoucher as poor as Job. Something of the sort. Who knows? A straw will turn a man's mind at fourscore."

"And how about Mungovan and the Greeley woman?"

"Accomplices," said McCausland, but added more cautiously, "from present appearances, at least."

There was a knock on the door and the bloodhound again performed the duties of sentinel, receiving his master's praise with such marks of dignified gratification as became his enormous size.

"Miss Wesner," announced the mulatto.

"Presently," answered the inspector. "Well, action or inaction?" he said, presenting an alternative of two fingers to the district attorney.

"I must go over this evidence in detail. Will you send the Swedish girl to my office again to-morrow?"

"I think I can lay my hands on her."

At that very moment, in another part of the city Robert Floyd was walking down to the electric car between a squad of policemen, followed by a motley crowd that profaned the Sabbath with its clamor. Once aboard the swift vehicle, he was safe from pursuit, but his liberty was short-lived. For, as a result of Noah Bigelow's second interview with Bertha and his review of McCausland's reasoning, a warrant was made out and he was arrested Monday noon on the charge of arson and homicide.