part. And now we find this note from him, which at least is
friendly in tone--"

I shrugged my shoulders. It was the same blind alley in which my
thoughts had strayed upon the train on our way out.

"It's too early to begin to try to fasten the guilt upon anyone,"
Kennedy added, as we returned to the library through the living
room. Then he turned to Mackay. "Have you succeeded in gleaning
any facts about the life of Miss Lamar?" he asked. "Anything
which might point to a motive, so that I can approach the case
from both directions?"

"If you ask me," the little district attorney rejoined, "it's a
matter of tangled motives throughout. I--I had no sword to cut
the Gordian knot and so"--graciously--"I sent for you."

"What do you mean by tangled motives?" Kennedy ignored the
other's compliment.

"Well!" Mackay indicated me. "Mr. Jameson explained about her
divorce. No one heard whom she named as corespondent. That's an
unknown woman in the case, although it may not mean anything at
all. Then there's Lloyd Manton and all the talk about his affair
with Miss Lamar. Some one told one of my men that Manton's wife
has left him on that account."

"Did you question Manton?"

"No, I thought I ought to leave all that to you. I was afraid I