Somers? Did the caterer's people do it? What an awful thing! Will it
be in the papers?"

"_Will_ it!" said Garrison, who was standing near. "Reporters may be
here any minute. Must be here as soon as the police come. Where is
Miss Van Allen?"

"I don't know," and Ariadne began to cry.

"Stop that," said Mrs. Reeves, gruffly, but not unkindly. "Stay if you
want to, Ariadne, but behave like a sensible woman, not a silly
schoolgirl. This is an awful tragedy, of some sort."

"What do you mean, of some sort?" asked Miss Gale.

"I mean we don't know what revelations are yet to come. Where's Norman
Steele? Where's the man who brought this Somers here?"

Sure enough, where was Steele? I had forgotten all about him. And it
was he who had introduced Somers to the Van Allen house, and no one
else present, so far as I knew, was previously acquainted with the man
now lying dead the other side of that closed door.

I looked over the people who had stayed. Only a handful--perhaps half
a dozen.

And then I wondered if I'd better go home myself. Not for my own sake,
in any way; indeed, I preferred to remain, but I thought of Aunt Lucy
and Win. Ought I to bring on them any shadow of trouble or opprobrium
that might result from my presence in that house at that time? Would