“Neither is the wound exactly like a pistol or gunshot wound, for, curiously enough, there was no mark showing the exit of a bullet, nor was any bullet found in the body after the most careful examination.  The local authorities are completely mystified at the possible problems that may arise out of the case, especially as to the manner in which the unfortunate girl met her death.

“Until a late hour the body, which is of a girl perhaps twenty-three or four, of medium height, fair, good looking, and stylishly dressed, was still unidentified.  She was unknown in this part of the country.”

Almost before I had finished reading, Garrick had his hat and coat on and had shoved into his pocket a little detective camera.

“Strange about the bullet,” I ruminated.  “I wonder who she can be?”

“Very strange,” agreed Garrick, urging me on.  “I think we ought to investigate the case.”

As we hurried along to a restaurant for a bite of breakfast, he remarked, “The circumstances of the thing, coming so closely after the report about Warrington’s car, are very suspicious—­very.  I feel sure that we shall find some connection between the two affairs.”

Accordingly, we caught an early train and at the nearest railroad station to the town mentioned in the despatch engaged a hackman who knew the coroner, a local doctor.

The coroner was glad to assist us, though we were careful not to tell him too much of our own connection with the case.  On the way over to the village undertaker’s where the body had been moved, he volunteered the information that the New York police, whom he had notified immediately, had already sent a man up there, who had taken a description of the girl and finger prints, but had not, so far at least, succeeded in identifying the girl, at any rate on any of the lists of those reported missing.

“You see,” remarked Garrick to me, “that is where the police have us at a disadvantage.  They have organization on their side.  A good many detectives make the mistake of antagonizing the police.  But if you want results, that’s fatal.”

“Yes,” I agreed, “it’s impossible, just as it is to antagonize the newspapers.”

“Exactly,” returned Garrick.  “My idea of the thing, Marshall, is that I should work with, not against, the regular detectives.  They are all right, in fact indispensable.  Half the secret of success nowadays is efficiency and organization.  What I do believe is that organization plus science is what is necessary.”

The local undertaking establishment was rather poorly equipped to take the place of a morgue and the authorities were making preparations to move the body to the nearest large city pending the disposal of the case.  Local detectives had set to work, but so far had turned up nothing, not even the report which we had already received from McBirney regarding the blood-stained car that resembled Warrington’s.