"One moment!" said Jen, as they approached the , whereon Dido was waiting them. "How do you know Etwald picked up the handkerchief in the room?"  
"Because I overheard his apology to my mother for having put her handkerchief to such use," replied Isabella, with suspicious promptitude.
 
"Humph! Didn't the doctor think it strange that he should find it there?"
 
"I don't know, major. He made no remark."
 
"Rather , don't you think, seeing that he must necessarily have been ignorant of your visit on that night?"
 
The color of Isabella rose in her cheeks.
 
"He was not ignorant of that!" she said in a low voice. "To account for the fever which seized me, my mother explained all that took place to Dr. Etwald. He quite understood that I had dropped the handkerchief."
 
"Did he apologize for his use of it before or after the explanation?" was Jen's final question.
 
"After!" replied Isabella, with some ; then left the major's side to exchange a few words with Dido. Jen, as was natural, looked after her with a glance full of doubt and suspicion. Notwithstanding her love for Maurice and her expressed desire to his death by hunting down the assassin, she appeared to be anything but frank in the matter. In plain words, her conduct suggested to Jen's mind an idea that she knew more than she cared to talk about; and that such half-hinted knowledge her mother. In which case--but here Dido interrupted Jen's .
 
"My missy tell me you wish to hear my Obi," she said, abruptly, fixing her eyes on the face of the visitor. "Why you wish? You laugh at Obi."
 
"I don't particularly wish to learn your Voodoo secrets," answered Jen carelessly. "All I desire to know is why you manufactured that with which you a certain handkerchief of your mistress."
 
"Mother's handkerchief, Dido," explained Isabella, interrupting. "The one you bound round my head."
 
"Oh, dat a Voodoo smell to drib away de evil spirit," said Dido, solemnly addressing herself more particularly to the major. "My witch-mudder, she learn to make dat in her own land--"
 
"In Ashantee?"
 
"Ho! yis. It berry strong, dat smell. Too much of it kill--kill--kill!"
 
"By means of its odor?"
 
"No, dat only drib away bad debbils. But you scratch de skin with one leetle bit of it, and you die, die, die!"
 
"And the scratch is made by means of the wand of sleep?"
 
"Yis. Dat so," said Dido, with pretended surprise, turning on him sharply. "But you no b'lieve in Obi, massa. What you know of de wand of sleep--de debble-stick?"
 
"Because I had one, Dido."
 
The negress laughed with scornful doubt.
 
"Ho, dat one big lie. Der ain't de debble-stick but in de king's palace at Kumassi."
 
"You are wrong. I had one, and it was stolen by--"
 
"Why, of course," interrupted Isabella again. "Don't you remember. Dido, you were asked if you had taken it?"
 
"Ho, yis. Now I do tink," said Dido. "Ah, massa, you say I took de debble-stick and made de new smell to fill him. dat I kill wid him massa, who lubbed lil missy, and dat I made spells in your house to steal de body. Heh, dat not so?"
 
"It certainly is so," Jen, astonished to hear her put his suspicions into such plain words. "Mr. Alymer was killed by means of this poison. It was used again to render my servant insensible while the body was stolen. So I thought--"
 
"I know, I know!" broke in Dido, impatiently. "But dat not to do wid me. De poison in your debble-stick."
 
"There was; but it was all dried up."
 
"No! Dat nossin. If you pour wather in dat stick de poison come alive. Well, dat stick taken, but I no take it. Dat poo' young massa killed wid it--I no kill him. But de udder ting, sah. Dat smell! I mek it for missy, dat all!"
 
And having made this explanation, Dido folded her arms, and waited in scornful silence to hear what her accuser had to say. He considered the absolute of her story, which, on the face of it, was a manifest invention, and one which, it would seem, was supported by the of Isabella.
 
"You are satisfied now, I think," said this latter, seeing that the major did not speak.
 
"Well, yes. Miss Dallas," returned he, with much deliberation. "I am' satisfied, for the time being."
 
"Does Dido's explanation give you any clew?" she asked quickly.
 
Major Jen considered again, and looked her straightly in the eyes.
 
"Yes," he replied, with point and some dryness. "It gives me a clew in a direction for which I should not have looked for it. Thank you, Miss Dallas, and you, Dido. I shall now say good-day."
 
"When will you return?"
 
"When I have followed to its end the clew of which we have been speaking," replied Jen, and taking off his hat he walked swiftly away from the house. Swiftly, as he was afraid lest Isabella would ask him indoors, and for certain reasons not unconnected with the late conversation, he did not wish to face Mrs. Dallas at the present moment. There were large issues at stake.
 
When he vanished round the curve of the drive, Isabella, with a very pale face, turned toward Dido.
 
"I have told all the lies you wished me to tell," she said, hurriedly. "I have hidden from the sharp eyes of Major Jen those things which you wished hidden, and all at the cost of my honor and honesty."
 
"Der noting wrong, missy," said Dido, eagerly. "I swear--"
 
"Don't," cried Isabella, with a . "You have done enough evil. Do not add to your other sins."
 
She ran hastily into the house, as though to escape further conversation on a distasteful subject, while Dido, with her eyes on the ground, remained in deep thought. The old negress knew that she was placed in a position, which might be rendered even more so should Isabella speak freely. But of this she had little fear, as by her conversation with Major Jen the girl had gone forward on a path of whence there was now no retreat. Yet Dido was not satisfied. She did not trust those around her, and she was uneasy as to what might be the result of Jen's in investigating both the death of Maurice and the of the body. Thus it............