ask as a personal favor that the scandal be avoided. Brencherly, tell
what happened."

The detective looked up. "There was an old story--our office had had
it--that Mahr was a bigamist. In searching for a motive for the crime, I
hit on that. I had all our data on the subject sent up to me. I found
that our informant stated that Mahr had a wife in an asylum somewhere.
That gave me a suspicion. I found from headquarters that there were two
escapes reported, and one was a woman. She had broken out of a private
institution in Ottawa. I got word from there that her bills had been
paid by a lawyer here--Twickenbaur. I already knew that he was Mr.
Mahr's confidential lawyer. But all this I looked up later, after I'd
found the woman. You see, Mr. Gard is employing me on another matter,
and after he returned from Washington, I gave my report to him here.

"Then I went over to Mahr's house. I had a curiosity to go over the
ground. It was quite late at night, and I was standing in the dark,
looking over the location of the windows, when I saw a woman acting
strangely. She was threatening and talking loudly, crying out that she
had a right to kill him. I sneaked up behind just in time to stop her
attack on another woman who was seated on the same bench, and who seemed
too ill to defend herself. Well, sir, I had to give her three hypos
before I could take her along. Then I got her to my rooms, and when she
came around, she told me the story. Of course, sir, you mustn't expect
any coherent narrative, though she is circumstantial enough. Then I
brought over the butler, and he identified her at once. Mr. Gard advised
me not to notify the police until he had seen you. We got the doctor
from the asylum here as quickly as possible. He's with her in there
now."