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wish me to open letter written by Shelah Fane. He feared I would learn at once his tale of seance with the lady was false in details, and house of cards would tumble about his ears. Fortunate for him, letter when finally opened was so worded as to add strength to his lie. ‘Please forget what I told you this morning. I must have been mad—mad.’ Then he knew that blow struck in the dark was not needed, after all. Must have wished to give himself a few resounding kicks.” Chan paused. “Yes, Mr. Tarneverro has muddled me with his deceit from very start. Still, I do not believe him guilty of murder.”

“Well, what do you propose to do?” the Chief demanded. “Just sit here and twiddle your thumbs, with me to help you?”

“I am no thumb-twiddler,” replied Chan with spirit. “I propose to act.”

“On what? We have no more clues.”

Charlie took the diamond pin from his pocket. “We have this.” He handed it over. “Will you kindly oblige by making study of same?”

The Chief examined it. “The pin itself is broken in the middle, isn’t it? Half of it seems to be gone.”

Chan nodded. “Undubitably gone. And when we find that missing end, our case is solved.”

The Chief looked puzzled. “What do you mean?”

“How was pin broken? When watch was smashed, murderer wished to provide further evidence of struggle that might make smashing of watch more probable. So he tore off orchid flowers and trampled them beneath foot. When he ripped off flowers, pin unfastened and came with them. No doubt it lay on floor, point uppermost. Perhaps that point drove deep into heel of