But the conclusion is inevitable that your visit at such a late hour has something to do with Mr.Whitmore's death, so I must ask you to explain your presence." She leaned back in her chair, a look of meek resignation in her face.
"I came to obtain a letter addressed to Mr.Whitmore," she said frankly.
"A letter which you wrote ?" "No." "By whom was it written ?" "My brother--Mr.Ward." Britz tried to guess the hidden significance of the note which had impelled this woman to a midnight visit to Beard's house.

She must have known, just as Britz had ascertained earlier in the day, that Beard was a bachelor, occupying the private dwelling with a lone servant.

Surely she would not have been guilty of so unconventional an act except through desperate necessity.
"That letter--will it throw any light on Mr.Whitmore's death ?" asked Britz eagerly.
"Not the slightest," was her disappointing reply.

"It has absolutely nothing to do with it." "Then you won't mind identifying it if I find it in my search of the premises ?" "Not in the least--that is, on one condition," said she.
"And that condition--what is it ?" "Your promise that the letter will not be made public." It was a condition to which the detective could readily agree.

It was no part of his duty to supply the newspapers with the intimate details associated with every crime.