"You wouldn't know it if my attendance here were needed to prove it,"
said the colonel with a smile. "I don't get here very often, but I had
to run up on some business, and I found this the most convenient
stopping place."

"Are you going back to Lakeside?"

"Oh, yes!" There was prompt decision in the answer.

"Then you haven't finished that unfortunate affair? You haven't found
out what caused the death of Mr. Carwell?"

"Oh, yes, I know what killed him."

"But not who?"]

"Not yet."

"Do you hold to the suicide theory?"

"I don't hold to anything, my dear Mr. Garrigan," answered the colonel,
who was in a sufficiently mellow mood to be amused by the rather vapid
talk of his host - for such he had constituted himself on the ordering
of the drinks and cigars. "That is I haven't such a hold on any theory
that I can't let go and take a new one if occasion warrants it."

"I see. And so you came up to get away from the rather gruesome
atmosphere down there?"