“Did you, Jimmie?”

“No, I didn’t,” he chuckled. “She was there, for I saw her come out after the show. She appeared quite calm and perfectly at ease, and I fancy she was, too. I have no doubt that she did some important telephoning as soon as I’d left her in the afternoon.”

“And where have you been until this hour?”

“Out scouting in the neighborhood of Miss Kane’s home, which is in Elmhurst and a jolly long way from here.”

“Looking for Vanderdonck? You think she has been concealing him?”

“Well, yes, I do. I think she is still concealing him. Anyway, I didn’t find him. Of course, he may not be there.”

“You think that this Vanderdonck murdered Merritt, don’t you, Lavender?”

“My dear fellow, no. There’s no murder in this case, not yet, anyway. It’s plain comedy from beginning to end. I played with you a bit about it and I played with Morley, but I’ll quit now since you won’t see for yourself. Morley, in point of fact, has seen, for he took my tip and opened the safe.”

“And he didn’t find the body of Charles Merritt?”

“Not even a hair. Well, yes, perhaps a hair. What I told you, Gilly, was that the safe contained all that was left of Charles Merritt, and it was strictly true. In other words, it contained his clothing and part of his makeup. You see, old man, Merritt and Peter Vanderdonck were the same individual. Vanderdonck decided to quit being Merritt, so he quit and packed Merritt, so to speak, in the safe. Then he vanished himself. Of course it was guesswork until Morley opened the safe, but it was safe guessing, if I may be permitted a bad pun. Everything pointed to the accuracy of my deductions—the unused office, the greasy wash bowl to which the water clung as it receded, the dirty towel smelling of grease paint, the notice in the paper of Miss Kane’s success, and so on. Merritt made certain changes at the theatre after his performances but the final cleaning up he reserved for Vanderdonck’s rooms, where he was safer from recognition in the event of an uncontemplated meeting.”

I digested all this in silence. At length I said, “And Miss Kane is concealing Vanderdonck from pursuit? Why?”

“She probably loves him,” opined Lavender, “and for reasons of his own he doesn’t want to appear as yet. I called Morley and told him all this, after he’d told me that he’d opened the safe, and now I suppose the police will drop the case. There’s no real crime in it after all, and they are not hired to catch Giles’ delinquent tenants.”

“Meanwhile,” I said ironically, “we continue to search for another missing man, who is as far away, or as near, as ever. Probably he’ll turn out to be the missing Mrs. Jameson about whom we read in the paper this morning.”

Lavender laughed at my bitterness.

“No, Gilly, nothing like that. But I’m afraid that by morning we, too, will be out of a job. I expect that by morning Miss Minor will have heard from her father and will call off the hunt. I have been so sure of it all day that I haven’t bothered much with that case. Somewhere along the line of our investigations, he will have received word of our search and he will instantly communicate with his daughter, whom, you must remember, he does not know to be in town.”

—— IV ——

As usual, Lavender was right. His prescience was astounding. We were not finished with breakfast in the morning when the telephone bell rang, and at the other end of the connection was Miss Minor. Lavender listened to her message.

“I see,” he replied. “Yes, I quite expected it, Miss Minor. In fact, I have waiting for your call. Naturally there is no further occasion for my services. Was it a phone call, may I ask, or a wire.”

He listened again.

“I understand. Very well, Miss Minor. And if ever again I can be of service to you, remember that I shall be glad to serve. Good-by!”

The last words fell like clods upon my heart. Lavender was smiling oddly as he turned away.

“Finis coronat opus,” said he. “That means, Gilly, ‘the end crowns the work.’ We are politely, courteously, but definitely and conclusively ‘fired,’ as it were. Miss Minor has heard from her father—a wire early this morning, saying merely that he was well and would be home soon.”

“How did you know she would hear from him?” I asked morosely.

“I knew that she was bound to. You see, he found out that I was on his trail and was afraid that I would make his disappearance look like something it was never intended to be. When he went away he had no idea of the publicity that would follow his action, and he had no thought that his daughter would return and start a hunt for him. He managed it all rather badly, as a matter of fact.”

“Do you suppose he returned to the club and they told him there that we were looking for him?”

“No, I don’t believe he’s been near the club. I think Miss Kane told him.”

“Miss Kane!” I shouted. “What has Miss Kane to do with this case?”

“A great deal,” said Lavender, “since she was undoubtedly at the bottom of Minor’s disappearance, as she was at the bottom of the Vanderdonck-Merritt disappearance. You remember I told you that I had contrived to bring Minor’s name into my conversation with her yesterday? I did it purposely, so she would tell him. I thought it would inform him of his daughter’s return and that this action would follow.”

“Good Lord,” I groaned. “What is the secret of it all, Lavender? Why did he go away? Why did Merritt masquerade as Vanderdonck, or Vanderdonck as Merritt? And what has Miss Kane to do with all of them?”

“I’ll tell you how it works out, Gilly, as nearly as I can. And I must tell you about my investigations of last night. They have a bearing on your questions.

“I went to Elmhurst, as I explained. In fact, I went twice—once after leaving Miss Kane in the afternoon, and once after the evening performance. On the latter occasion I followed Miss Kane. In the afternoon I merely made inquiries in the neighborhood. Miss Kane has lived there for about three months, I was informed by the rental agency, with an invalid brother and a maid. At first I naturally thought that the invalid brother was the man I wanted, but the three months knocked that idea in the head for Minor has been living at home and has been at his club until a week ago, while the invalid brother lives with Miss Kane and doesn’t go out any place.”

“Then he’s Vanderdonck!” I said.

“Well,” demurred Lavender, “I suppose it’s conceivable, but I don’t agree, Gilly. Really, the same objection applies to Vanderdonck. No, in my theory of this amusing case, he can’t be Vanderdonck, either. I may as well tell you at once that I believe not only that Vanderdonck was Merritt, but that Minor was both of them!”

I sat up very straight in my chair and stared at him for a moment in silence.

“I’m not crazy,” he replied to my glance. “I don’t think I am, Gilly. I’m admitting that the invalid brother may be Vanderdonck, and that Minor may be some place else. I’m even admitting that the invalid brother may be just himself, an honest-to-goodness invalid brother of Miss Kane. But I don’t think so. Everything points to the truth of my idea that Merritt, Vanderdonck, and Minor are one and the same individual, playing a game. And Minor isn’t anxious that his daughter shall discover what that game is, as least not until it is played out. That’s why he wired Miss Shirley and why we were called off. We were getting too ‘warm,’ as the boys say. Of course Miss Minor had no idea that in releasing us she was playing her father’s game.”

He shook his head. “What puzzles me, however, is that invalid brother. If he isn’t Minor, and isn’t Vanderdonck, to accept your idea for a moment, who is he, unless he is just himself?”

“I think he’s Mrs. Jameson,” I said with a grin.

Lavender laughed. “No,” he replied. “She, at least, has nothing to do with this case. She just happens to have disappeared on the same day.

“Well, to continue. Having learned nothing in particular yesterday afternoon, I followed Miss Kane home last night. I wanted to see whom, if anybody, she would meet at her home. She met nobody. There were lights in the place for some time, chiefly upstairs, but after she had closed the door I didn’t have even a second glimpse of Miss Kane. Not a shadow on the blind. Finally darkness fell over the house, and I came home. I’m very much afraid indeed that the invalid brother is not a myth, that he actually exists—if for no other reason than to complicate this case.”

“And you have no idea why Minor is doing all this?”

“Oh, yes, a sort of an idea, Gilly, but it isn’t complete. I don’t understand why Miss Shirley has not known all about it from the beginning. There’s nothing heinous in it that I can see.”

“And now I suppose we shall never know,” I suggested.

“I think we will,” said Lavender. “I think that Minor himself will look us up to see how much we know, and to tell us the rest, so that we will keep our mouths shut.”

However, it came about rather differently, for we had talked barely an hour when again our telephone bell rang and again it was Miss Shirley Minor who called. Lavender’s expression was one of comical relief as he listened to what she had to say.