Mrs.Octagon was connected with the late Emilia Saul by a crime, if what Caranby surmised was correct, and her daughter was forbidden to marry Mallow, who was the nephew of the man who had been the lover both of Miss Loach and Emilia Saul.

Hale and Clancy were playing some game with Basil Saxon, who was the son of Mrs.Octagon, and he was associated with Maraquito.

Thus it would seem that all these people were connected in various ways with the dead woman.

But the questions were: Had one of them struck the fatal blow, and if so, who had been daring enough to do so?
"Again," murmured Jennings, "who touched that bell?
Not the assassin, who would scarcely have been fool enough to call anyone to examine his work before he had time to escape.

Certainly it may have been a woman! Yes! I believe a man killed Miss Loach, for some reason I have yet to learn, and a woman, out of jealousy, wishing to get him into the grip of the law, touched the bell so that witnesses might appear before the assassin could escape.