as she had said something about doing so earlier in the morning. Mr.
Langmore had gone to the bank in town at nine o'clock and Margaret saw
him come home about half-past ten or eleven."

"What was she doing at the time?"

"Practicing on the piano. She heard her father go directly to his
library, which is situated across the hallway from the parlor. She
heard the door shut, and then went on with her practicing."

"Did she hear anything in the library?"

"She thinks she heard something, but is not sure. She was practicing a
very difficult piece by Wagner--"

"And it was loud enough to drown out every other sound."

"That's it. When the clock struck twelve she stopped practicing to
learn if lunch was ready. She also wanted to speak to her father, and
so crossed the hallway and opened the library door." The young man's
voice began to tremble a little. "She found her father stretched
lifeless in an armchair."

"How had he been killed?"

"That is a part of the mystery. He was either choked or smothered to
death, or else he was poisoned. The doctors don't seem to be able to
get at the bottom of it."

For the first time since Raymond Case had begun his recital Adam Adams