"
"There are quite too many women in this affair," Harleston commented.
"However, the Burlingame is almost directly across the street from where
I found the cab, so her story will be interesting--if it's not a plant."
"And it may be even more interesting if it is a plant," Ranleigh added.
"If you will come in a bit before three, I'll put you where you can see
and hear everything that takes place."
"I'll do it!" said Harleston.
VI
THE GREY-STONE HOUSE
Harleston returned at a quarter to three, and Ranleigh showed him into
the small room at the rear, provided with every facility for seeing what
went on and overhearing and reducing what was said in the
Superintendent's private office.
Promptly at three, Mrs. Winton was announced by appointment, and was
instantly admitted.
She was about thirty years of age, slender, with dark hair and a face
just missing beauty. She was gowned in black, with a bunch of violets at
her waist, and she wore a large mesh veil, through which her
particularly fine dark eyes sparkled discriminatingly.
The Superintendent arose and bowed graciously. Ranleigh was a gentleman
by birth and by breeding.
"What can I do for you, Mrs. Winton?" he asked, placing a chair for
her--where her face would be in full view from the cabinet.
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