Ladysmith news-budget. [volume] (Ladysmith, Rusk County, Wis.) 1907-1927, 1920-05-28
CHAPTER VI.
MRS. Pickett Takes a Hand.

gone. Mr.. SnNuc" SAT SMOKING anu
thinking. His meditationS were not
altogether pleasant. Cakes, he felt,
after this would be unbearable rs a
MAJ. and. what was worse from a
professional viewpoint, of greatly d.
inin!shc'. value as a servant of the
agency.
TO a temperament like Cakes, a
spectacular success at such an early
stage IN his career would be diSaS-
trouS.
Cakes as a detective-and, perhaps,
AZ a man, too-Was in the schoolboy
stage. He was being educated. What
ae !nost needed at this point in his
education was a failure which should
keep his self-confidence in check.
That he should have succeeded so
swiftly and brilliantly in this matter
OF the death of Captain Gunner was
nothing less than q disaster.
To Mr.. Snyder, meditating thus,
there was brought the card of caller.
Mrs. Pickett would be glad if he could
spare few moments.
Mr.. Snyder was glad to see Mrs.
Pickett. lie was student of charac-
ter. and She had interested him at
their frs, meeting.
She fell into none of the groups into
which he divided his fellow men and
womeE> There was something about
her which had seemed to him unique.
He welcomed his second chance Of
studying her at close range She
puzzled Mr.. Snyder, and when any one
Or anything puzzled him, he liked to
Faep him, her, or it under observation.
She came in and sat down stiffly,
'slancing herself on the extreme edge
of the chair in which a short while
before young Mr.. Cakes had i0unged
so luXuriously.
Her hands were folded on her lap,
and her eyes had the penetrating stare
which in the early periods of the in
vestigation had disconnected Elliott
Cakes. She gave Mr.. Snyder, an ex-
pert in the difficult art of weighing
people up, a. raordinary impress
sion of reserved force.
"Sit down, Mrs. Pickett" said Mr..
Snyder aenially. every glad you looked
in. W ell, so it wasn't murder, after
ALL"
"Sir?"
'I've just been seeing Mr.. Oakes,"
explained the detective. ale has told
me all about it,
"He oil me all about it," said Mrs.
Picket dryly.
Mr.. Snyder looked at her inquiring-
lv. 1Ier manner seemed more sug-
gestive than her words.
"a conceited, headstrOng young
fool" said Mrs. Pickett.
It was no new picture of his assist
ant that she had drawn. Mr.. Snyder
had often drawn it himself but at
the present juncture it surprised him.
Cakes. in his hour of triumph, surely
did not deserve this sweeping con-
demnatiOn.
did not Mr.. Cakes solution of the
mystery satisfy you, Mrs. Pickett?
mo-
"It struck me as logical and con-
vincing."
"You may call it all the fancy
names you please, Mr. Snyder; but il
was not the right one"
"Have you an alternative to Of
fer?"
eyes" Co.,
~ should like to hear it."
"At the proper time you SHALL"
"What makes you so certain that
Mr.. Cakes is wrong?"
'He takes for granted what isn't
possible, and makes his whole case
stand on it. There couldn't have been
a snake in that room, because il
couldn't have got out. The window
was too high"
"But surely the evidence of the deac
iog?'
Mrs. Pickett looked at him as if he
had disappointed her.
81 had always hear you spoken
of as man with con mon sense, Mr.
Snyder"
ST have always tried to use com
mon sense"
"Then why ere you trying now tt
make yourself believe that something
happened which could not possibly
have happened just because it fits in
with something which isn't easy tC
explain?"
"You mean that there is another
explanation of the dead dog?'