“It’s up to you, District-Attorney Mackay,” he said, with a great show of his ill feeling.  “You practically forced me out of my own house.  You sent my servants away.  You put your own guards in charge, young, inexperienced deputies who don’t know enough to come in when it’s wet.  Now you have me make this trip out here in business hours just to show me where a needle has been stuck in a curtain and where a pair of imported window sashes have been ruined.”

Mackay was unruffled.  “It is necessary, Mr. Phelps, that you look over this room and see that nothing else has been disturbed; that there is no further damage.  Moreover, I thought you might be interested, might wish to help us determine the identity of the intruder.”

“If there’s any way I can really help you to do that”—­ sarcastically—­“I’ll be delighted.”

“Were you here the night before the murder?” Mackay asked.

“You know I seldom spend the night in Tarrytown.  I have quarters in New York, at the club, and recently I have been spending all my time in New York, on account of the situation in the picture business.”

“You were not here the night before the murder, then?”

“No!”

“But you were out here yesterday before the actors arrived, before Manton or any of his technical staff and crew came?”

“I was out very early, to make sure the servants had the house ready.”  Phelps was red now.  “Are you insinuating anything, Mackay?”

The little district attorney was demonstrating a certain quality of dogged perseverance.  “Some one put the needle in the curtain before the company arrived.  You probably were in the house at the time; or at the least your servants were.  Whoever did was the one who murdered Stella Lamar.”

“And also,” rejoined Phelps, tartly, “was the intruder who broke in here last night and ruined my window sash.  If you had had better guards you might have caught him, too!”

“Are you sure of your servants?  Are they reliable—­”

“I never anticipated a murder and so I didn’t question them as to their poisoning proclivities when I engaged them.  But you know where they are and you can examine them.  If I were you, Mackay—­”

“Gentlemen!” Kennedy hastened to stop the colloquy before it became an out-and-out quarrel.  Then he faced the banker.

“Mr. Phelps,” Kennedy’s voice was soft, coaxing, “I don’t think Mr. Mackay quite understands.  It would be a great service to me if you would give the house a quick general inspection.  You are familiar with the things here, enough to state whether they have been disturbed to any appreciable degree.  You see, we do not know the interior arrangements as they were before this unfortunate happening.”

With rather ill grace Phelps stalked up the steps, acceding to Kennedy’s request, but disdaining to answer.

Kennedy turned to Mackay as the banker disappeared out of earshot.  “That’s just to cool him off a bit.  I have everything I came to get right here.”  Producing a pair of pocket scissors, he cut the pierced and spotted bit of silk from the portieres, ruthlessly.  It was necessary vandalism.