me. She lives on Pierce Street and is keep-
ing house for her brother. She is about
nineteen, redheaded, full of vitality and
very attractive. Look her up; she might help
out your theory—I think I know what it
is.” He smiled wryly.

“Before her, Verona Thompson worked
for me. She is about twenty-five years old;
a rather commonplace woman not particu-
larly good looking. She worked for me from
August a year ago to December. Her pre-
decessor was Vera Holcomb, who was with
me only a short time, and I can’t tell you
where she is now .. . Anything else you’d
like to know, Mr. Macdonald?”

“No, thanks,” Macdonald said. “Not for
the present.”

The reporter got to work on the list
Payne gave him.

Ocie Lee Humphries could tell him noth-
ing. Mabel Bush was as attractive as Payne
had described her; but Macdonald had to
admit to himself that she did not help out
his theory.

The reporter then looked up Verona
Thompson, the woman of whom Payne had
said she was “rather commonplace and not
particularly good looking.”

Macdonald did find her rather common-
place; but decidedly she was better looking
than Payne had led him to believe. She was
shapely, smartly dressed, and had pretty

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eyes. Also she seemed nobody’s fool. With
renewed hope the reporter questioned her.

Bluntly he asked her if she ever went out
to lunch with Payne.

“Often,” she replied quietly.

“Did you ever take automobile trips with
him?”

“Many times. To —.” She named sur-
rounding towns in the Panhandle. Then
she said, “Mr. Macdonald, you are not the
first to question me. Detectives have done
so and the insurance men have asked me
about my relations with Mr. Payne. Yes, I
lunched with him and I went on trips with
him. He talked only of work when we
lunched, and it was only on business trips
that I went in his automobile. I was his
stenographer. I don’t see how that proves
our relations were improper, or that either
of us killed Mrs. Payne.”

Macdonald rose and towered over her.
The veteran investigator was bringing into
play all his accumulated shrewdness in deal-
ing with suspects.

A CONFESSION IS OBTAINED

“Miss Thompson,” he said sternly, “you
don’t know me, but any editor and the police
of half a hundred cities will tell you that
I’m not a novice at my game. I’ve been
working on this case for over a week and
I know more than you've told me. I know
for instance that you’ve been seeing Payne
since you quit working for him, that you’ve
been off on trips with him that have nothing
to do with business, and I know other things.
Take my word for it you are in deeper
trouble than you dream. Now: Do you
want to go behind bars and fight? Or do you
want to help us? I will tell you only one
thing to help you decide. Payne is under
arrest for the murder of his wife!”

He knew none of these things, of course.

For some moments the girl confronted the
reporter’s attack. Then her eyes wavered,
she covered her face with her hands and
dropped into a chair. She began to tremble
and to weep.

“Oh, my God, this is terrible! Do you sup-
pose he really killed her?”

“Our only doubt,” Macdonald said, “is
how free of the murder are you?” At that
she broke down completely and sobbed out

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her confession. She had been seeing Payn,
clandestinely. She loved him. He told he
that he loved her; that he wanted to marry
her, that he would divorce his wife, leay,
his children provided for, then go away
with her and start life all over again.

She had been with him since his wife.
death; and although he told her he hac
nothing to do with the murder, he had sai¢
to her repeatedly and with vehemence:

“ ‘Our lives, yours and mine, depend op
your silence. If it is ever found out that
we love each other and have been together,

oo

I don’t know what will become of us.’ |

She was hysterical by now. Macdonald
calmed her. Later he convinced her that
she had better co-operate with him and the
police.

Macdonald then went to see Gene Howe,
and the two consulted. Macdonald said:

“It’s only a gamble of course, but let’
arrest Payne.”

“Tl say it’s a gamble,’ Howe replied
“He’s a shrewd lawyer, and we can count
on his making the most out of a false arrest.
There will be heavy damages to pay if we
can’t make our bluff good!”

“Tl tell you my scheme, and you can
decide if you want to take the risk,” Mae
donald said.

The scheme was good, but the risks were
so heavy that Gene Howe felt constrained

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