all present watched Coroner Scofield’s movements.
It was true, the quietly reposeful attitude of the still figure leaning back against the brocaded upholstery, and so evidently looking in the great gold-framed mirror, was that of one admiring or criticising her own appearance. Added to this, the fact of her bizarre costume and strange adornments, it seemed certain that Miss Carrington had come to her death while innocently happy in the feminine employment of dressing up in the elaborate finery that she loved.
But the snake!
Carefully Coroner Scofield removed the inexplicable thing. He held it up that all might see. A Japanese paper snake, a cheap toy, such as is found together with fans and lanterns in the Oriental department of large shops.
“Could this have been placed round her neck after death?” Scofield inquired of the doctors.
The two physicians agreed, that though that was possible, yet the appearance of the flesh beneath it seemed to indicate its having encircled the throat during life.
“Never!” cried Pauline, excitedly. “Aunt Lucy couldn’t have sat there and smiled, with a snake anywhere near her!”
“That would seem so,” and Dr. Stanton nodded his head. “I well know of my late patient’s aversion to snakes. It amounted almost to a mania! It is not an uncommon one, many women feel the same, though seldom to so great an extent.”
“That deepens the mystery,” said Coroner Scofield; “unless, indeed, the snake was put on after the crime. But that is even more mysterious. I shall now remove these valuable jewels, and give them to – ”
He looked inquiringly at Haviland and Pauline, and the latter immediately responded: “Give them to me, Mr. Scofield. I am now mistress here.”
Haviland said nothing, but he looked at Pauline as if in disapproval.
“Is this of great worth?” inquired Scofield, as he carefully removed the scarf from the shoulders it surrounded.
“Only moderately so,” returned Pauline. “It is a Syrian scarf and was sent to her by her nephew who lives in Egypt. It is not new, he sent several to us about a year ago.”
She took the long, heavy, white and silver drapery, and laid it in a nearby wardrobe. Then the Coroner unfastened the large pearls from their place as eardrops, and taking up one lifeless hand removed its rings. All these he handed to Pauline without a word.
“What is this?” he exclaimed suddenly; and opening the curled-up fingers of the other hand he drew forth a crumpled gray object. It was a glove, of soft suéde, and so tightly had it been held that it was deeply creased.
“A man’s glove!” said the Coroner, smoothing it out. “Will the wonders of this case never cease?”
He scrutinized it, but remarking only that it was of medium size and superior quality, he laid it carefully aside for the time.
From the same arm he removed the scarab bracelet, also handing that to Pauline.
“The lady was fond of Oriental jewelry,” he observed.
“Yes,” returned Haviland, before Pauline could speak. “Her nephew sent or brought home much of it. But, as we informed you, Miss Carrington was also wearing pearls and diamonds of enormous value, compared to which these trinkets are as nothing.”
“But scarabs, I am told, are of great price.”
“Some are,” returned Haviland. “That bracelet, however, is not genuine, nor of great value.”
Then the Coroner, with delicate touch, removed the bits of broken tortoise-shell from the puffs of hair, and carefully laid them together on a small silver tray he appropriated from the dressing-table litter.
“I think,” said Inspector Brunt, in his grave, slow way, “that it will be wise to photograph the whole picture from several points of view before the autopsy is performed.”
Arrangements had been made for this, and Detective Hardy, a young man from Headquarters, stepped forward with his camera.
As those who were asked to left the room, Pauline and Gray went out together, and met Anita just outside in the hall.
“Oh, tell me, Gray! Who did it? What does it all mean?” she cried, and grasped him by the arm.
“Tell her about it, Gray,” said Pauline, and leaving the two together, she went swiftly along the hall to her own room.
The alert eyes of the guarding policemen followed her, but also they followed the movements of every one else, and if they had, as yet, any suspicions, no one knew of them.
Meantime, the gruesome work of photography went on.
Surely never was such a strange subject for the camera! Denuded of her jewels, but still robed in her gorgeous dressing-gown, and still leaning back in her luxurious arm-chair, with that strange smile of happy expectancy, Miss Lucy Carrington presented the same air of regal authority she had always worn in life. Her eyes were widely staring, but there was no trace or hint of fear in her peaceful attitude of repose.
“There’s no solution!” said Inspector Brunt, deeply thoughtful. “No one could or would crack a skull like that, but an experienced and professional burglar and housebreaker. And such a one could have but one motive, robbery, and the jewels were not stolen!”
“Inside job,” observed Scofield, briefly, his eyes on his work.
“Maybe the burglar was frightened away at the critical moment.”
“No. Whatever frightened him would be known to some member of the family.”
“Maybe it is.”
“Hey? Have you a theory?” and the Coroner looked up suddenly.
“Anything but! There’s no possible theory that will fit the facts.”
“Except the truth.”
“Yes, except the truth. But it will be long before we find that, I’m afraid. It strikes me it’s at the bottom of an unusually deep well.”
“Well, you’d better find it. It’d be a nice how d’y’ do for you to fall down on this case!”
“There’s no falling down been done yet. And it may well be that the very fact of there being such strange and irreconcilable conditions shall prove a help rather than a hindrance.”
And then, all being in readiness, the lifeless form of Miss Carrington, once the proud domineering autocrat, now laid low, was borne to a distant room, for the autopsy that might cast a further light on the mystery of her tragic death.
V
A MAN’S GLOVE
Inspector Brunt and the young detective, Hardy, were interviewing the members of the household in the library, and the task was not an easy one. The two girls were distinctly at odds, and Gray Haviland, whether authoritatively or not, persisted in assuming a major rôle.
“It seems to me,” Haviland said, “that it is the most remarkable mystery that has ever occurred in the experience of you police people. Now, I think the wisest plan is to call in a big detective, – no offence, Mr. Hardy, – but I mean a noted fellow, like Stone, say, and let him get at the root of the crime.”
“I think, Gray,” and Pauline looked very haughty, “that any such suggestion would come better from me. I am now mistress of the place, and it is for me to say what we shall do.”
“I know it,” and Haviland looked no whit abashed, “but you know Carr Loria is equally in authority, even if he isn’t here, and you see – ”
“I don’t see that Carr’s absence gives you any authority!”
“But it does, in a way. As Miss Lucy’s man of affairs, I ought to look out for the interests of her heirs, at least, for the absent one. I’m sure Loria would want to do everything possible to find the murderer.”
“Has