The Gray Mask/Chapter 6
CHAPTER VI
A CRYING THROUGH THE SILENCE
GARTH the next day did not repeat his floral indiscretion. One experience had convinced him that practice is necessary to the successful threading of such by-ways. His rose, in fact, had disclosed its limitations even before he had reached the inspector's flat. On his entrance it had not adorned his coat.
He read the brief and scarcely illuminating account of the Elmford murder in the morning papers. Irritation at his own assignment—an unimportant case up-town—let it slip through his mind without arousing any exceptional interest.
When he returned to the central office in the afternoon the doorman beckoned to him.
"Inspector's been asking after you."
Garth yawned.
"All right. Tell him I'm here, Ed."
After a moment the doorman called:
"Inspector says, walk in."
Garth went, and paused, ill-at-ease, just within the doorway.
The huge man lolled in his chair. His quiet eyes fixed Garth genially. For once he failed to fidget with his desk paraphernalia. His rumbling voice was abnormally mild.
Garth appreciated these portents. They connoted favoritism, but he traced that to the inspector's love for his daughter, because he was too modest to place in the scales his own conspicuous virtues.
"Come over here and sit down, Garth."
Garth obeyed.
"Thanks, inspector."
The inspector's eyes twinkled.
"Boys tell me you're a little sore on the jobs you've had since you smashed Slim and George and their favourites."
Garth grew red.
"There are old women everywhere," he said. "Nothing to do but talk."
The inspector guffawed.
"Ain't it so?"
"Incriminating question, chief."
The other leaned forward.
"I can't take chances with such a valuable man."
He cleared his throat.
"Were you thinking of paying your party call to-night? Because I've got to disappoint you. But I don't want to do that two ways. I can't see anything particularly dangerous about this job, but I'd like you to look it over this afternoon. It's the Elmford murder. Suppose you've read about it."
"I glanced it over in the morning papers," Garth answered. "They were short on details."
"There doesn't seem much to clear up," the inspector said, "except Dr. Randall's whereabouts. The men I sent out this morning haven't got a trace. Nothing's been heard from the ferries or the stations or out of town. Seems there ought to be some indication at the house for a sharp pair of eyes."
"There's no doubt then," Garth asked, "that he killed Treving?"
The inspector ran his hand through his hair.
"Those must have been rotten papers you read," he answered. "Ask me if Cain killed Abel. Treving's goings-on with Randall's wife have been common gossip. The boys blushed about it in the clubs up town. Listen, Garth. I've found out things you won't get from any papers. Randall and Treving met at their club last night. Seems Randall had overheard some of this conversation. I've had a few of the high-hat crowd down here to-day, and one of the hall boys who heard what went on between Randall and Treving. Randall warned Treving away with threats. Treving lost his head and offered to bet he'd spend last evening with Mrs. Randall."
"Good Lord!" Garth exclaimed. "Was he drunk?"
"Can't tell," the inspector said. "The boy thought he had been drinking, but he didn't believe he was drunk. That don't mean much. Nothing like a college education to teach a man how to carry his liquor. Anyway, Randall came back with his own conviction. Swore he'd shoot Treving if such a thing came off. Well! Randall found Treving late last night in the lady's dressing-room."
"Pretty bad," Garth agreed, "but I've never thought threats were very satisfactory evidence."
"Plenty of other evidence," the inspector answered. "Randall had stayed late in town. He must have driven up and found Treving's car by the verandah. They're both there now. Easy to understand how that sight fixed his resolution to kill. And the signs of the struggle are all over the room. He left in a hurry after he had shot him. He lost his hat off, rushing down the stairs. It's lying by the newel post. Mark my words. When we find Randall he'll have a new hat or none at all. He had enough sense not to try to make his getaway in his own machine or Treving's. That's why I'm putting you on the case, Garth. You know what a pipe it is to round up these amateur criminals. I tell you this fellow's clever."
Garth considered.
"That's clear enough evidence," he said at last, "if the woman— But I suppose she refuses to open her mouth."
The inspector's rapid fingering of his paper-cutter confessed his annoyance. His small eyes narrowed.
"Wish I knew if she's acting. She's been practically off her head ever since that motor cop found her kneeling over the body, screaming fit to—to wake the dead. Nothing but hysterics all night and day. Jones reports she's had some nervous trouble—something about the heart. Her cousin, another doctor, is with her. You know I hate to make a wife testify. Got to be done though when she comes around. That's about all, Garth. Run out there and see if you can hit Randall's trail."
Garth arose.
"Seems simple, chief. Any dope on the gun?"
The inspector shook his head.
"One of these deadly automatics it ought to be a felony to have around. Natural enough for a doctor to carry one."
He grinned.
"Got to kill their patients one way or another."
"Nothing been disturbed?" Garth asked.
"No. They've taken Treving away, but the room's just as it was when they were found."
Garth moved towards the door.
"I know you'll bring Randall in," the inspector called.
"I'll do my best," Garth answered.
He hurried through the outer office. Perhaps the inspector was right and the case promised no unusual excitement, but at least it possessed interest.
It was late in the afternoon when he reached the station near Elmford. He inquired the way from the agent.
"It's about ten minutes' walk," the man replied. "Maybe you're a reporter or a cop? Say, there's no mystery about that case. Any word of the doctor?"
Garth smiled discreetly. He disentangled himself from the agent's curiosity and set off along a road bordered by unlovely suburban dwellings.
These soon gave way to fields and hedges which in turn straggled into a miniature forest. Just beyond that the gateway opened to the left. Garth walked through and up to the secluded house. He glanced at the two automobiles, near each other in the drive.
A tired-looking man in plain clothes lounged in the verandah. Another with a languid air paced up and down at the side. They became animated and converged on Garth, anxious to know if the inspector had got any word of Randall.
While he was talking to them Garth first became aware of a mournful undertone, sometimes punctuated by a shrill, despairing note, now smothered in a heavy silence.
"What's that?" he asked sharply.
The men moved restlessly.
"Been listening to that music all day," one of them answered. "Lonely hole! Who'd want to live here?"
"I see. Mrs. Randall," Garth said. "I'd hoped she'd be able to stand a little talk by this time."
"Swell chance!" the man answered. "There's a high and mighty sawbones with her who'd do murder himself before he'd let you get within a mile of her. I'm sick of the rotten case. Nothing to it anyway."
"I'm going in, boys," Garth said. "Inspector told me everything had been left."
One of the detectives handed him a key.
"Room's locked. This lets in from the corridor. Key to her bedroom door's in the lock."
Garth entered the hall. Randall's hat lay as the inspector had described it. Its gilt initials stared up at Garth with an odd air of appeal. He saw Treving's coat and hat—another tragic excitation for the doctor if he had chanced to notice them—on a chair by the table. A key, which Garth found fitted the front door, lay at the table's edge. Garth replaced it there and continued up the stairs.
Mrs. Randall's cries were quieter. Garth, inured as he was to unbridled suffering, was grateful. He unlocked the door of the dressing-room and paused just across the sill while he made a quick survey of the scene of the murder. There was plenty of light and air here, for the curtains were thrown back and the window was open. Since the doctor had unquestionably left by the front door he could not understand why the window had been opened on such a chilly night. He mused. Before bothering with Randall's course from the verandah it would be useful to examine the source of everything.
The table cover was awry. One or two books lay on the floor beneath. Half a dozen long-stemmed roses, faded as they were, still splashed color across the carpet of a neutral tint. As his eyes took them in Garth smiled, shame-facedly reminiscent.
He started. The formless, agonized cry of a woman arose and seemed to set in violent motion the atmosphere of this tragic chamber.
The cry was repeated. Garth shivered. He had a quick uncomfortable fancy that the woman was making horrid and superhuman efforts to overcome some obstacle to expression.
"I wish she'd keep quiet," he thought. "Confound it! There's no acting about that. She wants to talk and can't."
He returned to his scrutiny of the room. Its disordered condition suggested a struggle before Randall had fired the shots and dropped the revolver there at the end of the table.
A circle of no great radius would have enclosed the scattered and faded roses. No—not all. One bud lay farther off, nearer the bedroom door.
Garth tiptoed to it, stooped, and picked it up, examining it curiously while he tried to reconstruct from it an active picture of the tragedy. The stem had been broken away, indicating, since Treving or Randall had probably worn it, the close and desperate nature of their struggle. For it was not like the roses from the vase. They were of a larger variety and wider open, and this lay, he estimated, near the spot where Treving, conquered and killed, had fallen.
As he stooped there, reflecting, constantly troubled by the impotent sounds from the next room, a ray of late sunlight penetrated the foliage, entered the open window, and gleamed upon a silvery thread apparently in the carpet. In his haste to reach this thread Garth stumbled noisily against a chair, and, as if in response, while he detached the thread from the carpet, a gentle knocking reached him from the bedroom door.
A little ashamed of his racket, he thrust the thread in his pocket, arose, and opened the door. A tall man with iron-gray hair entered, closing the door gently behind him. His tone was repressed, but Garth did not miss its annoyance.
"Do you want to kill that woman?"
"I see. The chair," Garth said.
"Every sound from this room," the man explained, "must be torture to her. I suppose you policemen think all this fuss and feathers necessary. You'd do better to get after Randall."
Garth curbed his own irritation.
"When do you think we'll be able to question her?"
"God knows! If this keeps up. She's in a bad way. Do you suppose I'd waste my time here otherwise. I tell you quiet is essential."
Garth rested his hands against the table. The knotted veins testified to his anxiety, but his tone was casual.
"By the way, doctor, since you're Mrs. Randall's cousin, you must have known the doctor pretty well."
"Yes, yes, very well."
"Did you ever notice—was he in the habit of wearing a flower in his button-hole?"
The other glanced at him suspiciously.
"What are you driving at?"
"Answer me, please," Garth insisted.
"I never saw him with one. He was a very masculine type—no affectations."
Garth flushed.
"And Mr. Treving?" he asked. "You knew him, too?"
"Slightly."
"Did he?"
"What? Wear a flower? I'm sure I don't know. Never noticed. But I think it likely enough."
Garth's hands relaxed. He straightened.
"Thank you, doctor. There'll be no more noise here to-night. I'm sorry about the chair. I'd rather you didn't say anything about those questions."
The doctor's face, which had shown suffering all through, broke into a derisive smile.
"About the flowers! I understand. One must appear wise, even if there's nothing to be wise about."
"Quite so," Garth said gravely.
The other returned to the bedroom and Garth went downstairs. He paused in the hall long enough to take the latch-key from the table and slip it in his pocket. Then he walked to the back of the house where the servants were collected in an uneasy group. There was a chauffeur, he found, a butler, a cook, and a maid. Another maid, they told him, was with Mrs. Randall.
Garth questioned them about last night's wedding and the hour of their return, but they were an incoherent lot, all talking at once, and saying nothing useful. Therefore he returned to the verandah where he stood, trying to put himself in Randall's place, casting about for his likely course when he had sensibly decided not to use his automobile.
The sun had set. The dusk had already rendered objects at a distance indistinct. A decided chill heralded the night. The two detectives sat disconsolately on the steps. Mrs. Randall's voice continued its pitiful monotone, now and then torn by unavailing and demoralizing cries.
Garth started. He stared at a patch of shrubbery on the hillside to the right. Certainly something had moved there. It occurred to him that to a man in the shrubbery the three forms under the verandah roof would be in this light invisible. Again he was sure there was movement over there. If it were Randall, come back! His experience had taught him that such a return was psychologically conformable.
Without speaking to the others he walked to the end of the verandah and dropped over the rail. Aiding the friendly dusk by keeping behind trees and bushes as far as possible, he approached the patch of shrubbery. After a moment there was no question. The foliage did not wholly secrete the figure of a man. The man appeared to listen. Garth's hand tightened on his revolver. The description fitted, but that was scarcely necessary, for on this cold evening the man was hatless.
Garth appraised the fugitive's damp and stained clothing. He could picture him hiding all night and day—perhaps in that small, half-ruined stone building which showed dimly from here—until the necessities of hunger or the impulse to return to the scene of his crime and learn its dénouement had driven him from cover. The haggard face seemed eloquent of guilt.
Garth sprang up and, his revolver ready, faced the man.
"Dr. Randall! I've plenty of help near."
Randall stepped back.
"And what about Treving?" he asked in a husky voice.
Garth watched him warily.
"I'm sorry," he answered, "but I've got to take you for his murder."
Randall's face whitened. He held himself rigidly. After a time he relaxed and laughed. His words came with difficulty as if his mouth held no moisture.
"I'm wanted for Treving's murder!"
"You'll come quietly?"
"Yes. What's that noise? I thought I heard some one scream, a—a woman."
"Dr. Randall," Garth began steadily, "did you ever—"
"See here," Randall interrupted, "I'll answer no questions until I've seen my lawyer. Where's my wife? What about my wife?"
Garth cleared his throat.
"She's been hysterical—well—practically out of her head."
Garth could not fathom Randall's expression as he walked at his side towards the house.
"Of course," he said, "she'll be called as a witness against you—in fact the only human witness of the crime itself."
The doctor smiled contentedly.
"Yes," he said. "I should like to see her."
"Dr. Redding's with her," Garth explained, "but if it's in my presence I've no objection if he hasn't."
Garth waved the two excited detectives away. As he led Randall across the verandah he was provokingly conscious of something missing. When he had opened the door and taken his captive into the hall, he realized all at once what it was. Mrs. Randall's pitiful and chaotic crying no longer disturbed the quiet house. He noticed, too, that Dr. Redding had descended the stairs and leant against the newel post.
"Who's that?" Redding asked.
"Hello, Redding!" Randall said easily.
"Randall! They've got you!"
Randall's contented smile persisted.
"Mrs. Randall?" Garth asked in a low tone. "She's quieter now? Dr. Randall would like to see her."
Redding stepped forward swiftly.
"He can see her," he sneered, "if he's got the courage. She's dead."
He swung in a fury on Randall.
"Two murders on your soul! That's what it comes to. What were you thinking of, man? You'll go to the chair for this."
Randall staggered against the wall where he leant, covering his face with his hands.
"My only human witness!" he mumbled.
Garth knew it would be a kindness to get him out of this house, but first he did his duty with a strong distaste.
"You'd better tell us," he said. "Say something. It might help you in the end."
Randall lowered his hands. His face worked.
"I'll say nothing—nothing," he cried fiercely.
He stretched out his hands to Garth.
"No handcuffs," Garth said gruffly. "We might go in one of those automobiles."
Randall stumbled forward. He groped about the hat-rack.
"My hat! Where's my hat? Do as you wish. But not Treving's car. Good God! You wouldn't take me to jail in Treving's car!"
Garth was restless the next day. The public, in common with the police department and the district attorney's office, looked upon the case against Randall as proved and, to all purposes, disposed of. But Garth, walking along upper Fifth Avenue in the afternoon, could not resist stopping at an expensive florist's and demanding a rose for his button-hole. When it was brought he asked the price, and, a good deal disconcerted, handed over the money.
For some time he gazed at the colorful, fragrant flower which swayed on its graceful stem. Then, with an absent air, he placed it on the marble stand and moved towards the door.
The clerks glanced at each other, amused.
"You've forgotten your rose, sir," one of them said.
"No matter," Garth replied. "I've had my money's worth."
He called at the inspector's flat after dinner. The inspector was still at the office, but Nora commented on his restlessness immediately.
"What are you working on, Jim? Of course you're through with the Elmford case."
"Not quite."
He faced her, fighting back the quick emotions in which her proximity always involved him. He loved her too much to risk demanding at random a fixed understanding. Moreover, with this case on his mind, it was clearly not the hour.
"I've arranged for a number of subpoenas to be served in the morning," he said. "The servants have left the house. Your father has arranged to call his men in. In an hour or so the house will be empty. Nora — I — can't stay long this evening."
"Jim! What's on your mind? It's a clear case."
"Yes," he answered. "That's why Jones and the other flat-foot your father sent out yesterday didn't search the neighborhood far enough to find the stone building where Randall hid. It's why when I arrested him I didn't look it over either. The arrest at the time seemed enough. But he didn't act like a man caught with the goods. Your father says he's clever. Maybe he is, but I wonder if he is to that extent. It's been the trouble all along. It's too clear a case. I talked to his lawyers this afternoon. He's refused to put in any defence."
"Isn't that proof, Jim, that he knows he hasn't a chance?"
He fumbled, almost unconsciously, with the button-hole in the lapel of his coat.
"It might mean," he answered, "that he was protecting somebody else, and that makes one wonder if there mightn't be something in the house—letters, perhaps, in that bedroom I've never had a chance to explore—something he would like to have destroyed."
"Trust your instinct, Jim."
He arose smiling.
"That's what I've arranged to do."
"Then you're going out there to-night?"
"Yes."
He hesitated, but the temptation was too strong.
"How would you like a taxi-ride to Elmford?"
"Jim, you talk like a millionaire."
"If anything comes of it," he said, "the city will pay. If nothing does I'll look an awful fool, so I'd rather you didn't ask any questions now. But if you want to come—I know you're game."
She laughed and got her hat and coat.
So they drove to the lonely patch of woods near the Elmford gate where Garth instructed the driver to wait for them. He led Nora, warning her not to speak, through the obscurity to the entrance. There he paused, and, after a moment, whistled on a low, prolonged note.
Almost immediately the sound of voices came to them and the scraping of feet in the gravel. Two blacker patches scarcely outlined themselves against the black shrubbery.
"Jones!" Garth called softly.
The men approached.
"All right," Garth said. "Go along home. When did they take Mrs. Randall away?"
"Over an hour ago. Thought you were never coming. Spooky hole!"
"No alarms?" Garth asked.
"No," Jones replied, "but I can hear that woman yelling yet."
Garth laughed, uneasily.
"Well, good-night. There's no secret about your leaving, but don't mention at the station that I'm here."
The men merged into the darkness by the gate.
Garth took Nora's arm, and, circling the house at a distance, reached the stone building by the stream. He entered, sniffing suspiciously. When he had closed the door he took his flashlight from his pocket and pressed the control.
"Don't move around, Nora."
Quickly he examined the confusion of footprints. It impressed him at once as significant that none strayed far from the threshold. The damp floor farther in was disturbed only by a long, irregular depression modelled, he knew, by a body, lying prone.
"Think of lying there, Nora," he said. "I'd have preferred standing indefinitely. And why didn't he move around?"
Nora's teeth chattered.
"It's bitter cold in here."
Garth's face set.
"And a fastidious man like the doctor lies here all night and most of the day. Then let's see."
He went outside and ran his light over the lines of footprints which converged at the door. One set straggled unevenly up the stream. With an exclamation he followed it along the bank until it swung close to the water. He stooped. His lamp moved searchingly about the bottom of the shallow creek. Nora bent over his shoulder.
"Jim! Do you see that stone? There. Hold your light steady. It's been moved. Look at the dark stain on this side."
Garth reached over, rolling the stone away. He drew from the water a stout, slender rope and a black cloth. As he raised the cloth a tiny bottle fell from its folds and splintered on the rock.
Nora's eyes sparkled.
"Does it fit, Jim?"
"It suggests a lot," he answered, "and it explains something, but it's little use unless—"
He caught his breath.
"He might be that kind of a fool."
He sprang upright.
"Come along. We've got to turn up something in the house that will make Randall talk. Nora! If there had been letters do you think she would have destroyed them one by one? You see there was no chance after the murder, and don't women cling to such things?"
"She'd probably keep them," Nora said.
They climbed the hill. The unlighted house, like a thing dead itself and surrendered to decay, arose before them forbiddingly.
"Jones was right," Nora said. "It's spooky."
Garth crossed the verandah on tip-toe and silently opened the door.
"No lights," he breathed.
Nora shivered.
"It's as cold and damp here as the stone house. Can you find your way?"
"Yes. Sh-h."
He led her across the hall, up the staircase, and down the corridor to the dressing-room. The window had been closed in there, and there was no escape for a humid and depressing chill which enveloped them with discomfort.
He found the easy chair and told Nora to sit down. He drew another one close.
"But why not lights, Jim?"
"It's logic to wait awhile," he said. "The letters, you know."
She gasped.
"I begin to see."
"Maybe I shouldn't have brought you," he whispered.
"But who—"
"Sh-h!"
"Did you hear anything?" she asked.
"No. If Randall never wore a rose—"
"Jim! I've never—felt such darkness."
"I must think," he said.
But his brain refused to enter the new country of speculation whose gates the discovery in the stream had opened. The dank air of the room where Treving had been murdered was thick with imminence. A formless anticipation possessed Garth's mind. He had a quick instinct to turn on the lights and proceed with his search, abandoning this course which logic had suggested, but which was fraught, he had no doubt, with positive apprehension to Nora. Why not, indeed, satisfy her curiosity now? But his pride denied the impulse. He wanted first something more tangible, something more provocative of her praise.
"It frightens me here," Nora breathed. "I've the queerest desire to—to scream."
Her laugh was scarcely audible.
Her words had set Garth's memory to work. He knew again what he missed in this silent house—the amorphous screams of a woman in an agony powerless to express itself. How she must have wanted to speak! How horribly she had tried until the supreme, the enduring silence had clutched about her throat! The sullen and sepulchral air of the room seemed to vibrate with the wraiths of those efforts.
Was the door open to the next room where she had struggled and died?
Garth stirred uneasily.
Nora spoke.
"How long?"
"Not long," Garth whispered, "or I'll turn the lights on. I'll look."
His thoughts swung back to the next room and the despair it had harbored. Could such passionate resistance to circumstance perish utterly? Could the violent will behind it accept silence and pass with the body into nothingness?
What had she wanted to say?
A movement, scarcely audible, reached him from the next room.
Nora's hand touched his arm. He was aware of the trembling of her fingers. He leant forward, listening. He scarcely caught Nora's voice.
"You heard—that?"
The movement was repeated—somebody—something stirred in the dark room where the woman had died.
Nora swayed against him. Her other hand touched his shoulder. His heart leapt, but he realized that this contact was only an impersonal appeal for protection. So he drew his arms back, but his brain was clearer. He no longer answered to the fancy that the echoes of those screams tortured his ears.
"Stay here quietly," he whispered.
"Don't go in there, Jim."
He pushed her hands gently away. His movements as he crossed the floor were stealthier than those which still persisted in the bedroom. He paused in the doorway. The darkness was complete, yet he could locate the movements now against the farther wall.
He drew out his revolver and his flashlight. He pressed the button. The glare splintered the blackness and centered on the figure of a man who bent over the open drawer of a desk.
"Throw your hands up!" Garth said.
In the dressing-room Nora cried out.
The man at the desk swung around, lifting his hands and exposing the white and contorted face of the butler, Thompson.
Garth laughed nervously.
"I've got him, Nora."
"Wh—what do you mean?" the man asked. "I came back—Who are you? What do you want of me?"
Garth stepped forward aggressively. His conscience troubled him not at all.
"I want you for the murder of Frederick Treving—there in the next room."
The fellow's jaw dropped.
"No—no. I had nothing to do with it. I swear."
Garth raised his hand to the lapel of the butler's coat.
"I thought so," he said. "No question about you, my man. You wore the rose I found where Treving's body lay. Got it at the wedding, didn't you?"
The man sank on the unmade bed.
"What are you talking about? I had nothing to do with it."
"Tell that to the judge who'll send you to the chair," he said.
The butler shook. He raised his uncertain hands to his face. He shuddered.
"No, no. I tell you I had nothing to do with it. It was Mrs. Randall. He attacked her, and she shot him."
Garth relaxed.
"You heard that, Nora?"
Nora came to the door.
"Yes."
"Then," Garth said, "I am about through with the case."
He turned back to Thompson.
"But you're not clear yet. How did you happen to be here? I know you went to the wedding with the rest."
"Yes, but Mrs. Randall got me on the telephone—said the doctor had been called back to town and she was nervous and I'd have to come home. As I let myself in the back way I heard her scream. I ran up and through this room. I got to the door just in time to see her shoot him. But when I rushed in and tried to lift her up she screamed. I couldn't do anything with her. And I got frightened. When I heard the motorcycle and guessed it was a policeman who had heard her screaming, I ran out the servants' entrance and went back to the wedding and came home with the rest. I was afraid they would take me, and she couldn't say anything to clear me. That's the truth."
Garth looked him over contemptuously.
"And, knowing the truth, you'd have let Dr. Randall go to trial."
Thompson uncovered his face. Through his tears his eyes glowed with an exceptional devotion.
"I worked for her, sir. I had been with her family ever since she was born. Besides, if he didn't want to give her away, what business was it of mine? He sent for me to-day, and when I told him I had seen her shoot him, he made me promise to keep my mouth shut."
"I know he sent for you," Garth said. "That's why I hoped to find you here to-night. He suspected you were a go-between and that there might be letters or something here to incriminate her with Treving."
Thompson nodded.
"I told the doctor, a few letters and trinkets. He said I must get them as soon as the detectives had left and the house was clear. But I can say, sir, there was never anything really out of the way. She wasn't quite happy with the doctor. It would be a kindness to the dead—"
Garth smiled, turning to Nora.
"You wouldn't give me away, would you? All right, Thompson. Do what you came to do."
Thompson shot him a grateful glance and returned to his obliterating task at the desk. Garth snapped on the light.
"But, Jim," Nora asked, "how did you know that man had been a witness? Was it a guess?"
Garth shook his head.
"Simple enough," he said.
He took a short, slender, silvery thread from his pocket. With a shame-faced look he handed it to Nora.
"You'd know more about such things than I. It's a wire that made a broken, worn-out rose look a whole lot better than it was. I found it and the rose in the next room. I recognized it, because, Nora, when I came to dinner the other night I stopped at a sidewalk stand and bought a rose for my button-hole. Silly, wasn't it? But it was a good thing, because I got stung with one of those. That's why I knew what the broken stem and the wire meant. I learned that Randall didn't wear flowers, and I made sure this afternoon what kind of a rose Treving would have worn. Therefore, somebody else had been in that room, wearing a cheap rose which he had almost certainly got at that cheap wedding. When I heard Randall had sent for this man I decided to hold over my subpoenas for the servants until to-morrow, and run out here myself as soon as the detectives were called in—maybe get my man when he wouldn't lie."
Her eyes sparkled.
"And you guessed Randall didn't know about the murder when you caught him?"
"After I had landed him in jail, his manner, taken with the rest of it, worried me. If he wasn't guilty, why had he hidden all night and day? What we found in the stone house answered that, and almost certainly put it up to Mrs. Randall. Of course he guessed she had done it, and that cleared her in his eyes. It's why he's been so sentimental about protecting her memory. He didn't want it stained with murder, and he's probably figured he could tell some story on the stand that would clear her of the scandal, provided Thompson gathered up these little souvenirs of her indiscretion."
"Jim, I'm proud of you," Nora said. "But will Dr. Randall thank you for interfering?"
"I think so, when he's got over this first mistaken idea of what he owes her for protecting his honor and her own even to the point of murder. He'll soon be clear-headed enough to weigh both sides. He'll appreciate then that there isn't much disgrace about such a crime for her, particularly since it's the strongest proof the world could have that Thompson's opinion is right."
He turned to the butler.
"Surely, Thompson, there isn't as much evidence as all that. Come. We ought to get back to town."
As they went down the stairs Garth wondered that his success borrowed its chief value from its effect on Nora. As large as the satisfaction of clearing an innocent and harassed man, loomed the fact that he had, indeed, provoked her praise.
At the turn their hands met in the darkness. He rejoiced that the warmth of her fingers lingered momentarily in his.