'Why not?'
'Well, that' she said. 'Look at my big expensive motive. Besides, we had a fight. With a witness.'
'Are you nuts?' Fred said.
'No. I broke my engagement.' She dared him to wonder why.
'Broke the . . . ?'
'May I say, congratulations?' said MacDougal Duff gendy.
Fred said, without smiling, 'I hope you'll be very happy.'
He marched upstairs without looking back. Alice felt like a child who's been unjustly slapped. She looked around at Mac Duff, whose fine eyes were friendly.
'I've been misunderstood,' he said. 'It's not a re-boxind, is it?'
Her face cleared. 'Oh, no.' Then she said, 'Oh.' Then she blushed. Then she said. 'Yes, but how ... ?'
'My dear, I have the advantage of having been at school with the two of you, but that young man who drives for Mr. Whidock is clever enough . ..'
'I don't know what you're talking about?' said Alice in a fluster.
'Of course not.' Duff was being very placid. 'I do that, you know. Speak in riddles every once in a whUe. It builds me up. Forgive me, Alice. Do you still want to know who tried to murder Innes?'
'Of course I do. Mr. Duff, why did you congratulate me?'
'Because I'm old-fashioned,' said Duff. 'Where are the girls?'
'I don't know.' She moved beside him toward the hall. 'Did you get any dope at the doctor's?'
'Some, about the past.'
'Did it help?'
'It inclines me to wonder,' said Duff evasively. 'Where shall we find them?'
'In their own rooms, I guess.'
'Then let us go to their own rooms. By all means. I want to see them in their lairs. You come along and introduce me. In fact, I want to see their lairs.'
'But who are you?' said Alice. She felt suddenly gay.
'I hadn't thought,' he said. 'Who am I, after all?'
'I haven't the faintest idea. What on earth are you doing here?'
Duff shook his head.
'It won't do,' she said.
'I am an historian.'
Alice was quick. 'Are you interested in old families, by any chance?'
'I dote on them. I'ma friend of yours, too.'
'All right. It'll work on Gertrude.'
'Well, then where does Gertrude hole up?'
Alice giggled. 'She looks as if she lives under a rock,' she whispered. 'In here. There's a door. I dare you to knock.'
'Before we knock,' said MacDougal Duff, 'let us review our objectives. Now let me see. First, we should like to know where Gertrude was last night and what she knows about where her sisters were. Also we are interested in her sleeves.'
'Oh, dear.'
'You try the sleeves. After all, she's supposed to be blind. Item two, is she blind? I think you'd better not be surprised at anything I do. Not out loud, anyway.'
'I'll be careful.'
'But most important, we want to know what Gertrude is. What, from her inside, might impel her to murder? Lines thinks she wants revenge. Fred thinks she wants his money. What does Gertrude want in this world, and how badly?'
'Oh, dear,' said Alice.
'And watch the room. Notice. Look around. She lives there if she lives anjrwhere. It may tell us whether or not she can see, and other' things.
'Look sharp, now,' said Mac Duff, and he knocked on Gertrude's door.
'Come in,' called Gertrude.
Alice opened the door. 'Miss Gertrude, this is Alice Brennan. I've brought Mr. Duff to see you. He's a very old friend of mine, a professor of American History, from New York. Staying with Mrs. Innes,' she wound up breathlessly. 'And he's been so anxious to meet you.'
'How do you do, Mr. Duff,' said Gertrude in her cool soprano. She inclined her head.
