I shall back him to the limit in this search. I’ve had only ten days - I’ve only started -“

“Who told you all this?” Ryder inquired.

“Ah - that’s rather interesting,” Ward replied. “It was Ellen’s return to this part of the world that, indirectly, brought it out. It seems that about eight years ago, when Ellen came to Nevada to divorce - er - Doctor Swan, she was, at the moment, interested in - you will pardon me, Doctor -“

Swan smiled. “Oh, that’s perfectly all right. We’ve all been victims - we can speak freely here. She wanted to divorce me because she had fallen in love - or thought she had - with her chauffeur, a handsome boy named Michael Ireland. I came out to fight the divorce - but she got it anyhow. She didn’t, however, get Michael. It was one of her few defeats in that line. The day before her divorce, young Michael eloped with Ellen’s maid, a French girl named Cecile. The maid just took him away from her. It was rather amusing. Michael and his wife are still living in Reno, and the former is a pilot for a passenger airplane company over there.”

“Precisely,” nodded Ward. “When I first came up here two weeks ago I sent to Reno for a couple of servants - a cook and an upstairs maid - and the latter happened to be Michael’s wife. It seems they’re not very prosperous, and she’d decided to go into service temporarily. She knew, of course, my connection with Ellen Landini when she came here, but for a time she said nothing. Naturally, I had never seen or heard of the woman before. But it appears that Ellen is doing a great deal of flying during her stay in Reno, and her favorite pilot is Michael Ireland. Cecile is wildly jealous, and that is no doubt what led her to come to me with the story about my son. She claims she went with Ellen as personal maid shortly before the baby was born, and that she had been sworn to eternal secrecy in the matter.”

Ryder shook his head. “The story of a jealous woman,” he remarked. “I’m sorry, Dudley, but aren’t you building a bit too much on that? Not the best evidence, you know.”

Ward nodded. “I know. Still, I can’t well ignore a thing as important as this. And as the woman told it, I must admit it had the ring of truth. Also, I recalled certain little things that had happened, things that Ellen had said during her last mad weeks in this house - it is quite possible the story is true. And I mean to find out whether it’s true or not.”

“Have you questioned Landini?” asked Doctor Swan.

“I have not,” replied Ward. “In the first excitement of the moment, I called her hotel in Reno, but before I got the connection, I had sense enough to ring off. Inspector Chan may have an interview with her later, if he sees fit, but I would expect nothing to come of it.