“We want you to re-enact that accident of yours, Pat,” he said. “You don’t mind, do you?”

“Not at all,” I said brightly. “Whom am I to fall on?”

But they were not amused. Hopper stooped over and asked me if I thought that was the way I had struck the unknown below as I fell. I rather thought it was, although all I could say was that I fell on something alive which grunted and gave way beneath me. They had brought a ladder too, from somewhere outside. I showed them how I had found it in the dark and tried to pull myself up by it; but I had no idea which side of the shaft it was on. All in all I was not a great success. Hopper plainly considered me an idiot, if not a liar. He stood there, eyeing me with distaste.

“I don’t get it,” he said. “One night this fellow comes and is chased away by the dog. A few nights later he comes again, dog or no dog. The first time he apparently didn’t know about the dog at all or he knew him well enough to think he could keep him quiet. The second night he simply took a chance on him. Provided,” he added, eyeing me, “this young lady is telling all she knows.”

I was furious. “Maybe I didn’t fall down that shaft at all,” I said. “If you doubt it you can look at my ankle.”

“Thanks,” he said dryly. “I already have. It’s a very nice one. Do you usually get up at night to let the dog out, Miss Abbott?”

“When he seems to think it necessary.”

“You were not afraid? There had been someone in the house a few nights before, but you went downstairs in the dark just the same.”

“It wasn’t entirely in the dark. The main hall was lighted.”

“So? Why?”

“Mrs. Wainwright—Mrs. Anthony Wainwright—was having a party at the playhouse that night.”

He hadn’t known about the party. He asked at once for a list of the guests, but as it had been an impromptu affair I referred him to Bessie. The last I saw of him—that day at least—he was sitting on the terrace with her, with a glass of Coca-Cola beside him and a pad on his knee.

“Now about this party, Mrs. Wainwright. Did you miss anyone from the playhouse at any time?”

“How could I? They were in and out all evening.”

“Was your husband there?”

“Tony?” She shrugged. “No. If you knew us better, you would know that my husband is seldom where I am.”

“Do you know where he was?”

“I doubt if he was in the elevator shaft, if that’s what you mean. He was as far from me as he could get, but that’s rather stretching a point, isn’t it?”

He finally got the list of her guests from her, and I believe the younger crowd had a bad day or two. One thing he did learn, however. Larry Hamilton had left the party early, at midnight or thereabouts, and as he went out a car had turned into the drive. He had thought it was the Morgans’.