"You, Murray! What has brought you here at this hour of the day?" she
asked in astonishment.

"Two pieces of lead," murmured Quarles.

"A case! Have you got interested in a case, dear? I am glad. What is the
mystery, Murray?"

"Where is the key of my room, Zena?" Quarles asked.

She took it from the drawer in a cabinet.

"I am not going to begin again," said the professor, "but this--this
is an exception. Come with us, Zena. Come and ask some of your absurd
questions. I wonder whether my brain is atrophied. There are cleverer
criminals than there used to be in my time, are there, Wigan? We
shall see."

He led the way to the empty room at the back of the house, muttering to
himself the while, and Zena and I smiled at each other behind his back as
we followed him. He was like an old dog on the trail again, and I did not
believe for a moment this case would be an exception.

"Tell the story, Wigan," he said when we were seated. "All the details,
mind, great and small."

So I went through the facts again.

"I made a careful study of the house and garden," I went on. "The Lodge
is a corner house, the garden is small, and a garage with an opening into