when unsupported by any kind of evidence, to warrant a reasonable person in forming suspicions against the man.
My brother—still arguing by cold, stony logic—had an interest in my uncle's removal, inasmuch as the wealth which the Professor felt so confident of attaining could not fail to place an impassable gulf between John and Phoebe; but to suspect my brother of murder on such wildly insufficient grounds as that!
The contents of the laboratory revealed nothing, only a few letters of no importance being found in an old desk which stood in the corner; and the room was locked up and left as it stood.
My brother and I had had some notion of arranging with the assistant on a plan for carrying out our uncle's designs in connection with his invention, the Professor's family and the assistant to divide any profits between them; but to our surprise the assistant denied all knowledge of the nature of the invention, stating that my uncle, although communicating to him many smaller secrets of little value, had always kept him in entire ignorance of this particular invention, and had never made any experiment in connection with it in his presence.
This surprised us, and we decided to speak to him again on the subject; but the next week, when we called at his lodgings, he had disappeared.
"He had disappeared."
The search for him was as fruitless as that for my uncle had been. He had gone out after breakfast—the landlady was certain of that, as she had noticed the peculiar texture of the overcoat he was wearing, made of my uncle's pet health-material. The assistant had never returned; and his property was in his room as he had left it. He had gone off, then! This circumstance seemed to give a shadow of plausibility to the unsupported theory of his having made away with the Professor. We made every effort to find him, in vain; and we came to the conclusion that he had resolved to carry the invention to some foreign Government, and secure the entire reward to himself.
The mysterious disappearance of my uncle was a terrible shock to his family. Phoebe in particular appeared to be affected by it, for she wrote to John a most unhappy letter, in which she said she felt so keenly her disobedience to her father in connection with her engagement that she could not bear to see my brother for a while, if ever again. We decided that it was hysteria caused by the shock; but, nevertheless, John could not get to see her, although he repeatedly called and wrote. She would see no one but her mother and sister.
John grew gloomy and moped, which was not unnatural, perhaps. He took to mooning about by himself—just wandering out for solitary walks until he was obviously losing flesh and colour; but he would do it.
One morning he came home with wild, haggard look, and sank into a chair. I had never seen him like that before, and I asked him what had happened.
"I have seen her—her—"
"Yes," I said, "I am glad of that, but———"
