"Where does that door lead to?"

"Mrs. Langmore's dressing room. The door was open when they found
her--as if she had come out and was trying to get downstairs."

"Humph!" The detective pushed the blinds of the window open and began
to examine the carpet on the floor.

"We've looked around, but we couldn't see a thing," pursued the woman.

"We? Who?"

"The coroner and the police officers."

"Oh! You say the body was lying right here?"

"Yes--the head there, and the feet there. I suppose you are going to
try to clear Miss Langmore, aren't you?" went on Mrs. Morse curiously.

"I am--if she is innocent."

"You'll have a task doing it. Everybody around here thinks her guilty."

To this Adam Adams did not reply. He was down on his hands and knees,
close to where the head of the murdered woman had rested. He placed
his nose to the carpet and drew in a long breath. His olfactory nerves
were sensitive, and detected a certain pungent, stinging odor, of a
sort not easily forgotten.

"You must be pretty short-sighted," was the woman's comment. The sight