"Why is that?" demanded Jennings, puzzled.

"Before I answer and make a clean breast of it, I should like
you to promise that you will get no one I know into trouble."

Jennings hesitated. "That is a difficult matter. Of course,
if I find the assassin, even if he or she is one of your
friends, I must do my duty."

"Oh, I don't expect anything of that sort," said Mallow
easily, "but why do you say 'he' or 'she'?"

"Well, the person who killed Miss Loach might be a woman."

"I don't see how you make that out," said Cuthbert
reflectively. "I read the case coming up in the train to-day,
and it seems to me from what The Planet says that the whole
thing is a mystery."

"One which I mean to dive into and discover," replied Miles.
"I do not care for an ordinary murder case, but this is one
after my own heart. It is a criminal problem which I should
like to work out."

"Do you see your way as yet?" asked Cuthbert.

"No," confessed Jennings, "I do not. I saw the report you
speak of. The writer theorizes without having facts to go on.
What he says about the bell is absurd. All the same, the bell