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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75384 ***
+
+
+The Patient in Room 18
+
+by M. G. Eberhart
+
+Published 1929 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc.
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+  1. An Unpleasant Dinner Party
+  2. In Room 18
+  3. Dr. Letheny Does Not Return
+  4. A Yellow Slicker and Other Problems
+  5. A Lapis Cuff Link
+  6. I Make a Discovery—and Regret It
+  7. The Disappearing Key and Part of an Inquest
+  8. A Gold Sequin
+  9. Under the Barberry Bush
+ 10. A Midnight Visitor
+ 11. By the Light of a Match
+ 12. Room 18 Again
+ 13. The Radium Appears
+ 14. A Matter of Evidence
+ 15. Corole Is Moved to Candour
+ 16. The Red Light Above the Door
+ 17. O’Leary Tells a Story
+ 18. O’Leary Revises His Story
+
+
+
+To William and Margaret Good
+
+
+
+NOTE
+
+All of the characters in this book,
+as well as St. Ann’s Hospital,
+are entirely fictitious.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 1
+
+An Unpleasant Dinner Party
+
+St. Ann’s is an old hospital, sprawling in a great heap of
+weather-stained red brick and green ivy on the side of Thatcher Hill,
+a little east and south of the city of B——. The building, though
+remodelled and added on to here and there, still retains the great,
+solid walls, the gumwood and walnut woodwork, the large, old-fashioned
+rooms, and the general air of magnificence and dignity that
+characterized what was known, in the grandiloquent nineties, as the
+Thatcher mansion.
+
+Time has made changes; quantities of windows, low and wide, modern
+plumbing, electricity, a telephone to every floor, and added wings
+whose brick walls have been carefully weather-stained to match the
+original walls are some of them. On the west is the main entrance, an
+imposing affair of massive doors and great travertine pillars and
+curving driveway. But on the south, at the extreme end of the south
+wing, is another and less imposing entrance, a small, semi-circular,
+colonial porch and a glass-paned door that leads from the hushed
+hospital corridor directly upon a narrow strip of grass and then
+shrubbery and apple orchard and willows and thickets of firs. From
+this door, too, is a path leading up and around the hill, and,
+considerably below and beyond the thickets of trees and brush, winds a
+road, dusty and seldom used.
+
+The south wing is the most recently rebuilt wing of St. Ann’s, and
+time was when Room 18 was the brightest and sunniest room of the whole
+wing. I say, time was. Room 18 is now cleaned and dusted regularly
+twice a week by two student nurses. Occasionally Miss Jones, the
+office superintendent, tries to enter a patient in Room 18, but
+patients from the city remember too well the newspaper headlines—such
+as Room 18 Claims Its Third Victim—and refuse at the first hint of
+that significant numeral. Patients from out of town present a no less
+serious problem in that, even though they take the room assigned to
+them without demur, they invariably demand removal to another room
+after only a few hours’ residence in Room 18. Once we tried giving the
+whole wing a new set of numbers but it made no difference. Room 18 was
+Room 18 and the patients placed there, with one exception, have never
+remained past midnight.
+
+I do not know whether this situation is due to the patients
+mysteriously getting wind of Room 18’s history, in spite of the nurses
+being forbidden to speak of the unfortunate affair, or to the
+undoubtedly sinister aspect the room has managed to acquire. This
+latter has puzzled me more than a little. The room has the same
+hygienic and utilitarian furniture it always had, the same southeast
+corner location, the same outlook of close-encircling orchard and
+dense green shrubbery, though, of course, the shades are drawn to a
+decorous length, and the same rubberized floor covering. It is true
+that the last item may somewhat induce the atmosphere of the repellent
+that Eighteen’s very walls seem to exude, because it holds, despite
+the efforts of various scrubwomen, a certain darkish stain there at
+the foot of the narrow bed.
+
+It is a fact that five minutes in that too-still room bring chills up
+the small of my back, clammy moisture to the palms of my hands, and a
+singular and pressing desire to escape. And I have a good stomach, no
+nerves, and little imagination.
+
+And in the long, dark hours of the second watch, between midnight and
+early morning, I still avoid the closed, mysterious door of Room 18!
+
+The night it began, Corole Letheny had a dinner party up at the
+doctor’s cottage on the hillside, at the end of the path from the
+south door. She telephoned hastily, late in the afternoon, for Maida
+Day and me. She was giving the dinner, it appeared, for a young civil
+engineer, a friend of Dr. Letheny’s, who had dropped in unexpectedly
+on his way from a bridge in Uruguay to another bridge in Russia.
+Ordinarily I do not care for Corole’s dinners, which are apt to
+acquire an exotic tinge that is distasteful to me, but a travel tale
+and an engineer allure me equally and since I did not go on duty that
+night until midnight I promised to come. Maida was a little harder to
+get, seeming, indeed, to be unusually reluctant, and her voice, as I
+heard it, standing beside her at the telephone, was anything but
+cordial.
+
+“Never mind,” I said as she hung up the receiver and Corole’s warm,
+husky tones ceased. “Never mind. It may be quite diverting. And this
+is cold roast beef night here at St. Ann’s.”
+
+Maida laughed.
+
+“Corole’s dinners often are—diverting,” she said rather cruelly. “I
+shouldn’t have gone but she really is in a mess. The man just arrived
+this afternoon and he is leaving in the morning. Corole knew, too,
+that we both had second watch this two weeks and that we could be away
+from the hospital until twelve.”
+
+“I think,” I said reflectively as we strolled from the office, whither
+we had been called to the telephone, back along the narrow corridor
+that leads to the south wing, “I think I shall wear my silver tissue.”
+
+Maida nodded, giving me the straight look from her intensely blue eyes
+that I had so grown to like in the three years that she had been a
+graduate nurse at St. Ann’s.
+
+“Do so, by all means,” she agreed. “And put your hair up high on your
+head.”
+
+Maida professes to a great admiration for my hair, and I daresay it is
+well enough in its way; that is, if you like red hair and plenty of
+it. I have never cut it; no woman of my years, especially one with a
+high-bridged nose and inclined to embonpoint, freckles, and
+ground-grippers, should cut her hair.
+
+Later, gowned in the silver tissue, and with a dark silk coat over my
+finery, for the June night had turned cloudy, I slipped into the south
+wing for a last look to be sure that everything was going well. Having
+been superintendent of the wing for more years than I care to mention,
+I feel a natural sense of responsibility. Dinner I found to be well
+over, seven o’clock temperatures taken, the typhoid convalescent in
+Eleven a bit less feverish, and the new cast on Six a little more
+comfortable.
+
+Six caught at a fold of my dress admiringly.
+
+“All dressed up?” he said. He was a nice boy, who had a tubercular hip
+bone and had spent the last six months in a cast.
+
+“Isn’t she fine?” said Maida from the doorway. I saw the boy’s eyes
+widen before I turned toward her.
+
+I had grown accustomed to Maida in her stern white uniform. Now her
+black hair and the sword-blue of her eyes and the vivid pink that
+flared into her cheeks and lips at the least touch of excitement—all
+this, above a wispy, clinging dinner gown of midnight-blue that was
+somehow barely frosted in crystal beads, affected me much as it did
+the boy.
+
+“Gee!” he breathed finally.
+
+Maida laughed a little tremulously; the compliment in his eyes was
+pathetically genuine.
+
+“Don’t be silly, Sonny,” she said, but her blue eyes shone. “How is
+the new cast?”
+
+“Oh—all right,” said Sonny gamely.
+
+“I’ll come in and tell you about the party when we get back,” promised
+Maida (knowing that in the agony of a ten-hour-old cast he would still
+be awake).
+
+“Gee,” said Sonny again, “will you, Miss Day?”
+
+“Yes,” said Maida with that grave sincerity that was one of her
+charms. “Ready, Sarah?”
+
+I followed Maida from the room and along the corridor south to the end
+of the wing. Once through the door and across the small porch we
+reached the path that wound through the orchard, over a small bridge,
+and across a field of sweet-smelling alfalfa to the Letheny cottage.
+
+The path is not wide enough for two abreast, so Maida preceded me and
+I found myself studying her slim shoulders and gracefully alert
+carriage. Maida always seemed to me to be poised on the crest of a
+wave; as if she were continually victorious and yet not arrogant. She
+is that rare thing, a born nurse. She can deal successfully with the
+most difficult hypochondriacs and yet I have seen her in furious,
+desperate tears over a case like Sonny’s. It is not my intention to
+rhapsodize over Maida. I suppose I admired her because she was so
+gloriously what I might have been in my younger days had things been a
+little different. Though, of course, I am not and never was the beauty
+that Maida was.
+
+Well, we found Corole waiting for us and the other guests already
+having cocktails. Dr. Letheny greeted me as meticulously as if we had
+not operated together that very morning. He was a tall man, dark and
+thin, with an extraordinarily precise manner, and was almost too
+correct as to dress. He lingered a little over taking Maida’s wrap and
+said something in a low voice that I did not understand, though Maida
+replied briefly and turned away, her slim black eyebrows registering
+annoyance.
+
+Dr. Balman, Dr. Letheny’s assistant, was there; a lanky man of medium
+height, with a thin, pale face, a high benevolent forehead, thoughtful
+eyes that were usually detached and rather dreamy, and a thin pointed
+beard that was awry now, as always, owing to a habit he had of
+worrying it with his slender, acid-stained fingers. His scant, light
+hair was ruffled and needed to be trimmed, his cravat uneven, and his
+dress clothes formal and old-fashioned.
+
+There was Dr. Fred Hajek, too, pronounced “Hiyek” and referred to
+flippantly among the student nurses as “Hijack.” He was the interne
+who lived at the hospital, answered the telephone nights, took care of
+dressings and emergencies, and generally made himself useful. He was
+considerably younger than the other two doctors, though one wouldn’t
+have guessed it from his matured, well-built figure. He had a squarish
+head, a ruddy face with more than a hint of the foreign in it, a hint
+that was augmented by his small, black moustache, and dark eyes whose
+somewhat slanted lids looked too small for the eyes and thus gave a
+curious impression of tightness and restraint. He had a pleasant
+manner, however, and a fresh, vigorous appearance that was not
+unattractive.
+
+Then my eyes were caught by a blond young giant who advanced as Corole
+spoke.
+
+“Jim Gainsay,” she murmured casually over her creamy brown shoulder as
+she offered Maida a cocktail.
+
+He said something or other to me politely but I saw his keen eyes go
+to Maida and linger there as if unable to take themselves away, while
+I quite deliberately took stock of this tall young fellow with bronzed
+hands and face who built bridges here and there over the world and
+looked as if he hadn’t more than got out of university. In fact, a
+fraternity crest gleamed on the surface of the thin, white-gold
+cigarette case that he held open in one hand as if the sight of Maida
+had frozen him in the very act of drawing out a cigarette. On closer
+observation, however, I was obliged to revise my hasty estimate. There
+were wrinkles about his eyes; his sun-tanned eyebrows were a straight,
+inscrutable line almost meeting over his nose; his jaw was lean and
+rather ruthless; his smooth-fitting Tuxedo disclosed lines that were
+muscular, without an ounce of superfluous flesh. Here was a man
+accustomed to dealing with other men; yes, and of shaping them to suit
+his own ends, or I was no judge of character.
+
+And just then Huldah, Corole’s one maid, announced dinner somewhat
+breathlessly as if she must fly back to the kitchen, and we all took
+our places around the long, candle-lit table.
+
+The soup was bad and the fish poorly seasoned, but the Virginia-baked
+ham was delicious and I found myself warming to the soft, wavering
+lights, the gleam of silver and glass and flowers, the white and black
+contrasts presented by the men setting off Maida’s red-and-white
+beauty and Corole’s rather blatant charm. Corole had charm, in spite
+of my questionable adjective—charm of a sort rather flagrant and too
+warm, but still it was difficult not to fall a little under its sway.
+She sat at the foot of the table with Jim Gainsay on one side and Dr.
+Hajek on the other. Her hair was arranged in flat, metallic, gold
+waves and she wore a strange gown of gold sequins with gleams of green
+showing through. It clung smoothly to her and was extremely low in the
+back, showing Corole’s brownish skin almost to the waist, and I could
+not help speculating on the probable reaction of our board of
+directors to such a gown worn by our head doctor’s housekeeper. Corole
+was a cousin of Dr. Letheny’s and had kept house for him since the
+death of old Madame Letheny. We knew little of her history and I
+should have liked to know more, though I am not inquisitive. I often
+wondered what circumstances produced the brown-skinned, gold-haired
+Corole we knew. She was a great deal like a luxuriant Persian cat; she
+even had topaz eyes and a peculiarly lazy grace.
+
+The conversation during the dinner was rather languid. Corole did not
+seem much concerned about the dinner, but she was a little abstracted,
+though automatically, if one-sidedly, flirting with Jim Gainsay, who
+had eyes for no one but Maida. That was very clear to me, though none
+of the others seemed to notice it—with the possible exception of Dr.
+Letheny, who saw everything through the perpetual cloud of cigarette
+smoke that almost obscured his narrow, dark eyes. Dr. Balman was
+frankly absorbed in dinner and admitted that he had been interested in
+a laboratory experiment and had not eaten during the day.
+
+“But you left it to come to my dinner,” smiled Corole.
+
+“Oh, no,” said Dr. Balman flatly, without looking up from his salad.
+“I had finished anyhow.”
+
+“Oh,” said Corole, and Dr. Letheny’s thin mouth curved the least bit.
+
+“So you have been bridge-building in Uruguay?” I addressed Jim
+Gainsay. He turned his keen eyes steadily toward me.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“I suppose Uruguay is now prosperous, European, and civilized?” I went
+on, hoping to get him started telling of some of the adventures that
+must have befallen him. I have an explorer’s instincts and
+stay-at-home habits, so have to get my travels by proxy.
+
+“Yes. Though the remoter portions are still, in some respects, the
+Banda Oriental.”
+
+“The Banda Oriental?” said Corole blankly.
+
+“The Purple Land that England lost,” said Maida softly, and Gainsay’s
+eyes met hers with quick interest—interest and something more.
+
+Corole’s eyelids flickered.
+
+“Serve coffee in the Doctor’s study, Huldah,” she said. “And open the
+windows.”
+
+The night had turned unbelievably sultry while we sat at the table, so
+hot that the very breath of the tapers seemed unbearable and we all
+felt relieved, I think, to leave the table and dispose ourselves
+comfortably in the great, cushioned chairs and divans in Dr. Letheny’s
+study. The one lamp on the table was enough, though it left the room
+for the most part in shadow—rather uncanny green shadow, for the lamp
+was shaded with green silk and fringe. The windows had been flung to
+the top but there was not a breeze stirring, even here on the windward
+side of the hill, and it was so quiet that we could hear the katydids
+and crickets down in the orchard, and the faint strains of radio music
+from the open windows of the hospital, whose lights gleamed dully
+through the trees.
+
+“Radio in a hospital?” queried Jim Gainsay amusedly.
+
+“Lord, yes!” Dr. Letheny’s voice was edgy. “You have been out of the
+world a long time, Jim, not to know that a fashionable hospital must
+have all the latest fancies, including the best radio set to be had,
+with specially made loud-speakers connecting with it in every room.
+The money that is wasted,” he added bitterly, “on such notions could
+be employed to a good deal better advantage in other ways. How can
+we make much headway in research if all our money must be thrown
+away on—on lawns and flowers—” he waved impatiently toward the
+hospital—“on expensive apparatus that we seldom if ever use, on
+eight-thousand-dollar ambulances, on weather-staining bricks, on——”
+
+“On radios,” suggested Gainsay blandly.
+
+Dr. Letheny smiled faintly but the hand that lit a fresh cigarette
+seemed a little unsteady.
+
+“On radios,” he agreed.
+
+“You are right though, Dr. Letheny.” Dr. Balman, who had apparently
+been engaged in digesting his dinner, spoke so suddenly that I jumped.
+He lounged toward the window and stood with his hands in his pockets
+looking down at St. Ann’s lights.
+
+“You are right,” he repeated. “If I had one-half the money that is
+thrown away down there the experiment that failed for me this
+afternoon might have succeeded.” The bitterness in his voice was so
+grim that I think we all felt a little startled and uncomfortable.
+All, that is, except Corole, whose feelings are not easily accessible
+and who was manipulating the coffee machine over by the lamp. Its
+light brought the flat, gold waves of her hair into relief.
+
+“Here is the coffee,” she said huskily. “As coffee should be: black as
+night, hot as hell, and sweet as love.” She offered the tiny cup to
+Gainsay.
+
+Well, the rest of us had heard her say that before and Gainsay did not
+appear to hear her now. I could see that she was hesitating on the
+verge of repetition, but she was too wise for that.
+
+“Can’t you stop needless expenditure?” asked Gainsay.
+
+“Stop it?” Dr. Letheny laughed acidly. “Stop it when the hospital is
+privately endowed and the board of directors a bunch of ignorant,
+conceited asses! Look at this matter of radium. Nothing must do but
+that we buy a whole gram of radium. They had heard of radium. Other
+hospitals had it. Radium we must have and radium we bought. But try to
+talk to them of research, of discovering a new remedy for an old need,
+of the necessity for laboratories, for equipment, for study. You might
+as well try to stop the thunder storm that is coming as to ask them to
+see anything that is not squarely in front of their fat stomachs.”
+
+“But radium,” said Gainsay mildly, “is a good thing for a hospital to
+have, isn’t it? I thought it a great discovery.”
+
+“Of course, of course!” broke in Dr. Balman. “But we don’t need that
+much. Half a gram, a fourth of it—even a sixth of it would have served
+our purpose. But no! We must spend sixty-five thousand dollars for one
+tiny gram of radium. Sixty-five thousand dollars! And to my plea for
+half of that—only half of that money—they laughed. Laughed at study!
+At research! At laboratories and equipment! And called me a visionary.
+God! A visionary!”
+
+It must have been that the increasing sultriness of the night and the
+tension of the approaching storm made us all a little nervous and
+easily stirred. A curious hush followed Franz Balman’s outbreak,
+during which I became aware of the heavy breathing of Dr. Hajek near
+me. I stirred impatiently and moved away. I had never either liked or
+disliked Fred Hajek, but that night I felt suddenly a sharp distaste
+for him. The atmosphere in the room seemed unbearably heavy and I
+shivered a little despite the heat and wondered if my dinner was not
+going to agree with me.
+
+Gainsay got up, moved to get an ash tray, and sat down again in
+another chair. I noted that the move brought him nearer Maida, whose
+fine white profile was visible in the shadow near the window. She did
+not smoke—not, I believe, from any fastidious prejudice, but merely
+from distaste—and her hands, delicate yet strong, lay passively on the
+carved arms of the chair. She was the kind of person whose silences
+seem thoughtful and neither flat nor detached; a most companionable
+person to have around.
+
+Corole noted the move, too, for she took my seat next to Hajek and
+murmured something under her breath to him.
+
+“Are you both experimenting in the same field?” asked Gainsay, his
+ordinary, easy tone making my disquiet seem uncalled-for and silly.
+
+“No,” said Dr. Letheny shortly.
+
+“No,” said Dr. Balman. He turned abruptly away from the window and sat
+down at the shadowy end of the davenport; his shirt front thrust
+itself up in an ungainly hump but he did not appear to care.
+
+“Well,” said Corole, “if I were a millionaire I should give you both
+the money to work to your heart’s content.”
+
+“Indeed.” Dr. Letheny spoke so satirically that I feared an outburst
+from our hostess, whose temper was never of the best.
+
+But she surprised me.
+
+“No!” she retracted with disarming frankness. From habit Corole could
+lie like a trooper, but when she was inclined toward truth-telling she
+was quite candidly honest. “No,” she went on, “if I had a million
+dollars I should spend it—oh, _how_ I should spend it! Silks and furs
+and jewels and servants and cars and cities and——”
+
+“By that time it would be gone,” observed Dr. Letheny drily.
+
+“Maybe,” Corole laughed huskily. “But how gloriously gone.”
+
+“I suppose,” began Fred Hajek, with a little of the awkwardness that
+assails one who has remained silent a long time while others of the
+group are talking, “I suppose that idea is a sort of unacknowledged
+fairy dream hidden in everyone’s mind.”
+
+“Of course.” Dr. Letheny’s voice grated to my ears. “Everybody wants
+money. Usually for reasons such as Corole has so charmingly admitted.”
+
+“Not always,” disagreed Gainsay. “You and—er—Dr. Balman have just
+agreed that you both needed it for research.”
+
+“A selfish reason, though,” replied Dr. Letheny. “We get the same
+pleasurable reaction out of study and science that Corole does out of
+clothes and jewels and—cream in general. Miss Keate, over there,” he
+nodded toward me, “gets the same kick out of hard work and a
+smooth-running hospital routine. Only her—demands——are not so
+expensive.”
+
+His tone irritated me. It may be true that I am considered something
+of a martinet, especially among the student nurses, but somebody has
+to see to things.
+
+“Nonsense,” I spoke sharply. “I want money just as much as anybody.”
+
+I suppose my words rang sincere, for Dr. Letheny sat up.
+
+“What is your repressed desire, Sarah Keate?” he demanded with just
+the shade of amusement in his voice that always riled me. “Come on,
+out with it! Do you long for the gay night life? Or have you secret
+urges to become a front-page sensation?”
+
+And I must say that, in the light of what was to occur, it was
+remarkable that he said just that.
+
+“She might make a splendid aviatrix,” said Jim Gainsay, smiling into
+the dusk.
+
+After that I was not going to tell them that above all things I longed
+to travel and that everybody knows travel costs money. I said curtly:
+
+“Everybody wants money.”
+
+“How about you, Maida?” broke in Corole rather maliciously.
+
+Maida is, as a rule, almost too perfect at the art of concealing her
+emotions. It may have been that the semi-darkness of the room
+concealed an intended air of frivolousness, or it may have been that
+the threat of the approaching storm plucked at her nerves and pierced
+her habitual armour of reserve. At any rate her answer was unexpected.
+
+“Money!” she said. “Money! I think I would give my very soul for
+money!”
+
+Of course, I knew she didn’t mean that. But Dr. Letheny shot her a
+glance that fairly pierced the dusk, Corole laughed a little metallic
+ripple, and Jim Gainsay turned straightway around in his chair to face
+Maida’s shadowed eyes.
+
+“I haven’t any money,” he said directly and quite as if Maida had
+asked him a question, though I think the others were too preoccupied
+to observe this. “I haven’t any money at all.”
+
+“And are you happy without it, Jim?” asked Corole, her warm voice
+caressing.
+
+“Well . . .” Jim Gainsay paused. “I was, until lately.”
+
+He was still speaking to Maida. I believe Dr. Letheny understood that
+somewhat singular fact, also, for he spoke so quietly that there was a
+suggestion of deliberate restraint about his words.
+
+“And what do you intend to do in the face of this sudden realization?”
+
+“Make some money,” replied Jim Gainsay simply.
+
+Dr. Letheny laughed—not pleasantly.
+
+“But my dear fellow, is it so simple as that?”
+
+“It should not be difficult.” Gainsay did not appear to be disturbed
+by the perceptible edge of irony in Dr. Letheny’s questions.
+
+“Owing to the fact that several billions of people over the face of
+the earth are engaged in profitless efforts in that direction, will
+you tell us just how you propose to accomplish it with such
+expedition?”
+
+“Certainly not. If I can manage to lay my hands on—say—fifty thousand
+I can make—oh, as much money as I want. I can do it. And I will.” He
+was grave and yet quite casual. A mere matter of information for
+Maida. If she wanted money he would see that she got it and that was
+that! It seemed so clear to me that I felt something very like
+embarrassment, though neither Maida nor Jim Gainsay seemed disturbed.
+
+“Fifty thousand dollars,” mused Dr. Letheny softly. “That is quite a
+lot of money. Many a man has failed for its—inaccessibility.”
+
+“I’ll get it all right,” said Jim Gainsay.
+
+“And when you get it what are you going to do with it? How are you
+going to make it grow into as much money as you want?”
+
+“Contracting.” There was an undercurrent in the short reply that
+warned Dr. Letheny off.
+
+Corole laughed again.
+
+“Funny!” she said. “Every single one of us has confessed to a fervent
+desire for money. That is, all but Franz and Dr. Hajek. And we all
+know that Franz would give his very eyes—no, he needs them for
+experiment—ten years of his life, then, for money to carry on those
+same precious experiments.”
+
+“It is a good thing we are all law-abiding citizens,” I remarked
+drily.
+
+“I think I shall be on the safe side, though, and lock up my jewels
+to-night!” said Corole.
+
+“Don’t be a fool,” observed Dr. Letheny.
+
+Corole’s topaz eyes caught a glint of angry green light.
+
+“Why, really, Louis, being what one can’t help is better, at any rate,
+than longing for what one can’t get.”
+
+Her somewhat stupid reply did not, to my mind, warrant its effect. Dr.
+Letheny moved suddenly upright in his chair, his thin lips drawn tight
+over his teeth.
+
+“Until later, dear cousin.” The words had a sharp edge of fury. “Until
+later. We have guests at present.”
+
+I could only suppose that the stifling atmosphere had disturbed Dr.
+Letheny’s always hair-trigger nerves. Otherwise he had not been so
+needlessly vulgar. He was a brilliant man with a cutting tongue, but
+gossip had whispered that what Corole lacked in the way of brains she
+more than made up for in feline cunning of attack. This was the first
+time, however, that I had heard the two ill-assorted housemates come
+to open and bad-mannered warfare.
+
+Dr. Hajek relieved the strained silence that naturally followed the
+little contretemps.
+
+“I hear that you used the radium to-day.” He had a peculiarly
+inflectionless manner of speech that made him seem heavy and dull.
+
+“Yes.” Dr. Letheny rose and pulled the curtain still farther from the
+window. “Torrid night, isn’t it? Yes, we are trying it for old Mr.
+Jackson.” He paused. “I don’t know that it will do any good,” he added
+callously. “But we may as well try it. By the way, Miss Keate, I shall
+be in shortly after midnight to see how the patient is getting on. You
+might leave the south door unlocked for me. Let me see—he is in Room
+18, isn’t he?”
+
+“Yes, Doctor.”
+
+“So you are going to Russia on another bridge project, Jim?” Dr.
+Letheny was again master of himself.
+
+“What—oh, yes! Yes.” Jim Gainsay started a little as if Dr. Letheny
+had recalled him to a forgotten fact.
+
+“Will it be a long stay?”
+
+“Why, yes, probably. It should take about two or three years. It will
+be an interesting job. The preliminaries are rather sketchy, but it
+looks as though there might be some problems involved.”
+
+He spoke in an oddly detached way, as if he were not much interested
+in the subject, and it was not surprising that the conversation
+flattened out again. Presently Corole suggested bridge and even made
+up a table, but Dr. Balman definitely refused to play and Jim Gainsay,
+being engaged in watching Maida’s eyelashes, did not appear to hear
+Corole’s suggestion that he make a fourth, so Dr. Letheny made a
+reluctant partner for me against Corole and Dr. Hajek. However, we
+played only a few desultory hands until Maida and Gainsay drifted over
+to the window and fell into a low-voiced conversation, when Dr.
+Letheny, who had been darting quick glances in that direction, trumped
+my ace, flung down his cards, said it was too rotten hot to play and,
+paying no attention to Corole’s protests, went to the piano.
+
+Dr. Letheny was a discriminative musician of far more than amateur
+skill, and the great, jarring, Moscow bells of the C Sharp Minor
+Prelude presently surged over the room. I am a practical,
+matter-of-fact woman and I have never been able to account for the
+strange disquietude that crept over me as I listened. It was the
+strangest thing in a strange and unreal evening. The couple at the
+window turned and moved closer together. Corole’s flat eyes caught the
+light like a cat’s. Dr. Balman stared at nothing from the shadows and
+worried his beard. Only Dr. Hajek was unmoved by that passionate sweep
+of sound.
+
+All at once the room was intolerable to me. I twisted about in my
+chair and fought down a childish desire to run from its heat and
+breathlessness. And then the keys under Dr. Letheny’s white fingers
+slipped into the higher notes of the second movement and a hot, fetid
+breath of air from the hushed night billowed the curtain a little and
+touched my hot face and heightened the nightmare that had taken
+possession of me.
+
+By the time the climax had carried us all along with it in its
+torrent, and the Doctor had sat, in the hush that followed the last
+note, for a long moment before he turned to us again,—by that time
+little beads of perspiration shone all along the backs of my hands and
+my heart was pumping as if I had been running a race.
+
+I rose.
+
+“I must go,” I said, my voice breaking harshly into the silence. “I
+must go. It is nearly twelve.”
+
+“Yes,” said Maida. “Yes. We must go.”
+
+Somehow we got away. I remember being vaguely surprised when Jim
+Gainsay merely took Maida’s hand for a conventional instant, although
+I’m sure I don’t know what I had expected.
+
+Maida and I walked slowly, feeling our way through the great, black
+velvet curtain that was the night. The hospital was now darkened and
+the path twisted unexpectedly. The air was as heavy with the presage
+of storm, there under the trees, as it had been in Corole’s lamp-lit
+house. The sky was thick and black with not the glimmer of a star
+showing through. The katydids and crickets were all hushed as if
+waiting. The path was hot under our thin-soled slippers, the alfalfa
+sickeningly sweet in its warm breath, the shadows of the thickets were
+dense and not a leaf stirred. I know that orchard and those clusters
+of trees and elderberries and sumac as well as I know the twists and
+turns of the old hospital corridors, and never until that night did I
+catch my breath when my hand brushed against a leaf, or take a long
+sigh of relief when we emerged from those suddenly unfriendly thickets
+into the silence of the long, night-lighted corridor of the south
+wing.
+
+Up in the everyday surroundings of the nurses’ dormitory I still
+failed to shake off the sense of the unreal that had come over me.
+Together we changed into our crisp, white uniforms. I remember we
+talked of silly, inconsequential things—such as the sogginess of the
+bread pudding we had had for lunch, and the new cuff-links that Maida
+was inserting into her cuffs. They were small squares of lapis-lazuli
+edged in engraved white gold. Lovely though they were, they yet
+contrived to be simple and dignified at the same time.
+
+“I like lapis,” said Maida without much interest. “I like things that
+are real.” She was adjusting her proud, white cap as she spoke. In
+spite of the businesslike white linen that became her so well, she was
+still the flushed and vivid Maida of the blue and crystal-frosted
+dinner gown, whose eyes had grown starry under Jim Gainsay’s regard. I
+sighed as I pinned on my own cap. I had always felt that if love came
+to Maida it would be swift and compelling.
+
+I thrust in the pin too forcefully and withdrew my scratched thumb
+with an irritated exclamation. I had read somewhere that thin old
+maids were pathetic and fat old maids gross and all old maids
+sentimental, and had resolved to be none of the three, myself.
+
+So, I was not in the best of moods as I wound my watch, took my way to
+the south wing, and stopped at the desk for a glance at the charts. If
+only the storm would break and give us a breath of fresh, cool air.
+
+The two nurses going off duty were very evidently glad to be relieved.
+
+“It is a queer night,” said one of them, Olma Flynn. “Makes me feel
+creepy.”
+
+“H’m,” I spoke brusquely. “Likely you have been eating green apples
+again.” And she flounced indignantly away.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 2
+
+In Room 18
+
+That night began much the same as other nights and with no suggestion
+of the events it was to unfold. There was the usual twelve-o’clock
+stir of drinks and temperatures and pulses and hot pillows to be
+turned and electric fans to be brought. The only unusual thing, and
+that was natural enough, was that the sick patients had turned
+restless under the heat and the breathless hint of storm and were
+fretful and somewhat peevish. We were very busy for some time, but I
+remembered to leave the south door unlocked for Dr. Letheny’s call.
+
+It happened that I was in the corridor when he came in about
+twelve-thirty. The gleaming white and black of his pearl-studded shirt
+front and smooth-fitting dinner jacket were incongruous in the bare,
+night-lighted hall, with its long length of white walls, shadowy now
+in the darkness that was relieved only by the shaded light over the
+chart desk at the far end, and the tiny red signal lights that glowed
+here and there over sick-room doors. A hospital is never a cheerful
+place, especially at night, and its long, dark corridors with black
+voids for doors, and its faint odours of ether and antiseptics and
+sickness are not, to say the least, conducive to good spirits.
+
+Dr. Letheny was still nervous and irritable. He gave Mr. Jackson a
+rather cursory glance, felt his pulse for a moment, and examined the
+dressing. The trouble he was trying to cure with radium was in the
+patient’s left breast and the radium itself, placed as is usual in a
+sort of box that is especially made for the purpose, was arranged in
+such a manner that its rays would penetrate the afflicted area. It was
+held in place by means of wide straps of adhesive, and would have
+been, to the layman, a strange-appearing affair. All was well and the
+patient seemingly reacting as favourably as might be expected, so Dr.
+Letheny did not linger. After rearranging the pillows and turning out
+the light over the bed, I followed the Doctor into the corridor. He
+paused for a few moments, asking me unimportant questions as to
+various patients in the wing, and smoking rapidly, regardless of the
+rules which he himself had made against smoking in the hospital. More
+than once I caught his gaze travelling past me down the corridor
+toward the diet kitchen and drug room, and finally he asked me
+outright if Miss Day was on duty.
+
+“Yes,” I said. “She is about—somewhere in the wing,” thinking, as I
+replied, that I had not seen Maida for a few moments. Doubtless,
+however, she was busy with some patient, or paying her promised visit
+to Sonny.
+
+He lingered for a little after that, but presently strolled to the
+south door and disappeared. I did not follow him and lock the door
+according to custom; it was breathlessly hot, as I have said, and we
+needed every atom of air that we could get. Later, when the rain came,
+I should close it.
+
+An errand took me to the diet kitchen; as I passed down the length of
+the darkened corridor I glanced into the open doors along the way but
+did not catch a glimpse of Maida’s white uniform. The place was very
+hot and very still and the vases of flowers along the walls, on the
+floor outside various doors, sent up a hot, sickening breath. I
+snapped on the light in the diet kitchen, wishing as I did so that
+there were more lights in the corridor outside. I had to search for
+and open a fresh bottle of beef extract, so it took me some time to
+prepare the beef tea, but at length I started into the corridor with
+the cup in hand. As I reached the door I glanced down the hall toward
+the south door just in time to see a white uniform gleam against the
+blackness of the night as it entered from the porch outside. It was
+Maida, of that I was sure, for her movements were unmistakable, and
+just as the thought ran through my mind that she had been outside
+trying to get a breath of fresh air, I also realized that I had no
+spoon to accompany the beef tea and turned back into the diet kitchen.
+Someone had cleaned the silver drawer that day, and it took me a
+moment or two to find a spoon, and when I entered the corridor again I
+met Maida face to face.
+
+In the dim light it seemed to me that she was very white, but in that
+night-lighted corridor nothing retains its normal colour, so I thought
+nothing of it.
+
+“I was wondering where you had gone to,” I said carelessly as I passed
+her.
+
+She regarded my casual remark as an inquiry.
+
+“I—I’ve been with Sonny,” she said. Her voice was unsteady.
+
+“Poor boy, he is having a hard time,” I murmured and went on. It was
+not until I was standing beside Eleven watching him drink the beef tea
+that I recalled with a little start that she had not been with Sonny,
+that I had seen her with my own eyes coming into the corridor from the
+porch.
+
+Beef tea and Eleven did not go well together; in fact, a few moments
+after drinking it he was violently sick and for about a quarter of an
+hour I was fully occupied with him. I had closed the door into the
+corridor at first symptoms of his unhappy reaction, so that the
+disturbance should not arouse patients in near-by rooms. I stayed with
+him until he was back on his pillows again, quiet and exhausted, then
+I turned out the light, opened the door into the corridor, and left
+him. The hall was silent and dark and not a signal light gleamed in
+the whole length.
+
+I felt a little ill myself from the heat and stifling air, and judging
+it to be a good time, I slipped quietly to the south door and let
+myself out onto the little colonial porch. The air was a shade less
+fetid there and I remember standing for a moment or two at the curved
+railing. The dim light coming from the door back of me made a little
+circle on the porch, faintly lighter than the surrounding night, and
+beyond that stretched thick blackness. Far below me toward the west
+twinkled vaguely the lights of the city and above on the hillside I
+caught the barest glimpse of green light through the trees; it was
+shining from Dr. Letheny’s study. All else was impenetrable darkness.
+
+I could not have stood there for more than five minutes when without
+any warning an inexplicable thing occurred.
+
+There was a sudden, sharp little whisper of motion from somewhere back
+of me, something flew past my shoulder, caught for a fleeting second
+the reflection of a light from the corridor back of me, and was gone
+into the dense shadows of the shrubbery, beyond the railing.
+
+The thing was gone before I could realize that it had actually
+happened.
+
+I started, drew in my breath sharply, and stifled the exclamation that
+rose to my lips. I stared in the direction the thing, whatever it was,
+had taken and strained my eyes to see into the thick black void that
+surrounded the porch. It was exactly as if an arrow, small and sharp
+and gleaming, had been shot from somewhere behind me into the
+shrubbery. But no one shoots arrows from hospitals in the dead of
+night.
+
+I rubbed my eyes angrily and, but for the sharp little whisper of
+sound the thing made as it passed me, would have doubted their
+evidence. But that sound, coupled with the flash of light, was
+conclusive. Someone had deliberately thrown some small article with
+all the force at his command across the porch and into the shrubbery
+that extends downward into the orchard. It had come from one of the
+windows at either side of the door or from the door itself. Hastily in
+my thoughts I ran over the patients then in the wing. Not one of them
+was able to walk. Maida was the only person in the wing who could have
+been about, and what on earth was Maida throwing out into the night!
+
+Feeling this to be a curious circumstance that should be investigated
+I took a few steps toward the path that leads from the east corner of
+the little porch. It was very dark there, and without pausing to
+reflect that in the night I could never find the thing that so puzzled
+me and that was now hidden somewhere in the orchard, I groped for the
+iron railing and made my way cautiously down the two or three steps. I
+paused at the path, my ear caught by the sound of footsteps. And at
+the very instant, the sudden little rush of sound came closer swiftly
+and someone running at top speed along the outside wall of the
+hospital collided with me, gasped, swore, caught me in mid-air and set
+me on my feet again and was gone, leaving me trying to get my breath
+and dazedly righting my cap. I could hear his footsteps still running
+along the little path toward the bridge.
+
+“Well——” I said. “Well——” and found myself both angry and frightened.
+People have no right to run around hospitals at night, knocking
+middle-aged nurses about and swearing and what not. Who was this
+midnight prowler?
+
+Evidently the man was up to no good purpose and as evidently he was in
+a hurry to get away. My heart began to beat rapidly as I walked along
+the hospital north in the direction the man had come from. But the
+windows above me all seemed dark and undisturbed. Built on the slope
+of the hill as St. Ann’s is, the windows are at varying heights from
+the ground, some of them not more than three or four feet above it,
+but I doubted if an intruder could have made his way into that silent
+wing without arousing it. I walked as far as the lighted window of the
+diet kitchen. It, too, was open and I could see the top of Maida’s
+white cap as she stood at the farther end of the small room.
+
+All seemed quiet and I dismissed the half-formed notion of rousing
+Higgins, the janitor and so-called night-watchman, and demanding a
+thorough search of the premises. I was still uneasy, however, as I
+retraced my steps, and I drew back into the shadow of the orchard in
+order to see into the windows of the wing without, possibly, myself
+being seen.
+
+It was just as I passed the thick clump of elderberry bushes about
+midway of the long wing that my foot struck something in the grass
+that gave a dully metallic sound. I reached over to fumble in the
+grass and picked up a small, flat object, smooth and hard. I turned it
+rapidly over in my hands. It was pitchy dark there in the shadows and
+the air was extraordinarily close. I slipped the object I held into my
+pocket for future examination and as I did so I sniffed. There was
+something in the air—some familiar odour—but something entirely out of
+place in an apple orchard. It was—a swift vision of the operating room
+rose before me and I realized that my nostrils had caught a faint but
+unmistakable odour of ether.
+
+Ether in an apple orchard! And in the middle of the night! Why, it was
+impossible! Something in the heated air, some mingling of alfalfa and
+sweet clover and growing things had combined to deceive me. I
+shrugged, tried to laugh, and feeling all at once that absurd fear
+that something is about to clutch at your heels, I hurried through the
+dense shadows toward the little porch. It was still deserted.
+
+I recall glancing up at the impenetrable sky and catching, away off
+toward the south, a faint gleam of lightning. Surely the storm would
+break soon and I would be relieved of this feeling of oppression that
+was strangely mingled with something very like fear.
+
+The corridor, too, was still deserted. Maida was not in sight, and as
+I looked a red signal light down toward the chart desk clicked. I went
+to answer it, my starched skirts whispering along the hushed hall.
+
+It was Three, begging for a bromide, and it took me a few moments to
+convince her of the fact that she didn’t in the least need it.
+
+Then I sat down at the desk, which is at the north end of the
+corridor, opposite the south door, with all the shadowy length of
+gray-white walls and dark doors of the corridor intervening. A shaded
+light over this desk is the sole illumination and a person seated at
+the desk faces the chart rack and has her back turned to the corridor.
+It remained hot and very still and I wondered if the wind that
+accompanies our western thunder storms would not soon rise.
+
+I had not more than entered Three’s pulse and the time—one-thirty—when
+a sudden sound, dull and heavy, brought me standing, facing the
+corridor and unaccountably startled. Only the bare walls met my eyes.
+Perhaps the south door had blown shut. It had sounded like the muffled
+bang of a door—or possibly like a window that had dropped to the sill.
+The chart in my hand, I walked quickly through the corridor to the
+south door. It was still open and I felt no breeze.
+
+As near as I could tell the sound that had aroused me had come from
+this end of the wing. The door of Room 17 was open and a glance
+assured me that the window was still open for I could see the dim
+shadow of the sash. The door of Eighteen was closed, however, so I
+opened it cautiously in order not to wake Mr. Jackson. I did not enter
+the room; I stood there only for a moment, holding the door half open
+and peering through the dim light from the corridor. The patient was
+lying quiet and the window seemed to be open, so I closed the door as
+gently as I had opened it and took my way down the corridor again.
+
+And when I reached the chart desk I found that my knees were trembling
+and there was a little damp beading under my cap.
+
+“It is the night,” I assured myself. “It is a nerve-racking night. I
+shall suffocate if I don’t get some air.”
+
+But nevertheless I felt nervous and ill at ease. I forced myself to
+study the charts, and in the middle of Eleven’s temperature chart I
+recalled the small flat object I had found in the orchard. I was in
+the very act of drawing it from my pocket when, with a swoop of wind
+through the corridor, a blinding flash of lightning and a crash of
+thunder, the storm broke.
+
+I ran the whole length of the corridor. The wind was sweeping along it
+with such fury that my skirts were pulled back tight around me, my cap
+slipped back on my head, and several top-heavy vases of flowers must
+have blown over for we found them so later. With some difficulty I
+closed the door. As I fastened it, leaving the key in the lock in my
+haste, I could see through the panes of glass the first great spatters
+of rain, and down below the hospital on the little back road shone the
+lights of a hurrying automobile. Then they were gone and another flash
+of lightning nearly blinded me and there was a sharp crackle and
+sputter. Simultaneously the light went out as if by black magic,
+leaving me alone in the dark with eighteen windows to get down and
+eighteen patients to reassure.
+
+I knew in an instant what had occurred; the power line from the city
+had been struck and the fuses burnt out or some such matter. Where was
+Maida? The rain was coming in torrents by the time I had felt my way
+into Room 17 and closed the window. Occasional lightning aided me as I
+groped my way to Room 18, crossed it and pulled down that window. As I
+turned toward the door again a bright flash of lightning lit up the
+whole room and in the brief second I saw that the patient had not
+roused in spite of the tumult of the storm. He lay still. Too still.
+
+Then the light was gone and, scarcely knowing what I did, I reached
+the bed and put my hand on his face and sought his pulse.
+
+A seasoned nurse knows when death has come. Even in the gibbering
+darkness with the storm outside crashing against the window I knew at
+once that our patient was dead.
+
+Standing there for what seemed an eternity, but what was actually not
+more than a moment or two, my mind raced over the situation and strove
+to comprehend it. There was no reason for his death of which I knew.
+Barring the affliction for which he was being treated and which in its
+present stage had not been critical, our patient had been in good
+health only an hour or so ago. What had caused this? It could not have
+been heart failure for his heart had been sound.
+
+I must have a light. I must call Dr. Letheny. I must—— There was the
+sound of windows being lowered. I found my way to the door. If I could
+make Maida hear me—but, of course, I couldn’t through the confusion of
+patients calling out from fright as they found the lights failing to
+go on, and the constant roll of thunder and crashing of rain. The
+flashes of lightning were frequent and I caught a fleeting glimpse of
+Maida crossing the corridor farther down the hall.
+
+It would be of no use to call her; furthermore, she was busy. I
+disliked leaving Eighteen with no one in the room, but I must have a
+light. I ran down the length of the corridor—it seemed long and
+unfamiliar—groped in a drawer of the cupboard in the diet kitchen,
+found the burnt end of a candle and some matches, and flew back to
+Room 18. At the door I met Maida. Our faces gleamed eerily in the
+lightning and then vanished into darkness.
+
+“Isn’t this awful!” she cried. “Where were you! Every window in the
+wing was open. And the lights have gone out! What—what in the world
+are you doing?”
+
+She was at my elbow in Room 18. My fingers shook so that I could
+scarcely light the candle, and when I did succeed it made only a
+feeble little flicker that did not dispel the shadows.
+
+She followed me to the bed.
+
+“Why, Sarah! Is he——” She reached over to place her hand on his face
+as I had done. “_He is dead!_”
+
+Setting the candle on the table, I pushed aside the covers to find his
+heart. If there were the least flicker of life, something could yet be
+done. But there was not.
+
+It was as I drew back that I made the astounding discovery.
+
+The box that held the radium was gone! Adhesive and all had been
+stripped clean!
+
+“Look——” I tried to cry out but a roll of thunder that shook the very
+foundations drowned my voice. I pointed with a finger that shook and
+held the futile little flame nearer, while Maida searched frantically
+among the sheets.
+
+It was a useless search. That I knew even in the moment of lowering my
+candle to look under the bed. The dead man had not torn from himself
+that box with the wide strips of adhesive.
+
+Arising from my knees I stared across the narrow bed into Maida’s
+panic-stricken eyes.
+
+The very storm outside quieted for a second as if to give my words
+significance.
+
+“He is dead,” I whispered. “And the radium is gone!”
+
+She nodded, her hands at her throat, her face as white as her cap.
+
+The tiny flame wavered and jumped and threatened to go out, the
+shadows in the room crept nearer, the gusts of wind and rain beat upon
+the black window pane with renewed fervour.
+
+“We must telephone to Dr. Letheny. Then get lights and see to the
+wing. Will you go down to the office and telephone to the Doctor? I
+shall stay—with this.”
+
+Maida’s eyes widened and she flung out her hands with an odd gesture
+of panic.
+
+“No,” she stammered. “No. I—I _can’t_ call Dr. Letheny!”
+
+Not knowing what to say I stared at her. Suddenly she straightened her
+shoulders and mastered her agitation.
+
+“Yes,” she said. “Yes. I’ll call him immediately.”
+
+I was too disturbed to worry over Maida’s aversion to telephoning to
+Dr. Letheny, although it was to recur to me later. I set the candle
+down again, wishing that the lights would come on and that my knees
+would not shake.
+
+It was clear to me, even in those first terrifying moments, that the
+radium had been stolen. And a hideous conjecture was slowly settling
+upon me. It did not seem possible that my patient had died a natural
+death!
+
+What had caused his death?
+
+It is strange how one’s hair prickles at the roots when one is
+frightened. My hair stirred and I peered fearfully about the room. A
+curious sense of something evil and loathsome near at hand was
+creeping over me. The room, however, was as bare as any hospital room.
+I even took the candle in my hand, and holding my teeth tight together
+to restrain a disposition toward chattering, I made a circuit of the
+room, holding the candle into the corners. Of course, there was
+nothing there. Indeed, there was scarcely any place to hide in the
+whole room. There were the usual shallow closets, two of them, barely
+large enough for a patient’s travelling bag and clothes. I opened one
+closet which held a bag and a light overcoat. The other one was locked
+and the key gone, probably lost by some student nurse.
+
+The candle was dripping hot wax on my hand so I placed it again on a
+saucer on the table.
+
+Maida had been gone for some time, surely time enough to rouse the
+whole hospital staff. A thousand fears crossed my mind while I stood
+there waiting; my eyes kept travelling from one corner of the room to
+the other, and the feeling of a presence near me other than that of
+the dead man on the bed became stronger with the dragging seconds.
+
+I was beginning to think that I could remain no longer in that
+fear-haunted room, with only the ghastly flickering of the
+candle-light for company, when there was a quick rush of footsteps and
+Maida was in the room, panting, her eyes black and frightened.
+
+“Dr. Letheny is out,” she cried. “Corole didn’t know where he was. She
+said he wasn’t anywhere in the house. She thought he had gone for a
+walk in the orchard and got caught in the storm.”
+
+“A fine time to go for a walk,” I cried, fright making me irritable.
+
+“So then I telephoned to Dr. Balman,” went on Maida hurriedly. “It was
+so dark I couldn’t see the directory, so I had to ask Information for
+the number. He finally answered and said he would be right out. It’s
+as dark as a black cat all over the building.”
+
+“Did you call Dr. Hajek?”
+
+“Yes. That is, I knocked at his door and called him several times but
+couldn’t wake him. Girls from other wings are running around in the
+dark, there near the general office. Nobody has lights and the bell
+that connects with the basement is out of order. At least, they can’t
+rouse Higgins.”
+
+I thought rapidly. Such a situation! No lights, a storm, frightened
+patients—it only needed the news of the radium theft and this strange
+death to complete our demoralization.
+
+“We can’t both leave this room,” I thought aloud. “We must not leave
+him alone. His death is so strange—so——”
+
+Maida must have been struck with something in my manner for she
+gripped my arm.
+
+“What do you mean?”
+
+“I mean,” I replied with difficulty, speaking through oddly stiff
+lips, “I mean that—I’m afraid this is—is murder.”
+
+She shrank back, her face as white as the dishevelled sheets.
+
+“Not—that!”
+
+“You see, he was in good condition. And combined with the theft of the
+radium—Oh! I know it is a fearful thing to suspect. But what
+explanation is there?”
+
+“Who could have done it? How——”
+
+“I don’t know.” With an effort I pulled myself together, forced myself
+to think. “We have no time to think of that now. We must keep things
+going—get a doctor.” I paused, eyeing her dubiously. “Could you stay
+here with—with it—while I go to the office, rouse Dr. Hajek and the
+janitor, and get some sort of lights?”
+
+She glanced from the bed, where her horrified eyes had fastened
+themselves, to the feeble ray of the candle.
+
+“The candle is almost burnt out,” she whispered.
+
+“I know,” I said. “I’ll hurry.”
+
+Her lips tightened to a thin white line.
+
+“Hurry.”
+
+Once groping my way through that dark corridor I was vaguely surprised
+to find my hands like ice and my face damp. My mind was whirling but
+one thought was predominant: I must not leave Maida alone for long in
+that terrifying room with what it held, I must hurry.
+
+As I turned into the corridor running east and west, that connects the
+south wing with the main portion of the hospital, the storm burst upon
+the place with renewed savagery. At another time the fury of the
+thunder and lightning and wind and rain would have appalled me, but
+then it seemed all in a piece with what I feared had happened.
+
+I have only a chaotic memory of colliding with various other nurses,
+of ringing for the janitor, of calling the Electric Power Company only
+to hear a pert-voiced operator tell me that the wires must be down in
+our direction, of being afraid that the matches the nurses were
+lighting would set fire to the whole place, and of bruising my
+knuckles on Dr. Hajek’s door. He finally opened it, and I was so
+unstrung by that time that at the sound of his slow voice I clutched
+into the darkness with both hands. My touch encountered his coat,
+which was damp.
+
+“Go to Room 18,” I stammered, half-sobbing from fear. “Hurry, Doctor.
+Room 18 in the south wing.”
+
+“It is dark. Can’t you turn on the lights?” he said stupidly.
+
+“The lights have gone out. The storm—— Hurry!” I believe I pushed him
+toward the door. Somebody had found a lamp and the hall was full of
+weird, wavering shadows.
+
+“What is it? What has happened?” asked some nurse at my elbow.
+
+I have never known what I replied; I remember only her frightened,
+pale face. But somehow I restored things to a semblance of order,
+mercifully thought of some lamps and candles that were in the
+storeroom, unearthed a couple of flashlights and sent someone to wake
+Olma Flynn to help out in the south wing. Then, taking the
+flashlights, I hurried back to the wing.
+
+At the door of Room 18 I paused.
+
+Maida was standing beside a table, staring downward, her face
+paper-white; her sleeves had been rolled up and a wisp of dark hair
+across her cheek gave her a curiously dishevelled appearance. Dr.
+Hajek was standing at the foot of the bed; he was gripping the
+foot-rail with such force that the knuckles on his small hands showed
+white. Dr. Balman had arrived; he was sitting at the other side of the
+bed and I did not see him until I stepped into the room. His
+stethoscope dangled from his hands, his gleaming raincoat dripped
+moisture steadily on the floor. He, too, was staring downward.
+
+No one moved as I approached the bed. It was as if some evil spell
+held us all staring at the dead man. And through that brooding
+silence, broken only by the hurling rain and wind outside, I knew as
+well as I shall ever know anything that I was right. That the man
+there on the bed had been murdered!
+
+My throat was very dry. I had to make several efforts and finally
+achieved a single word:
+
+“How—”
+
+Dr. Balman glanced at me, apparently noting my presence for the first
+time.
+
+“Overdose of morphine,” he said.
+
+“Morphine!” I was shocked out of the numbness that had enveloped me.
+“Morphine. But he was not to have morphine. How do you know?”
+
+With a laconic gesture he showed me the tiny hypodermic scar on the
+patient’s arm.
+
+“That—and look here—the pupils of his eyes,” Dr. Balman drew the lids
+upward gently. “As well as his general condition. You know——”
+
+I nodded slowly. Morphine!
+
+It was then that a strange thing happened. We were all staring at the
+small wound, else we should not have seen the little pin-prick of red
+that crept slowly from it. It was not a drop by any means, it was
+barely enough to be visible, but it brought to our minds the old
+superstition: a corpse bleeds when its murderer is near. A cold shiver
+crept up my back as I looked, and Dr. Balman sprang to his feet with a
+hoarse word or two, and Maida cried out, gasping, and started back,
+and even phlegmatic Dr. Hajek muttered something under his breath and
+drew his hand across his eyes.
+
+With an effort I controlled myself. This sort of thing would turn us
+all into gibbering idiots and there was much to be done.
+
+“Dr. Balman,” I said, my voice sounding strange to my own ears, “Dr.
+Letheny is caught out in the storm somewhere and we have not yet been
+able to find him. Mr. Jackson was not to have morphine: it was not
+ordered and moreover at twelve-thirty he was all right. He has
+evidently been—killed—so that someone could steal the radium. There
+will be—confusion. Someone must take charge from now on—and since Dr.
+Letheny is gone——”
+
+“Leave things to us, Miss Keate,” said Dr. Balman at once. “See to
+your wing as usual and Dr. Hajek and I will do what is necessary.”
+
+“Do you intend to call the coroner?” I asked.
+
+“Certainly. I shall telephone at once. It means police—detectives—all
+that, but this is a terrible thing. Steps must be taken immediately. A
+delay in such a matter——”
+
+“Here I am, Miss Keate,” said Olma Flynn from the doorway. “I hurried
+to get dressed. What——” her pale eyes travelled past me to the bed.
+“Why—why what is it? He is—_dead!_” Her voice rose. I suppose our very
+attitudes and gray faces told her the truth, for suddenly she began to
+scream. I seized her by the arm none too gently, clapped my other hand
+over her mouth and pulled her outside, closing the door behind me.
+
+But it was too late. Others had heard her screams, and there was no
+keeping the thing secret, especially as some prowling nurse heard Dr.
+Balman and Dr. Hajek telephoning for the police and the coroner. The
+story was over the hospital in ten minutes and only the strictest
+measures prevented a panic. Terror-stricken nurses crowding into the
+halls and wing, the demands of the sick to whom the excitement seemed
+to have communicated itself, flaring, inadequate lamps and candles and
+their little flickering circles of light that made frightened faces
+whiter and the surrounding gloom blacker, horrified questions that no
+one could answer, stark fear in every pair of eyes—all this made it an
+hour not soon forgotten.
+
+Fortunately Maida and I found that our own patients had not suffered
+from our enforced absence from duty. It was a difficult matter,
+however, to calm some of the more nervous ones and keep the knowledge
+of what had happened from reaching their ears. Olma Flynn’s assistance
+was of the slightest as she refused to stir three feet from Maida or
+me, and her hands shook so that she spilled everything she touched.
+
+We were very busy and I did not see the coroner and the police when
+they arrived and went directly to Room 18. Along about half-past three
+I slipped into the diet kitchen and made some very strong coffee which
+I shared with Maida and Olma Flynn. We felt a little better after that
+though still weak and sick and controlling our fears by sheer strength
+of will.
+
+Somehow the weary gray hours dragged along. Dawn came through still
+gusty rain and wind and the cold light crept reluctantly into the sick
+rooms. Breakfast was late that morning owing to the cook’s not being
+able to find enough candles for adequate lights, but the day nurses
+finally came on duty, white and fear-stricken over what the night had
+held.
+
+By that time, however, policemen were all over the place and I must
+say that their broad, blue backs gave me a welcome sense of security.
+Dr. Letheny had not turned up yet; at least, if he had I had not seen
+him.
+
+The breakfast trays came up at last and Maida, Olma Flynn, and I
+washed our hands and faces and descended to the dining room in the
+basement. We said little. The candles on the long table flickered; the
+rain beat against the small windows; our uniforms were wrinkled and
+looked cold; our eyes were hollow and our faces drawn and gray, and
+already we were starting nervously at sudden sounds and were beginning
+to cast furtive glances over our shoulders as if to be sure there was
+nothing there.
+
+But it was not until I had finished drinking some very black coffee
+and playing with my toast that the reason for our strained silence
+made itself clear to me.
+
+Only someone connected with the hospital could have known that the
+radium was out of the safe and in use in Room 18. Only a doctor or a
+nurse would have known how to administer morphine with a hypodermic
+syringe.
+
+It might be—anyone! It might be one of us!
+
+The thought threatened that remnant of courage I still maintained. I
+rose, pushing back my chair. It scraped along the floor and at the
+sound heads jerked in my direction too quickly and someone cried out
+nervously.
+
+I hurried from the room, up the stairs and to my room in the nurses’
+dormitory. I am not ashamed to say that I locked the door. But though
+I needed rest I could not sleep.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 3
+
+Dr. Letheny Does Not Return
+
+From sheer fatigue, however, I must have dozed for I awoke at the
+sound of a repeated knocking at the door. It was a frightened little
+student nurse wanting to know if all training classes and lectures
+were to be suspended.
+
+“Suspended?” I said, the horror of the past night sweeping over me.
+“Suspended? I—why, Dr. Letheny will tell you.”
+
+She blinked.
+
+“But Dr. Letheny—we—they—nobody knows where Dr. Letheny has gone.”
+
+“What!” I was fully awake.
+
+“No, ma’am. They can’t find him anywhere.” Frightened though she was,
+she yet appeared to take a naïve relish in being the first to tell me
+the news. “They can’t find him at all. Miss Letheny has telephoned
+everywhere that he might be and the police are working on it and they
+have been asking us all kinds of questions.”
+
+I reached for a fresh uniform.
+
+“I’ll come down immediately,” I said. “About the training classes, did
+you speak to Dr. Balman?”
+
+“No. Miss Dotty said to find out if you knew what was to be done.”
+Which was like Miss Dotty, she being amiable but not very
+clear-thinking.
+
+“Dr. Balman is Dr. Letheny’s assistant. I have nothing to do with it.”
+
+The little student nurse rustled away and ten minutes later, refreshed
+by a bath and a clean uniform, I followed her.
+
+I found the main portion of the hospital fairly shuddering with
+excitement. To my extreme annoyance it appeared that the moronic
+fraction of our nursing staff was beginning to take a melancholy
+satisfaction in the tumult and posing freely for the reporters who,
+with their flashlight affairs, were swarming over the whole place. I
+might say here and now that I soon stopped that and did not mince
+matters in so doing, though I could not prevent the headlines that had
+already found their way into the city newspapers.
+
+In the main office Dr. Balman and Dr. Hajek, both looking worn and
+haggard, were literally surrounded by our board of directors who, it
+seemed, had descended in a body and were determined to hold somebody
+responsible for the terrible thing that had occurred. I learned later
+that there was some trouble in convincing them that Mr. Jackson’s
+death was not due to a mistake on the part of the nurses. Some
+policemen were in the room, too, and the chief of police, himself, a
+burly fellow who looked habitually as if his darkest suspicions were
+about to be verified.
+
+This expression intensified itself as I entered the room, which, by
+the way, was the first indication of a fact that later became all too
+painfully evident, namely that I, Sarah Keate, occupied a prominent
+place in the list of suspects, for had I not been in the south wing?
+Had I not been in a position to administer the morphine that caused
+the patient’s death? Had I not been the one to find him?
+
+One or two of the board had the grace to rise as I entered, but most
+of them were too agitated to remember their manners.
+
+“What is this about Dr. Letheny?” I began.
+
+“Are you Miss Keate?” asked the chief of police.
+
+“Yes,” I replied, none too graciously.
+
+“We were just about to send for you,” he informed me. “Now suppose you
+tell us everything you know of this affair. Mind, I say _everything_.”
+
+I turned to Dr. Balman.
+
+“Hasn’t Dr. Letheny returned yet?”
+
+He shook his head slowly.
+
+“Come, come, Miss Keate,” said the chief.
+
+“Doesn’t Miss Letheny know where he is?” I insisted anxiously.
+
+“Apparently not.” It was Dr. Hajek who answered.
+
+“Will you answer my questions?” demanded the chief loudly.
+
+“Another time,” I stated impatiently. Didn’t the man see what the
+pressing issue was! “When did Miss Letheny see him last?”
+
+Dr. Hajek shook his head. “She has not seen him since last night about
+twelve-thirty.”
+
+The chief rose.
+
+“Now, look here! We’ll have no more funny business,” he began to
+bluster.
+
+“Oh, _do_ be still!” I may have spoken somewhat irritably; at any rate
+the chief turned purple. “Don’t you see,” I explained reasonably,
+“don’t you see that we must find Dr. Letheny? That so much hinges upon
+our finding him? Why, so far as we know, _he_ decided to remove the
+radium, perhaps he——” I stuck, appalled by the literal truth of my
+words.
+
+The chief was quick to pick me up.
+
+“So you have already formed your opinion. And quite right, too. It is
+very clear that this Letheny fellow has got away with the radium.” The
+chief actually began rubbing his hands together and smiling. “Now,
+Miss Keate, just tell us why you suspect Dr. Letheny of this crime.”
+
+“But I don’t!” I cried in exasperation. “I have not had time to
+suspect anyone yet. I have been too busy. The reason I spoke as I did
+of Dr. Letheny is that he is the attendant physician; he knew more of
+Mr. Jackson’s condition than any of us. He may have decided that the
+radium was—er—not doing any good and may have removed it for that
+reason. It seems to me that our hands are tied without him.”
+
+“Just a moment, chief,” remarked one of the most intelligent members
+of the board. “Suppose we follow your suggestion and leave all
+investigation until this man—what is his name?”
+
+“Lance O’Leary,” supplied the chief sulkily.
+
+“Until this Lance O’Leary gets here. You seem to have great confidence
+in him and——”
+
+“Him and me always work together,” interpolated the chief.
+
+“He is out of town at present,” went on the board member, addressing
+me.
+
+“Suits me,” said the chief. “I’ve wired him and he will be here on the
+afternoon train. We’ve got everything under guard and can leave the
+room just as we found it.”
+
+“Then there is no need for us to stay any longer,” remarked a
+particularly well-fed board member, getting fussily to his feet and
+kicking a little to shake down his trousers over his fat calves. “I’ve
+got to get to the office. And now see here, Dr. Balman—and you
+others—of course we don’t say that this is your fault——”
+
+“Well, I should hope not!” I interrupted tartly.
+
+“Your fault,” he repeated, eyeing me severely. “But at the same time
+it shouldn’t have happened. There is something wrong somewhere. Here
+we go and put sixty-five thousand dollars into a whole gram of radium
+and now look what happens!” The other members shook their fat cheeks
+in sympathy.
+
+“You seem to forget,” I remarked with some asperity, “that there was
+also a murder in the hospital last night, which might have been
+prevented had we had an emergency gas line installed. We were without
+lights a good share of the night.”
+
+This was not quite true, in that the murder had been committed, I had
+no doubt, before the lights had gone out, but the subject of gas for
+emergency use had been a matter of contention between the board and
+the staff for some time and I was glad to note that the entire board
+looked distinctly uneasy as it filed fatly from the office.
+
+“A splendid group of gentlemen,” commented the chief approvingly.
+
+“Then we are to do nothing until this detective arrives?” I asked
+impatiently.
+
+“So it seems,” said Dr. Balman, sighing wearily.
+
+“Yes, and nothing is enough,” said the chief, whose name, by the way,
+proved to be Blunt. “Once Lance O’Leary gets his teeth in anything it
+is as good as finished. Say—I could tell you things——”
+
+“If only we could find Dr. Letheny,” I reflected. “It is so strange,
+his disappearing like this and at such a time.”
+
+“Maybe it ain’t so strange as you think,” remarked Chief Blunt. “There
+is many a man would like to disappear with about sixty-five thousand
+dollars in his pocket. Say, what does that radium look like? How would
+you carry it anyhow? Wouldn’t it burn you?”
+
+“It is carried in a small steel box that is especially made to protect
+it—and you,” explained Dr. Balman. As I glanced at him I was struck by
+the unbelievably drawn and haggard appearance of his face, which was
+intensified by a bruise on one cheek bone that was turning a dark,
+purplish green. “It would be a ticklish thing to dispose of,” he added
+thoughtfully.
+
+“Well, we shall have some disclosures in another night,” said the
+chief comfortably. “And mark my words, this Letheny has had something
+to do with it. A man don’t disappear like this for nothing. In the
+meantime we’ll guard Room 18 and keep everybody away from it. And let
+nobody leave or come into the hospital.”
+
+“No visitors?” I inquired, with the first shade of approval I had felt
+for the chief so far.
+
+“No visitors,” he agreed.
+
+“And in the meantime,” said Dr. Balman, “business as usual. Eh, Miss
+Keate?”
+
+“By all means. But Dr. Balman—you don’t think that Dr. Letheny killed
+Mr. Jackson and got away with the radium——”
+
+“Certainly not,” said Dr. Balman. “There is nothing upon which to base
+such a conclusion.”
+
+“Don’t be too sure of that,” muttered Chief Blunt from the depths of
+the telephone transmitter.
+
+It took a few moments for Dr. Balman and Dr. Hajek to arrange between
+them to take over Dr. Letheny’s work in case, we were careful to say,
+Dr. Letheny did not come to St. Ann’s that day, while Chief Blunt put
+the telephone to such good use that at the end of a few minutes he
+assured us that Dr. Letheny would be found within twenty-four hours.
+This I thought to be a somewhat sweeping prophecy but said nothing.
+
+Leaving the office, I walked thoughtfully down to the south wing. It
+was a compliment to St. Ann’s routine that, with the exception of a
+certain nervousness on the part of the nurses, all was quite as it
+should be. Morning baths had been given, breakfasts were all over and
+rooms dusted, and discipline in general had been maintained. However,
+there is no use saying things were just as usual for they were not. It
+was dark and cold that morning, with one of those quick changes of
+temperature for which our part of the country is famous. The electric
+service had not yet been repaired and there were lamps at intervals
+along the corridor. Miss Dotty, wisely for once, had doubled the
+number of girls on duty, and blue-striped skirts and white aprons of
+training nurses, as well as the severe white of graduate nurses,
+glimmered everywhere.
+
+So far we had been successful in keeping the news of the murder from
+the ears of the patients, but of course they were aware of some kind
+of disturbance during the night, and several of them were quite fussy
+and upset and demanded to be moved to another wing, which naturally we
+could not do. We kept the newspapers from them, too, but one of the
+minor troubles of the day was the continual telephone calls from
+anxious relatives, which began as soon as the morning extras were out.
+
+Oh, yes, the newspapers got out extras with all kinds of pictures and
+the most absurd statements that made St. Ann’s appear to be something
+between a boarding school and a den of iniquity. This unfortunate
+impression was helped by the pictures of nurses in conjunction with
+the murder and radium theft.
+
+And in spite of our efforts to carry on work the same as usual, in
+spite of cleaned rooms and spick-and-span corridors and careful
+charts, there lingered, somehow, pervading the very old walls of St.
+Ann’s, a certain gloom, a sense of foreboding, that centred in the
+south wing.
+
+Room 18 was closed and guarded by a stalwart policeman, who sat
+uncompromisingly in front of the door, but that end of the corridor
+was shunned as if there were live smallpox there, and when one of the
+nurses had to go to Room 17, opposite, or to the next room, Sixteen,
+she quite frankly sought the company of another nurse.
+
+Old Mr. Jackson’s lawyer had been notified immediately of the tragedy,
+I learned, and he, in turn, had notified the dead man’s only
+relatives, a cousin and a nephew, living somewhere in the East. Along
+in the middle of the morning a rather impersonal telegram came from
+them to Chief Blunt, bidding him spare no expense and keep them
+informed of developments.
+
+What with one thing and another I had very little time of my own until
+about two o’clock in the afternoon when, after firmly getting rid of
+Miss Dotty, who evidenced a distressing disposition to cling and
+whisper in horrified italics, I sat down at the south-wing chart desk,
+drew a blank chart toward me, and presenting as forbidding a back
+against interruption as I could, I tried to think. Until that moment
+the whirl of events had so caught me that I had had to act and had had
+literally no time in which to consider the matter.
+
+I began, logically enough, at twelve-thirty, the time I had last seen
+Dr. Letheny. In spite of my defence of Dr. Letheny before Chief Blunt,
+I felt in my heart that his absence at such a time was, to say the
+least, rather strange.
+
+It had been a queer night, even before its shocking development; that
+strange dinner at Corole’s, where everyone had seemed strung to such a
+singular pitch of excitement, our walk home through the suffocating
+heat, Maida’s preoccupation, my own disquiet, the storm—— And now a
+memory recurred to me with such force that I almost jumped—that man
+with whom I had collided there at the corner of the porch! Who was he?
+What had he been doing?
+
+And then, of course, I recalled the flat, smooth object I had found at
+the edge of the orchard, there below the kitchen window.
+
+It took only a moment or two to hurry to my room and dive my hand into
+the pocket of my soiled uniform. Then I sank down on the edge of the
+bed, staring at the thing in my hand.
+
+I recognized it at once.
+
+It was Jim Gainsay’s cigarette case.
+
+The engraved fraternity shield winked at me as I turned it over in my
+hands and snapped it open; inside were two or three cigarettes;
+dazedly I noted the brand—Belwood’s. Jim Gainsay! It was he, then,
+whom I had met there at the steps of the porch. What had he been
+doing? What had been his business about St. Ann’s after midnight? And
+my breath caught and my heart began to pound as I recalled his words
+of the previous night: “If I can manage to lay my hands on fifty
+thousand dollars . . . can make as much money as I want . . . I can do
+it . . . _and I will_.”
+
+And he had heard our discussion of the radium. He had even heard—yes,
+I remembered distinctly—he had even heard in what room the radium was
+in use and that the south door was to be left unlocked. To be sure, I
+might have been expected to lock the door following Dr. Letheny’s
+visit, but there were windows and——
+
+Someone was knocking at the door and I had barely time to slip the
+cigarette case under the pillow. It was Miss Dotty, her eyes fairly
+popping with excitement.
+
+“Where is the key to the closet in the south wing?”
+
+“What closet? There are several——”
+
+“I mean the closet in Room 18, of course. Do you have the key?”
+
+“No. And I don’t know where it is. Who wants it?”
+
+“They want it downstairs.”
+
+“They?”
+
+“That little, slim detective. He has just come. And oh, Miss Keate, he
+is so handsome,” she rolled her rather vacant eyes upward.
+
+“Who is handsome?” I spoke somewhat snappishly. Miss Dotty’s
+rhapsodies aggravate me.
+
+“That Mr. O’Leary. Just wait till you see him. Such a way of speaking!
+Such clothes! And his eyes are simply wonderful!” Miss Dotty appeared
+to recall herself from Mr. O’Leary’s charms with difficulty. “But I
+must hurry. They said if we couldn’t find the key they would have to
+take the door off the hinges.”
+
+“Take the hinges off, you mean. Indeed they shan’t! That lovely
+gumwood door! They’ll be sure to scar it. Maybe some of the student
+nurses locked it. Ask them. Or—wait! I’ll come down myself.”
+
+But Miss Dotty’s starched skirts were already scuttling away.
+
+Before leaving the room, and not without a guilty feeling in my heart,
+I placed the cigarette case in a safe hiding place which was nothing
+more nor less than the bottom of my laundry bag. Almost without
+conscious volition on my part I had resolved to keep the matter of the
+cigarette case a secret and in my own possession, at least until I
+knew more certainly where my duty lay concerning it. It carried with
+it too grave an implication to act upon readily.
+
+Then, still preoccupied, I took my way downstairs, through the main
+portion of St. Ann’s, past the general office, and turned into the
+corridor leading to the south wing. As I approached the chart desk,
+one of the student nurses seized upon me tearfully with a tale of
+Three’s hysterics, and wouldn’t I help for she had not the least idea
+what to do. There was nothing for it but to go to her assistance, much
+as I was interested in the proceedings in Room 18. And it was a good
+thing for me that I did! Otherwise I should have been in the room when
+they opened the closet door.
+
+Three’s hysterics proved to be of an unusually stubborn kind, really
+virulent in fact, and though I was aware of a sort of subdued
+confusion and tremor of excitement outside the door I could not
+clearly understand what it was about. I heard faintly the sound of
+hammering, of feet running along the corridor, of a man’s voice
+calling out something indistinguishable, and a hastily hushed, woman’s
+scream which Three promptly and wilfully echoed. Then several people
+hurried through the hall, and as they passed the door I heard the
+unmistakable little metallic rattle of the wheels of the
+stretcher-truck, and caught the words—“Call Dr. Balman,” and something
+about an ambulance.
+
+This was too much for me and I left my patient as soon as possible. No
+one was to be seen in the corridor, however, so I walked hurriedly
+down toward Room 18. Just as I reached it a policeman opened it, saw
+me, slid hastily through the narrow aperture and, closing the door,
+stood squarely before it.
+
+“You can’t go in there, miss,” he said firmly.
+
+“But—what has happened? What is all the commotion about?”
+
+“You can’t go in there,” he repeated stupidly. To my surprise I saw
+that the man was actually frightened. His eyes were staring, his
+weather-beaten face a sort of yellow-green, and his breath coming in
+gasps. “You can’t go in there. You can’t——”
+
+He seemed capable only of keeping me out of the room, so without
+wasting time or effort I turned about and retraced my steps. As I
+passed the linen-closet door I saw a group of nurses inside. One of
+them was lying back in a chair in a dead faint and the others were
+clustered around talking excitedly in low voices and nearly drowning
+the recumbent one with cold water.
+
+“What on earth?” I exclaimed and at my voice they turned; one of them
+was frankly sobbing and the other two were white as ghosts.
+
+“Oh, Miss K-K——” began one, her teeth chattering so she could not
+speak, while the others just stood there with their mouths opening and
+closing like so many fish. Naturally it was very trying and I believe
+I shook her till her teeth chattered in good earnest.
+
+“Now tell me what has happened,” I said, releasing her shoulders.
+
+“Oh, Miss Keate, the most terrible thing has——”
+
+“Is this Miss Keate?” interrupted a clear voice from the doorway.
+
+I whirled.
+
+A man stood in the doorway; at the moment I was conscious only of a
+pair of extraordinarily lucid gray eyes; later I noted that he was
+slender and not very tall, that his gray business suit was well
+tailored, his gray socks of heavy silk and with a small scarlet
+thread, his scarf neatly knotted and chosen with care, his face
+clean-shaven, with clear rather delicately cut features, and that he
+wore an air of well-groomed prosperity. I knew at once that this was
+Lance O’Leary.
+
+“I am Miss Keate,” I replied.
+
+“I am Lance O’Leary,” he said (superfluously, but he did not know
+that). “I should like to talk to you if you have time. Will you come
+to the office with me, please—I think we shall be undisturbed there.”
+
+Being a woman of some strength of mind, I had intended to take a firm
+line with this detective whom everyone seemed to think so remarkable,
+but I found myself walking as meekly as any lamb at his side, and once
+inside the general office with the door closed, I sat as resignedly in
+a chair opposite him as if there were not a thousand and one things
+that I should be doing.
+
+“You are the superintendent of the south wing?” He spoke very quietly
+and with what I found later to be a wholly deceptive air of
+detachment.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“You were on duty last night between twelve and six o’clock?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Miss Maida Day was your assistant?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Dr. Balman tells me that Miss Day telephoned to him about two
+o’clock—possibly ten minutes before the hour. I judge that was only a
+few moments after you found that your patient was dead?”
+
+“Yes. It must have been about that time. It was something after
+one-thirty when the storm broke and I hurried along the corridor and
+closed the south door. Then I closed the window in Room 17 and went
+directly into Eighteen.” My voice was not quite steady at the
+recollection of those moments and he waited briefly, his clear eyes
+studying a pencil in his hands, before he went on.
+
+“The windows in Room 18 were also open?”
+
+“Yes. All the windows in the wing were open. It had been very hot and
+close before the storm began.”
+
+He nodded.
+
+“Those windows are not far from the ground. Do you think someone from
+outside could get into the hospital without attracting your
+attention?”
+
+“Yes,” I said slowly. “It might be done but does not seem very
+probable. With the doors to the sick-rooms open and the night so still
+I believe I should have heard any unusual sound. But the door to
+Eighteen was closed. I can’t be sure.”
+
+“You heard no unusual sound, then?”
+
+“Why, no—except that a few moments before the storm began I heard a
+sort of bang—as if a window had dropped to the sill. It was not very
+clear.”
+
+He was looking directly into my face, his eyes as clear as water.
+
+“You are sure it was a window? It might have been a door closing.”
+
+“It was not the door for it was still open. I am not sure—I
+investigated but found nothing. The south door was still open—and as
+far as I could tell the windows were as they had been.”
+
+“Did you look in Room 18?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+There was a slight pause. Then:
+
+“The patient was—quiet at the time?”
+
+“The room was dark and still so I did not enter it. I just stood there
+for a moment holding the door half open; I was afraid if I entered the
+room I would wake him. He was asleep—that is——” I stopped abruptly as
+it occurred to me that he had not been asleep; that the incident had
+occurred not more than fifteen minutes before I found him dead.
+
+O’Leary seemed to read my thoughts.
+
+“Yes,” he said quietly. “He must have been dead—then. Can you be
+certain of the time?”
+
+“Yes. It was shortly after one-thirty. I remember because I had just
+noted the time on a patient’s chart, when I heard that dull sound and
+went to see what it was.”
+
+He returned to his pencil, a shabby little red thing it was, which he
+rolled absently between his well-kept fingers.
+
+“Was this sound sharp and loud?”
+
+“No—” I hesitated, trying to recall just how it had seemed. “No—it was
+rather dull—muffled—and yet heavy. It was not very distinct.”
+
+“There were no other unusual circumstances? Nothing out of the
+ordinary?”
+
+“Why, yes. There was someone—a man——” I broke off abruptly. That man
+must have been Jim Gainsay. I had no wish to involve him in the
+matter, at least until I became convinced that his movements should be
+investigated.
+
+But Lance O’Leary’s gray eyes looked straight through to my back hair.
+
+“Yes?” he inquired.
+
+“Yes.” I spoke with an accent of finality, and gazed nonchalantly out
+the window as if the subject were closed.
+
+“Where was he?”
+
+“Running around the hospital,” I replied curtly, wishing I had held my
+tongue.
+
+“Around and around?” inquired O’Leary blandly.
+
+“No,” I snapped. “Running along the east side of the wing. I—he—we
+collided.”
+
+O’Leary sat up straighter.
+
+“What!”
+
+“I had gone out on the porch for a breath of fresh air,” I explained
+rather sullenly. “Just as I stepped off the porch I ran into him.”
+
+I stopped as if the incident were concluded.
+
+“Go on,” suggested the O’Leary man after waiting a moment; he was
+being very polite and very pleasant and altogether disagreeable.
+
+“That’s all,” I said waspishly. I fastened my gaze on his extremely
+well-made shoes—an attention that I have found invariably disconcerts
+men—vain creatures! But this one was impervious.
+
+“And what did you say?” he persisted with the most insulting
+good-humour.
+
+“I said ‘Well——’” I stared steadfastly at the shoes.
+
+“And what did he say?”
+
+I resisted an evil impulse to tell him literally and with feeling.
+
+“I hope you don’t think I’d repeat such language,” I replied, and I’m
+sure he smiled.
+
+“Then what happened?”
+
+“He—er—set me on my feet again and kept on running.”
+
+“Very chivalrous,” remarked O’Leary. “So he kept on running—around the
+hospital?”
+
+“No,” I answered peevishly. “He ran along the path toward the bridge.”
+
+“What did you do?”
+
+“I walked in the direction he had come from as far as the wing extends
+but saw nothing unusual.”
+
+“Did you not call anyone? Were you not alarmed?”
+
+“I thought of calling Higgins, the janitor, but when I found that
+things seemed to be all right I decided it was not necessary.”
+
+“Then you came back to the hospital?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“And all that time you saw or heard nothing uncommon?”
+
+“Well—I smelled something.”
+
+He made a perceptible motion of surprise.
+
+“You smelled something? Did you say _smelled_?”
+
+I nodded, taking a small degree of satisfaction in his discomposure.
+
+“As I passed that clump of elderberry bushes I smelled ether. It was
+quite distinct. You know ether has a penetrating odour.”
+
+“But surely that was unusual?”
+
+“Yes. But the night was so hot and ether out there in the apple
+orchard so impossible that I decided I must be mistaken, that it was
+just the mingled scents of alfalfa and clover and other growing
+things.”
+
+“Well—which was it? Ether or imagination?”
+
+“I don’t know,” I said firmly. “I’m just telling you what happened. I
+know it sounds queer—but last night was a queer night. That dinner at
+Corole’s and everything,” I finished thoughtlessly.
+
+“Dinner at Corole’s? That is Miss Letheny?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Dr. Letheny was there?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Anyone else?”
+
+“Yes. Miss Day, Dr. Balman, Dr. Hajek, and a friend of Dr. Letheny’s—a
+Mr. Gainsay. He is an engineer who stopped for a day’s visit with
+them.”
+
+“And you and Miss Letheny?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“You implied that it was—‘queer,’ I think was the word you used. How
+was it queer?”
+
+“Oh—I scarcely know. It was very hot and oppressive you know—that sort
+of electric atmosphere that precedes a thunder storm.”
+
+“Aside from the—er—electricity in the air, was everything quite as
+usual?”
+
+I paused for a long moment before replying.
+
+“No,” I said candidly. “I think we were all a little nervous and
+uneasy on account of the heat and suffocating air. That is, I was. And
+Dr. Letheny—and Miss Day——”
+
+“But not the others?”
+
+“Well——” It was difficult to define that curious tensity I had felt in
+the air all the night. “No one seemed quite natural to me. It may have
+been only I who was a little nervous. I really can’t tell you anything
+definite.”
+
+“Why did you say definitely that Dr. Letheny and Miss Day were unlike
+themselves?”
+
+“Dr. Letheny is a rather quick-spoken man—when you know him you will
+understand what I mean. He goes on his nervous energy, is very
+high-strung and temperamental. He seemed especially explosive last
+night. And Miss Day was a little abstracted, tired, I think.”
+
+“I suppose you talked—played bridge—had a little music?”
+
+“Yes. All of that.”
+
+“Any special topics of conversation?”
+
+“No——”
+
+He noted the uncertainty in my voice.
+
+“Radium wasn’t mentioned?”
+
+“Well—yes. But only in a general way.”
+
+“Didn’t speak of using it? Having it out of the safe?”
+
+“Yes,” I admitted reluctantly.
+
+“Didn’t say for what patient it was being used? In what room?”
+
+“Yes. But only casually.” I explained Dr. Letheny’s request to leave
+the south door unlocked.
+
+“Anything else?”
+
+“Nothing in particular. We just talked of general matters.”
+
+“Such as——”
+
+I glanced at him impatiently.
+
+“Such as?” he repeated.
+
+“Oh—how warm it was, and how everybody longs for something that money
+will buy, and how St. Ann’s is equipped with radios and expensive
+ambulances and a whole gram of radium and how much such things cost
+and all that—and then we played a few hands of bridge and then Dr.
+Letheny played the piano and then Maida—Miss Day—and I came back
+through the orchard to St. Ann’s and changed into our uniforms and
+went on duty.”
+
+“You talked of money and how everybody longs for something that money
+will buy,” mused O’Leary, adding with uncanny intuition, “I suppose
+several of you admitted a special desire for money?”
+
+“Every single one of us,” I confessed. “That is, except Dr. Hajek. He
+just listened and seemed amused.”
+
+He smiled. “Don’t be alarmed over such an admission. That doesn’t mean
+anything, that you all wanted money. Everyone wants money. But suppose
+you tell me, word for word, as much as you can remember of the
+conversation. Don’t be afraid of implicating anyone, Miss Keate. I
+make the request only because I like to get as clear an idea of the
+general surroundings as possible.” He smiled again. He had an
+extraordinarily winning smile; it brightened his whole face, for all
+that it was so brief, and I found myself warming under its influence.
+
+Not seeing how I could possibly harm anyone I repeated as much of our
+conversation as I could remember, and since I have usually a good
+memory I think I omitted very little of it.
+
+When I had finished he sat for some time turning and twisting his
+pencil. I might say that I never but once saw him use that pencil
+sensibly as a pencil is meant to be used. I even grew to cherish a
+notion that the pencil aided his mental processes and that if it were
+taken away from him his ability to think might go along with it. Like
+Samson’s hair, you know. Then I aroused myself from such childish
+speculation.
+
+“If that is all——” I hinted. “This is a busy day for us, you know.”
+
+“Not quite all, Miss Keate.” The smile had completely gone from his
+face; his expression lost its youthfulness and was very grave. “When
+did you last see Dr. Letheny?”
+
+“Last night, shortly after twelve-thirty.”
+
+“He had come to see Mr. Jackson?”
+
+“Yes. He was here only a few moments.”
+
+“You saw him leave?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“And he did not return, to your knowledge?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“He said nothing of leaving town?”
+
+“Nothing.”
+
+“He said nothing that would lead you to believe that he was—er—worried
+about anything? Had had any trouble?”
+
+“Nothing. I really think, Mr. O’Leary, that he will return before the
+day is over. Some accident has detained him. There will be some
+explanation.”
+
+“You—admire Dr. Letheny?” Lance O’Leary was scrutinizing a dripping
+shrub outside the window as he spoke.
+
+“Yes,” I replied dubiously. “That is, he is a splendid surgeon, very
+cool and very daring. I like to assist him.”
+
+“You have known him for a long time?”
+
+“Several years. That is, I have known him as everyone else knows him.
+I do not believe that any of us feel particularly well acquainted with
+him. He is rather distant, very much interested in some research that
+he is carrying on.”
+
+“You don’t know the kind of research—the special subject of study?”
+
+“No.”
+
+There followed a long silence; the rain beat steadily against the
+window; outside in the corridor I heard the sound of the four-o’clock
+nourishment trays being carried along, the glasses of orange-juice and
+egg-nogg clinking together. It was chilly there in the office and I
+shivered a little.
+
+“I do wish that Dr. Letheny would return,” I said. “It is bad for the
+head doctor of St. Ann’s to be away at such a time.”
+
+Lance O’Leary turned slowly to me.
+
+“Dr. Letheny will not return,” he said, eyeing me keenly.
+
+“Not return? What do you mean?”
+
+He shook his head.
+
+“He will not return,” he said very slowly and distinctly. “Dr. Letheny
+is dead.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 4
+
+A Yellow Slicker and Other Problems
+
+The slow words beat their way into my brain like so many dull little
+hammers. I opened my mouth, tried to say something, but could not seem
+to make him hear, felt curiously sick and dizzy, had a flashing memory
+of the first time I served in the operating room and all at once the
+table before me began to waver, the room whirled, and a great black
+blanket overwhelmed me.
+
+Then, without any interval at all, I found myself lying on the couch
+in the inner office. I still felt sick but my face was wet and cold
+and my uniform damp around my shoulders and someone was saying in a
+dull voice: “Dr. Letheny is dead—Dr. Letheny is dead.”
+
+“All right now, Miss Keate?” inquired a voice anxiously.
+
+Wearily I opened my eyes, saw a gray arm and met the gaze of a pair of
+clear gray eyes. Instantly my head cleared. I pushed away the
+supporting arm and sat up, feeling automatically for my cap, though my
+hands shook.
+
+“That was beastly to shock you so,” Lance O’Leary was saying with
+honest contrition. “I hope you’ll forgive me, Miss Keate, I’m really
+awfully sorry.”
+
+“Did you say—Dr. Letheny is dead?” I asked, bringing out the words
+with the peculiar difficulty that one experiences in dreams.
+
+“He is dead,” he answered gravely.
+
+“Not—not—— Tell me how he died.”
+
+“Are you sure you can stand it? You’ve got to know sometime.”
+
+“Go on,” I said, bracing myself.
+
+“He has been dead for more than twelve hours. He was in the closet in
+Room 18.” He paused, regarding me doubtfully, but at my horrified
+gesture continued: “He had received a blow of some kind. It fractured
+his skull. He must have died immediately.”
+
+“Wait.” Rising I walked to the window, stared with unseeing eyes at
+the rain-drenched landscape, found my palms were stinging under the
+pressure of my fingernails, unclinched my hands, clinched them again
+and turned to face O’Leary. It was true that I had felt no fondness
+for Dr. Letheny—but I had often worked at his side.
+
+“I say, Miss Keate,” Lance O’Leary was protesting boyishly, “I’m
+awfully sorry to have been so brutal about it. But you see, I had to
+know whether this was news to you or not. Someone locked that closet
+door, you know. And in my business we suspect everything—everybody—the
+very walls themselves.”
+
+I was too deeply shocked to be indignant at the lack of compliment in
+his implication; after a moment he continued.
+
+“There is nothing more for you to help me with now,” he said. “We just
+found Dr. Letheny’s body this afternoon when we pried the closet door
+off its hinges. I examined everything at once, called the ambulance,
+and now the room can be cleaned and used again. The only reminder you
+will have of all this, I hope, is that I shall likely be about more or
+less for a few days—or longer. That depends upon the luck I have.” He
+smiled again. Evidently he was trying to be as considerate as possible
+and I found myself liking him. “Of course, there will have to be a
+coroner’s inquest, but that is merely a matter of form and need not
+annoy you. That is all now, thank you, Miss Keate. Can’t you take some
+rest? Do you have night duty again to-night?”
+
+“Yes,” I answered the last question. “Mr. O’Leary, do you have any
+idea as to who—who has done this?”
+
+His face sobered instantly.
+
+“No,” he said simply. “Will you help me find out?”
+
+“Yes.” I spoke very thoughtfully. “It is only right and just to do
+so.”
+
+“Thank you.” He seemed sincere. “You may be interested to know that
+you have helped me already.”
+
+“Helped you! How? There was nothing I told you——”
+
+“I’ll see you again, Miss Keate. By the way, I am leaving one or two
+policemen about to-night. It may help to steady some of the nerves in
+St. Ann’s.” He opened the door and before I knew it I was in the main
+hall with my question still unanswered.
+
+I still felt ill and weak from shock, and it was fortunate that the
+exigencies of the situation demanded action. That was the only saving
+feature of these fearful days; we were all so busy that we had little
+time for brooding.
+
+The news could not be kept from the nursing staff, of course, though I
+hoped that we could keep it from the patients, many of whom had been
+directly under Dr. Letheny’s care. And there was Corole—in common
+decency I must go to her.
+
+I snatched somebody’s slicker from the rack near the main door and
+turned into the corridor leading to the south wing, intending to slip
+out the south door and along the path to Corole’s cottage, it being
+much closer that way.
+
+In the corridor I met Dr. Balman.
+
+“I have heard,” I said briefly. “I am going to see Corole.”
+
+He nodded.
+
+“At the request of the Board of Directors I shall take Dr. Letheny’s
+place—temporarily at least. I have just called a meeting of the whole
+nursing staff, Miss Keate. You were with Mr. O’Leary so I did not
+disturb you. I told them of the situation, gave orders that this thing
+must not get to the ears of the patients, suspended training classes
+for a few days, and doubled the number of girls on duty in the various
+wings and wards until we get a working routine established. I find
+that the girls are nervous over being alone.” He spoke very calmly,
+but his extreme pallor caught my eye.
+
+“You had better get some rest, Dr. Balman. And have that bruise on
+your cheek attended to—it looks bad.”
+
+He passed his hand over the bruise.
+
+“I bumped it while running through the apple orchard last night. I
+wasted no time after I talked to Miss Day over the telephone.”
+
+“Oh—then you came by the side road?”
+
+“Yes. Thought I’d save time by not going around by the main entrance.
+I didn’t expect this.” He fingered the spot cautiously.
+
+“Put iodine on it,” I advised.
+
+“I’ll sleep here in the hospital for a while,” he said. “I’ll be there
+on the couch in the inner office. So if there is anything wanted I
+shall be right here.”
+
+I nodded approvingly and went on, but while hurrying through the
+corridor I became conscious of something about the casual sentences
+that affected me disagreeably. What was it? Ah! “I bumped it while
+running through the apple orchard.” To be sure he had followed the
+words immediately with a very reasonable explanation, but wasn’t that
+in itself suspicious! On the other hand, however, I had been quite
+sure that the man with whom I collided had been Jim Gainsay.
+
+Well, there was no way to make sure. And I resolved that I must not
+allow myself to become suspicious of anything and everything. The
+affair was strain enough on one’s nerves as it was, without adding the
+horror of suspecting one’s nearest associates.
+
+Immersed in my own not too pleasant thoughts I passed the door of Room
+18 without seeing it, an occurrence that I was to find unusual. On the
+porch stood a policeman, his broad back to the door, but he made no
+effort to stop me when I descended the steps. Once in the path the
+trees dripped steadily on my head, the wind blew the light slicker so
+that it was difficult to hold it around me, and I bent my head and ran
+through the damp welter of leaves and small sticks, with the branches
+of the trees sweeping so low as to brush my hair and cap, and the
+shrubbery reaching out thorny twigs to clutch at my white skirt. It
+was shadowy there in the orchard and the hospital soon disappeared
+behind the intervening shrubbery and trees and gray mist. It was
+nearing five o’clock by that time and already growing dark so that the
+path was not an altogether agreeable place in which to linger.
+
+I turned another little bend that sloped rapidly down to the bridge
+and almost ran into a tall figure that was leaning upon the railing.
+At my startled exclamation it turned to face me. It was Jim Gainsay, a
+sodden hat pulled low over his eyes and the collar of his capacious
+tweed coat turned up. He was smoking (it was a pipe I noted, thinking
+of the cigarette case) and casting pebbles across the water, which is
+not a rainy day pastime.
+
+“Oh. It’s you.” I said.
+
+“Miss Keate! Say, you are the very person I’ve been wanting to see.
+Can you tell me something of poor old Louis?”
+
+“Louis? Oh, you mean Dr. Letheny.” I suppose I paled a little at the
+name. At any rate Gainsay glanced sharply at me.
+
+“I didn’t mean to—disturb you,” he said apologetically. “You see, I
+only heard of it an hour or so ago, and only what that fellow O’Leary
+told me. Don’t talk if you would rather not.”
+
+“Then I know no more than you, for the detective, Mr. O’Leary, told me
+of it, too. Of course, it was a shock.”
+
+Jim Gainsay nodded, his gaze again on the little stream that, swollen
+by the night’s rain, swept in a bubbling current almost to our feet.
+
+“Poor old Louis,” he muttered.
+
+“You have known him a long time?” I said absently, my eyes too on the
+water.
+
+“Since university days,” said Jim Gainsay slowly. “I always liked
+Louis though I can’t say I understood him; no one ever did. In the
+last few years I have seen him only a few times. It was terrible to—go
+like that. Do they have any idea as to who—who killed him?”
+
+“Not that I know of,” I said and shivered at the thought of the black
+night so recently past and of the unknown and ghastly presence that
+Room 18 had held. And I had taken that futile little candle and
+searched the room for the thing that some sixth sense warned me was
+there! I shivered again and caught my breath and Jim Gainsay turned to
+me again.
+
+“Don’t let me keep you out here in the storm. You are cold in that
+slicker thing.”
+
+“A little. I am going to see Corole. How does she take it?”
+
+Jim Gainsay’s frown deepened.
+
+“I hardly know. I can’t understand her any better than I could
+understand Louis. She looked—sort of bad—this morning. Tired, you
+know. And kept saying Louis would return. But she was terribly
+nervous. Prowled over the house like a cat.” He shrugged in distaste.
+“Fairly gave me the creeps to watch her. Then when they came up to the
+house to tell her that—that they had found him she just sort of froze
+all up. Hardly said a word.”
+
+“Wasn’t she dreadfully shocked?”
+
+“Well—I don’t know. You never can tell how Corole is feeling or what
+she is thinking about. Of course, she and Louis sort of got on each
+other’s nerves a little. That is—you know what I mean——” He glanced at
+me uncertainly.
+
+“I know.”
+
+“I suppose St. Ann’s is awfully upset?”
+
+“We are trying to keep everything going as well as possible. It is a
+bad situation, naturally. The nurses are doing their best but there is
+a sort of undercurrent of hysteria.” My mind on Corole, I did not
+immediately note where his inquiries were leading.
+
+“Miss Day was with you in the south wing last night, was she not?” He
+knocked his pipe carefully against the railing.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“How—er—— Is she feeling any bad effects from the fright?”
+
+“I have seen her only for a few moments at lunch,” I replied; at
+another time I should have smiled at his elaborately impersonal air.
+
+“I—don’t suppose I could see her? For a little while?”
+
+“She will be free between six and seven o’clock. But we are allowing
+no visitors for a few days . . .” My voice trailed doubtfully into
+space.
+
+“But see here, Miss Keate, I—it is important that I see her.” He spoke
+rather defiantly as if he dared me to ask why. “Will you carry a note
+to her, then?”
+
+Well, I was willing to carry a note to Maida, so I shivered under the
+folds of the flapping slicker while he stood with his back to the rain
+and wind, scribbling hastily on a bit of yellowish paper he pulled
+from his pocket. He held the paper close to him to protect it from the
+rain but I noted that it was an unused Western Union telegraph blank.
+
+“There, and thank you, Miss Keate.” He handed me the folded scrap of
+paper and I slipped it into my pocket.
+
+But at the end of the bridge I turned.
+
+“Why, Mr. Gainsay,” I exclaimed. “I had forgotten. You were to leave
+this morning!”
+
+His face had lost the youthful look with which he had begged me to
+take the note to Maida, and had become lined again, and his narrowed
+eyes were unfathomable under that shadowy hat brim.
+
+“I shall not go for a few days,” he said after a barely perceptible
+pause. “I can scarcely leave at such a time. Louis was a friend. They
+have no relatives here. Corole needs someone.”
+
+His disjointed explanation did not please me. I restrained a rather
+obvious remark as to chaperonage; after all, Huldah was a militant and
+vigorous enough chaperon to suit the most meticulous Mrs. Grundy.
+
+I daresay, however, that my disapproval was apparent in my expression,
+for Jim Gainsay added hastily:
+
+“My boat doesn’t sail till next week.”
+
+“Your boat?”
+
+“I’m to sail on the _Tuscania_.”
+
+“Oh,” I said flatly, and there being nothing further I took my way on
+around the hill.
+
+The Letheny cottage looked cold and grim as I approached it. Puddles
+stood along the turf path; the flowers were beaten down by the wind
+and leaves had blown all over the porch. Huldah answered the bell, her
+eyes red and swollen and the cap that Corole had forced her to adopt
+hanging dejectedly over one ear.
+
+“Miss Keate!” she cried. “And so wet!” She took my slicker, holding it
+so it could not drip on the rug. “Oh, Miss Keate! Such a t’ing! Such a
+t’ing!” It is only when Huldah is tremendously moved that she forgets
+her digraphs.
+
+“Yes, it is dreadful, Huldah,” I said. “How is Miss Corole?”
+
+Huldah shrugged her heavy shoulders oddly.
+
+“There she is, in the study.” She motioned toward the door without
+answering my question and then followed me, her china-blue eyes
+curious and round like a rabbit’s between their pink rims.
+
+“Oh, it’s you,” said Corole with not very flattering indifference.
+“For Heaven’s sake, Huldah, take that wet coat to the kitchen. And
+close the door behind you,” she added viciously. “I suppose you came
+to offer sympathy,” she went on, moving a pillow to a more comfortable
+position under her arm. She was half-lying, half-sitting on the big
+davenport. A fire had been built in the fireplace but had burned down
+to a few sullen ashes with a red gleam here and there. There was no
+light in the room beyond the gray, rainy dusk from the windows.
+
+Corole’s hair was disarranged a little from its usual flat gold waves,
+and her eyes had great dark circles under them, and her face in the
+ghostly gray light was sallow and drawn. But she was gowned in a
+coppery-green silk thing that clung smoothly to her rather luxuriant
+curves. A heavily embroidered Chinese scarf, whose usual place, I
+recalled, was on the long table near her, had been flung over her feet
+and somehow, I presume because she glanced obliquely at it and reached
+surreptitiously to rearrange it, I got the impression that she had
+hastily flung it over her feet as I came into the room.
+
+“Yes,” I replied gravely. “I am very sorry that this thing has
+happened.”
+
+“Oh, of course, it is terrible,” she agreed quickly. “The whole thing
+is simply unspeakable.”
+
+There was little for us to say; I offered the usual remarks; Corole
+told me that Dr. Letheny’s body would be sent to New Orleans for
+burial with others of the family and thanked me perfunctorily for my
+offers of assistance.
+
+“Jim Gainsay is staying on for a few days,” she said. “Nice of him but
+I really don’t see what he can do.” There was a faint ring of
+resentment in her voice that surprised me. Corole was not a woman to
+resent masculine company.
+
+“I suppose Huldah is making you comfortable?” I said for lack of
+something better.
+
+“Oh, yes,” replied Corole discontentedly. “She does as well as usual.
+She was awfully upset about all this. Jumps every time I speak to
+her.”
+
+“Would you like someone to come and stay with you for a few days?”
+
+“No,” said Corole sharply. “No. Why should I?”
+
+“Oh—in case of anything—er—happening. I should think you would be a
+little nervous.” My explanation sounded somewhat lame and I recalled
+that Corole actually had no idea of the things we had gone through
+last night. . . . A swift recollection of that shallow, locked closet
+in Room 18 came to me and I arose suddenly, moved to another chair,
+and tried to think of something else.
+
+“. . . not that Huldah would be any good if something did happen,”
+Corole was saying. “She would simply pull the covers over her head and
+shriek. But there’s Jim.” She added the last name grudgingly as if to
+say, “such as he is,” and lapsed into silence.
+
+“I must get back to the hospital,” I said presently, not seeing that
+my presence was vital to Corole.
+
+“I don’t suppose they have any idea as to what happened to the
+radium,” she observed casually as I arose.
+
+“No. I don’t know what to think.”
+
+“It would seem natural to believe that whoever killed Mr. Jackson
+and—er—Louis—did so in order to get the radium.”
+
+“So it would seem,” I agreed. “For my part, I have not had time to
+speculate on possibilities. It is—too shocking.”
+
+“Don’t you think that they will try to trace the radium?”
+
+“I don’t think anything about it,” I replied caustically. Her interest
+in the radium annoyed me. I felt repelled at her callous lack of
+grief. Suppose she and Dr. Letheny had not been on the best of terms,
+nevertheless they were cousins and housemates.
+
+“Well,” she kept on, “it all seems very strange. Didn’t you see or
+hear a thing while all that was going on?” Her catlike eyes, whose
+pupils shone large and flat and black in the semi-twilight, flickered
+over me with interest.
+
+“No,” I said shortly. I did not relish being questioned by Corole
+Letheny. “If there is nothing I can do for you I am going.”
+
+“No need to be in a hurry,” she said indolently, yawning a little as
+she moved with a luxuriant stretching of muscles to a more comfortable
+position among the cushions.
+
+“Good-night,” I said curtly. “And do have some light!” As I spoke I
+reached abruptly for the lamp cord, pulled it, and the green light
+fell on the davenport.
+
+Corole sprang upright with a startled half word, clutched the Chinese
+scarf and pulled it more securely over her feet.
+
+“Good-night,” I said again and left.
+
+Huldah was waiting in the hall. As I took my coat it seemed to me that
+there was something hesitant in her attitude, as if she wanted to
+speak to me, but I was in a hurry and furthermore in no mood to
+condole with her. So I threw the slicker over my shoulders and
+splashed along the sodden path.
+
+I scarcely noticed the rain, however, nor the cold discomforts of the
+path. When I entered the south wing and slipped quietly along its
+hushed length, I was still rotating in my mind a certain question.
+
+When the light had flashed on there in Dr. Letheny’s study, I had
+caught a brief but distinct view of Corole’s slippers. They were
+beautiful pumps, high-heeled bronze kid with dainty, cut-steel
+buckles. But they were mud-stained and sodden with moisture and had
+wet leafmold clinging to them.
+
+Where had Corole Letheny gone that afternoon? What errand had been so
+urgent that she had gone out of the house through the rain and storm
+in such haste that she had not had time to remove those dainty
+slippers?
+
+Facing my own white, tired face in the mirror, I pushed my loosened
+hair together, removed little torn pieces of leaves from it and
+righted my cap. My shoes were soaked, so I changed them. Premonitory
+pangs of neuralgia began to shoot over my left temple, and I wished
+that I had not stood so long in the rain talking to Jim Gainsay.
+
+With the thought came memory of the note with which I had been
+intrusted and I planned to give it to Maida at dinner; the bell was
+just ringing for the meal, then.
+
+In my abstraction I had worn the borrowed slicker to my room; as I
+started down to the dining room I threw it over my arm. Idly wondering
+whose coat I had appropriated I ran my hand into a pocket, drawing out
+a man’s handkerchief. It was large and white and had no distinguishing
+marks on it. But there was a faint scent—I pressed the square of linen
+to my nose, sniffed—and sniffed again with quickened interest. Faint
+but unmistakable, the scent of ether emanated from its folds.
+
+I stopped midway on the stairs, stared at the thing and deliberately
+went through the other pockets. There was nothing more to be found; no
+identifying label or initials on the whole garment.
+
+One yellow slicker is very much like another, and search though I did
+I found no means of discovering its owner. I felt, however, that I
+should like to have the ether smell clinging to that handkerchief
+explained. Possibly if I returned it to the rack and watched to see
+who came for it I should learn, at least, the identity of its owner.
+Thinking that no one would call for it during the dinner hour, the
+quietest time of the whole day, I replaced the handkerchief and hung
+the slicker on the hook from which I had taken it, and went down to
+dinner. But when I returned some fifteen minutes later, after hurrying
+over my dinner, the slicker was gone and I had not the faintest idea
+as to who had removed it.
+
+I gave the note from Jim Gainsay to Maida when I met her in the hall
+outside the dining room and had the dubious satisfaction of seeing her
+crimson vividly as she read it. The crimson, however, was succeeded by
+a pallor that went to her lips as she finished reading the few
+sentences, and during the meal she kept her eyes steadfastly on her
+plate and ate practically nothing. And shortly after dinner, happening
+to be standing near an east window, I saw a slim, shadowy figure,
+crowned in a white cap, winding its way into the apple orchard.
+Something after seven o’clock, when I was catching forty winks in my
+own room, Maida came in. The soft frame of black hair around her face
+had little beads of mist caught in it and I did not doubt that Jim
+Gainsay had succeeded in seeing her.
+
+She did not mention him, however, but fussed around the room for a
+while, playing with the manicure things I had left on the
+dressing-table top, flipping through the leaves of the last _Surgical
+News_, and generally behaving as a woman does whose thoughts are
+elsewhere. She even picked up my tool kit, commenting on the curved
+bandage scissors and shining forceps and playing idly with the tiny
+plunger of my own hypodermic set.
+
+We said nothing of the affair of the previous night; it was too
+recent, its developments too terrifying; we were both, I suppose,
+unconsciously fortifying ourselves against the ordeal of the coming
+second watch, which the memory of the last was not calculated to make
+easier.
+
+Maida had two crimson spots on her cheeks—from the walk in the rain, I
+judged—but her eyes had slender purple shadows under them, her hands,
+usually so steady, fluttered a little over the tools she was
+fingering, she either spoke too rapidly of some trivial matter or
+lapsed into silence, and when someone passing coughed suddenly Maida
+started visibly, the pupils of her eyes darkened swiftly, and she cast
+a quick, apprehensive glance over her shoulder toward the door.
+
+But since it was only to be expected that we both show the strain of
+the last twenty-four hours, I thought nothing of her evident
+uneasiness.
+
+She had not been in the room more than half an hour when I was called
+to the third-floor telephone. The connection was poor and it took a
+few moments to find that it was Miss Neil who was wanted, and when I
+returned to my own room Maida had gone and I did not see her again
+until we met in the south wing at twelve o’clock.
+
+Contrary to our unacknowledged apprehensions, second watch that night
+went much the same as on other nights. The electric lights had finally
+been repaired, though the utmost illumination was little enough to
+suit my taste. Just in front of the south door a policeman, tipped
+perilously back in his chair, slumbered spasmodically and I must say
+that, though he was no beauty, he was a most agreeable sight.
+
+Fortunately for our piece of mind, it was a busy night. We actually
+needed the extra help, Olma Flynn and a student nurse, and the two
+extra uniforms, here and there about the wing, made it seem a little
+less silent and ghostly.
+
+Along about two o’clock Sonny’s light went on and I answered it.
+
+“Why, hello, Miss Keate,” he said, as I turned on the light above his
+bed. “You haven’t been in to see me since last night.”
+
+Was it only last night?
+
+“I’ve been busy, Sonny,” I replied. “How is the cast doing?”
+
+“It was pretty bad last night.” He moved a little to ease his tired
+body. “It is better to-night, though. Quite a lot more comfortable.
+What happened last night, Miss Keate? I heard somebody scream.”
+
+“One of the girls had a little fright.” I made my explanation casually
+but Sonny’s gaze remained puzzled.
+
+“To-day has been so queer, too. So many people in and out and strange
+footsteps past the door. And this afternoon, about two o’clock, they
+shut all the doors and I heard the wheels of a truck being taken along
+the corridor. Did—did one of the patients die, Miss Keate?”
+
+When I can’t tell the truth I made it a rule to tell as near the truth
+as possible.
+
+“One of the patients died, Sonny. He was an old gentleman.”
+
+“Oh,” said Sonny, eyeing me doubtfully. I reached over to straighten
+his sheets. Through long hours of suffering, of lying helpless in bed
+and being at times rather nearer the other world than this, Sonny has
+developed a highly sensitive intuition.
+
+“Oh,” he said again. He was not satisfied but had good manners. “Did
+you have a nice time at the party?” he asked cheerfully.
+
+“At the party—— Why, no, Sonny. It—er—wasn’t a very nice party. It was
+too hot.”
+
+“I guess Miss Day didn’t get time to come in and tell me about it. I
+looked for her. But she must have been too busy.”
+
+“But I thought——” I checked myself abruptly, continuing: “Maybe she
+will come in to see you to-night. What is it you wanted, Sonny?”
+
+“Just a fresh drink, please. And would you change my pillows?”
+
+I brought the fresh drink and made him as comfortable as possible.
+
+So Maida had not been in to see Sonny last night after all! And she
+had volunteered the information, I remembered; I had not even asked
+for it. I deliberated over the matter for some time before I came to
+the reluctant conclusion that only an affair of importance would have
+brought Maida to the point of telling a deliberate lie. Which
+conclusion did not lighten my state of mind.
+
+The night didn’t go so well after that.
+
+From midnight until four o’clock are the dreaded hours of St. Ann’s
+régime. They are gray, cold, dreary hours—hours when pulses lag most
+feebly, when the breath comes most wearily, when life seems a burden
+that is all too easily escaped and the other world seems so near that
+the nurse must cling to her patients with all her will to keep them
+from making that quiet, easy journey. It is one of the demands of our
+profession that the most is asked of our strength at a time when it is
+at its lowest ebb.
+
+Last night there had been two dead men in our wing—and dead by
+another’s hands. Whose hand had it been?
+
+Somehow during those black hours in that hushed and shadowy wing the
+thing that struck me with the most horror, that brought my heart,
+quivering, to my throat and gooseflesh all up my arms, was the memory
+of that locked closet.
+
+Dead men can’t walk. Dead men can’t carry keys. Dead men can’t lock
+doors.
+
+Who had locked that door? We _must_ believe that it was some intruder,
+someone outside our little circle at St. Ann’s. And surely the police
+had searched the place and that fearful intruder could not still be
+about, hidden in some recess of the dark old halls and passageways.
+
+And yet—who would be familiar with the plan of St. Ann’s? Who would
+know that the radium was in use? Who, indeed, would know of its value?
+
+Eleven’s signal light clicked and I hastened to answer, putting down
+the chart at which I had been staring without even seeing its red
+temperature line.
+
+I found Eleven in a chill, which was followed, as I expected, by a
+raging fever under which he grew steadily delirious. Dr. Balman’s
+orders for the night had included an opiate if conditions warranted
+it, so I went to the drug room.
+
+The drug room is at the north end of the wing, directly opposite the
+diet kitchen. We always keep there a small supply of drugs for which
+we have frequent need. We do not keep the door locked as the drugs are
+in small quantities. In the drug room, too, we keep the various tools
+we are apt to need, among them a hypodermic syringe and a supply of
+needles. During the week past the syringe belonging to the south wing
+had got something wrong with its small plunger and Maida had brought
+her own outfit down for us to use, which had reposed beside the broken
+one in a drawer.
+
+Pulling open this drawer I lifted the only syringe it contained and
+found it to be the broken one. Maida must be using the other, I
+reflected, and after waiting a few moments for her to return it I
+started out to find her.
+
+She was in the kitchen, preparing a malted milk.
+
+“May I have the hypo?” I asked hurriedly.
+
+“The hypodermic syringe?”
+
+“Of course. I need it at once.”
+
+“Isn’t it in the drug room?” She was measuring the cream-coloured
+powder carefully.
+
+“No. I thought you had it.”
+
+“I haven’t used it to-night.” She did not look at me.
+
+“I’ll see if Miss Flynn has it.” I turned quickly away. But Miss Flynn
+did not have it, and had not had it. She hinted that I must have
+overlooked it and even walked back to the drug room with me, pulling
+out the drawer with her own hand.
+
+“Why, there it is!” she exclaimed triumphantly.
+
+And to be sure, there it was!
+
+I was considerably chagrined, especially as Miss Flynn laughed and
+said something not at all witty about my eyesight.
+
+And in the very act of filling the thing I caught sight of something
+that almost made me drop it. It was only a scratch across the bit of
+nickel where the manufacturer’s name is engraved but it was a scratch
+I myself had made in order to identify it. In a hospital it is easy to
+get such things confused, so I had simply taken a pair of surgical
+scissors and scratched across the letter “K” which appeared in the
+manufacturer’s name, Kesselbach.
+
+My own hypodermic syringe! How had it got there? Like a flash my mind
+reverted to the memory of Maida, sitting on the edge of the window
+sill, looking at my tool kit and taking this same tool in her
+pink-tipped fingers.
+
+I administered the hypodermic automatically, sterilized the needle and
+replaced it, and returned to Eleven.
+
+But in that darkened room, listening to the gradually less rapid
+breathing of the sick man, and the still gusty wind and rain through
+which a slow gray dawn was beginning to make itself felt, I found
+myself possessed of new problems.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 5
+
+A Lapis Cuff Link
+
+From that morning on I took an active interest in the case—I mean, in
+solving the problem. Indeed, Mr. O’Leary has had the kindness to say,
+since, that I helped—well, I need not repeat his words. However, it is
+true that I did everything in my power, which was little enough, to
+solve the mystery that confronted us. While I am not at all
+inquisitive, nevertheless I do have an inquiring mind, due doubtless
+to the fact that I have lived in a hospital for a number of years and
+hospitals are hotbeds of gossip. Not malicious gossip, you understand,
+for nurses are one class of women in the world who can keep the faith
+which the ethics of the profession as well as individual integrity
+demand.
+
+But anything that happens in our small world is of interest; the
+patient in the charity ward who almost swallowed a thermometer and had
+to be up-ended and shaken, the precipitate arrival of a new baby in a
+roadster out in front of the hospital, or the alcoholic whose language
+shocked—or diverted as the case might be—a whole wing.
+
+Besides the fact that the murders had occurred in the south wing, for
+which I feel a responsibility—the wing, I mean, not the murders!—there
+were other and as serious considerations. Chief among these was the
+affair of the hypodermic syringe and Maida’s inexplicable behaviour
+the night of the seventh, and the presence of Jim Gainsay as testified
+by that gold cigarette case.
+
+A hospital ought to be sanctuary and it seemed to me an offense
+against all the laws of humanity that this hideous thing should have
+happened within our walls of mercy. I deliberately tried to put myself
+in the frame of mind to be suspicious about anything and
+everything—and I trust it is no reflection on my character to say that
+I succeeded without much effort.
+
+I found plenty to be suspicious about, and without going out of the
+way to do so. The only trouble was that, though I pride myself on
+being a keen and clear-minded woman and have more than the usual
+amount of determination, I could not arrive at any conclusion.
+
+I worried all day about Maida, however, and when Lance O’Leary turned
+up about four o’clock, with a polite request for an interview, I did
+not know whether to be glad or sorry.
+
+We went into the general waiting room to talk. It was a chilly place,
+with slippery leather-covered furniture and on the wall a none too
+cheerful picture of the burning of Joan of Arc. The weather had
+settled into a steady, dripping rain by that time, the clouds were
+still heavy, and the very concrete steps of the main entrance, just
+below the windows, oozed moisture. It was an added distress that not
+once during those strange days did we see the sun. Everything we
+touched was damp and cold and sweaty.
+
+O’Leary was as meticulously groomed as he had been the day before, but
+there was about him a sort of quiet but intense concentration that
+seemed to detach him from ordinary affairs of the world. I have seen
+the same thing in the face of an artist I used to know—and in the face
+of a dear and saintly old nun under whom I trained.
+
+There was nothing, however, of the poseur about him. He was ordinarily
+rather silent, was occasionally oddly boyish and young, was simple and
+direct—it was his unconscious absorption that marked him. And those
+extraordinarily clear gray eyes.
+
+He asked a few commonplace questions as to how I felt, and were things
+going well, and was the policeman of any use. Then, he reached
+absently into his pocket and drew out the stubby red pencil.
+
+“Miss Day was your assistant in the wing the night of the seventh?”
+
+“Yes. We have second watch together this two weeks.”
+
+“How long has she been here at St. Ann’s?”
+
+“Three years.”
+
+“She is a good nurse, I judge? Cool and restrained?”
+
+“One of the best.”
+
+“She is a friend of yours?”
+
+“I admire her very much,” I said warmly. “She is a girl of high moral
+character, thoroughly honourable and reliable.”
+
+“M’h’m——” He began to roll the inevitable little pencil.
+
+“I suppose a nurse becomes fairly well acquainted with the other
+nurses, as well as the doctors, who frequent the hospital?”
+
+“Yes,” I said doubtfully, not seeing just where his questions were
+tending.
+
+“Miss Day looks to be a girl of strong likes and dislikes.”
+
+Well, that was perfectly true so I contented myself with a nod.
+
+“She was a good friend of Miss Letheny’s and—of the doctor’s?”
+
+“Not—particularly,” I said slowly. “We were all on friendly terms.
+Corole had us over there often.”
+
+“Did Miss Day work much with Dr. Letheny?”
+
+“About as I did. She is a good surgical nurse.”
+
+“You mean she is efficient in assisting with operations?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“I suppose that requires—nerve? Courage? A cool hand?”
+
+“Yes.” I was beginning to feel uneasy.
+
+He paused for a moment, his gray eyes on the heavy clouds beyond the
+window.
+
+“Tell me again, Miss Keate, just what you did when you first found
+that Mr. Jackson was dead.”
+
+“I left Room 18 and went to get a candle. When I returned Miss Day was
+in the doorway of Eighteen. There was a flash of lightning, and I saw
+her and she spoke to me.”
+
+“What did she say?”
+
+“Just something about the storm. She had been closing windows in the
+wing.”
+
+“Did she know that Jackson was dead?”
+
+“Why, no! Not until I lit the candle and she saw him.”
+
+“She was surprised, of course?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Then, as I understand it, she went through the dark corridor to the
+general office to telephone to Dr. Letheny. Was she willing to go? Or
+was she—reluctant?”
+
+“I—she——”
+
+He caught my hesitation.
+
+“She did not wish to telephone to him?”
+
+“The corridor was so dark you could hardly see your hand before you,”
+I remarked crisply. “And it was storming.”
+
+“Of course, of course,” said O’Leary pacifically.
+
+“Miss Letheny told Miss Day that the doctor was out,” he went on
+quietly. “Then she, Miss Day, had the presence of mind to call Dr.
+Balman. I suppose she knew his telephone number? Or was there some
+kind of light in the office?”
+
+“She asked Information for the number.”
+
+“Then Dr. Balman came out here at once?”
+
+“Yes. He was here in just a few moments. He lives at the first
+apartment house off Lake Street and it is only a short drive.”
+
+“In the meantime you waked Dr. Hajek?”
+
+“Yes. He sleeps in that little room that opens into the general
+office. He usually answers ’phone calls at night and—keeps an eye on
+things. Unless he is asleep,” I added waspishly, thinking of how
+soundly he had slept when we needed him most.
+
+“Why did not Miss Day call Dr. Hajek, when she called Dr. Balman?”
+
+“She did try to but could not wake him. But Dr. Balman was Dr.
+Letheny’s assistant and should be called in a matter of such
+importance.”
+
+“Then you called Dr. Hajek yourself. I suppose you told him what had
+happened.”
+
+“No. I was so excited that I just told him to go at once to Room 18. I
+even pushed him toward the door.” I smiled a little. “I took him by
+the coat and——”
+
+“Took him by the coat? Then he was fully dressed!” O’Leary’s gaze
+pierced mine.
+
+“Yes.” I paused as a certain recollection thrust itself upon me. “He
+must have been outside! In the rain!”
+
+“Why do you say that?”
+
+“His coat was damp.”
+
+O’Leary studied the pencil for a long time.
+
+“Then what happened?” he asked finally in an inflectionless voice.
+
+“Why—then—then I got hold of some lights and went back to Eighteen.
+They were all there, Maida and Dr. Hajek and Dr. Balman. They were
+just staring at the patient and doing nothing. Dr. Balman told me that
+he had died of an overdose of morphine. Of course, I knew that not a
+grain of morphine had been ordered. So that meant that it was done
+purposely. It was while we were standing there that——” I stopped. No
+need to tell that!
+
+But he glanced at me quickly.
+
+“Go on, Miss Keate.”
+
+“It was nothing.”
+
+“Then you should not object to telling of it.”
+
+“Well,” I began reluctantly, “it was only that, as we were standing
+there, all at once there was a tiny bit of red that came from the
+hypodermic wound. You know the little pin prick where the needle has
+been inserted. It was——” I coughed to hide the tremble in my voice.
+“It was—very unusual.”
+
+I could see that Lance O’Leary, for all his professional frigidity,
+was somewhat shaken, for his hands gripped the pencil tightly and he
+drew a deliberate breath.
+
+“That old superstition means nothing,” he said. “But it must have
+been—grisly. And there were only you and Miss Day and Dr. Hajek and
+Dr. Balman in the room?”
+
+My throat being dry I made an assenting gesture.
+
+“And—Dr. Letheny in the closet,” added O’Leary softly.
+
+At that I must have gone quite pale, for Lance O’Leary, eyeing me with
+that oddly lucid gaze, spoke abruptly, as if to distract my thoughts.
+
+“I believe you are a woman of some discretion.”
+
+“I ought to be! At my age.”
+
+“The fact inclines one to talk with you,” he said drily. “Look here,
+Miss Keate, this is not going to be an easy job. In the first place it
+is obvious that the guilty person is very likely someone who is
+familiar with St. Ann’s.” I made some protestant motion and he went
+on: “Surely that has occurred to you?”
+
+“Yes,” I replied in a small voice.
+
+“Why?”
+
+“Because it must have been someone who knew that the radium was being
+used and in what room.”
+
+“And one who was familiar enough with the hospital routine to know the
+best time to enter the wing unobserved,” said O’Leary.
+
+“That eliminates Jim Gainsay,” I remarked without thinking.
+
+He regarded me keenly.
+
+“We will come to him later,” he said. “As to the radium—yes, I think
+we can assume that the radium theft was at least one of the motives.
+Its disappearance indicates that, though it might be merely a blind.
+But the radium is very valuable, a small fortune to many men. As a
+matter of routine we have taken steps to insure the immediate
+reporting of anyone trying to dispose of a quantity of radium. I do
+not expect to hear from this, however, for the person who has the
+radium will naturally wait until this affair has blown over before
+attempting to sell the stuff. Yes, the radium theft may account for
+the death of Jackson but not for Dr. Letheny. At least not unless——”
+
+“Unless he caught the thief?” I interrupted eagerly.
+
+“If that were true, how account for his stealthy return to St. Ann’s
+and the fact that he did not call for help?” He paused but I said
+nothing and he continued: “Then there is the obvious conjecture that
+the person who administered the morphine must have been either so
+skilled that he could do so without awaking Jackson, or someone to
+whom the patient was accustomed. Dr. Letheny had charge of the case——”
+
+“Dr. Hajek helped him some,” I blurted. “And Dr. Balman was in to see
+him once or twice. And there were the nurses——”
+
+“Then it appears to lie between Dr. Hajek and Dr. Balman and you and
+Miss Day,” said O’Leary all too coolly. I gasped and he went on: “And
+the unknown element which is always to be considered. We can’t tell
+which died first—Dr. Letheny or his patient. We do not even know for
+certain whether Dr. Letheny met his death inside the walls of the
+hospital or not, but I have reason to believe that it was in Room 18.
+Otherwise it would have been difficult and purposeless, so far as I
+can see, to convey his body into the room and into that closet. Almost
+impossible for a woman,” he added as if in afterthought, and his eyes
+on that aggravating pencil. “I am inclined to think that the sound you
+heard and believed to be a window dropping to the sill was actually
+the blow that meant death for Dr. Letheny.”
+
+“Oh——!”
+
+“Yes.” His eyes were meeting mine, searching my face so intently that
+I felt as if my very thoughts were visible to them. “Now, Miss Keate,
+please tell me something of this Corole Letheny. I understand that she
+and her cousin were not on the best of terms.”
+
+“That is true,” I acknowledged hesitantly.
+
+“Don’t be afraid of incriminating anyone,” said O’Leary impatiently.
+“Clues are funny things. When they seem to point one way they are very
+apt, on close investigation, to point another way entirely. So please
+don’t hesitate to answer my questions.”
+
+This reassured me somewhat; not that I have ever cared for Corole
+Letheny, but one does pause to consider one’s speech in such a serious
+matter.
+
+“Corole and Dr. Letheny never did get along well together. But I don’t
+think she can be involved in this.” Thinking of the oddly mud-stained
+slippers, I paused again. That incident could have had nothing to do
+with the murders, of course, but still it was singular.
+
+“What is it, Miss Keate?”
+
+Before I knew it I had told him of the muddied bronze kid pumps.
+
+“Indicating that Miss Letheny had some errand that took her hurriedly
+into the storm and that within a few moments following the discovery
+of Dr. Letheny’s death. Suppose you ask this maid, Huldah, about it.
+She will be more willing to talk to you. Oh, yes”—he smiled a
+little—“we must investigate every incident, every straw, no matter how
+small and insignificant it appears. And moreover,” he drew something
+from his pocket, “I am interested in Miss Letheny because of this.” He
+placed the small, square object on the table before us. I stared. It
+was Corole Letheny’s revolver. She had bragged about the thing often
+enough so I had no difficulty recognizing it. Someone had made her a
+gift of it, and it was very unsuitably decorated with some sort of
+silver trumpery and had her initials engraved upon it.
+
+“We found this on the floor of the closet in which Dr. Letheny was
+found,” said O’Leary quietly.
+
+For a long moment I sat there in silence, my eyes fascinated by the
+dully gleaming thing. What could it tell?
+
+“But—neither of the men was shot!” I said at length.
+
+“No,” agreed O’Leary, still quietly. “No. There is only the fact to go
+on that Corole Letheny’s revolver was found in the room where two men
+met their death in one night. That is all. It only indicates her
+probable presence at some time in the room. And a revolver usually
+means that whoever carried it had reason to believe he was in
+danger—or expected trouble of some kind.”
+
+“But—Dr. Letheny might have brought it himself. He might have
+suspected that someone was planning to steal the radium.”
+
+Lance O’Leary smiled slowly.
+
+“You are loyal, Miss Keate. It may interest you to know that on going
+through Dr. Letheny’s deed box, I found that he was the beneficiary of
+a reasonably large income and that on his death it goes to Corole. I
+find, too—you see we detectives make our living by questions and
+answers,” he interpolated, as I suppose I looked as I felt, very much
+puzzled at the knowledge he appeared to have secured—“I find, too,
+that Dr. Letheny kept his household down to the most moderate of
+expenses and gave Miss Letheny only a barely sufficient allowance.”
+
+“It is true that she has complained a great deal about money,” I
+admitted thoughtfully. “She is rather beautiful, you know, and loves
+to dress well.”
+
+He nodded.
+
+“You have seen her then?” I asked.
+
+“Yesterday. I talked to her. Yes, I suppose she does love clothes and
+finery. It is on account of her—dark blood.”
+
+“Her what?” I sat bolt upright.
+
+“Good Lord, Miss Keate! Didn’t you know that?”
+
+“Know that Corole Letheny is a——?”
+
+“I think it comes to her by way of Haiti,” he interrupted. “And a very
+beautiful mother.”
+
+“But—her light hair and eyes! You must be mistaken!”
+
+“Her eyes are yellow, Miss Keate. A good deal like a tiger’s. In fact
+she is a rather tigerish lady, on the whole. I suspected it when I
+first saw her brown hands, and was convinced when I found a reference
+to her in Dr. Letheny’s papers; once he mentions her rather bitterly
+as ‘my mulatto cousin,’ and another time refers to her birthplace and
+his aunt, Jolbar, who, it seems, traced her lineage directly, if
+unobtrusively, to a cannibalistic royal line. Don’t be so shocked,
+Miss Keate. A little mixture of blood doesn’t hurt her. It only
+increases my difficulty.”
+
+“Increases your difficulty?” I murmured, feeling rather dazed.
+
+“By increasing the complexities of a personality that I must classify
+and index. You see,” he went on, as I still did not wholly understand
+him, “Corole is a factor to be considered along with the rest of the
+possibilities. And this fact warns me that she likely has a streak of
+savagery back of those yellow eyes; that the beat of tom-toms would
+stir her, for instance. She is apt to be rather indolent, too, and to
+seek what she desires in unconventional ways. Such as by the use of
+revolvers.”
+
+“Why, yes,” I murmured idiotically. “Murder _is_ unconventional.”
+
+“So you see, the counts against Corole are interesting, to say the
+least. Then, there are the others at that ill-fated dinner party. We
+shall have to consider the possible culpability of every single one of
+them—even of you, Miss Keate.” He added this with a half smile but I
+did not relish his joke—if joke it was. I was inclined to think it was
+not.
+
+“Corole Letheny,” he checked her off on his fingers. “Because her
+revolver was found in the closet of Room 18, because she knew of the
+radium being in use and of the hospital routine and of the door being
+left unlocked and because she benefits by Dr. Letheny’s death.”
+
+“But I’m sure she did not know what had happened to the radium,” I
+said, going hastily on to tell him of her questions concerning it.
+
+“She shows considerable interest, however,” commented O’Leary. “And at
+an inappropriate time, too. Yes, we must consider Corole.”
+
+“But she—oh, she could not have done that!” I cried, revolted.
+
+“We can’t be sure of anything, Miss Keate, until it is proved,”
+remarked O’Leary drily. “Then, there is Dr. Hajek; he was like the
+others, familiar with the circumstances, he had access to the
+morphine, being a doctor, and his coat was damp when, after some
+delay, you finally succeeded in rousing him, which, of course, leads
+one to believe that he was absent from his room and had recently been
+out in the rain.”
+
+“But,” I objected, “Dr. Hajek was the only one of us who did not admit
+to wanting money—if we are to consider the radium as the motive.”
+
+“That does not prove anything. Indeed, it was more natural to admit a
+desire that everybody experiences at one time or another. Then, there
+was Dr. Balman. He, too, was familiar with the circumstances. Of
+course there remains the important questions of how Dr. Letheny comes
+into the puzzle, and whether Dr. Balman could have had time to drive
+to his apartment in order to be there when the telephone rang to call
+him back to the hospital.”
+
+“Why, yes,” I said thoughtfully. “He could have done so. You see, just
+as the storm broke and I was at the south door, closing it, I saw the
+lights of a car on the lower road. That _could_ have been Dr. Balman.
+But the idea is absurd. Dr. Balman is too mild, too kind—too—— Oh! It
+is impossible!”
+
+“Nothing is impossible,” commented Lance O’Leary gravely. “But those
+lights may have belonged to another car. One driven by Jim Gainsay.”
+
+I may have imagined it, but it seemed to me, in view of my guilty
+knowledge of that cigarette case, that he eyed me rather closely as he
+spoke. However, if so he gained nothing by it, for I was honestly
+surprised.
+
+“Jim Gainsay!” I cried.
+
+“Yes,” he answered, going on to explain. “The sedan owned by Dr.
+Letheny was seen standing in front of the Western Union office at
+about two o’clock that night. This information was brought to my ears
+and upon investigation I found that Gainsay took the Doctor’s
+car—Huldah, in fact, saw him leave—and drove into the city, starting
+shortly before the storm began. He sent a message, of which I shall
+have a copy before the day is over. We also know that Gainsay frankly
+said he intended to get hold of fifty thousand dollars—wasn’t it
+that?” I nodded dumbly and he went on. “And he intended to go to New
+York this morning but is still here, work or no work. Also, as with
+the others, he knew something of the circumstances, and while his
+being able to obtain and administer morphine is a point to consider,
+still I understand that engineers almost have to have a practical
+working knowledge of medicine. But even if we could safely exonerate
+him from causing Jackson’s death there is still the death of Dr.
+Letheny, for which somebody is responsible. And this Gainsay is a
+strong young fellow who looks as if he would stick at little.”
+
+“But he looks honest, too,” I protested.
+
+“They all look honest. Everyone of you.”
+
+“It seems terrible to consider people one knows in such a sordid
+connection. Why not all the other people in and around the hospital?”
+
+He looked at me as if he were amused.
+
+“But, Miss Keate, is it possible that you do not know that we
+immediately accounted for every soul in St. Ann’s? And that every
+nurse and every patient has a perfect alibi, save you and Miss Day,
+Dr. Balman and Dr. Hajek? In a hospital run with such efficient
+routine as this one, it is a simple matter. The only person besides
+those I have mentioned, for whom we can’t be absolutely certain, is
+Higgins, and that because he sleeps in the basement next to the
+furnace room and no one saw or heard of him during that night, since
+no one else sleeps in the basement. Of course, we shall have to
+include him in our list of suspects, but so far there is nothing but
+opportunity with which to suspect him.”
+
+“Then Maida and I are the only nurses who cannot prove just where we
+were between twelve-thirty and two o’clock that night?” I asked
+uneasily.
+
+“We know _where_ you were,” said Lance O’Leary very soberly. “You were
+both in the south wing.” He paused to look at his watch, a thin,
+platinum affair that reposed in a pocket of his impeccable vest, and I
+felt a quite warranted chill creep up my back.
+
+“So you see our paths of search are limited,” he said easily,
+replacing the watch, and returning to that abominable red pencil.
+
+“Yes,” I agreed weakly. “Limited.” Altogether too limited!
+
+“Of course, there is always what I spoke of as the unknown element.
+There might have been an outside intruder, but so far nothing has come
+to light that would indicate that possibility. The use of the radium
+seems to have been absolutely unknown to all but the hospital staff
+and the guests at Miss Letheny’s dinner party. Now then, Miss Keate,
+there are three things that particularly interest me to-day. One of
+them is the identity of the man with whom you collided at the corner
+of the porch. Did you receive any sort of impression that would serve
+to identify him?”
+
+Nervously I tried to think of something besides the cigarette case.
+
+“He—I think he wore a raincoat. I seem to remember the slippery
+feeling of rubber. And I think he must have been wearing a
+dinner-jacket, for I seem to recall feeling his starched shirt front.”
+
+“Then it might have been one of the four men at Corole Letheny’s
+dinner?”
+
+“It might have been, of course,” I spoke rather irritably, as I
+foresaw the next questions.
+
+“Was it Dr. Letheny?”
+
+“I don’t think so. I can’t be sure.”
+
+He was surveying me so closely that I found my eyes going toward the
+floor in spite of myself.
+
+“Was it Dr. Balman?”
+
+“It might have been. Though it seemed he was a little taller than Dr.
+Balman.” I was studying the roses on the old-fashioned Brussels.
+
+“Was it Dr. Hajek?” he went on mercilessly.
+
+“I—I tell you, I can’t be sure who it was. It might have been
+anybody.”
+
+He leaned back in his chair and I could feel his smile.
+
+“I’m beginning to understand your—er—temperament,” he said easily. “I
+suppose it was this Jim Gainsay. Now you may as well tell me what you
+were doing with his cigarette case in your laundry bag.”
+
+I blinked.
+
+“How did you know it was there?”
+
+“A policeman found it while searching your room.”
+
+“Searching my room!”
+
+“Yes. We have had all the personal belongings of those in whom we
+are—interested—searched. We were at first surprised to find you were
+addicted to smoking——and more surprised when we traced its ownership.
+Now, please, tell me just how you came upon it.”
+
+In as few words as possible I complied.
+
+“Will you hold Jim Gainsay?” I asked finally, as he turned and twisted
+the stubby red pencil thoughtfully in his hands.
+
+“We shall watch him,” he amended. “So far he has stayed of his own
+free will, a thing that is in itself strange. Of course, if he should
+attempt to leave I should be forced to restrain him.”
+
+The dinner bell rang just then and he looked at his watch, again
+frowning as he noted the time.
+
+“Another thing, Miss Keate. That smell of ether interests me.
+Especially since to our knowledge ether was not used at all. Are you
+sure?”
+
+“Yes.” I spoke decidedly. “I am sure now, because of the slicker I
+wore yesterday afternoon.”
+
+“The slicker?” he inquired. “Yesterday afternoon?” And listened
+intently while I explained the whole thing.
+
+“And you had no means of identifying it?” he asked, presently.
+
+“No. Everybody wears a yellow slicker. You know how popular they have
+been the last year or two.”
+
+He nodded.
+
+“I wear one myself,” he said. “Well, thanks a lot, Miss Keate. You are
+a present help in time of trouble.” He smiled at me with that
+engagingly warm and youthful look.
+
+I started toward the hall, paused and turned around.
+
+“Didn’t you say there were three things you were particularly
+interested in right now?” I said. “What is the third one?”
+
+“Oh, yes.” He studied me for a moment as if to see how far the
+discretion with which he had complimented me might be trusted. Then he
+drew something from his pocket—something so small that it was hidden
+in his hand until he held it toward me.
+
+And when I looked, I cried out and shrank back, my heart leaping to my
+throat. There on his outstretched palm lay a small cuff link; it was a
+neat square of lapis lazuli, set in engraved white gold.
+
+“I see that you recognize it?”
+
+Speechlessly, I made a motion of assent.
+
+“You need not tell me that it is Miss Day’s. I already know that. One
+or two of the nurses recognized it as I left it casually on the table
+in the general office. Oh, I watched it carefully—I suppose they
+thought she had lost it. They did not know where it was found.”
+
+“Where it was found——” I repeated, huskily, my voice losing itself
+somewhere in my throat.
+
+“It was found—in Dr. Letheny’s pocket.” He spoke very deliberately,
+his clear, gray eyes searching mine. Then he turned. “Good-night, Miss
+Keate,” he said courteously and was gone.
+
+As for me, I stood there quite still, staring at the gathering
+darkness outside the window, and at the slow rivulets of moisture
+trickling down the glass. Finally I aroused myself, straightened my
+cap, and moved toward the door. I was late for dinner, of course, and
+remember that someone was complaining about the steak being burned. It
+might have been ashes so far as I was concerned. Once I stole a look
+at Maida, across from me and down the table a few places. She was very
+white and tired-looking and it seemed to me that she avoided my eyes.
+I felt rather sick as I noted that, though it was a chilly day, she
+was wearing a uniform with short sleeves that had no need of cuff
+links.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 6
+
+I Make a Discovery—and Regret It
+
+I must admit that I went about my duties somewhat automatically that
+night and could not help keeping an eye on Maida, not from suspicion,
+you understand, but simply because the matters of recent development
+troubled me considerably. Indeed, I had plenty to think of that night.
+
+Corole’s dinner party, followed by its terrifying sequel, had taken
+place on Thursday night. Early Friday afternoon the body of Dr.
+Letheny had been found. Friday night we had taken second watch with
+the policeman tipped against the sinister door of Room 18, and
+Saturday was the day just past. It was while I was sitting at the
+chart desk during second watch of Saturday night—really early Sunday
+morning—that the amazing idea occurred to me. I had been staring at
+the charts, absorbed in the baffling problems those days had brought,
+when all at once I began thinking of the morphine.
+
+Might it not prove something if we were to discover where that
+morphine had come from? Morphine is not something that one carries
+about in a pocket or vanity bag; it is very difficult to secure and in
+St. Ann’s a most rigid check is kept on the quantities of the drug
+used. Would the morphine record for that week in the south wing
+balance?
+
+With the thought I was up on my feet and starting toward the drug
+room. As I passed the door of the diet kitchen I saw Maida standing at
+the open window. Why do women bother with silks and laces and jewels
+when there is nothing that so sets off beauty as the severe, white
+simplicity of the nurse’s uniform? Maida’s face was like a proud young
+flower above the white collar of her tailored uniform. The stiff white
+cap perched piquantly on top of her head and contrasted nicely with
+her soft black hair. Her eyes were a deeper blue, her clear, gardenia
+skin and soft crimson lips were still lovelier above that plain white
+dress. I sighed, glanced down the corridor to see that there were no
+signal lights, and slipped into the drug room, closing the door.
+
+A dose of morphine is a simple matter to prepare; it is the
+administering that requires skill. The preparation is a mere mixture
+of sterile water with the white morphine tablet, in the amount
+prescribed. At St. Ann’s there is a careful check of the amounts used,
+and the drug room record must check with the doctors’ orders. It was a
+simple matter for me to compare the two records with the remaining
+supply of morphine. And it was with a heart that dropped to my shoes
+that I found they emphatically did not check. And that the amount of
+discrepancy was more than enough to drug a person far more heavily
+than was safe.
+
+When had this disappeared and how? A young, strong man might survive
+such a dose, or one accustomed to taking the drug. But an old man,
+whose heart reaction would be slow—well, it seemed all too apparent
+that the morphine that had killed Jackson might have come from our own
+south wing drug room. It was not a pleasant possibility.
+
+Maida was still in the kitchen when I passed it again and I stopped.
+She was washing her slim, pink fingers vigorously.
+
+“Eleven does get hungry at the most erratic times. He wants beef tea
+now and an hour ago he had malted milk,” she said, drying her hands.
+
+“Mr. Gainsay did not leave Friday after all,” I said, coming directly
+to one of the things that troubled me.
+
+She glanced swiftly toward me, lifted her straight black eyebrows a
+little, and spoke rather coolly.
+
+“Evidently not. He said his boat did not sail till next week. Is this
+beef extract fresh?”
+
+“I think so. I suppose he is quite a comfort to Corole.”
+
+“Corole needs friends at a time like this,” said Maida.
+
+“Of course, he was such a good friend of Dr.—Letheny.” For the life of
+me I could not speak that name naturally and easily.
+
+“Yes,” agreed Maida briefly. She turned to the stove, lit the gas
+flame, and held a small saucepan of water over the blue points of
+fire. I could not see her face.
+
+“Maida,” I said abruptly, “when did you last see Dr. Letheny—alive?”
+
+She whirled toward me at that, and—well, it was not nice to stand
+there and see her face turn a dreadful, slow white with bluish hollows
+around her mouth and nose. But she answered at length, quite clearly:
+
+“I last saw him at Corole’s dinner party. When we said good-night and
+left.”
+
+She looked into my eyes for a moment after she ceased to speak, almost
+as if she were daring me to deny her statement. And I knew that it
+could not be true. Else how could her lapis cuff link have got out of
+the snowy cuff in which I had seen her place it _after_ we were safely
+within the walls of St. Ann’s, and into Dr. Letheny’s pocket?
+
+“Oh—Sarah,” she cried suddenly, throwing out her hands toward me in a
+gesture that was like an appeal and with a half sob in her voice. But
+as suddenly she drew her hands sharply backward and turned again to
+the stove. To this day the salty, meaty smell of beef boiling always
+brings to me a vision of those shining, white-tiled walls and the
+enamelled gas stove and Maida’s straight, white-clad shoulders and
+beautiful, troubled face.
+
+“Tell me,” I said at last. “Is there anything you know that might help
+solve this mystery?”
+
+But Maida turned an unfathomable blue gaze toward me.
+
+“Nothing. Nothing that would help.”
+
+And it was not until she had departed with the beef tea steaming hot
+on a tray that I noted her ambiguous wording.
+
+I could not disguise to myself the fact that I was deeply alarmed.
+Particularly because I had caught her, and wished I had not, in a
+deliberate lie. Either that or that abominable cuff link had simply
+jumped itself out of her cuff and into the pocket of Dr. Letheny’s
+immaculate dinner coat.
+
+I shall not conceal the fact that I gave voice to several expletives
+that made up in fervour for what they lacked in content. And I had
+learned quite a vocabulary from my parrot, a nice bird who died last
+year on his ninety-sixth birthday, unless the dealer lied, and was
+much mourned by those of the nurses whose rooms are at the far end of
+the dormitory. Owing to the night air making the dear bird talkative
+there was a sort of feeling against him among the rooms within hearing
+distance of my own.
+
+However, in this case the utmost of his vocabulary did not relieve my
+feelings.
+
+All went as well as might be expected, and we did not once need a
+policeman, so it was as well that he had been withdrawn. Of course,
+I’m not saying it was a pleasant watch, for it was not. The south end
+of the corridor seemed darker than any other portion of it and the
+sinister door of Eighteen was somehow black and menacing and
+altogether unpleasant. But on the whole the night passed quietly,
+which was a mercy, for that was the last night that we pinned on our
+caps with any assurance of how long they would stay there. Dawn came
+at last, cold and gray, and with it the slow melancholy sound of the
+five o’clock bell for early prayers. The north wing of St. Ann’s ends
+in a small chapel that is dignified with age and has a pipe organ,
+high walnut pews, and old, stained-glass windows. It is open on week
+days for prayer and meditation and on Sundays the young assistant
+rector from St. B—’s down in the city comes to St. Ann’s to conduct
+prayers and confession and church.
+
+The Sunday then dawning was destined to remain long in my memory as a
+sort of interlude between what had been and what was to follow.
+
+In the first place, Morgue, the basement cat, who is thin and
+ill-tempered and kept for utilitarian purposes only, surprised us all
+by having three healthy kittens. For some years the assumption had
+been that this was a feat biologically impossible and the news,
+brought to the table by a student nurse who had actually seen the
+kittens, caused quite a stir and for a moment distracted our minds
+from the too-absorbing problems of the last few days.
+
+There were some disbelievers at table, this despite the student nurse
+appearing to clinch the matter by quoting Higgins’s opinion that
+Morgue had displayed considerable talent in this connection, and after
+breakfast we all trooped down to the furnace room to see with our own
+eyes.
+
+Higgins was down there, fussing around a grape basket which he had
+lined with an old duster, which, by the way, made the baby cats smell
+quite distinctly of cedar oil and must have puzzled their proud and
+complacent mother. The kittens themselves were not much to boast of,
+resembling, indeed, very young and scrawny rats and squirming
+vigorously and squealing when the girls picked them up and passed them
+from one to the other. There was a heated discussion over their names;
+it was felt they should bear some relation to the mother’s name, and
+Morgue is not an easy name with which to relate. They settled on
+Accident, Appendicitis, and Ambulance. The kittens were all black, to
+my mind not a particularly happy or propitious colour, and Melvina
+Smith, who is pale and superstitious and would not touch an opal with
+a ten-foot rod, exclaimed in italics that trouble was coming to St.
+Ann’s. Upon which someone murmured that trouble had already come and
+Melvina said, yes, but it always came in Threes and these three black
+cats were a sure sign that bad luck would come in threes here. She
+pointed out, reasonably enough, that Morgue could as well have had
+four kittens, or two, but no, she had had three. And that furthermore,
+who ever heard of Morgue having kittens before, and it was certain she
+had had them this time just to warn us of the third—er—trouble.
+
+Well, for my part, I felt that Morgue would not go to so much bother,
+she being by nature unobliging and apt to mistrust our most friendly
+advances. But already the girls were putting the kittens in the basket
+and casting rather frightened glances into Morgue’s inscrutable yellow
+eyes, and drifting toward the stairway. I could have wrung Melvina’s
+foolish little neck, but naturally I followed them.
+
+On the way upstairs Olma Flynn remarked earnestly that it was nice
+that Morgue hadn’t had ten kittens. Upon which several of the less
+idiotic laughed and Melvina cast a look of pale reproach upon Olma,
+who, as a matter of fact, had spoken with single-minded gratitude.
+
+As I reached the top of the stairs Higgins called to me.
+
+“Miss Keate.”
+
+I turned. He was standing at the foot of the stairs, looking up.
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Can you spare some time now, Miss Keate? There was—something I wanted
+to—ask you about.”
+
+I hesitated. It seems to me that when anyone around St. Ann’s has a
+complaint it is brought to my ears and I was in no mood that morning
+to listen to complaints.
+
+“I was just going to get some sleep, Higgins,” I said. “Will another
+time do?”
+
+How often, since then, I have wished that I had stopped then and
+there. But I thought of nothing more important than leaky gutterpipes
+or the canna bulbs not doing well.
+
+“Well—yes,” agreed Higgins slowly. Something in his tone made me
+regard him sharply, thinking that he seemed quite reluctant and
+perplexed. However, as I say, I was tired and sleepy and had already
+more than enough problems before me, so I took my way upstairs.
+
+On the way I picked up the Sunday paper. The supplement had the
+hospital pictures again, groups of nurses, a sort of history of St.
+Ann’s, stressing its long years of service but winding up with a lurid
+résumé of the past few days, which is the way of Sunday supplements
+but not unpleasant. I even found a picture of myself taken some years
+ago when pompadours and bosoms were in style. It was not a flattering
+picture and neither was the caption below it, which described me as
+one of St. Ann’s oldest nurses! Oldest in point of service, it went on
+to say tactfully, but the picture dated me indisputably and I flung
+the paper in the waste basket and tried to compose myself to sleep.
+And, I might add, did not succeed.
+
+I found the noon service in the little chapel remarkably well
+attended, with prayer books in evidence and the nurses turning out _en
+masse_. The young rector preached a rather nice sermon about “Be ye
+not afraid,” which I considered a little too apropos for comfort and
+good taste.
+
+Sunday is usually a rather festive day in St. Ann’s but that Sunday
+was anything but pleasant. No visitors were permitted, which made the
+patients fretful and hard to please. Moreover, we could not prevent an
+almost constant stream of morbidly inclined sight-seers whose
+automobiles splashed along the muddy road in front of the hospital,
+and who stared through the fog and pointed with melancholy
+satisfaction.
+
+I drifted uneasily about the dismal corridors for some time before I
+found Maida, ensconced unhappily in a cold window seat with a magazine
+which she was holding upside down.
+
+She had not been to see Corole yet, she told me, and was dreading the
+visit that convention demanded. Wouldn’t I go with her? And though I
+had no relish for Corole’s company I found myself following the blue
+and scarlet of Maida’s nurse’s cape along that sodden, desolate path,
+holding my own cape tight around me and wishing I had brought an
+umbrella.
+
+On the porch we met Dr. Hajek, just leaving.
+
+“Bad weather,” he murmured as we passed him. His dark eyes slanted
+knowingly toward us; his face was very fresh and ruddy and his square
+teeth gleamed under that small black moustache.
+
+Huldah opened the door, her cap very properly on her head this time
+but her face sullen.
+
+We found Corole comfortably seated in what had been Dr. Letheny’s
+study, a warm fire glowing in the grate and the tea cart drawn up to
+the davenport and laden with her best silver tea service and some
+fascinating little French pastries that could only have come from
+Pierre’s, a very exclusive and high-priced sweet shop. I registered
+the impression that Corole was not wasting any time enjoying her newly
+augmented income, and gave my cape to Huldah. Corole and Maida were
+murmuring polite sentences and, recalling my promise to O’Leary, I
+followed Huldah to the hall.
+
+“Miss Letheny feeling any better, Huldah?” I asked.
+
+She gave me an expressive glance.
+
+“H’m!” she grunted. “There’s not much mourning going on in this house!
+She—” she jerked her head toward the study—“dresses all up like a
+hussy every day and entertains callers. You know as well as I do that
+ain’t any way for a lady to do!”
+
+“I noticed she was wearing that green silk thing with her bronze
+slippers the other day,” I remarked tentatively.
+
+“She won’t wear them bronze pumps again, anyhow,” said Huldah in dour
+satisfaction. “She had to wear them out in the rain and now they are
+ruined.”
+
+“Had to wear them out in the rain?”
+
+“Yes, ma’am! The very afternoon we heard the bad news. Not an hour
+after them gentlemen was at the house to tell her about the doctor
+being dead. Nice gentlemen they was, too—them police officers.” She
+stopped, apparently musing on certain blue-coated figures. I had to
+prod her gently.
+
+“Where was she going in such a hurry that she didn’t change her
+shoes?”
+
+“Goodness knows! As soon as they had gone she grabbed a shawl and ran
+out the back door and across the alfalfa field. The last I saw she was
+scooting into the apple orchard and she didn’t get back for a full
+hour. It was raining, too, and she might have taken an umbrella at
+least. But not she! Catch her doing anything like a Christian!”
+concluded Huldah resentfully.
+
+“Would you like some tea, miss?” she went on, after a moment’s
+brooding. “Some tea and one of my own cakes I made myself yesterday
+before she ordered them silly French things? Like as not poison, too,
+with all such coloured candies on top.”
+
+“Indeed, I should, Huldah,” I said soothingly, though her cakes are,
+as a rule, sprinkled too liberally with caraway seeds. “And let me
+have a small anchovy sandwich,” I added, thereby winning her to a
+reluctant smile as she departed kitchenward.
+
+I was not much wiser than I had been, and I really could not see that
+I could have questioned Huldah any further. Anyway it was likely she
+had told me all she knew, for Huldah’s natural disposition is to
+spread anything she hears.
+
+I joined the other two in the study in time to catch a strained
+something in the atmosphere that made me pause involuntarily and look
+from one to the other. Maida was standing very stiff and straight, her
+eyes flaming like blue fire, her fingers clutched together until the
+knuckles and fingernails were white, and her whole attitude breathing
+defiance and anger and—yes, alarm. Corole was lying gracefully back in
+her chair, her creamy lace teagown falling softly away from her brown
+neck, the topaz on one hand catching light from the fire, and her
+strange eyes narrowed lazily in an expression so like Morgue’s that I
+almost gasped.
+
+But as to that, resemblance to a cat or other animal is nothing to
+hold against a person, I argued reasonably to myself; there is a
+cashier in the City National who looks like nothing so much as a mild
+and woolly sheep and is yet, as far as I know, an upright and
+respectable man.
+
+Neither Maida nor Corole seemed inclined to break that brittle
+silence, so I settled wearily into a chair.
+
+“Huldah seems to resent the French pastries,” I said. “Where did you
+get them, Corole? At Pierre’s?”
+
+“She resents everything,” said Corole indolently. “Yes. At Pierre’s.
+You must try them. I’ll make some fresh tea. Do sit down, Maida. You
+make me nervous, standing there so stiff.”
+
+I think Maida was about to say something, but just then Jim Gainsay
+lounged into the room, straightened up with interest when he saw
+Maida, and she subsided into a chair while he greeted us with every
+evidence of pleasure.
+
+It was, however, a very uncomfortable hour, with the conversation
+painfully limited to commonplaces, Jim trying in vain to catch Maida’s
+eyes, and Huldah slapping down the tea things with venom and making it
+distressingly clear that I, alone of the company, was in her good
+graces. Corole was almost indecently easy and flippant in her manner,
+and Maida very quiet.
+
+As for me, I was reminded vividly of the last time we had been
+together in that room, especially after Dr. Balman arrived. His coming
+made the gathering begin to seem too much like a party, so I prepared
+to leave. But Dr. Balman had come on business, and after speaking in a
+low aside to Corole he went to Dr. Letheny’s desk, glanced hastily
+through a card index, and noted something in his small notebook. I
+remember thinking as he did so that Dr. Balman was not having an easy
+time of it; it is difficult enough to step suddenly into the position
+of head of a hospital, without having the burden of investigations
+into two murders on one’s hands. And Dr. Balman looked as if he were
+feeling the strain of his duties, for his mild eyes had circles under
+them, his scant eyebrows wore a perplexed frown, and his pale cheeks
+were hollow. He looked as if he had not been eating much lately, and
+indeed, I didn’t wonder at it. The bruise on his cheek had not
+received proper attention, for it was dark and ugly-looking and I
+longed to take it in hand.
+
+“Is that what you wanted, Dr. Balman?” asked Corole.
+
+“Yes—yes. This is all.” He was writing busily.
+
+“You must have some tea,” offered Corole graciously.
+
+“What?— Oh, tea?” Dr. Balman compared the notes he had written with
+the original and raised his eyes to glance about the room with rather
+obvious distaste. He was always a man of keen sensibility and I
+daresay he felt much as I had felt on entering this room that spoke so
+clearly of Dr. Letheny.
+
+He was about to decline, I think, when Huldah opened the door, said
+“Mr. O’Leary,” as if she were firing a shotgun, and Lance O’Leary
+entered, his gray eyes twinkling a little at the manner of his
+announcement.
+
+It was odd to see how the appearance of this slight, perfectly groomed
+young man, with his clear, gray eyes and thoughtful, well-shaven face,
+affected us all. Dr. Balman sat down slowly as if after all he had
+decided to stay. Jim Gainsay fastened a narrow, enigmatic look upon
+the newcomer and lit another cigarette, Maida’s eyes widened a little
+and her hands sought each other in her white lap—and Corole adjusted
+the lace of her gown, smiled seductively at O’Leary, remembered she
+was mourning and sobered wistfully.
+
+“No, thanks,” said O’Leary pleasantly. “No tea, Miss Letheny. I hope
+you’ll forgive my intrusion but I came on business.”
+
+Corole blinked but repeated warmly: “Business?” and motioned toward a
+chair.
+
+“Yes. Thanks, yes, I’ll sit down.” He drew a chair nearer the glowing
+fire. “It’s wet out,” he remarked with a half smile.
+
+“Would you like something besides tea?” asked Corole, her graceful
+brown hand on the tiny silver bell that decorated the tea cart. I
+could not help noting how pink her palm was, how brown her fingers,
+and how purple the shadows on the fingernails.
+
+“No. No.” The high-backed chair O’Leary had happened to choose,
+upholstered in needlepoint tapestry, and with slim carved arms of
+softly gleaming walnut, added somehow to his natural dignity. “How are
+you, Doctor? Not feeling this strain too much, I hope.”
+
+Dr. Balman smiled wanly. “No, thanks, Mr. O’Leary. It is quite a task
+though. However, Dr.—Dr. Letheny left everything in perfect order.” He
+glanced at Corole apologetically as he spoke, but she was interested
+only in O’Leary.
+
+The conversation dragged along very uncomfortably for a few moments,
+during which the only person in the room who was thoroughly at ease
+was Lance O’Leary. As soon as I decently could I rose to leave, for
+O’Leary had said he came on business and I naturally supposed that it
+was business with Corole.
+
+Maida rose, too, and of course, the men.
+
+“Just a second, Miss Keate,” remarked O’Leary in a quiet and
+commonplace voice. “I only wanted to tell you all that the coroner’s
+inquest will be to-morrow morning and that you are all to be called as
+witnesses. I’m sorry to have to tell you at such a time.”
+
+It just happened that I had my eyes on Corole as he spoke and thus saw
+her soft brown fingers grip the macaroon she held until it fell on the
+tea cart, a small, powdered mound of sugar. I looked quickly at
+O’Leary, but his gaze was apparently on the log in the fireplace.
+
+It was an uncomfortable moment, there in that room of which the very
+books along the wall and the grand piano in the alcove spoke so
+vividly of Dr. Letheny. We were “all” to be called as witnesses then.
+And a few nights ago we had sat here in this room and listened to the
+Prelude in C Sharp Minor played by those strong white hands that would
+never touch a piano again.
+
+I shook myself free from such morbid reflections, said a brusque
+good-bye to Corole, and left. Maida went with me, and somewhere along
+the path Jim Gainsay turned up.
+
+As the path narrowed under the trees and I preceded the other two, I
+am sure I heard Jim Gainsay say rather huskily to Maida:
+
+“I had to see you alone. You must do as I say. It is import——”
+
+“Sh! I know!”
+
+“Try to see it my way.” (This in a still more urgent voice.) “It is
+dangerous to——”
+
+“Hush!” she interrupted sharply again.
+
+And just then I think that Maida stumbled over a branch that had blown
+across the path. At any rate I heard a quick motion and a sort of gasp
+and then Maida said rather breathlessly: “That branch—I nearly fell.”
+And I turned in time to see Jim Gainsay pick up the stick, bow to it
+gravely and say: “Thank you, old fellow,” before he tossed it off into
+the orchard. At which Maida turned quite pink and Jim Gainsay gave her
+a long look and laughed rather shakily.
+
+Then we were at the south entrance and Gainsay swung on his heel with
+a brief “Good-night.”
+
+And it was not fifteen minutes later that I glanced through the
+society section of the paper that someone had left on the chart desk,
+and my eyes fell on a small news item:
+
+  Mrs. J. C. Allen left Tuesday of this week for New York City. She
+  sailed on the _Tuscania_, Saturday night, June ninth.
+
+On the _Tuscania_, Saturday, June ninth. That was yesterday. And I was
+positive that Gainsay had said the _Tuscania_.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 7
+
+The Disappearing Key and Part of an Inquest
+
+“Yes, I saw that this morning,” said a quiet voice beside me. It was
+Lance O’Leary; I did not know he was near until he spoke. “Our friend
+Mr. Gainsay seems to be a little confused as to his dates.”
+
+I daresay my eyes reflected a question for he added, leisurely:
+
+“He told me that he intended to sail on the _Tuscania_ next week. I
+see that he told you the same thing. He is not a very discreet young
+man, else he’d have known that I should look up the _Tuscania’s_
+sailing date without delay.”
+
+I sighed; all those unpleasant little doubts of Jim Gainsay were
+returning in full force.
+
+“If he has the radium, it is not in his room in the Letheny cottage,”
+said O’Leary meditatively.
+
+“How do you know?” I inquired stupidly.
+
+“We have searched the rooms and personal belongings of each of those
+present at that dinner party last Thursday night.”
+
+“What!”
+
+“In fact, I daresay that there is not a room in the whole of St.
+Ann’s, as well as in the Letheny cottage, that has not been thoroughly
+ransacked.”
+
+I ran my tongue over dry lips. This was getting down to work with a
+vengeance.
+
+“Why?” I stammered.
+
+There was a glimmer of impatience in his eyes.
+
+“For the radium, of course. Surely you did not think we were going to
+let it get away from us without a struggle.”
+
+There was a moment or two of silence during which I studied the
+polished glass surface of the desk before me without seeing it.
+
+“Did you ask Huldah about Miss Letheny’s errand through the rain last
+Friday afternoon?” inquired O’Leary after a contemplative pause.
+
+“Yes.” I told him in a few words the little that Huldah had told me.
+“And there is something else I have discovered,” I went on miserably.
+“I’ve got to tell you, though I must say I do not want to do so. It
+is—that morphine. The morphine that killed Mr. Jackson, you know. I—I
+know where it came from!”
+
+“You—what!” O’Leary was for once startled out of his usual composure.
+
+“I know where it came from,” I repeated reluctantly. “At least, I
+think that I do. You see,—there is morphine missing from our south
+wing drug supply.”
+
+I had to tell him the whole thing, of course, under his searching
+questions and no less searching gaze, and even explain our system of
+keeping account of the drugs. He had to see the drug room and the
+charts and the records for himself. It was while I was showing him the
+drawer in which the morphine was kept, that I made my regrettable slip
+about the hypodermic syringe.
+
+I had started to show him how the needles were fitted into the small
+mechanism, and I reached for a hypodermic syringe. It turned out to be
+my own.
+
+“This one is mine,” I said thoughtlessly, fitting the slim, hollow
+needle into the tiny instrument. “The other one that we were using
+disapp——” I stopped so suddenly that my breath came out in an
+explosive little pop and O’Leary’s face hardened slightly. It was an
+expression that I was growing to recognize.
+
+“You may as well finish. So the other one ‘disapp’-eared, did it? When
+and how? Whose was it? There is still one in the drawer. What about
+the one that disappeared?”
+
+“I don’t know,” I said flatly. “Then, you see, we take the sterile
+water and measure the liquid into——”
+
+O’Leary looked at his watch.
+
+“I haven’t much time,” he said pleasantly. “But I have enough time to
+wait right here until you tell me about the hypodermic syringe that
+disappeared. Or if necessary I can dog your footsteps the rest of the
+night, reiterating my question at frequent and embarrassing intervals.
+Of course, I can have the whole hospital searched extensively and
+every hypodermic needle accounted for, especially if missing. I can
+follow you to your meal—isn’t that the bell?—and keep on asking you.”
+He added meditatively: “I suppose it might cause considerable interest
+among the other nurses.”
+
+I regarded him furiously. The thing was that he would be quite capable
+of doing just that. I began to understand the force of the words of
+the chief of police when he had said—“Once Lance O’Leary gets his
+teeth into anything, it is as good as done.”
+
+“I suppose you’ll have to know sometime, anyway,” I said sulkily.
+
+The flicker in his gray eyes was like a ripple across a very calm,
+deep lake.
+
+“You are right, Miss Keate. So why not tell me now?”
+
+Well, to make a long story short, I told him of the missing
+hypodermic, which after all, was little enough: barely the fact that
+Maida’s syringe had been removed and my own substituted, but this
+without my knowledge. And that Maida had had the opportunity to take
+my own, and if she had wished to use it, all that she needed to do was
+ask me for it.
+
+“Which she conspicuously did not do,” commented O’Leary. “Oh, by the
+way, Miss Keate, have you ever attended an inquest?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“Well, don’t get bothered. Our coroner is a decent old fellow but he
+does love to be pompous. Just answer what he asks, tell your story as
+briefly as possible and don’t—er—volunteer anything. You see there are
+some things that you and I know that will not come up at the inquest.”
+
+“You mean—they would warn the guilty one?”
+
+He nodded briefly as he turned away.
+
+Maida was already in the south wing when I rounded the right angle of
+the corridor leading from the main office, at exactly twelve o’clock
+that night.
+
+“I locked the south door,” she said, hanging the key on its customary
+nail above the desk.
+
+“That was right,” I approved, glancing over the charts. It appeared
+that Eleven’s digestive apparatus was still doing business at the old
+stand, so to speak, but otherwise all was well and I settled briskly
+into the business of second watch.
+
+Midnight temperatures had scarcely been taken, however, when Olma
+Flynn developed a sick headache, worse when I was within hearing
+distance, and had to be excused from duty. We didn’t actually need the
+extra help, as Maida and I had been accustomed to care for the whole
+wing ourselves, but nevertheless it was a little annoying, especially
+as, about two o’clock, the little student nurse burned her wrist over
+the gas flame in the diet kitchen, and the burn had to be salved
+extensively and the nurse sent to bed with an aspirin tablet.
+
+Thus Maida and I found ourselves alone in the south wing for the first
+time since those terrifying events of Thursday night. This precarious
+situation was a matter that was, I think, predominant in our thoughts
+but neither of us mentioned it; we even manufactured an artificial
+sort of—not gaiety, that would be asking too much—but of brisk
+attention to work and a determined avoidance of conversation that
+might lead back to things we were anxious to forget.
+
+All went well, in spite of our hidden fears, until about three
+o’clock. I was pouring out a small dose of bromide for Three, who had
+made up her mind not to sleep that night and naturally was not doing
+so, when Maida opened the door of the drug room.
+
+Her face was so ghastly white that at first glimpse of it my hand
+began to tremble and the medicine poured all over the spoon. Blindly I
+set the bottle down.
+
+“What is it?”
+
+“There’s something in Room 18!” she gasped through ashy lips.
+
+“Room 18!”
+
+“Just now—I saw something go into that room from the corridor!”
+
+“Someone—is sleep-walking.” I grasped at the first rationality that
+presented itself.
+
+After the light in the diet kitchen the long corridor seemed
+peculiarly dark and shadowy and the green light over the chart desk
+was miles away. It never occurred to me to call for help, and we sped
+along toward that dark end of the wing that we had good cause to fear.
+
+But we stopped stock still as we came close enough to see the door of
+Room 18, and a cold shiver crept up from my back.
+
+The door of Room 18 was standing wide open!
+
+It had not been opened, so far as I knew, since the police had left
+that room. It had been shunned by all the nurses. Who had opened it?
+Who would dare open it?
+
+Who was inside that dark place?
+
+A long, shuddering sigh came from Maida beside me and I felt her cold
+hand grip my wrist. The contact nerved me and I did what, I afterward
+realized, was a very foolish thing.
+
+I took a few steps forward, advanced to the very door of that grisly
+room, reached a shaking arm through the open doorway, groped for the
+electric-light button, found and pressed it.
+
+The cold white dome on the ceiling flooded the room with light.
+
+There was nothing out of the way to be seen. There were the plain
+dresser, the bedside table, two chairs, the folded burlap screen and
+the high, narrow bed—nothing else. Something caught in my throat as I
+glanced at the bed and toward the closet doors.
+
+“The—closet——” breathed Maida at my side. “Oh! You are not going to
+open that!” as I took a more decisive step forward.
+
+It was no easy thing to do, for I knew well that those shallow closets
+were yet large enough to hold—what one of them had held.
+
+They were both unlocked this time. And there was nothing in them!
+
+I turned to Maida, whose white face had been beside me during the
+ordeal. Without saying a word we retreated to the corridor.
+
+“Are you sure you saw something?” I asked, my voice hoarse.
+
+“I am positive,” whispered Maida. “You see, I was just answering
+Fourteen’s light, which brought me fairly near to Eighteen. I came out
+the door and was starting down toward the chart desk when something—I
+don’t know what—some rustle or sound, perhaps, made me turn around,
+facing this way, so I could see the south door. And I was just in time
+to see a sort of movement at the door of Eighteen.” Her hands went to
+her throat as she spoke and I did not feel very comfortable myself.
+
+“It couldn’t have been one of the patients?” I murmured.
+
+“No! There isn’t a one of them who is able to walk.”
+
+“Then who——”
+
+“Or—_what_——” said Maida.
+
+A remnant of common sense saved me, I think, from stark terror. I took
+a firmer hold on my imagination.
+
+“Nonsense,” I spoke decidedly but still, for some reason, in a
+whisper. “There are no such things as—as—— I mean to say, the shadow
+you saw was either an optical illusion or a living, breathing person.”
+
+“Certainly,” agreed Maida, adding inconsistently: “I don’t see how a
+living person could have got past us, through this long corridor
+without one of us seeing him—_it_.”
+
+My eyes fell on the south door near at hand; the tiny panes of glass
+winked blackly at me as I crossed to it, grasped the brass latch and
+pulled. The door swung slowly open, letting in a current of cold,
+mist-laden air.
+
+“There, you see?” I said to Maida. “Only a real, material thing needs
+a door to go through.”
+
+Maida was looking at me strangely.
+
+“I don’t see that that helps matters any,” she said. “I locked that
+door myself, to-night. It just proves that someone was actually here.
+That the murderer is still about the hospital.”
+
+“Not necessarily,” I said, though my heart was pounding in my throat.
+“You are sure you locked it?”
+
+“Positive.”
+
+“And you hung the key there on the nail above the chart desk?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+We both swung hastily around. At the other end of the shadowy corridor
+gleamed the green-shaded light over the desk. With one accord we
+started toward it.
+
+The key was not on the nail above the desk!
+
+But even as our frightened gaze took in that amazing fact my eyes fell
+on the glass top of the desk. There on its shining surface lay the
+key. We stared at it for some time before our eyes met. Then I picked
+up the key, my fingers seeming to shrink from the cold, clammy metal,
+returned to the south door, locked it securely and put the key in my
+pocket.
+
+And as I did so, a thought struck me. The person who had got into the
+wing by means of the south door must also have got out again. He
+couldn’t have gone through the corridor and south door for Maida was,
+by that time, in the hall.
+
+The light was still glowing in Room 18, and I crossed the room, not
+without a queer feeling in the region of my knees, as if they would
+give way with me, without notice. Sure enough, the window was
+unlocked; it was even open a fraction of an inch at the bottom, though
+the screen, which has a spring snap, was closed.
+
+I pushed the window the rest of the way down, locked it, not without
+an unpleasant impression that something was out in that gleaming
+darkness back of the window pane watching my every move, turned off
+the light, and closed the door again. Maida was standing in the
+corridor and we walked slowly toward the more cheerful region of the
+chart desk and diet kitchen.
+
+“I suppose,” she mused at length, “that someone could have taken the
+key from the nail and returned it when we were in Room 18.”
+
+“But who? It would have to be someone in St. Ann’s. And that is
+unthinkable.”
+
+“There are likely ways in and out of St. Ann’s,” she said finally, and
+with that a signal clicked somewhere. I recalled Three who would be in
+a tantrum by this time, and we separated.
+
+We were very busy for the rest of the night, and dawn was never so
+welcome a sight. But during those slow hours I came to the conclusion
+that there were only two things we knew without doubt. The key to the
+south door had been removed from the nail and left on top of the chart
+desk, and the sinister door of Room 18 had been opened and left open.
+
+Who had done this and why was a matter of conjecture, and I resolved
+to say nothing of it save to Lance O’Leary. I should leave it to
+O’Leary.
+
+Leave it to O’Leary! I had so far recovered from my fright that I
+smiled faintly at the phrase, but I could have embraced the day nurses
+when they came on duty, and the rattle of the dishes in the small,
+rubber-tired dumbwaiter, as it came up with the breakfast trays,
+sounded like music to my ears.
+
+On the way to the basement for breakfast, I had time for a word or two
+with Maida.
+
+“We’ll say nothing about it, save to O’Leary,” I murmured in a low
+voice and she nodded, just as Miss Dotty joined us with one of her
+insufferably bright good-mornings.
+
+Miss Dotty keeps a book at her bedside, entitled _Every Day a Sunny
+Day_, and memorizes verses from it. Her verse that morning was:
+
+  If you’re lonely, sad and blue,
+  Keep smiling.
+  Luck will bring you someone true
+  Who understands and loves just you.
+  Keep smiling,
+
+which seemed not only inane but downright offensive, as coming from
+one old maid to another.
+
+
+The inquest was set for nine-thirty. We had an early operation and at
+eight o’clock prompt I was tying Dr. Balman into his white apron and
+hood and counting sponges in the operating room. The patient’s
+appendix proving to be elusive, turning up, in fact, on entirely the
+wrong side, the operation was more interesting than we had expected.
+Dr. Balman looked haggard from fatigue and worry, his thin hair and
+beard were dishevelled and his eyes were hollow, but his hands were
+steady, if rather slow, and every last detail was thoroughly attended
+to.
+
+The inquest was held in the nurses’ library in the basement. It is not
+a cheerful room, particularly on wet, rainy mornings. It was chilly in
+the place; the white-washed walls looked cold and bare, even the
+medical books along the walls had none too happy titles. The linoleum
+rug caught dismal highlights, the chairs borrowed from the dining room
+were slippery and uncomfortable, and moisture dripped steadily down
+the small windows. Someone had turned on the lights but they did not
+improve matters.
+
+At a little table sat a stout, elderly gentleman, whom I had no
+trouble identifying as the pompous coroner. He wore a pair of
+nose-glasses attached to a button on his broad vest with an important
+black ribbon. The board of directors were ranged near at hand, some of
+them constituting the jury, which would have surprised me had I not
+known the weight in politics and otherwise that some of those names
+carried.
+
+Corole Letheny was there in a soft brown frock daringly tailored and
+very short so that her silk-clad—er—ankles and so forth were much in
+evidence; she wore a small green hat pulled low over her eyes and
+carried a large and gorgeously beaded bag which made a spot of vivid
+colour in that neutral gray room. Huldah, very stiff in her Sunday
+black silk, sat beside her.
+
+A little way off among a group of nurses sat Maida, her beauty and the
+distinctive air of breeding in the very lift of her chin making her
+stand out from the others as if they were only the frame for a
+picture. Jim Gainsay stood at the back of the room with a group of
+reporters. He wore an air of ease that was a shade too deliberate; his
+impenetrable eyes looked at nothing in particular but, I had no doubt,
+missed not the smallest movement in the room. He was attractive,
+clean, young, vigorous, but I could have wished him less
+restrained—less poised—less wary.
+
+There were the staff doctors, of course, talking to Dr. Balman and Dr.
+Hajek. I was interested to note that a bit of Dr. Hajek’s ruddy colour
+had deserted him; he said little and his black eyes darted here and
+there about the room, occasionally lingering upon Corole. Save for
+those restless eyes he was as unmoved and stolid as was usual with
+him.
+
+There were several policemen, too, Higgins, the cook and a few curious
+student nurses sitting with Miss Dotty, who being something of a
+simpleton took that occasion to shed a few tears, presumably for Dr.
+Letheny. And there was O’Leary, of course, gray and quiet, sitting
+near the coroner’s table.
+
+It being the one and only inquest I had ever attended (for which I am
+truly thankful), I was not able to compare it with others and did not
+know whether the undercurrent of excitement, the low whispers, the
+white faces, the nervous little movements and darting glances here and
+there, are typical of all inquests or peculiar to that one.
+
+All at once the coroner put down the papers he had been studying, took
+off his nose glasses, and began to talk. I did not notice what he
+said, for at the same moment O’Leary rose quietly and moved toward the
+back of the room. As he passed me he dropped a small bit of folded
+paper in my lap. Under the cover of my wide cuff I read the brief
+message it contained. I read it again; it didn’t seem to make sense,
+but of course, I was willing to obey the terse request. Just as I
+slipped the paper into my pocket I heard my name being called and I
+rose and walked to a chair indicated by the coroner.
+
+After convincing the coroner and the jury that I was actually Sarah
+Keate, superintendent of the south wing and on duty the night of
+Thursday, June seventh, I was allowed to proceed.
+
+It was not so difficult as I had feared it would be; I was allowed to
+tell my story in a brief and straightforward manner. The only time I
+became confused was when I got to the incident of the arrow-like
+projectile that had whizzed over my shoulder while I stood for a
+moment there on the little south porch. It was then, for the first
+time since the night it occurred, that I recalled the trifling
+incident, and I was already launched upon it and could not head off
+the coroner’s questions. I caught a reproachful look from O’Leary but
+had to continue; however, the coroner’s questions could prove nothing
+for there was little I could tell of the matter.
+
+The coroner questioned me rather particularly, too, as to the man with
+whom I collided, but I had expected this and gave guarded replies. He
+also tried to make me identify the owner of the cigarette case which
+lay there on the table before him, but I refused to commit myself
+beyond telling how and when I found the thing.
+
+As I say, it was not difficult—that is, until I reached the actual
+events leading to the crime. It was then that my voice faltered.
+
+“It was while I was sitting there at the chart desk, at exactly
+one-thirty—I had just entered the time on a chart—that I heard a sort
+of—bang. It sounded like a door closing.” I went on speaking with more
+and more difficulty. “So I got up and walked along the corridor but
+the south door was still open. Then I went back to the chart desk and
+was there when the storm broke and I had to run to close the door and
+the windows. When I went into Room 18 to close the window I found——” I
+stuck and had to clear my throat.—“I found that the patient, Mr.
+Jackson, was dead. The lights had gone out but a flash of lightning
+lit the room and I felt for his pulse and knew that he was dead. I ran
+to the diet kitchen, found a candle, and ran back to Eighteen. Miss
+Day had been closing the windows in the wing and had just got to Room
+18 when I returned with the candle. It was after we knew we could do
+nothing for him that we found the radium had been stolen.”
+
+My testimony continued for some time after that, but I simply answered
+the coroner’s questions as briefly as possible and volunteered
+nothing, and presently resumed my seat, feeling that, with the one
+exception, I had conducted myself creditably.
+
+Then Dr. Balman and Dr. Hajek were called in turn, to testify as to
+the causes of death, first of Mr. Jackson’s, and later of Dr.
+Letheny’s. They used technical terms, and told the methods of
+determining the length of time each had been dead before discovery. It
+was a difficult half hour for both of them, knowing Dr. Letheny as
+they had, and they both looked quite exhausted when the coroner had
+finished with them. Dr. Balman was frankly mopping his high forehead
+and even Dr. Hajek’s stolidity was shaken, for his eyes darted
+nervously about him and he retreated to the back of the room, where he
+lit a cigarette with unsteady hands.
+
+Then Miss Maida Day was called and as she took the witness chair my
+hands gripped each other and I watched her with strained attention.
+
+She testified very coolly, though. No, she had not seen Dr. Letheny
+when he called to visit his patient at twelve-thirty. She had been
+busy in one of the sick rooms. Yes, she had stepped out on the porch
+for a breath of air. Yes, she had attended the dinner party given by
+Miss Letheny. The coroner seemed to be supplied with all the topics of
+conversation of that dinner and Maida agreed imperviously to every one
+of them, even to the fact that she had said she wanted money.
+
+“I believe your words were ‘I’d give my very soul for money’?”
+inquired the coroner nastily.
+
+“I think I did say something like that,” said Maida quietly, though a
+tiny flush mounted to her cheeks. “Of course, I didn’t mean exactly
+that. One often exaggerates one’s statements.”
+
+The coroner did not comment on that but looked expressively at the
+jury.
+
+Then she corroborated, under his questions, every detail I had told of
+our finding of the body of Mr. Jackson and of our subsequent actions.
+He made his questions very searching and important indeed, and I felt
+something between a fool and a liar during the process; I am not
+accustomed to having my word doubted.
+
+“Miss Letheny answered the telephone, when I called for the doctor,”
+Maida explained, “and said that she couldn’t rouse him, and when I
+said we must have him immediately she went away from the telephone and
+when she came back told me that he was not in the house and she didn’t
+know where he had gone.”
+
+“Then you telephoned to Dr. Balman?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Did he answer immediately?”
+
+“No. I think he must have been asleep. When he did answer I told him
+simply of Mr. Jackson’s unexpected death and that we could not locate
+Dr. Letheny.”
+
+“About how long was it until Dr. Balman arrived?”
+
+“I’m not sure. I was—agitated naturally. But I should say about
+fifteen minutes.”
+
+“How was he dressed when he arrived?”
+
+“In—a dinner jacket, I think—and slicker. It was raining, you know.”
+
+“Miss Day, have you lately lost a cuff link?” asked the coroner,
+without warning.
+
+I was watching Maida closely and saw the little flush that had been in
+her face drain steadily away; her eyes darkened but did not falter in
+their steadfast gaze.
+
+“Yes,” she replied quietly.
+
+“Is this it?” He placed a small object in her hand that I could not
+see but had no doubt was the square of lapis.
+
+“It—seems to be,” she said, after a pause during which we others
+scarcely breathed. “It resembles the one I lost.”
+
+“Do you think you can say that it is your cuff link?” asked the
+coroner smoothly.
+
+“Why—yes. At least, it is identical with mine.”
+
+“Can you explain its presence in Dr. Letheny’s coat pocket when he was
+found—dead?”
+
+“No,” said Maida steadily, her steel-blue eyes meeting the coroner’s
+directly.
+
+“When did you discover its loss?”
+
+If possible, Maida went still whiter, and her nostrils took on a
+pinched look.
+
+“Shortly after I had returned from the porch,” she said steadily
+enough, but her eyes went to the back of the room for a brief instant.
+
+“How did this get into Dr. Letheny’s possession?” persisted the
+coroner.
+
+“I do not know. I suppose I—dropped it. Lost it from my cuff, and Dr.
+Letheny must have—found it.”
+
+“In the dark?” inquired the coroner suavely.
+
+Maida flushed again but her chin went higher.
+
+“I do not know.”
+
+He continued to question her at some length but with no success, and
+finally he dismissed her, with a grudging “Thank you.”
+
+Corole Letheny was the next witness and I settled myself more
+comfortably in my chair to listen. She was extremely self-possessed,
+and sat down as gracefully as if she had been paying a call. She
+looked rather nice, or would have, but for the clear beauty of the
+face that had just preceded her. Maida’s immaculate uniform, her clear
+white skin, her amazing blue eyes under their straight black eyebrows,
+that little, aristocratic air which somehow always surrounded her,
+made Corole seem a little tarnished, a little tawdry, a little
+theatrical, in spite of her perfect grooming and her expensive
+clothing.
+
+By that time the repetition of the details of that oft-referred-to
+dinner party were growing stale and I did not pay the strictest
+attention to the first questions of the coroner. I was aroused,
+though, by hearing him say suavely:
+
+“You will pardon me, Miss Letheny, but were you and Dr. Letheny on the
+best of terms?”
+
+She stared at him, her yellowish eyes widening and reflecting green
+lights from her hat brim.
+
+“What do you mean?”
+
+“Following the departure of your guests that night, did you not have a
+heated disagreement?”
+
+Her eyes slowly left the coroner and went to Huldah in an exceedingly
+unpleasant gaze.
+
+“I suppose my maid told you that. Yes, we did quarrel. Louis—was not
+an easy man to get along with.”
+
+“What was the subject of your quarrel that night?”
+
+“About as usual. Nothing in particular.”
+
+“Can you recall any of the exact—er—subjects?”
+
+“Why—no,” said Corole slowly. “That is, he told me I was running the
+house too extravagantly. He always said that.”
+
+The coroner surveyed her for a moment or two.
+
+“Is this your revolver?” he said suddenly, reaching for the shiny
+revolver and holding it before her.
+
+She started, quite visibly. One brown hand, with a great topaz shining
+on it, reached out as if to clutch the thing, and then drew slowly
+back.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 8
+
+A Gold Sequin
+
+“Does this revolver belong to you?” the coroner repeated.
+
+“Why, yes,” Corole said huskily. “That—is mine.”
+
+“Can you explain its presence in the closet in which your cousin’s
+body was found?”
+
+She ran her tongue nervously over her lips.
+
+“No,” she said. “No.”
+
+“When did you see it last.”
+
+“I—don’t know. It was usually kept in the drawer of the table in
+Louis’ study. I—don’t remember just when I saw it last.”
+
+“You didn’t bring it to the hospital, then?”
+
+“Certainly not,” flashed Corole. Her eyes narrowed so suddenly that I
+almost expected her to flatten her ears and spit like a cat.
+
+“When did you last see your cousin, Dr. Letheny?”
+
+“When I went upstairs at a little after twelve.” Mentally I figured
+that their quarrel must have been short and to the point.
+
+“Where did you leave him?”
+
+“He was sitting in his study.”
+
+“When you answered the telephone when Miss Day called, did you search
+the house?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Had his bed been disturbed?”
+
+“Apparently not.”
+
+“You can swear, then, that he was not in the house at—two o’clock?”
+
+“If that was when Miss Day telephoned, yes. I did not look at my
+watch.”
+
+There were a few more, rather unimportant, questions, then Corole was
+dismissed.
+
+After that the inquest rather dragged for awhile, although Huldah
+telling very succinctly of Jim Gainsay taking out the Doctor’s sedan a
+short time before the storm broke was one of the points of interest.
+Several policemen had to tell just what they found; during the
+description of finding Dr. Letheny’s body, I saw Corole wince for the
+first time and raise her laced handkerchief to her face.
+
+Then Dr. Balman was summoned to tell of his movements following the
+dinner party. He had gone directly to his room, it appeared, and was
+asleep when the telephone rang.
+
+“Asleep?” said the coroner astutely. “Not in your dinner jacket,
+Doctor.”
+
+“I was very tired that night, having worked hard all day. I sat down
+in an armchair to rest and went to sleep. The first thing I knew the
+telephone was ringing.”
+
+“And what did you do then?”
+
+“Miss Day sounded frightened—and it had been my impression that Mr.
+Jackson was doing very well indeed. I took my coat, for it was
+raining, got into my car and drove as fast as I could to St. Ann’s.”
+
+Dr. Hajek, too, corroborated as far as possible every feature of the
+testimonies Maida and I had given. No, he had not heard any knocks on
+the door of his room, until I knocked. The lights were out and he did
+not understand at once what was wanted. However, when he did
+understand that there was some trouble in Room 18, he hurried to that
+room. He had only time to make the briefest of examinations, when Dr.
+Balman arrived. Dr. Balman came by the south door into the wing,
+instead of going around to the main entrance. The south door had been
+closed and the key in the lock and Miss Day had let Dr. Balman into
+the corridor. Yes, they had immediately agreed as to the cause of
+death.
+
+Mr. James Gainsay was the next witness. As he advanced a queer little
+stir crept over the room.
+
+He admitted freely that he had been walking in the orchard previous to
+the storm. The night was hot and sultry, he said, and he had thought
+it might be cooler outdoors. As freely he admitted that the cigarette
+case belonged to him.
+
+“I’m certainly glad it was found,” he said, grinning a little. “I
+value that cigarette case and did not know where I had lost it.”
+
+The coroner frowned; this levity was out of place. He moved the slim,
+gold case to the side of the table farther away from Gainsay.
+
+“Was it you who collided with Miss Keate, there at the porch steps?”
+he asked.
+
+Jim Gainsay’s sun-tanned eyebrows drew closer together, but his mouth
+retained a half-amused smile.
+
+“I think it likely,” he said easily. “At least I—collided with some
+one.”
+
+His candid air did not remove, to my mind, any of the significance of
+his presence near the hospital.
+
+“Why were you running?”
+
+“I was in a hurry,” said Gainsay simply.
+
+“Where were you going?”
+
+“To Dr. Letheny’s garage.”
+
+“Did you go directly to the garage?”
+
+There was the barest possible hesitation. Then:
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“What did you do, then?”
+
+“Took Dr. Letheny’s car and drove into town.”
+
+“How long were you gone?”
+
+“About an hour, I should say. The roads were new to me and the rain
+made it bad driving.”
+
+“You wanted to send a telegram?”
+
+If Jim Gainsay was surprised, he gave no sign of it.
+
+“Yes,” he said quietly. I don’t know what it was in the tightening of
+his mouth and the quality of his voice that made me quite sure that
+the question had, in some manner, put him on his guard.
+
+“What was the telegram?”
+
+“A matter of business,” replied Gainsay smoothly.
+
+At this point Lance O’Leary reached over the coroner’s table and
+pushed something across it to the coroner. The coroner took it in his
+hands, a slip of yellow paper, and adjusted his spectacles. After
+reading what was written there, he glanced disapprovingly over his
+glasses at Gainsay, deliberately read the message again and finally
+spoke.
+
+“Was this the message you sent?”
+
+“I’m sure I don’t know,” said Jim Gainsay, good-naturedly, though
+there was a wary look in his half-closed eyes.
+
+A little gust of laughter was frowned upon by the coroner, who poised
+his spectacles again to read in a measured way: “‘Delayed owing to
+unexpected development stop cannot make the _Tuscania_ stop may not
+get away soon signed J. Gainsay.’ That yours, huh?”
+
+I was astounded to see that Gainsay had gone rather white and his jaw
+was set.
+
+“Yes,” he said very quietly.
+
+“What do you mean, ‘unexpected development’?”
+
+“I—am not at liberty to state.”
+
+Something in Gainsay’s manner seemed to irritate the coroner.
+
+“Not at liberty to state! Well, see here, young man, you’d better be
+at liberty to state and that mighty fast! You’ve admitted to skulking
+around St. Ann’s, at a time of night when respectable people are in
+bed and leaving cigarette cases——”
+
+“Now, now,” remonstrated Jim Gainsay gently. “I object to the word
+‘skulking.’”
+
+“You object! You object!” The coroner removed his eyeglasses for freer
+gesticulation and somehow they detached themselves from the ribbon and
+flew out of his hand. He paused in slight discomposure and Lance
+O’Leary stooped, returned the eyeglasses, and as he did so, leaned
+over and said something in a low voice.
+
+“H’m-m. R’r’h’m!” remarked the coroner weightily, fixing a profound
+gaze upon Jim Gainsay, as if his blackest doubts of this young man had
+been justified.
+
+“That is all, Mr. Gainsay. For the present.” He surveyed Gainsay
+unpleasantly and added, as if he liked the sound of the words: “For
+the present.”
+
+The rest of the inquest was not interesting and was mostly a matter of
+repeating things that I already knew. The coroner seemed rather addled
+but very determined to catch somebody in an untruth. I knew where his
+trouble lay; it was not that he lacked clues, it was rather that he
+had too many of them and they all seemed to point in different
+directions. I was glad that Lance O’Leary appeared to have kept his
+own counsel about certain matters of which I had told him, though I
+should have liked to see the faces of the board members if it had been
+brought to their attention that the morphine had very likely been
+stolen from our own south wing.
+
+The bell was ringing for lunch when the coroner concluded his somewhat
+pointless inquiries, and after a few moments in which the room was in
+utter silence the decisions were given. I was not surprised to hear
+that Dr. Louis Letheny had come to his death at the hands of a person
+or persons unknown. And a little later, in a hush so tense that we
+could hear the dripping of rain from a gutter pipe outside the
+windows, the same decision was given as to the death of our patient,
+old Mr. Jackson.
+
+We stirred our cramped muscles, rose slowly and straggled out of the
+room by twos and threes. To tell the truth I felt as if nothing but a
+formality had been accomplished. But as I left the room I turned for a
+look backward and saw Lance O’Leary’s smooth brown head bending close
+over the coroner’s bald spot in earnest consultation. That one glimpse
+convinced me that O’Leary actually, if not openly, controlled the
+inquest and did so to suit his own inexplicable motives. I longed to
+tell him of the mysterious visitor the south wing had had the previous
+night but had no opportunity until later in the day.
+
+What with one thing and another troubling me I did not rest well that
+afternoon. By the time I had napped spasmodically, had a bath, and got
+into a fresh uniform and cap it was four o’clock and I wandered
+through the curiously hushed corridors, down the stairs and into the
+general office. Miss Jones was writing in the record book of incoming
+cases and I paused to find out who had been entered. It was something
+to know that even the disagreeable publicity we had been given had not
+affected St. Ann’s prestige.
+
+“I’m putting him in Eighteen, in your wing,” she said as I bent over
+her shoulder.
+
+“In Eighteen!”
+
+“Why, yes. The room is available for use, isn’t it? He wants a
+downstairs room and that is the only one left.”
+
+“Whose patient?”
+
+“Dr. Balman’s, I think—yes.” She referred to the typed card.
+
+At the moment Dr. Balman entered the room from the inner office.
+
+“Just copy this history, please, Miss Jones, and let me know if——” he
+glanced at the record she was preparing. “Are you putting him in
+Eighteen?” he asked sharply.
+
+“Yes. Isn’t that right, Doctor?”
+
+His long fingers sought his beard perplexedly.
+
+“This affair is so recent——” he said doubtfully. “But, if there is no
+other room?”
+
+“He especially asked for a downstairs room.”
+
+“Very well, then,” he agreed after a moment during which his
+thoughtful, rather kind eyes studied the record. He spoke wearily.
+“Put him in Eighteen. We will have to use the room sooner or later, in
+any case. Oh—Miss Keate. Better warn the nurses to say nothing of
+Eighteen’s—er—history. The patient will be here at least two or three
+weeks, perhaps longer.”
+
+“Yes, Doctor,” I said as meekly as if I shouldn’t have known that I
+must do that, anyway. And I must say I did not relish the idea of a
+patient in Eighteen, knowing, as I did, that if it proved to be a
+surgical case with no private nurse, much of the care would fall on my
+shoulders, which meant many errands into Room 18.
+
+“Very good,” he said and turned toward the door.
+
+“Oh, Dr. Balman,” Miss Jones called him back hastily. “Did you not
+want me to copy that history?”
+
+Dr. Balman wheeled, glanced at the typed paper still in his hand.
+
+“I forgot,” he said abstractedly. “Thank you, Miss Jones.” He handed
+her the paper. “The patient will be in about six o’clock, I think,” he
+added, as he disappeared.
+
+He had not any more than got out of the room, when Dr. Hajek entered.
+
+“Was there a telephone call for me—thank you,” as Miss Jones handed
+him the pad with a number scribbled on it.
+
+He took down the telephone.
+
+“Main 2332, please,” he said into the mouthpiece, adding aside to Miss
+Jones, “Any new cases this afternoon?”
+
+“Yes, Doctor. A Mr. Gastin is coming in. I have put him in Eighteen.”
+
+“In Eighteen! What? Oh, yes—Main 2332—” he turned again from the
+telephone. “Did you say you put him in Eighteen? Eighteen in the south
+wing?” he asked sharply.
+
+“Why, yes,” said Miss Jones. “That was the only downstairs room left.”
+
+“But——” began Dr. Hajek, only to be interrupted by the operator’s
+voice again. “Yes. Main 2332—Oh, there you are. Yes, this is Dr.
+Hajek. What’s that? . . . Did you take his temperature? Oh—yes I
+see. . . . Try a hot water bag and a little warm milk. . . .
+Yes. . . . Yes.” He hung up with a click. “About that new patient,
+Miss Jones, I really don’t think it wise to put him in Eighteen. If he
+is inclined to be nervous——”
+
+I was tired of discussing the matter.
+
+“He will not know a thing about what has happened there,” I
+interrupted very rudely and not at all in accordance with professional
+etiquette. “We’ve got to use the room sometime. Why not now?”
+
+“Yes,” agreed Dr. Hajek, surveying me absently. “Yes, I suppose so.
+Yes. Did you say he comes this afternoon?”
+
+“About six o’clock,” said Miss Jones, and with a nod he swung toward
+the inner office.
+
+Thinking that I must see that Room 18 was in order, I hurried toward
+the south wing. The room had not been cleaned beyond a brief
+straightening up, so I sent two nurses to clean it and went along
+myself to superintend the affair.
+
+It was not pleasant to open that door, but I had opened it under still
+less agreeable circumstances. The room was very gloomy and cold with
+dismal shadows on the white walls, and the window panes so beaded with
+moisture that the gray light from outside filtered but faintly into
+the place. I relented so far as to turn on the electric light, which
+threw the whole room into sharp relief, and the two girls set to work.
+
+The air was stale, so I crossed to the low window near the porch,
+unlocked the catch and flung it wide, letting in the damp mist. I
+stood there, thinking of the intruder of the previous night. Who had
+been in this room? What had been his purpose? What would O’Leary say
+when I told him of it? Had the visitor escaped by this window? I
+looked at the wide sill. There was a screen there, to be sure, but it
+worked on a spring catch and could easily be opened from either side,
+this to facilitate the shaking of rugs and dusters and the adjusting
+of awnings. Idly I pushed back the screen, running my finger along the
+sill. I was about to close it again when a faint reflection of light
+from something in the corner of the sill caught my eye. I leaned
+toward that corner to look more closely, reached out and slowly turned
+the tiny flat thing over with my fingernail.
+
+It was a gold sequin!
+
+I should never have seen it save for that minute reflection of light,
+for the upper surface was all tarnished and stained, though the under
+side was still bright. A wisp of frayed green thread still clung to
+the small hole for a needle at the top of the flimsy bit of metal.
+
+I needed no one to tell me from where the thing had come; the night of
+June seventh Corole Letheny had worn a dress of gold sequins cunningly
+arranged over net with flashes of green here and there.
+
+And it did not seem probable to me that she had worn the gown since
+that night.
+
+By the time I had digested this amazing fact the girls, to whom fear
+seemed to lend astonishing speed, had got the room cleaned.
+
+“A patient is coming,” I explained to them. “That is all now.” They
+were glad to be dismissed and hurried away.
+
+I did not remain alone in that room. Strolling down the corridor, the
+tiny sequin still in my hand, it occurred to me that it would be a
+fine thing to be able to tell Lance O’Leary, when I gave him the
+sequin, whether or not Corole had worn her gold gown since the night
+of her dinner party. Huldah would know, and somehow in the face of
+this last development, I had no scruples as to inquiring of Huldah
+concerning the affairs of her mistress.
+
+It was a matter of only a few moments until I was on my way.
+
+The path through the orchard squdged wetly under my feet; the trees
+dripped steadily on my starched, white cap, and the mist lay so heavy
+and close that I could not see more than ten or fifteen feet ahead of
+me. The shrubs massed around the trees were hazy, shadowy outlines,
+and the raw air fairly hurt my throat.
+
+I walked on slowly through the wet alfalfa field, passed the clump of
+pines that made a black blot amidst the fog, and through the gate. The
+porch of the Letheny cottage still looked dreary and Huldah had not
+swept it that day.
+
+Corole came to the door.
+
+“Oh,” she said unenthusiastically. “Oh, hello, Sarah. Come in. I was
+boring myself over a book.” She threw my cape on a chair and I
+followed her into the study.
+
+“You decided not to go to New Orleans, then, with the—that is, for the
+funeral?”
+
+“There was no need to.” Her face darkened. “He has relatives there
+who—never cared for me.”
+
+“Mr. Jackson’s body was sent East,” I said. We lapsed into silence.
+Presently Corole stirred.
+
+“I’d give you tea but Huldah is in bed with a headache. She went to
+sleep right after lunch but I suppose is awake by now. I told her not
+to worry about dinner; I’ll drive in to the Brevair. I’ve been wanting
+to get out, anyhow, and they say there’s a wonderful new chef there.”
+
+“Well, for goodness’ sake, Corole, don’t make yourself conspicuous.
+There’s that matter of the revolver at the inquest, you know.”
+
+Corole glanced curiously at me and laughed.
+
+“But my dear, I don’t know a thing about that revolver getting over to
+St. Ann’s. And I do happen to know that there are other, far more
+intriguing things, that might bear a little investigation.” She
+smoothed the flat wave in her hair gently. “A little investigation, at
+least,” she murmured as if amused, but her expression was not
+pleasant. Indeed a look in her flat, yellow eyes reminded me that this
+woman had lived in strange places, had seen strange things, was likely
+familiar with dark secrets and black rites and primitive
+passions—product of the twentieth century though she seemed, with her
+laces and jewels and sophisticated eyebrows. Jungle nights, tom-toms
+and the word “voodoo” came into my mind—and though I have never been
+at all sure just what voodoo means, I found my skin crawling.
+
+“I think I’ll go up to see Huldah,” I said, rising abruptly, and
+feigning a professional interest.
+
+“Do,” said Corole, smiling not at all tenderly into the fire. “You
+know the way to her room? I’m too lazy to go along.” At my nod she
+continued indolently: “Huldah highly approves of you, Sarah. She has
+never quite trusted me, you know.” She laughed again.
+
+I found Huldah very drowsy and her headache worse.
+
+“It is on account of the cloudy weather,” I said, and we talked for
+some moments very pleasurably of our experiences with neuralgia; my
+own were much more interesting than Huldah’s but I listened
+forbearingly to her tale.
+
+“I felt better for awhile after Miss Letheny gave me some medicine she
+has,” went on Huldah. “I went right off to sleep. She gives it into
+your arm so it doesn’t take long to——”
+
+“Into your arm!” I cried, struck by the phrase. “What do you mean?”
+
+“Why with one of them—what do you call them? Sort of like a needle.”
+
+“You don’t mean a hypodermic needle?”
+
+“Yes!” Huldah smiled happily. “That is it. I just couldn’t think of
+what she called it. It is fine. You see, that way the medicine goes
+directly into your——”
+
+“Huldah! Do you mean to say that Miss Letheny gave you a hypodermic?”
+
+She nodded, pulling up the sleeve of her outing-flannel wrapper and
+showing me the tiny scar. I scrutinized it closely. It had been most
+deftly done. There were no skin abrasions, the vein had been carefully
+avoided, the needle quite evidently had been thrust into the flesh by
+a practised and unfaltering hand. And that hand belonged to Corole
+Letheny!
+
+“Wasn’t that all right, Miss Keate? It didn’t hurt at all——”
+
+I recalled myself to the present.
+
+“Huldah,” I said severely, “never let anyone but a doctor or a trained
+nurse give you a hypodermic. Never!” And as her face turned rather
+green I added, “That was likely just some headache medicine that Dr.
+Letheny, or some one, had given Miss Letheny. So it is all right this
+time.” And, indeed, I could tell that Corole had actually given her
+only a mild opiate to relieve, most unwisely, her headache.
+
+“Now,” I went on, as I caught sight of my wrist watch pointing to five
+o’clock. “Can you tell me something that I want to know, and forget
+that I asked you?”
+
+Huldah is shrewd; she raised herself on one gray flannel elbow and
+looked at me keenly.
+
+“I can keep a secret, Miss Keate. There’s many a thing I could tell if
+I wanted to.”
+
+“What I want to know is this: Has Miss Letheny worn her gold dress
+lately?”
+
+“You mean that green and gold, snaky thing with the scales on it?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Let me see. She wore it last the night Dr. Letheny was killed.”
+
+“Are you sure, Huldah?”
+
+“Yes’m. I remember well. Poor Dr. Letheny!”
+
+“Feeling better, Huldah?” said a voice from the doorway.
+
+It was Corole, of course.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 9
+
+Under the Barberry Bush
+
+I left rather abruptly. But on the darkening path toward St. Ann’s I
+decided that Corole could not have heard our conversation. Feeling
+that I must get these last two pieces of news, as well as the
+occurrence of the previous night to O’Leary as soon as possible, I
+walked rapidly along through the fog. I crossed the little bridge and
+was hurrying through the apple orchard when I came face to face with
+O’Leary.
+
+“You are the very person I want to see, Miss Keate,” he said at once.
+
+Taking my arm he drew me a few steps from the path; he motioned and
+following his gesture I found I had a view of the south door and small
+colonial porch.
+
+“Tell me, Miss Keate, exactly where you were standing the night of
+June seventh when the—er—arrow-like affair was thrown over your
+shoulder?”
+
+“I had truly forgotten that—I should have told you.”
+
+“That’s all right,” he brushed my apology aside. “Can you recall about
+where you were standing and the line it took over your shoulder?”
+
+“I think so,” I replied slowly and thoughtfully. “It seems to me it
+should have fallen somewhere about that clump of barberry. Over
+there.” I pointed with my finger toward the shrubbery that edges the
+apple orchard. “I suppose you are trying to find what it was.”
+
+“If no one else has found—or retrieved it yet,” agreed O’Leary.
+
+With O’Leary going ahead and holding back the more importunate
+branches and shrubs, we made our slow way to the spot I had indicated.
+I remember that we took some pains not to be seen from the hospital
+and, bending over as I did, to keep my white cap invisible from those
+windows, I had an absurd feeling that I was playing a grim game of
+hide-and-seek. In the excitement of the search I did not notice my
+soaked shoes and my wet hair, and remember only how I groped along the
+sodden leaf mold, and around the slippery brown roots of the shrubs
+and trees. If we had known what to look for, it would have been an
+easier task, O’Leary informed me, after some twenty minutes’ vain
+delving in the wet underbrush. He was inclined to be a little pettish
+about it, implying that I might have noticed the thing more carefully.
+That remark was made the time he slipped on some wet leaves and flung
+his hands into a barberry bush to keep his balance. He looked
+amazingly human and ordinary, picking out the thorns. It was just a
+few moments after that that I heard him utter a sudden ejaculation of
+pain. He was on the opposite side of a large clump of barberry bush
+and I crawled cautiously around to discover what had happened.
+
+I found him squatting on his heels, with his thumb in his mouth and
+the other hand clasping a small object that, from his glance, seemed
+to have pleased him inordinately.
+
+“I’ve found it, Miss Keate,” he said, achieving triumphant utterance
+in spite of the thumb. “Look! Could it have been this?”
+
+It was a mercy I was so near the ground for my knees simply caved in
+under me. In his hand was a small hypodermic syringe. The nickel on it
+was rusted a little from the weather.
+
+This syringe whizzing over my shoulder was exactly what I had seen. It
+was heavy enough to acquire considerable velocity and, as I peered
+through the shrubbery and trees to the porch, I knew that it would
+have fallen about here. The trouble was that it looked very much like
+the south wing’s missing syringe. Of course, all hypodermics are much
+alike, but I knew a certain way that it could be identified, for Maida
+had taken a cue from me and marked all her tools with a small
+scratched “D.”
+
+“Let me see it,” I said.
+
+Without a word he handed the thing to me. On the top of the little
+flat button was a rudely scratched “D,” rusty but still distinct.
+
+“I see you recognize it,” said O’Leary, taking his thumb out of his
+mouth, and regarding it as thoughtfully as if he had not another
+object in the world. “It is Miss Day’s, is it not?”
+
+I nodded.
+
+“Everyone in the wing had access to it. The fact that it may have
+originally belonged to Maida doesn’t mean that she threw it out here.”
+
+“No—no, of course not,” he said contemplatively. “Well—we found it,
+Miss Keate. Though I could wish that I had not run into it so
+forcibly.”
+
+He regarded the scratch on his thumb. “You don’t suppose that rust
+harbored any tetanus germs?”
+
+“It has bled enough by this time to clean itself,” I said without much
+sympathy, feeling indeed that if he _would_ find things it served him
+right to get stuck!
+
+“You nurses!” he said, looked at me and laughed. “I wish you could see
+yourself, Miss Keate.”
+
+Conscious not only of my undignified posture but also of an increasing
+dampness penetrating my skirts, I rose. He followed me through the
+shrubbery toward the path.
+
+“This is as secluded a place in which to talk as we can find, Miss
+Keate,” he said. “Have you come upon any new developments that I’d
+like to hear about?”
+
+“How did you know I had?” I asked, not any too pleasantly.
+
+He smiled. “By the look in your eyes and your general aspect
+of—er—having swallowed the canary, so to speak.”
+
+“Well, as a matter of fact there is a thing or two.” As briefly as I
+could, I told him of the gold sequin and of the fact that Corole had
+last worn that gown the night of June seventh. I also told him that
+she was an adept at the use of a hypodermic needle. And then, somewhat
+reluctantly, and glancing rather nervously into the foggy shadows that
+were increasing under the dripping trees about us, I told him of the
+visitor to Room 18 of the previous night. He asked several questions,
+seeming to be extremely interested.
+
+“It goes without saying that the person, whoever it was, who entered
+Room 18 last night had some purpose. That there was—or is—something
+yet in Eighteen that he wanted.” He frowned. “I don’t see what I could
+have missed.”
+
+“There was the sequin,” I suggested.
+
+“Yes, there was the sequin. You said it was under the screen? Yes, I
+missed that. But somehow I don’t see Corole Letheny coming back for
+it.”
+
+“She has likely not missed it—there are hundreds of the things on that
+dress.”
+
+“Huldah was positive she hadn’t worn the dress since Thursday night?
+She might have left it there last night, you know.”
+
+I shook my head.
+
+“No. Huldah was sure. And it must have been then, for the side of the
+sequin that lay uppermost is all tarnished from the rain.”
+
+“That is true. Then the question is, Who was in Room 18 last night?
+And what did he want?” His gray eyes were like two clear lakes.
+
+“Miss Keate,” he said suddenly. “This radium: I’ve been hunting
+through encyclopedias about the stuff, but there is something I want
+to know. Could it be carried about in a pocket? Without burning, you
+know.”
+
+“Yes, if it were in the box made for it. Radium is used in a variety
+of tools, for many purposes. But in this case it was in a sort of
+boxlike container, quite small.”
+
+“And could be carried in a pocket or in one’s hand?” he insisted. “Or
+even hidden in one place or another?”
+
+“Goodness, yes!” I replied. “I’ve seen tools containing it carried
+about in doctors’ bags often enough.”
+
+He did not speak for a moment or two, studying me in the meantime with
+thoughtful eyes that did not in the least see me.
+
+“I should think that it would be hard to dispose of—though as to
+that——” He broke off abruptly. “Look here, Miss Keate, how is it that
+such a valuable thing is used with so little precaution against
+theft?”
+
+“In some hospitals radium is guarded,” I explained. “There is one very
+large hospital, to which patients come from all over the world, where
+guards are placed in the sick-room whenever radium is used. But it was
+not deemed necessary here at St. Ann’s. Nothing of the kind has ever
+happened before and our class of patients is, as a rule, of the most
+respectable. St. Ann’s, you know, has really the best standing——” I
+stopped in the middle of my rather snooty remark as I saw the half
+smile on his face.
+
+“Still it did happen,” he said softly.
+
+“Yes,” I retorted. “And it is your business to recover it.”
+
+His face sobered instantly.
+
+“Not an easy task, Miss Keate,” he said at once and most amiably. “And
+I’m grateful for the help you give me. In return I shall tell you,
+since you ask it, that there are a few possible premises that interest
+me. You might give me your opinion of them. For one thing—we have
+found that there were three possible means of death, in or about Room
+18. There was a revolver, ether, and a hypodermic syringe and enough
+morphine missing from the drug room to more than accomplish—what we
+believe it did accomplish. Three weapons where only one was necessary!
+Dr. Letheny met his death by a fourth means. Three weapons! Does that
+not indicate that there was more than one person interested in your
+patient’s death?”
+
+“Three!” I gasped. “Three!” In consternation I went over the list of
+names of that dinner party of ill memory. “But there were only six of
+us at that dinner to whose personnel you limit your suspects.”
+
+“Seven,” corrected O’Leary. “There is Dr. Letheny, you know.”
+
+“But Mr. O’Leary, it sounds like a club.” I was very much in earnest
+but the man had the impudence to laugh.
+
+“It _does_ sound like an association of some kind,” he said coolly.
+“The cuff link and the affair of the disappearing hypodermic needle
+point to Maida. The presence and continued presence of Jim Gainsay,
+plus that somewhat ambiguous wire, point to him. Possibility includes
+you and the two doctors. And as to Miss Letheny, we have several
+counts against her. So you see it does look rather like a conspiracy.”
+
+“Nonsense,” I said irritably. “I assure you that all six of us did not
+band together for the purpose of doing away with Dr. Letheny and his
+patient.”
+
+“Of course not,” agreed O’Leary soothingly. “Though you must admit,
+Miss Keate, that there are a good many clues—no, we’ll call them
+merely facts that intrigue the curious mind—that seem to include all
+of you.”
+
+“Coincidence,” I said with considerable decision.
+
+O’Leary’s eyebrows went up a little.
+
+“Have it as you will,” he agreed amicably.
+
+“You have forgotten the fact that Fred Hajek’s coat was wet that night
+when I finally aroused him. Why didn’t you inquire about that at the
+inquest?”
+
+“I had already done so,” said O’Leary. “He explained that the window
+in his room was open and that the coat was lying across a chair beside
+the window when the rain began. He did not waken immediately and it
+rained on his coat.”
+
+“H’m,” said I skeptically. “How about Dr. Balman? Are you going
+to take his word for it that he was in his own apartment during the
+time all this took place? What about that bruise on his face that he
+said he got running through the orchard? Mightn’t he have got it
+earlier in the night?” Though my heart reproved me as I spoke, for
+Dr. Balman, torn from his beloved studies, forced into a thousand
+responsibilities, worn and haggard and tired and troubled, was a
+pathetic figure.
+
+“Dr. Balman is too busy a man these days to bother much with
+questions,” said O’Leary simply. “However, since you have inquired, I
+have proved his statement. According to the elevator man at the
+apartment house in which Dr. Balman lives, Dr. Balman arrived from the
+Letheny’s at twelve-fifteen and did not leave until the same elevator
+man, who also attends the switchboard during the night, gave him a
+call from St. Ann’s. The elevator man obligingly listened in to the
+conversation, had the elevator at the door of Dr. Balman’s apartment
+immediately, and took the doctor down to the first floor at exactly
+three minutes after two.”
+
+“Now then,” he continued after a short silence, “about this hypodermic
+needle: I should like to have a little talk with Miss Day. And also I
+want to visit Room 18 again.”
+
+“There is a patient in Room 18.”
+
+“Already!”
+
+“Yes. I don’t think Dr. Balman, or Dr. Hajek either, wanted to permit
+the room to be used, but there was no other place for the patient.”
+
+O’Leary’s clear eyes considered me absently for a moment.
+
+“It isn’t likely, then, that there will be a repetition of last
+night’s affair,” he said finally. “But suppose you let me go over the
+room again, when I can do so without disturbing the patient.”
+
+A figure moving through the mist caught our eyes. It was Maida, her
+white cap gleaming above her blue and scarlet cape.
+
+“Good-afternoon, Miss Day,” said O’Leary, stepping into the path.
+
+I think Maida was a little startled, for her eyes darkened and she
+glanced hurriedly along the path toward the bridge.
+
+But: “Good-afternoon, Mr. O’Leary,” she answered composedly enough.
+“Oh, there you are, Sarah,” she went on as her eyes fell on me. “I was
+wondering where you had gone.” Her eyes travelled to my hair, and she
+exclaimed: “How wet your hair is! You’ll get neuralgia, won’t you?”
+
+I put a hand to my hair. It was wet and very draggled where the
+branches from the trees and shrubs under which I had crept had pulled
+it. I straightened my wilted cap and tucked up the more adventurously
+straying locks.
+
+“I’ve been looking for something.”
+
+“I think you must have been,” agreed Maida, a flicker of mirth in her
+blue gaze. “You must have looked for it under the barberry bushes.”
+
+As a matter of fact I had done just that. But before I could say
+anything O’Leary took up the conversation.
+
+“Did you lose your hypodermic needle, Miss Day?” he asked without
+prelude.
+
+Maida’s face sobered instantly and she glanced swiftly at him.
+
+“Why, yes, I did lose it,” she said immediately.
+
+“Is this the one you lost?” he asked, holding the syringe toward her
+in his outstretched palm and keeping his extraordinarily clear eyes on
+her face so keenly as almost to read her thoughts.
+
+So I am sure he saw her lips tighten, as I did, and her chin go up
+defiantly.
+
+“It seems to be,” she said. “I had scratched my initial on mine.” She
+reached for the syringe and turned it so she could see the small
+plunger with its marked top.
+
+“Yes,” she said quietly. “That is my own syringe.”
+
+“I found it just now in a clump of bushes. Do you know how it got
+there?”
+
+“No,” said Maida flatly.
+
+“Why, then,” said O’Leary very softly, “did you replace it with Miss
+Keate’s needle?”
+
+Maida turned toward me at that, her eyes again unfathomable. But
+before she could reply Jim Gainsay, whose approach we had not noted,
+swept impetuously between us.
+
+“Hello, Miss Keate—O’Leary. Here you are, Miss Day.” And without any
+ado about it, he simply took Maida’s arm and hustled her away from us
+and along the narrow path toward the bridge before we had time to
+blink.
+
+It was rather astonishing, and O’Leary and I stood there in silence
+for a moment until the fog hid the gleam of scarlet from Maida’s cape.
+
+“Well,” remarked O’Leary then, turning to me; I saw that his eyes were
+twinkling with a sort of unwilling admiration that was half amusement.
+“Well—somewhat piratical is Mr. Gainsay. I suppose he brazenly
+listened to what we said. It is evident that he did not want Miss Day
+to answer my last question—also, that he is more or less in her
+confidence and that he was meeting her by appointment. Or”—he paused
+for a moment—“or it might be that he has reasons of his own for not
+wishing it to be known just why Miss Day substituted your needle for
+her own. At least,” he concluded briskly, “he knows more than an
+innocent man should know.”
+
+And with that I had to be content, for he would not say another word
+and we walked silently along the dusky path until we came to the
+colonial porch of the south wing.
+
+“I’ll go on around to the main entrance,” said O’Leary, then. “I want
+to use the telephone in the general office. I’ll be around to your
+wing later; there is something about Room 18 that I must know.” He
+took off his cap as he walked away from me—a nice gesture that was
+somewhat marred in effect by his very dirty hands.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 10
+
+A Midnight Visitor
+
+I slipped unobserved into the diet kitchen, where I left my cape and
+to some degree repaired damages. I found, on emerging from the
+kitchen, that the new patient in Eighteen had arrived. It is a rule
+with me personally to superintend the installation of a new patient,
+so I went at once to Room 18. I still found it unpleasant to enter
+that room, especially since the figure on the narrow bed reminded me
+forcibly of that other figure that had lain there.
+
+Mr. Gastin was an elderly man, somewhat peevish at being thrust into
+bed, and quite to my liking. He must have been a person of some
+importance, for flowers galore had already arrived, among them a
+potted lobelia, a sinister-looking flower that I have never liked.
+
+He replied rather bitterly that he was as comfortable as might be
+expected and asked for the evening papers.
+
+“I’m sorry,” I said, “but we don’t have them.”
+
+“Don’t have them!” he exclaimed, eyeing me shrewdly. “Oh. Oh, yes, I
+see why. Where did all this trouble occur, anyway? And see here,
+what’s the matter with this radio? The thing don’t work. Is it turned
+on at this hour? I want the stock reports. I want to tune in myself.”
+
+“The radio is in the general office,” I explained hastily, fearing he
+would return to the question I did not wish to answer. “The speakers
+in the different rooms connect with it. It is usually turned on at
+this hour, but I don’t know whether they have got the stock reports or
+not.”
+
+“Well, bring me a speaker that works, anyhow,” he said, hitching
+himself on one elbow among the pillows and then flopping back again.
+“Anything for amusement. I suppose it will be bedtime stories. Well,
+bring ’em on. And you might slip me a cigar.”
+
+I felt rather sad as I took the loud speaker, pulled the plug from its
+connection above the bed, and started away. It doesn’t take five
+minutes to place a new patient in his correct category and I knew all
+too well where this one belonged. Someone had labelled them “crippled
+captains of finance,” and the title stuck.
+
+Being in a hurry I took the faulty speaker into Sonny’s room. He was
+engrossed with a new block puzzle and paying no attention to the radio
+so I exchanged the speakers, taking the one in Sonny’s room to Mr.
+Gastin for the time being. Once connected, soft and dulcet tones rang
+through Number 18: “. . . and then Bunny Brown Eyes—scampered
+along . . .”
+
+“Oh, hell,” remarked Mr. Gastin.
+
+“The dinner concert comes on at seven,” I suggested.
+
+“Think I can stand this till then?” he asked, but left the plug in.
+“Can you bring me a—er—blanket or two, nurse? Somehow this room seems
+sort of—I don’t know—cold, I guess. You might turn on that light up
+there—yes, and the one over the dresser, too.”
+
+The light over the bed was already glowing, but I did as he asked.
+Which only goes to prove that Room 18 was already getting in its work.
+I left the door open and remember that I spoke very earnestly when I
+told him to turn on the signal light if he wanted anything.
+
+He did not have to listen to the bunny story after all, however, for I
+met Miss Jones coming along with a truck and she told me that she was
+taking Mr. Gastin to Dr. Letheny’s—that is, Dr. Balman’s office for an
+examination.
+
+“He hasn’t had his supper tray yet, has he?” she asked anxiously.
+
+Meeting O’Leary in the hall I told him that Room 18 was vacant for a
+few minutes; I went on downstairs to eat, however, and did not
+accompany him. But when I sat down to glance at the charts of the
+south wing an hour later, O’Leary stopped beside me.
+
+“No luck?” I said.
+
+“Not a thing,” he replied.
+
+There was a distinctly puzzled look in his face.
+
+“Keep your eyes open to-night, Miss Keate. If anything occurs like
+last night, ’phone to me immediately. Here’s my number. I’ll sleep
+right by the telephone. Thanks. Good-night.”
+
+But before taking five steps he whirled back to me.
+
+“By the way, Miss Keate,” he said in a low voice so that the little
+cluster of white-clad nurses around the dumbwaiter could not hear him.
+“By the way, it seems peculiar that after the inquest when the matter
+of your seeing this hypodermic needle was brought to light so
+publicly, no one tried to retrieve it. One wonders why. And another
+thing—I should like to know where this Jim Gainsay spent the time
+between your meeting him at the corner of the porch, and his starting
+to town in Dr. Letheny’s car. There are, according to your story,
+about fifteen minutes unaccounted for——Good-night, again.”
+
+I did not return to the south wing until midnight. I found only Maida
+there for second watch, Miss Dotty having arranged the schedule of
+nursing hours on its old basis, thus depriving us of our temporary
+increased help. I thought it somewhat presumptuous of Miss Dotty, who,
+after all, is only superintendent of nurses and has no jurisdiction
+over our wing. Olma Flynn had been placed on first watch, as formerly,
+and on relieving her she assured me that everything was going well and
+though the new patient in Eighteen was a trifle restless, I had
+expected that, so I thought nothing of it.
+
+Olma had locked the south door and its key hung peacefully on its
+customary nail. Under Maida’s understanding gaze I took the key from
+the nail and slipped it under an order pad on the chart desk; if
+anyone wanted it that night he should have to ask for it!
+
+I hadn’t been on the floor ten minutes when Eighteen’s light went on;
+upon answering it I found my patient sitting bolt upright in bed, with
+the small light over the bed glowing brightly.
+
+“I don’t like this bed, nurse!” he said. His rumpled gray hair gave
+him a rather ferocious aspect and his pajama coat was all wrinkled and
+twisted from flouncing around on the bed.
+
+His words gave me rather a turn for, as far as that went, I didn’t
+like the bed myself. But I advanced coolly enough and began
+straightening the tossed sheets and blanket.
+
+“What is the matter with it?” I asked, in my professionally
+comfortable voice. I was not prepared for his reply.
+
+“It feels like a coffin,” he said, staring gloomily at his feet.
+
+“Like a coffin!”
+
+He glanced at me sharply.
+
+“Like a coffin,” he repeated stubbornly. “I don’t like it.”
+
+“Nonsense,” I said, recovering myself and reaching for a pillow. “You
+aren’t used to it, that’s all.”
+
+“What do they make them so high for?” he said peevishly, peering over
+the edge of the bed. “If I’d fall out I’d have a long way to go.”
+
+“You’re not going to fall out,” I reassured him. “And if they didn’t
+make them high we nurses would break our backs. That is the greatest
+life-saver for nurses that anybody ever found. You see, if they were
+built at the height of ordinary beds we would have to bend away
+over——”
+
+“Well, they don’t have to be so narrow,” he interrupted sulkily.
+“Every time I turn over I have to grab to save myself from going out.”
+
+“Oh, it isn’t that bad, is it?” I plumped the pillows briskly,
+replaced them and pulled the draw sheet straight. “Now, that will be
+better. Try to relax and lie quiet.”
+
+He subsided on the pillow, still muttering childishly.
+
+It seemed close in the room, so I raised the window higher and brought
+him a fresh drink of water. Of course, if the window had already been
+up I should have lowered it; I make it a point to fuss around the room
+a little just to make the patient think I’m doing things for his
+comfort, and nine times out of ten he will drop off to sleep at once.
+
+This was the tenth time, however, for within half an hour Eighteen’s
+light flickered on again. Maida answered it that time and when she
+came out she looked very peculiar.
+
+“What is the matter?” I asked, meeting her in the corridor.
+
+“It is Eighteen. He is very restless.”
+
+“Yes, I know that he is.”
+
+“He——” she hesitated. “He does not seem to like the room.”
+
+Our eyes met but I tried to keep the little tremor of fright out of my
+voice as I replied: “He isn’t accustomed to a hospital room yet, that
+is all.”
+
+“I hope so, I’m sure,” said Maida somewhat morosely and went on about
+her errand.
+
+I myself am so accustomed to the hospital that is home to me that it
+is only once in a while that I see it as it impresses a stranger. For
+a singular moment or two that night I saw it with alien eyes, so to
+speak; the corridor was long and strange and dark with the vases of
+flowers along the walls making grotesque shadows against the lighted
+region of the chart desk at the extreme end of the wings; the hush
+that always surrounds a hospital, particularly at night, seemed
+unfamiliar and grim; the doors swung noiselessly; the little thud of
+our rubber-heeled shoes along the rubberized floor-runner seemed
+stealthy. Our hushed, low voices had a furtive note. The hospital
+odours of antiseptics and soap and medicines and sickness, with under
+it all a lurking, faint but ever-present breath of ether, came to my
+nostrils with the clearness of novelty. The dim red gleams of
+scattered signal lights, above the black voids that were doors, seemed
+strange, too, and weird. I caught myself staring up and down the
+corridor, puzzled and wondering and faintly frightened as if I were in
+a new and terrifying place. Then all at once, things resolved
+themselves into the old, familiar wing. But the feeling of uneasiness
+persisted.
+
+The patient in Eighteen finally turned off his light and must have
+gone to sleep, for we heard nothing of him for an hour or two. We were
+fairly busy, with little opportunity for conversation. Along about two
+o’clock I found that Sonny had managed to acquire a sore throat, a
+hot, flushed face and icy feet. I was hurrying for camphorated oil and
+a hot-water bottle when Eighteen’s light shone redly above the door. I
+hastened to answer it.
+
+“Nurse,” said our patient firmly, his eyes quite swollen from lack of
+sleep, and his bedclothes more tousled than ever. “Nurse, I do not
+like this room. I want another.”
+
+I sighed inwardly even as I went again about the business of
+straightening him and the bed.
+
+“There isn’t another on the floor, Mr. Gastin,” I said quietly. “And
+anyway we can’t move you in the middle of the night.”
+
+“But I insist upon being moved,” he said, with an odd mixture of
+childish pettishness and adult command. What would be the result if
+the world at large knew these important business men as we know them!
+Big babies, they are, most of them!
+
+“This room is exactly like any other room,” I said.
+
+“I don’t like it!” he reiterated. “There’s—there’s noises.” His eyes
+roved about the room uneasily. “There’s noises! Sounds like
+whispering.”
+
+I’ll not deny that these extraordinary words stirred my hair at its
+roots.
+
+“Non—sense!” I brought out jerkily. “Nonsense! You are nervous.”
+
+He was regarding me with shrewd little eyes. I stared back at him,
+trying to appear steady and at ease, but it was no use. He raised his
+hand to point a square forefinger at me, shaking it emphatically in my
+face.
+
+“I’ll bet you ten dollars—I’ll bet you a hundred dollars, right there
+in my pants pocket, that this is _the room!_”
+
+Fascinated, I kept my eyes on the square finger. He did not need to
+say what room, for I knew well what he meant. I moistened my lips.
+
+“How about it?” he went on more briskly. “How about it? Do I win?”
+
+And at my continued silence he chuckled, lying back again on the
+pillow.
+
+“I can see that I win,” he said. He pulled the sheet up over his
+shoulders, and stuffed the pillow more comfortably under his head.
+“Now that I know what the trouble is, I can go to sleep all right,”
+said this amazing man. He laughed softly. “I’m no nervous woman,” he
+went on with a touch of swagger. “Turn out the light, will you?”
+
+He closed his eyes with the utmost unconcern.
+
+“The whispers won’t bother me now that I know what they are,” he said
+casually as I moved toward the door.
+
+Still feeling shaken, I walked slowly along the corridor. What could
+the man mean?
+
+Resolving at length to take a lesson from my patient’s sang-froid, I
+tried to shrug the matter away as a fancy on his part, and proceeded
+to take care of Sonny’s needs, applying the hot-water bottle to his
+throat and the camphorated oil to his feet in the coolest fashion
+until Sonny remonstrated with a hoarse giggle.
+
+By three o’clock things had quieted down all over the wing. The
+patients were either asleep or resting and the windows dark with the
+blackest hour of the night. Maida was sitting at the chart desk, her
+white-capped head bent over Eleven’s chart, and I had gone into
+Sonny’s room to make sure he was all right. The whole place was as
+quiet and hushed as a city of the dead.
+
+I took my thermometer and shook it vigorously. And in the very act of
+placing it between Sonny’s lips, I lost hold on it, dropped it and
+whirled facing the door. For without any warning at all a scream was
+rising from somewhere in the wing.
+
+It rose and swelled to the very old roofs, choked horribly at its
+height and ceased.
+
+It was a scream of stark terror!
+
+A woman’s scream!
+
+Somehow I got into the corridor. Maida was there, too, running toward
+Room 18, and I followed her.
+
+It was Maida who reached for the light. It revealed our patient half
+out of bed, staring with blinking eyes at something on the other side
+of the bed.
+
+We followed his gaze. Huddled there on the floor was a woman. We saw a
+dark cloak, a brown hand outflung and metallic waves of hair. We both
+leaned closer.
+
+“It’s Corole!” cried Maida sharply.
+
+We turned her on her back. For a horrible moment I though that
+Eighteen had added another victim to its list. But all at once Corole
+opened her eyes, sat up dazedly, saw Mr. Gastin still sitting on the
+edge of the bed, and at the sight her mouth opened, her eyes glared,
+and she pressed her hand tight across her mouth as if to prevent an
+outcry.
+
+The relief of seeing that she was alive was so great that Maida sank
+limply to a chair and I turned in natural reaction to anger.
+
+“What on earth are you doing here, Corole?” I asked warmly. “What
+happened to you? Are you hurt?”
+
+She ignored my questions.
+
+“Who is that?” she whispered hoarsely, pointing to the bed. There was
+such urgency in her tone and gesture that I replied.
+
+“That is a new patient.”
+
+“A new patient? _Here?_”
+
+“Certainly. Why not?”
+
+She looked at me; her eyes were green and shone.
+
+“When did he come?”
+
+“Late this afternoon. Why? What is the matter? Tell me what happened!”
+
+She groped for the cloak, pulled it absently around her and rose to
+her feet in one long, sinuous motion.
+
+“He frightened me,” she said. “I thought—— I saw him lying there on
+the bed—— I didn’t know you had a patient here. I thought it was—I
+thought——” With a visible effort she controlled herself, passed a hand
+across her pallid face. She looked terrible—grim, hag-ridden; her lips
+were blue, her face ashen and her eyes like a frantic cat’s.
+
+And at the moment we heard hurrying footsteps in the corridor and Dr.
+Hajek, clutching a bathrobe around his pajamas, followed by Dr.
+Balman, burst into the room. Dr. Hajek had a revolver in one hand, and
+at sight of us he paused abruptly, his eyes met Corole’s for a long
+moment, and I experienced the strangest feeling that they were
+corresponding, without words or motions, there in front of my eyes. It
+was the briefest of impressions, gone before the thought had more than
+come to me, and I saw Dr. Hajek slowly dropping the revolver into his
+bathrobe pocket.
+
+“What is it?” inquired Dr. Balman. In a few words I explained the
+situation, as far as I could. Dr. Balman surveyed us all for a space
+during which I could hear my own heart thudding, then he walked to the
+bed, drew the patient gently back and pulled the covers over him. Mr.
+Gastin submitted without a word, his gaze still on Corole.
+
+“I was frightened,” said Corole, her voice harsh. “I thought—— Never
+mind what I thought. I——” She tried to smile and the grimace she made
+was dreadful. “I must have fainted. I’m sorry. Sorry to disturb you.”
+
+This apology was not like Corole. I started to speak, stopped myself,
+started again. No one seemed to hear me.
+
+Dr. Hajek cleared his throat.
+
+“Was there—anything wrong?” he asked in what struck me as rather
+belated inquiry.
+
+“I——” began Corole again. Her face was looking a little less hideous,
+and by the time she had finished she seemed more like herself. “I did
+not know that there was a patient in the room. I saw his figure in
+bed, there. It frightened me. I screamed. And fell. I suppose I roused
+the whole hospital. Really, Miss Keate, I do not think you should have
+put a patient in this room.”
+
+It was like the hussy to try to blame me, and indignation almost
+choked me. While I was stuttering for a suitable reply Maida spoke. At
+the first word I glanced at her in amazement and saw Dr. Balman and
+Dr. Hajek follow my gaze.
+
+“And what were _you_ doing in this room?” asked Maida. Her eyes were
+like twin swords, her straight black brows stern. “You had no honest
+business in this room, Corole Letheny! Why did you come here?”
+
+Corole’s head jerked toward Maida with a flash of green light from
+those crafty eyes.
+
+For a moment the two women surveyed each other, neither faltering in
+her steadily inimical regard. I moved uneasily and in the hush I heard
+one or two signal lights clicking. At the sound I pulled myself
+together; we should have another panic on our hands if we did not take
+care.
+
+“Yes, Corole,” I said decisively. “Why did you come here? And how did
+you get into the room?”
+
+“I think your presence demands an explanation,” added Dr. Balman
+quietly.
+
+She looked at me, she swept Dr. Balman’s mild brown eyes, she
+flickered a green glance at Dr. Hajek, she drew her silk wrap more
+closely about her, she moved her brown hands uneasily up and down its
+collar, and she finally replied.
+
+“I couldn’t sleep,” she said. “I got to thinking of Louis and
+somehow—got the idea that if I came over here I might be able to—to——”
+Her excuse died away from very lack of body, she took a long breath,
+and raised her eyelids insolently. “I felt I must see Room 18. So I
+came. I got in at the window. If you have nothing more to
+say—Good-night.” Her strange eyes swept us and actually they harboured
+a gleam of amusement. Then she drew the cloak tightly about her,
+walked to the window, put one hand on the sill, and with a long,
+graceful movement swung herself over the sill and through the window.
+It was done with the nonchalance and ease of an animal and she did not
+even glance back at us. For an instant her gold hair shone beyond the
+window, then the screen came down upon a black void and she was
+definitely gone.
+
+No one left in the room spoke. Dr. Hajek made a motion as if he
+thought to accompany her but thought better of it. Dr. Balman reached
+for Mr. Gastin’s pulse. Maida crossed the room swiftly and went into
+the corridor. As her starched skirts rustled past the bed Mr. Gastin
+took his eyes from the window.
+
+“I think,” he said feebly. “I think I should like to have an upstairs
+room.”
+
+“We’ll see in the morning,” I said absently.
+
+“_In the morning!_” observed Mr. Gastin with feeling. “Do you think
+I’m going to stay in this haunted room for the rest of the night!”
+
+And believe it or not, we had to give up and bundle him on a truck and
+take him to a temporary bed in the charity ward! This was the first
+time in all my years of nursing that I was so influenced by a patient
+and this was not accomplished without resistance on my part and
+extremely sulphuric language on his. In fact, he proved to be
+versatile in the latter respect, attaining heights that made my hair
+stand on end. Dr. Balman was quite scarlet at the end of one climactic
+triumph and sent Dr. Hajek hurriedly for the truck.
+
+So, all in all, it was not until I was back in the wing, and our
+patients had been assured by the story of a mouse that Maida in a
+burst of unexpected mendacity brought forth, and things were quiet and
+peaceful again, that I began to wonder what had been the purpose of
+Corole’s visit.
+
+And it was clear to me, all at once, that she was looking for
+something.
+
+What could that something be—the radium? Could Corole believe that the
+radium was still in Room 18? And if so, what reason had she for her
+belief?
+
+And at the same time I recalled my promise to O’Leary to telephone to
+him if the night brought any disturbance. It was with some trepidation
+that I convinced myself that he could do nothing till morning anyway,
+and it was as well that I had forgotten my promise.
+
+I did not for a moment believe Corole’s faltering attempt at an
+explanation. But at the same time it occurred to me that had she been
+of a mind to lie she could likely have invented a much more plausible
+and convincing tale than the one she told.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 11
+
+By the Light of a Match
+
+It was near morning by that time, and Maida and I had to work rapidly
+to get our patients washed and tooth-brushed and ready for the
+breakfast trays. To my satisfaction no one from the other wings
+appeared to have heard Corole’s scream, or to know that there had been
+any disturbance in the south wing.
+
+The morning passed quietly. I took a long-needed rest and did not see
+O’Leary until I came downstairs about the middle of the afternoon.
+Somewhat to my disappointment, for I had anticipated telling him
+myself, he knew all about Corole’s visit. Dr. Balman had told him of
+it. O’Leary said briefly that he had talked to Corole; I gathered that
+she stuck to her story of the previous night, even to the extent of
+embroidering rather elaborately on her cousinly affection for Dr.
+Letheny and her anxiety to know the cause of his death. O’Leary seemed
+somewhat perturbed, a result that would have delighted Corole had she
+known it.
+
+“We have got bolts on the window,” said O’Leary. “Dr. Balman suggested
+it; at least there’ll be no more such visitors as last night.”
+
+He did not linger. An hour or so later I slipped out the south door
+for a breath of fresh air. I glanced in at Room 18 as I passed. Sure
+enough there were shiny new bolts on the window. Mr. Gastin had
+evidently preferred the charity ward to Room 18, for he had not
+returned, though the pot of lobelias still stood on the table looking
+more jaundiced than ever.
+
+If cold and damp, still the air was refreshing and I walked at a brisk
+pace along the path toward the bridge. I did not see that Higgins was
+following me until I paused to lean on the railing and stare at the
+muddy, swollen little stream below my feet. There the shrubbery grows
+so close to the bridge that it hangs over it and the water, and I was
+amusing myself by pulling dead leaves from a willow, bending near and
+tossing them into the little, swirling eddies of water when Higgins
+spoke suddenly at my elbow.
+
+It startled me and I whirled to face him.
+
+“Miss Keate,” he began again. “I—— Could you—— There is something I
+want to tell you.” He spoke in a hesitating, reluctant manner as if he
+were not sure he wanted to tell me, after all.
+
+“What is it?” I inquired crisply.
+
+He swallowed audibly and cleared his throat.
+
+“I—I’ve been wondering—— It is this way, Miss Keate. I want to know
+what you think I had better do.”
+
+I squared around for a better look at him. He was rather pale and
+played nervously with his furnace-stained cap.
+
+“What about, Higgins?” I said kindly.
+
+He made a motion to speak, checked it and peered furtively up and down
+the path. Owing to its twisting he could not see very far either way,
+so he leaned over toward me and spoke in a half-whisper.
+
+“It is about the night of June seventh,” he said mysteriously.
+
+The words focussed my attention sharply.
+
+“June seventh!” I exclaimed.
+
+“Sh—sh——” he made a quick gesture for silence, and peered again all
+about in the semi-twilight made by the still dour, cloudy sky and mist
+and dripping, close-growing shrubbery. “Yes. The night of June
+seventh. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what my duty is. I
+don’t want to get nobody into trouble. But I can’t go on no longer
+without telling somebody. I thought you, Miss Keate, would know what
+to do.”
+
+“What is it?” I asked quickly.
+
+He did not reply at once. Instead he looked uneasily all about us,
+examining the surroundings with an intensity that impressed upon me
+the need for caution as to the matter he was about to relate.
+Unconsciously I drew nearer him.
+
+“Go on,” I said.
+
+He surveyed me doubtfully.
+
+“I wish I knew whether I was doing right or not,” he mused with a
+worried air. “You see—I don’t want to get into trouble myself,
+either.”
+
+Poor Higgins!
+
+“I’ll see that you do not,” I promised rashly, little knowing how
+impossible it would prove to be to keep my word.
+
+He cleared his throat, glanced toward the path again.
+
+“You see, I saw it,” he whispered.
+
+“Saw what?”
+
+“Saw who killed the patient in Room 18!”
+
+For a breathless second I wondered if the man had taken leave of his
+senses. His gray face, his evident fright, the way his eyes shifted
+about, first peering in one direction and then another, convinced me
+of his sincerity. He must be speaking the truth. It was evident, too,
+and I did not wonder at it, that he was in a mortal terror of his
+knowledge.
+
+“How was it? What did you see?” I whispered too.
+
+“Well, it was this way,” he began so slowly as to nearly drive me
+frantic with impatience. “It was this way: I had a bad toothache that
+night. It wouldn’t let me sleep and the hot night seemed to make it
+worse. I finally got up and came upstairs to get Dr. Hajek to give me
+something for it. I knocked and knocked at his door but I couldn’t
+wake him, so——”
+
+“What time was that?” I asked.
+
+“I don’t know exactly. I think about one o’clock. Anyway I went back
+to the basement and still couldn’t get any peace from the tooth. It
+ached and ached and I got up and tried to rouse Dr. Hajek again. I
+couldn’t wake him—you see, he wasn’t there at all. So I let myself out
+of the main door and walked around the corner of the hospital.
+Sometimes Dr. Letheny would sit up late and I thought that if there
+was a light in his study, I could get something for my tooth from him.
+It was the darkest night I have ever seen.”
+
+He paused to shake his head dolefully.
+
+“Anyway, pretty soon I saw a sort of green light up there on the hill,
+and knew that Dr. Letheny was reading late. Well, I started toward the
+path and it was so dark I could hardly find my way. When I got to the
+end of the south wing, I could see that the south door was open, and
+could see the light over the chart desk. The wing looked almost as
+dark as it did outside.” He stopped, drew out a blue bandanna
+handkerchief and wiped his forehead, though it was chilly out there on
+the bridge.
+
+“Then—I heard something, a sort of sound like a footstep—I don’t know
+exactly what it was. But it seemed to come from there near the door of
+the wing. It flashed through my mind that someone was prowling about
+St. Ann’s and, all at once, I remembered about the radium being used,
+though I didn’t actually think that anyone was stealing it. Anyway, I
+felt my way through the dark, past the porch of the wing. I went very
+cautiously and stopped when I heard, just on the other side of that
+big elderberry bush, two parties talking.” He stopped and used the
+bandanna again, and inwardly I cursed that ambiguous word of his
+class: “party.”
+
+“Go on,” I said impatiently. “Who were they?”
+
+“I heard a little of what they said,” he continued, impervious to my
+eagerness. “I’ll tell you about that later. I must have made some sort
+of sound, for all at once they stopped talking and went away. I
+followed them but lost them in the darkness, and thinking from their
+talk that they would be coming back to the hospital, I felt my way
+back again, too. I was just in time to see a little light through the
+window of Eighteen. It was the light of a match and by it I saw the
+face of the party that”—he was whispering—“that killed Jackson. I saw
+the radium being hid. Yes, miss, and I know where the radium is right
+now.”
+
+I think I seized him by the arm and shook it, for I remember he drew
+back.
+
+“Tell me, quick, Higgins. Hurry. Who was it?”
+
+“Not so fast, now, Miss Keate. I’ve got to tell my story in my own
+way. Miss Keate, there was three in Room 18 that night. Yes, ma’am,
+three.”
+
+“Three? Who were they, Higgins? Didn’t the same man kill both Jackson
+and the doctor?”
+
+He shook his head slowly and with the most exasperating stupidity.
+
+“No, Miss Keate. No, that couldn’t hardly be.”
+
+“Could hardly be! What on earth do you mean? Who was about that night?
+Whom did you see? Who was in Room 18? Speak up, man!”
+
+I suppose I succeeded in confusing him.
+
+“Wait, miss, till I finish my story. I was standing in the shadow,
+staring with all my eyes at that dark window waiting for the party I
+had seen to come out—when I just knew that someone was near me. I
+didn’t hear a footstep nor a breath but all at once somebody was just
+there. And I was holding my breath to listen when there was a sort of
+a scramble at the window and I sneaked up closer to the wall. I
+stumbled over a coat or something right at the window and just as I
+caught myself I heard a crash from inside Room 18. That scared me,
+Miss Keate.” The man paused again to scrutinize the dripping, green
+curtains about us, and I caught my breath.
+
+“That scared me, so I stayed right there where I was, listening. I
+heard a kind of a scraping sound, then it was all quiet for a minute
+or two, and I thought I’d better get out of the way. I sneaked over to
+the corner and stood just around it. It was so black that I couldn’t
+see my hand in front of my face, but I’ve got good hearing, ma’am, and
+I heard _only one party_ slip out that window and close the screen and
+go away, walking light like a cat through the orchard. And it was just
+then the wind came up with a bang and things began to whiz around and
+I thought I’d better get back to my room. I knowed there was some
+skulduggery going on, ma’am, and I didn’t want to be in on it.” He
+blew his nose vigorously. I realized that my mouth was hanging open
+and closed it with a snap.
+
+“Who was about, Higgins? Tell me at once.” I spoke very sternly,
+trying at the same time to keep my teeth from chattering. The recital
+had recalled all too forcibly to me the events of that black night.
+
+“Well, there was Dr. Letheny—of course. Then there was that Gainsay
+fellow, the one that is staying up there at Letheny’s. Then there was
+Corole Letheny and there was Dr. Hajek——”
+
+“Did you recognize all these people, Higgins?” I cried incredulously.
+
+He regarded me with scorn.
+
+“Say, didn’t I tell you I got good ears?”
+
+“But you could hardly recognize Mr. Gainsay, for instance, with your
+ears.”
+
+“I didn’t,” said Higgins. “I saw his face in the light of a match.”
+
+“Go on,” I urged. “Who else? Who was it you saw in Eighteen? Where is
+the radium?”
+
+Unfortunately I placed an impatient hand on his arm; he glanced down
+and saw my wrist watch.
+
+“I’ve got to hurry,” he cried. “It’s nearly six and the fires not——”
+
+“Wait!” I seized his coat sleeve. “Tell me. Who did it?”
+
+He jerked away. “It’s late! I must hurry. I’ll see you to-night.”
+Eluding my grasp he scurried away and out of sight, around the little
+bend!
+
+Slowly my hands dropped to my sides. For some time I simply stared in
+the direction he had taken and let my thoughts whirl.
+
+What had he seen? What had he heard? Who . . .?
+
+It was curious how slowly I became aware that the green curtain within
+an arm’s reach was wavering. The slender leaves of willow were
+trembling, shivering, dancing. The elderberry swayed gently.
+
+There was no wind.
+
+I blinked—frowned—realized its oddity—and in sudden, quick suspicion I
+took a step forward, thrust the bushes aside with my arms, brushed
+back the willows, took a few steps along the water’s edge and saw Jim
+Gainsay vanishing into a little thicket of evergreens.
+
+He did not look back. He seemed to have no idea that he had been seen.
+He wore no cap. I saw him clearly and unmistakably.
+
+So Jim Gainsay had been behind that willow curtain! Jim Gainsay had
+heard Higgins’s faltering, reluctant revelations. And after brazenly
+listening to the whole thing, Jim Gainsay had furtively and stealthily
+slipped away, without intending that I should even be aware of his
+presence.
+
+Concerned almost as much with this evidence of Jim Gainsay’s duplicity
+as with Higgins’s tale, I stood stock-still there in that thicket,
+with wet branches and leaves pressing against me on all sides. Aware
+finally of a specially rude one scratching my neck I roused myself,
+pushed out into the path, and took my way back to St. Ann’s.
+
+The thing to do, I realized, was to let O’Leary know at once of
+Higgins’s story; if anyone could worm the whole tale from the janitor
+it would be Lance O’Leary. But I shall have to confess that baffled
+curiosity overcame me, and I resolved to get hold of Higgins
+immediately and try to make him tell me, at least, whom he saw there
+in Room 18.
+
+The supper bell was ringing when I entered the south wing. I am not
+one to slight meals as a rule, but that was one time when I ignored
+the summons. However, Higgins was not about and upon inquiry someone
+said she thought he had gone into town. Reluctantly, then, I went to
+supper.
+
+At the door of the dining room I met several training girls. Melvina
+Smith was among them and they were talking excitedly in low voices
+which they hushed as soon as they saw me, and one and all looked
+guilty.
+
+“Well, what is it?” I said briskly.
+
+Melvina Smith fastened hollow eyes upon me and said in a sepulchral
+voice:
+
+“Accident has died.”
+
+“Accident!” Having for the moment forgotten the christening party I
+was at a loss to understand her cryptic utterance, and wondered if she
+was quite right.
+
+“Accident,” confirmed Melvina. “The third tragedy is on its way.”
+
+“I must say I don’t in the least know what you are talking about,” I
+remarked acidly. Melvina is very trying and carries an element of
+conviction in her tones that makes one feel as if she is well
+informed.
+
+“Accident. The kitten, you know. The black kitten,” volunteered one of
+the girls hurriedly. “It died and Melvina says—” her eyes got larger
+and she lowered her voice—“Melvina says—it is a _sign!_”
+
+“Oh, the kitten! What nonsense!”
+
+“He was not sick,” said Melvina in a measured and undisturbed way. “He
+was not sick at all. He was, in fact, the healthiest of the whole
+batch. But—he died.”
+
+And would you believe it I felt gooseflesh coming out on my arms?
+Melvina was never intended for as matter-of-fact a profession as that
+of a nurse; her talents are wasted.
+
+“Nonsense,” I said again, and repeated it. “Nonsense.”
+
+“It is a sign,” remarked Melvina in that quietly positive way. She
+reached quite casually into her capacious pocket and drew out before
+our very eyes the kitten. It was, to be sure, dead and quite stiff and
+stark. All of us shrank back at the sight of the poor little black
+body with its stiff claws outstretched and its mouth open and
+grinning, but Melvina regarded it familiarly. “It was a perfectly
+healthy kitten,” she went on, in the manner of the scientist who
+weighs facts impartially. “It died. All at once. Just died. No reasons
+for it. But it died. _It is a sign._”
+
+A little gasp went over the group and I found my tongue.
+
+“Melvina Smith,” I said, “take that kitten out into the orchard and
+bury it. Then change your uniform and scrub your hands with antiseptic
+soap. How long have you been carrying that thing around? Not that it
+matters,” I went on hastily as Melvina opened her too-gifted mouth to
+reply. “Don’t ever let me catch you doing such a thing again.
+Moreover, if I hear of you saying such foolish and—yes, wicked things
+again I shall have Miss Dotty give you fifty demerits and that means
+no Sundays off for the rest of the summer.”
+
+“Miss Dotty already knows about it,” said one of the other girls.
+“Melvina had it on the table showing it to us at theory class and Miss
+Dotty didn’t see it and put her hand on it.”
+
+“She was sick,” added another girl solemnly. “She was real sick, all
+at once. We wanted to practice ‘What to Do for Nausea’ on her but she
+didn’t give us time.”
+
+“She is in her room now,” concluded the first girl with a passionate
+devotion to detail. “She is in her room with a hot-water bottle and an
+ice bag and a bottle of camphor.”
+
+“Well,” I said abruptly, feeling very much as if I were going to
+imitate Miss Dotty, “take that—er—kitten outdoors at once, Melvina.”
+
+“Yes, Miss Keate,” said Melvina dutifully. “Do you have second watch
+in the south wing to-night, Miss Keate?”
+
+“Certainly.”
+
+“My-y-y!” Melvina sucked in her breath. “Something will be sure to
+happen. May I help you, Miss Keate?”
+
+“Good gracious, Melvina!” I cried, revolted. “Do you mean to say you
+would want to be there if anything _did_ happen?”
+
+“Oh—no,” she said reluctantly, eyeing the kitten fondly. “But
+something _will_ happen. Soon. It is a sign.”
+
+“Melvina!” I must have spoken firmly for Melvina wasted no time in
+going about her burying and the rest of the girls hastened on down to
+supper.
+
+It was just after supper that I was called to the telephone.
+
+It was O’Leary, and his voice seemed very far away.
+
+“Is there anyone else in the office?” he asked.
+
+“No.”
+
+“Is this line private? Is there a way for anyone to listen in?”
+
+“No.”
+
+“Then listen, Miss Keate. I can’t get out to the hospital right now
+and there is something I want to know. Has anything—any article of
+furniture—any—er—bed linen—blankets—pillows—anything of the sort, been
+taken out of the room we are interested in?”
+
+“Only the soiled linens,” I replied.
+
+There was a long silence, so long that I repeated my answer.
+
+“Yes, I heard you,” he said hastily. “Are you positive about that?
+Think hard, Miss Keate.”
+
+“Not another thing—oh, yes, last night I exchanged the loud speaker in
+that room for another.”
+
+“You did!” His voice was eager. “When? Before or after I was in the
+room?”
+
+“Before!”
+
+“Sure?”
+
+“Yes. The patient complained that it wasn’t working very well.”
+
+“What did you do—where is it now?”
+
+“In Sonny’s—that is, in the room where I put it, I suppose.”
+
+“Lord, I’m a dumbbell,” said O’Leary heartily. “Miss Keate, listen
+carefully, please. Take that loud speaker, _just as it is_, to some
+safe place and don’t let anyone have it until I come. Understand?”
+
+“Yes,” I said slowly. “But I—do you think—could it possibly be——”
+
+“That’s all, Miss Keate,” he interrupted. “Thank you very much.” And
+before I could tell him of Higgins he had hung up the receiver and I
+was left shouting “Mr. O’Leary,” into the mouthpiece.
+
+Feeling somewhat put out I telephoned immediately to the number he had
+given me. A man-servant answered and told me rather superciliously
+that Mr. O’Leary was out. On my saying the message was urgent he
+brightened up, however, and took my number and name with alacrity,
+promising to have Mr. O’Leary telephone me as soon as he came home. It
+seemed evident to me that O’Leary believed the radium to be in the
+loud speaker, and though at first I was disinclined to agree with him,
+for it seemed to me that that was altogether too prominent a hiding
+place, by the time I had reached the south wing, I had had time to
+recall the “purloined letter,” lying there in plain sight, and was
+beginning to feel considerably excited and eager to get my hands on
+the loud speaker. Those loud speakers that we have at St. Ann’s are,
+as Dr. Letheny had complained, specially made at the advice of a board
+member who deals in radios; they are built a good deal like a small
+round hat box on a standard. You’ve seen them. The parallel sides, or
+what would be the top and bottom of the hat box, are made of some sort
+of fancifully decorated parchment paper. They are quite attractive and
+have a clear, soft tone, very nice for a hospital. The more I thought
+of it the more clearly I realized that here would be a place to hide
+the radium. There would be plenty of room, the speaker was
+inconspicuously prominent, if I may indulge in the paradox, and while
+appearing to be so permanently constructed, nevertheless one of the
+sides could doubtless be removed and replaced with little evidence of
+tampering.
+
+It could not have been more than a minute or two later that I entered
+Sonny’s room and got the loud speaker. I suddenly remembered that it
+was out of order and had not been fixed, but fortunately Sonny had not
+asked to have the radio turned on since I had transferred it from Room
+18. Or at least if he had, I hadn’t heard of it. As I left the room
+the corridors were deserted. I met Maida just outside my own room and
+she saw what I carried but said nothing. I went on into my room and
+closed the door.
+
+I had fully intended to remove one of the sides of the loud speaker at
+once, but in the very act of doing so I checked myself. So far as I
+knew I might thus destroy some important clue. Lance O’Leary had said
+nothing about examining it; he had said only to place it in
+safe-keeping. It was with some disappointment that, after staring at
+the thing for some time and shaking it tentatively at my ear, I placed
+it face downward on the lower shelf of the chifferette and locked the
+door.
+
+Now to find Higgins!
+
+Higgins was not easy to find, however. I hunted all through the
+basement, the ambulance rooms, the kitchens, even went out in the
+twilight to the garage, but Higgins was not to be found. It was dark
+by that time so I took my way back to the hospital. Not willing to
+give up I made another rapid search through the basement, but the only
+living beings I saw were Morgue and the cook who was just going to bed
+with a stack of forbidden newspapers under his arm.
+
+The cook, however, had seen Higgins.
+
+“Not twenty minutes ago,” he said positively.
+
+“Where?”
+
+“Let me see now—seems to me he was walking down toward the apple
+orchard. That tall fellow, the one that is visiting up at Letheny’s,
+was with him.”
+
+“Mr. Gainsay was with him!”
+
+“Sure.” The cook was immediately interested. “Sure. Walking down
+toward the apple orchard, they was. Do you want to see Higgins, Miss
+Keate?”
+
+“Oh, it was of no importance,” I said, and somewhat disconsolately
+departed.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 12
+
+Room 18 Again
+
+Still feeling that I must get hold of Higgins, it was hard to compose
+myself to rest and I didn’t sleep a wink. About eleven o’clock I got
+up and made my way again to the basement. It was dark and spooky and
+very empty down there and after knocking at Higgins’s door a few times
+and feeling, while I waited for the reply that did not come, as if all
+the ghosts in Christendom were prowling in the furnace room and
+thereabouts, I retreated precipitously to my own room. I was sure that
+Higgins was in his room, for where else would he be at that hour? But
+the surroundings were not those to encourage persistence on my part.
+The unused corridors are very desolate at that hour and those of the
+sick-room wings little less so.
+
+I was still wide awake when the twelve o’clock gong sounded.
+
+By that time I was convinced that Higgins was deliberately keeping out
+of my way and that in itself made me the more anxious to get in touch
+with O’Leary. I stopped at the general office as I passed it on my way
+to the south wing, and telephoned again.
+
+The same servant answered my ring, sleepily at first, but he awoke in
+a hurry when I told him that it was Miss Keate at St. Ann’s and that I
+must speak to Mr. O’Leary at once.
+
+“You might try the police station,” he said guardedly. “I think he was
+investigating some telegraph messages that just came in.”
+
+So I looked up the number in the telephone book and tried it. But
+though I tried and tried, the line was busy and kept busy and I had to
+give up in order to be on time at the south wing.
+
+Olma Flynn was waiting for me and Maida already busy about
+twelve-o’clock temperatures.
+
+“Eleven is doing pretty well to-night,” said Olma as we bent over the
+charts. “Three has a degree or so of fever but has been fairly quiet.
+Oh, by the way, have you the key to the south door?”
+
+“No.”
+
+She frowned.
+
+“I couldn’t find it. I had to leave the south door unlocked.”
+
+“Couldn’t find it!”
+
+“No. It wasn’t anywhere about the desk.”
+
+“Did you look in the lock?”
+
+“Of course, Miss Keate. And I asked the other girls. No one has seen
+it since morning.”
+
+In view of the existing circumstances, I suppose it was natural that I
+should feel immediately alarmed. After Olma had gone wearily away to
+bed I gave the chart desk and its vicinity a thorough search.
+
+“What on earth are you doing?” asked Maida, coming along just as I had
+taken all the charts out of the rack and was feeling about with my
+fingers in the recesses left empty.
+
+“Looking for the key to the south door,” I replied. “Have you seen
+it?”
+
+“No. I have not seen it since last night.”
+
+She waited for a moment, watching me rearrange the charts.
+
+“I wish this trouble were all cleared up,” she said, her voice sombre.
+
+“So do I.” I replaced the last chart and turned to face her. The
+greenish light from above the desk made her face worn and colourless
+and cast a sickly green glow over our white dresses.
+
+“If we don’t find it to-morrow I shall have to have a new key made. I
+suppose we can leave the south door unlocked to-night,” I decided
+irresolutely. “I don’t like to; I have had enough of people prowling
+through our wing.”
+
+Maida’s shadowed eyes met mine and she shivered slightly; she
+attempted to smile but her lips pulled tautly.
+
+“It is getting to disturb me more and more,” she admitted. “Think of
+this, Sarah: it has been only four days since that dinner party of
+Corole’s. Is it possible! So much has happened. It seems like months.”
+
+“This is Tuesday,” I calculated, “That was last Thursday night—no,
+Maida, five days.”
+
+“Well, five days then,” she assented lifelessly. “What a five days! If
+it would only turn warm and summery and sunshiny again, I do believe
+things would be better off. I’m sure I should be at least!”
+
+“I dislike this constant drizzle,” I agreed, without much spirit.
+“There is something honest and whole-hearted about real rain, but
+weather like this is wretched.”
+
+“Everything I touch is clammy like—like a dead man.” She whispered the
+last words and I think they came as a surprise to her, for she looked
+frightened and a little shocked.
+
+A small red light shone down the corridor above a door and I started
+to answer it.
+
+“Don’t forget to—er——”
+
+“Keep my eyes on the south door?” finished Maida with a bleak smile.
+
+“Exactly.” I tried to smile, too. I remember thinking, as I walked
+briskly toward the signal, that our words were not unlike those of
+soldiers going into battle—in spirit, at least. I saw something of
+that in 1918; I was in a hospital that was once, mistakenly I hope,
+shelled. In a choice between the shelled hospital on that lurid front
+and the dreary, clammy nights of second watch at St. Ann’s, where
+every stir made your breath catch, and every whispering noise made
+your skin crawl, I’d much prefer the shelled hospital. There the
+terror was expected; its source was known. Here, every doorway was a
+silent menace; every room and every turn and every alcove might
+harbour death. The hospital seemed too roomy, too large, too dark. Our
+very skirts seemed to whisper and hiss with fear along those blank
+corridors and empty walls and half-lights and shadows.
+
+I had left the door of the general office open and while going about
+my work listened for the telephone. Dr. Hajek is supposed to answer it
+at night, having his room off the office for that purpose, but I hoped
+that if I heard the ring when O’Leary first called, I would be able to
+get to the telephone by the time Fred Hajek, who is a heavy sleeper,
+was aroused.
+
+And when I finally heard the subdued buzz I happened to be at the
+chart desk and simply dropped pen and all and ran through the corridor
+that connects us with the main portion of the hospital.
+
+I took the receiver off the hook and was panting so heavily that I had
+to wait for a second to catch my breath before answering. The door to
+Dr. Hajek’s room remained closed and Dr. Balman, in the inner office,
+had not been aroused either, so I must have made the distance in
+nothing flat—whatever that is—I picked up the term from a patient who
+was interested in sports and believe it to mean a very rapid pace.
+
+It was O’Leary, of course.
+
+“This is Miss Keate,” I said in a low voice, hoping that the sound of
+it would not carry past those closed doors. “I am very anxious to see
+you.”
+
+He must have caught the urgency in my voice.
+
+“Shall I come right out?”
+
+“Yes. At once.”
+
+“Very well. In fifteen minutes.”
+
+The receiver clicked, I hung up my own softly, straightened my cap and
+walked back to the south wing. Maida was not to be seen. I sat down at
+the desk and found that in my haste to get to the telephone I had
+upset the red ink I was in the act of using. It was meandering gayly
+across the desk, reddening everything it touched, and I seized some
+trash out of the waste basket for a blotter. It was while I was
+mopping up the ink that all at once, without even a warning flicker,
+the light above the desk went out, leaving me in total darkness. It
+was so unexpected that I gasped and cried out.
+
+Then I turned as if to look down the corridor, but nothing but a close
+black curtain met my eyes. There was not a gleam of light. Every
+signal light was gone; there was not even a glimmer of light from
+under the doors of kitchen or drug room or linen closet. I was
+suspended in a breathless black void.
+
+And down that black emptiness, only five nights ago, two men had been
+violently done to death!
+
+My breath began to come in painful, rasping gasps. I must do
+something. I must find Maida. I must get a lamp. Must make my way to
+the basement switch-box and replace a burned-out fuse—or find what had
+caused the trouble.
+
+Or was it an accident? Had a fuse actually gone? Could it be that the
+lights had purposely been disconnected?
+
+The terrifying question had not more than entered my head when from
+somewhere down the corridor a cold current of air struck me.
+
+I shivered. Some door or window had been opened. Some door—the south
+door! Was it the south door?
+
+I was standing, gripping the chair back, loath to leave that firm,
+stationary thing and venture forth into the surrounding blackness that
+was alive, now, with foreboding and the menace of unspeakable things.
+Was something moving? Did I hear a stealthy footstep? Was it the
+thudding of my own heart?
+
+I strove to move, to force my horror-drugged muscles to advance that
+length of grisly blackness toward—toward Room 18.
+
+I tried to call out: “Maida—Maida—” I kept saying and finally realized
+that my stiff lips were only shaping the words.
+
+What was happening down there? Was Room 18 claiming another—— Was—— I
+took a step into the darkness, tore my reluctant hands from the chair,
+and groped for the wall to guide me past the yawning emptiness of
+those intervening doors.
+
+With outstretched, shaking hands, I was feeling for some stable thing
+to guide me, when, in that dead silence, there was a shattering crash
+of sound.
+
+It was a revolver shot! The crash reverberated through the halls,
+echoing and reëchoing in those empty spaces and about those blank
+doors.
+
+Then gradually the frightful echoes died away. The blackness pressed
+in upon me, more suffocating than before, and again dead silence
+reigned.
+
+For a moment I must have been numb with shock. Then there were
+footsteps running, a cry, the clicking of signal lights that did not
+light, and I was running, stumbling, gasping, bumping into doors,
+trying to reach the end of the corridor. And Room 18.
+
+Along the way I collided with something, something moving that twisted
+away from me and cried out. It was Maida and at my voice she answered.
+
+“What is it! What has happened! Was it Room 18?”
+
+“Room 18! What can we——”
+
+“We must have a light. In the kitchen—there’s a candle——” I heard the
+swift, soft thud of her feet as they moved away and I kept on, feeling
+along the cold, dank wall, groping my way past open doors. It seemed
+an eternity before I reached the end of the corridor and felt the
+small panes of glass in the south door under my fingers. I turned
+sharply to the left. Beyond that black void stretched Room 18. I
+paused at its threshold but something drove me on, into the room.
+
+Here was the wall. Here was the electric light button. Here the
+bedside table. I bent, feeling along the rough weave of the
+counterpane on the bed, took a few steps further, trod on something
+hideously soft and yielding, and sprang backward in stark terror.
+
+Afraid to move, afraid to breathe, my heart clamouring in my throat
+choking me, my hands pressed against my teeth, I could not even
+scream.
+
+What lay there? What was in that room?
+
+Then I realized dimly that Maida was coming, that a small circle of
+light was at the door, that a hand was holding a lamp unsteadily and
+the wavering flame was casting grotesque shadows on Maida’s chin and
+mouth. Above them her eyes were wide and black and mirrored my terror.
+
+I saw her hand advance, pointing at my feet. It shook. Her mouth
+opened in a voiceless cry and I forced myself to look downward.
+
+It was Higgins, sprawled there at the foot of the bed. He had been
+shot!
+
+Neither of us spoke. Neither of us moved.
+
+At last Maida withdrew her hand.
+
+“Set the lamp down,” I heard someone saying—it must have been I. “Set
+the lamp down before you drop it.”
+
+We did not hear O’Leary enter the south door. All at once he was there
+with us, staring at the thing there on the floor, holding his electric
+torch to illumine it.
+
+“When did it happen? How? Come into the hall. Tell me. Was I too
+late?”
+
+Somehow we were out in the corridor; the lamp was left on the table in
+Room 18. The light from its small flame trembled and cast eery,
+creeping shadows.
+
+“Quick,” said O’Leary. “Take that lamp to the basement, Miss Day. The
+light switch has been pulled out. You know where the switch-box is——”
+
+I saw Maida flinch but she took the lamp, averting her eyes from the
+floor.
+
+“Hurry! No, Miss Keate, stay here, please, at the door. If anyone
+tries to get in, stop him! Scream! I’ll not be far away.”
+
+In a flash he was gone, out the south door. I was still standing as if
+petrified, there in front of the south door, when the green light over
+the chart desk at the opposite end of the corridor flashed up and the
+little red signal lights gleamed suddenly all up and down the hall. I
+breathed a sigh of relief; Maida was all right, then. And in another
+moment or two her white uniform came into view at the chart desk.
+
+“All right, thank you, Miss Keate,” came a voice at my elbow. It was
+O’Leary, his hat gone, his hair ruffled, his eyes shining like
+phosphorescent flashes on a deep-lying sea. “Come with me, please,” he
+said.
+
+“Was the fuse burned out?” asked O’Leary as we met Maida, who was
+hurrying to answer the signals.
+
+She shook her head. Her eyes were hollow and dark and her face as
+white as her cap.
+
+“The main switch had been pulled out.”
+
+“What I expected,” muttered O’Leary, as we sped along the corridor.
+
+Lights were gleaming from the north wing, and the night-duty nurses
+from that wing were clustered in a frightened group in the main hall.
+As they saw us they ran forward.
+
+“What was it, Miss Keate—we heard a shot—what has happened?” And down
+the stairs tumbled several nurses in uniforms and kimonos and Miss
+Dotty with her hair in paper curlers and her eyes distracted.
+
+O’Leary paid no attention to them. I followed him into the general
+office. He rapped sharply, first at Dr. Hajek’s door, then at the door
+of the inner office. Then he put his hand on the latch of the door to
+the inner office and pushed. It was not locked and opened readily; the
+light from the office streamed through the door.
+
+“O’Leary! What has happened? What is it?” Dr. Balman, his eyes
+blinking anxiously in the light, was tossing back the covers and
+springing from his bed.
+
+“There has been another murder in Room 18,” said O’Leary.
+
+“Another—what! Who?”
+
+“The janitor—Higgins.” And at that second the door to Dr. Hajek’s room
+opened and Dr. Hajek, his bathrobe hugged about him, ran toward us.
+
+“What was that? What did you say? Higgins? Dead?”
+
+In a few, terse words O’Leary explained and by that time we were all
+hurrying back to the south wing, Dr. Balman’s white pajamas leading
+the way. I did not enter Room 18 again with them.
+
+There was plenty of work waiting for me in the wing. As if to make bad
+matters worse the nurses from all over the hospital were crowding into
+the south-wing corridor, their pallid faces and wild questions adding
+to the confusion. The excitement was becoming tumultuous when Dr.
+Balman came into the corridor, a strange figure in his pajamas and
+bare feet, his thin hair rumpled and his eyes worried.
+
+“There has been an accident,” he said. His voice carried though it was
+very low. “Please return immediately to duty. Do not be alarmed.” And
+it was curious to see the nurses scattering hastily like frightened
+children caught in mischief.
+
+For a while I had not time or eyes for anything but work. It was
+difficult enough to calm and soothe the patients of our wing and I
+paid no attention to the closed door of Eighteen, the flying trips
+through the corridor made by the two doctors, or O’Leary’s gray suit
+and thoughtful countenance and shining eyes here and there about the
+wing.
+
+When the police began to arrive, entering the wing by the south door
+so as not to be seen by those from other wings, it was a great deal
+like the repetition of a bad dream. It continued so until along about
+four o’clock when an ambulance, gleaming oddly white and distinct in
+the cold gray dawn, was drawn up at the south door. I did not see them
+leave.
+
+I was trying to control my still shaking hands in order to get the
+neglected charts written up before turning things over to the day
+nurses, when O’Leary paused beside me and sat down in the vacant
+chair.
+
+“What is that on your hands?” he asked suddenly as I wrote.
+
+I glanced at my hands and jumped.
+
+“Oh!” I remembered. “It is only red ink. I was cleaning up some that I
+had spilled when—when the lights went out.”
+
+“When the lights were turned out,” he corrected. “How soon will you
+finish that thing?”
+
+“I am through now.” I verified the chart hastily and thrust it in its
+place in the rack. “Have you—found anything?”
+
+“Yes.” He spoke coolly. “I have—found a good deal. First, though, why
+did you telephone for me?”
+
+“Why, it was Higgins! It was Higgins and now it is too late!”
+
+His gray eyes studied me.
+
+“What do you mean?”
+
+My heart began to thump as speculation aroused within me.
+
+“Higgins,” I said, dropping my voice to a whisper. “Higgins saw the
+face of the man that killed Mr. Jackson.”
+
+There was a moment of silence so profound that the very walls seemed
+to whisper and echo my words; someone in the kitchen nearby dropped a
+spoon and at the metallic little rattle O’Leary stirred.
+
+“Higgins—saw the face of the man who killed Jackson,” he repeated
+slowly. “How do you know, Miss Keate?”
+
+As rapidly as possible I repeated to him the whole of my amazing
+conversation with Higgins. Then, more reluctantly, I told him of Jim
+Gainsay’s presence back of the willows where he could overhear every
+word we had spoken. I told him also of what the cook had said.
+
+His inscrutable eyes studying me shrewdly, O’Leary said nothing until
+I had finished.
+
+“Then Jim Gainsay heard Higgins not only admit his dangerous knowledge
+but promise to tell you to-night the name of that man. _To-night._”
+
+“Yes.” Then as I caught the emphasis, I went on hurriedly: “But Jim
+Gainsay had nothing to do with his death. I saw nothing of Jim Gainsay
+to-night. I—I am sure . . .” My voice trailed breathlessly away under
+O’Leary’s sharp regard.
+
+“And as far as we know now Jim Gainsay was the last person to see
+Higgins alive?” He continued quite as if I had not rushed to Jim
+Gainsay’s defence.
+
+“As far as we know _now_,” I pointed out. “We may find that someone
+talked to him after he was seen with Jim Gainsay.”
+
+“Gainsay overheard your conversation. The man whose face Higgins saw
+had everything to lose at such evidence. No one but Gainsay and you,
+Miss Keate, knew of its existence. I’m sorry; Gainsay seems to be a
+decent enough young fellow.” He paused, fumbled in his pocket, drew
+out the shabby stub of a pencil and began turning it over and over in
+his slender, well-kept fingers.
+
+The light above my head was paling in the slow, gray light of early
+morning which was struggling in through the windows and making the
+whole place more desolate and more grim and forbidding than it had
+been in the dark of night.
+
+“It is a difficult situation,” he said presently.
+
+I pushed my cap farther back on my head and rubbed my hand across my
+eyes—eyes that were tired and weary with what they had seen that
+night.
+
+“I dread the effect of this night’s doing; it will almost demoralize
+our staff, to say nothing of its effect upon outsiders. We are looking
+to you to straighten out this hideous tangle. And it must be soon.”
+
+His face was very sober.
+
+“I hope to do so,” he said gravely. “I think I am not saying too much
+when I tell you that I have good reason to hope for success.”
+
+There was a restrained little throb of exhilaration in his voice.
+
+“Do you mean——” I began sharply. He interrupted me.
+
+“I mean only that I am beginning to arrive at some conclusions.” And
+without giving me a chance to ask what those conclusions were he
+continued at once: “Are you sure Higgins said it was a _man’s_ face
+that he saw?”
+
+I went back in my memory, over that brief and baffling conversation,
+now never to be finished. Poor Higgins!
+
+“No,” I said thoughtfully. “He did not definitely say it was a man.
+I—I’m afraid I just assumed it to be a man.”
+
+“Assuming is dangerous,” said O’Leary quietly. “But he did say that he
+saw three people?”
+
+“He said he knew that there were three people in Room 18 that night.”
+
+“And that there were four people—Corole Letheny and Dr. Hajek and Jim
+Gainsay and—Dr. Letheny in and about St. Ann’s that dark midnight?”
+
+I nodded confirmatively.
+
+“He said, too, that he saw Jim Gainsay’s face by the light of a match.
+And that he saw the face of the man—or person—who killed Jackson by
+the light of the match.”
+
+“But that doesn’t prove——” I began hotly.
+
+“No—no, of course not,” he said absently. “You say he was of the
+opinion that the man——”
+
+“He kept saying the ‘party’,” I interpolated.
+
+“Who killed Jackson and the—the party——” with a rather grim tightening
+of his lips, O’Leary adopted Higgins’s terms—“Who killed Dr. Letheny
+was not the same person.”
+
+“He said ‘no, that couldn’t hardly be.’” Strange how vividly I
+recalled his hesitating confession.
+
+“It is apparent, of course, that the man in Room 18 must have had some
+sort of light, if only for a second, in order to conceal the radium.
+Higgins knew where it was all the time. He swore to me that he had
+slept through the whole night. Well——” O’Leary’s shoulders lifted a
+little.
+
+“We will never know now what Higgins saw,” I commented, my thoughts
+sombre.
+
+O’Leary raised his eyes from the pencil for a moment.
+
+“Don’t be too sure of that, Miss Keate. Did you get the speaker for
+me?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Put it in a _safe_ place?”
+
+I nodded. “I longed to look inside it but did not.”
+
+He smiled.
+
+“Suppose we look now.”
+
+The rustle of my starched skirts echoed against the empty gray-white
+walls. The general office was deserted, likewise the stairs and
+corridors. Once in my room I unlocked the door of the chifferette,
+withdrew the speaker, and holding it carefully, hastened back to the
+south wing. O’Leary was still sitting beside the chart desk, his gray
+gaze on Maida, who was bent over an entry she was making on Three’s
+chart. If she wondered what I was doing with the loud speaker she did
+not say so but returned immediately to Three.
+
+I set the speaker down on the shining glass top of the chart desk. My
+hands were shaking a little and I held my breath while O’Leary removed
+one of the sides of the speaker. We both peered into it. Then O’Leary
+put his hand inside and groped around.
+
+We stared at the compact arrangement of wires and tiny coils and
+screws, then met each other’s gaze.
+
+“Nothing!” I said.
+
+“Nothing!” confirmed O’Leary. He studied the thing thoughtfully for a
+moment.
+
+“Did anyone see you take this to your room?”
+
+“No one. That is, no one but—but Maida. I met her at the door just as
+I was carrying it to my room.”
+
+“Miss Day—h’mm.” And after another pause: “Are you sure that this is
+the same speaker that was in Room 18?”
+
+“Why, yes. No. That is—” I hastened to explain as he cast a decidedly
+irritated glance at me—“that is, I mean that this is the speaker that
+was in Sonny’s room and I just assumed it to be the one that I had
+left there.”
+
+“Assuming again,” remarked O’Leary with dry disapproval. “It might
+have been one from another room, then?”
+
+“Yes. It might have been. But I think——”
+
+“Did you know that the speaker at present in Room 18 has been torn
+open, probably during the night?”
+
+“What!”
+
+“Evidently the—er—visitor in Room 18 to-night thought what we thought
+and did not know that the original speaker in Room 18 had been
+removed. Or else——” He left his sentence uncompleted, turned abruptly
+and strode down the hall to Sonny’s room.
+
+I followed him to the door. Sonny was awake.
+
+“Good-morning,” said O’Leary kindly. “It is rather early in the
+morning for young fellows like you to be awake. Look here, Sonny, the
+other night Miss Keate brought in a loud-speaker for the radio
+attachment, just like this one in my hand. She left it here and took
+away the one that you already had on your table. Then last night, she
+came in and took away the speaker she had left with you. I want to
+know whether the loud speaker she took away last night was the very
+same speaker she brought in here.”
+
+Sonny looked bewildered and O’Leary repeated his question patiently
+and clearly.
+
+“Why, no,” said Sonny finally. “That speaker she brought in wouldn’t
+work.”
+
+“What happened to it, then?”
+
+“Why”—Sonny frowned—“Miss Day was in to see me and I told her the
+speaker wasn’t working so she took it away and brought me another. The
+one she brought in worked fine. But Miss Keate came and got it last
+night.” He looked reproachfully at me.
+
+“Thank you, Sonny,” said O’Leary briefly.
+
+I have never seen O’Leary showing any feeling or excitement, but there
+were eighteen rooms in that wing and I don’t think it took him
+eighteen minutes to examine all the loud speakers in the whole wing.
+He did not omit one save, of course, that already rifled speaker in
+Room 18.
+
+When he had finished, still without any results that I could see, he
+went to Maida.
+
+“Miss Day,” he began, “you took a loud speaker exactly like this
+one”—he still carried under his arm the instrument that I had so
+futilely treasured—“from Sonny’s room last night. What did you do with
+it?”
+
+Maida put back a wisp of black hair that had strayed from under her
+immaculate cap; her blue eyes regarded us steadily from the weary,
+dark circles about them.
+
+“I put it on the table in Room 18,” she replied at once. “It was out
+of order somehow, and I thought likely Room 18 would be unoccupied. So
+I simply exchanged the speakers.”
+
+“Thank you, Miss Day. You did not—er—examine it closely to see what
+was wrong with it?”
+
+“No,” she said. “I know nothing of such things; I couldn’t possibly
+have repaired it.”
+
+She went on about her errand.
+
+“A strange case,” mused O’Leary, his clear, gray eyes following the
+slim, white-clad figure moving away from us. “The speaker in Room 18
+was the right one, after all. The question is, was the radium in it
+and if so who took it? Who has it now? When we know that answer we
+will know who shot poor old Higgins.” He went to the window over the
+chart desk, flung it up to the sash, and took a deep breath of the
+fog-laden air. His intent young face, his curiously lucid gray eyes,
+showed no hint of a night without sleep.
+
+“A strange case,” he repeated absently. He turned from the dripping
+gray orchard beyond the window, fingered idly the bronzed surface of
+the loud speaker there on the desk.
+
+“Another thing, Miss Keate—did you notice that when Dr. Hajek came
+from his room to-night, presumably from his bed, he wore trousers
+under that bathrobe that he held so tightly to him? And that those
+trousers had fresh, wet mud stains about the cuffs?”
+
+I murmured something, I don’t know what, and O’Leary met my shocked
+gaze quietly.
+
+“And furthermore,” he said softly, “I found fresh mud stains on the
+window sill of his room. Really, Miss Keate, this hospital of yours
+should have been built with its first floor higher from the ground.
+Entrances and exits are too easy.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 13
+
+The Radium Appears
+
+How true it is that time, in retrospect, is measured by the events
+occurring therein. By which I mean, of course, that while the whole
+sequence of mysterious and shocking events that so deeply troubled us
+there at St. Ann’s really occurred during a period of only a few days,
+when I look back at the affair it seems to have extended over weeks.
+It was true, too, that every day seemed to bring its problems and
+those before yesterday’s problems were solved. In fact these problems
+so crowded each other that the only way in which I can recall their
+exact sequence is by referring to the days on which they took place.
+For instance, I see that in my account book where I have an orderly
+habit of noting certain things such as birthdays of relatives, dates
+when my insurance falls due, and such matters, I have noted several
+items under Wednesday, June 13th:
+
+  Higgins killed in Eighteen during second watch, last night. No clue
+  so far as I know. Wish J.G. would go on about his bridge building.
+  Whole hospital much upset; several nurses threatening to leave.
+  Police underfoot everywhere and suppose it means the whole thing
+  over again. Sent laundry this A.M. Am getting nervous about second
+  watch. Twelve pearl buttons. Wish this affair were safely over.
+
+The “twelve pearl buttons” entry, of course, referred to the fact that
+I had forgotten to take them out of one of my uniforms before it went
+to the laundry and must remember to telephone the laundry about them.
+It was owing to these buttons, however, that one of the most singular
+and troublesome facts of the whole week came to my attention.
+
+If the second watch of the previous night had seemed like a repetition
+of a bad dream, then that day, Wednesday, was its continuation. The
+directors, irate and fussy and hysterically horrified, descended upon
+St. Ann’s. There were the police, O’Leary, and newspaper men just as
+it had been before. The only difference was that this last development
+seemed more terrible than that other—if that were possible. There was
+a rather grisly fear stalking through the hushed hospital corridors:
+Who would be the next victim?
+
+The inquest was held at once, that very morning. It was a brief and
+formal affair, held in the main office with only a few present.
+Nothing was proved beyond the immediate fact of Higgins’s death and
+nothing was mentioned that I did not already know. It was evident that
+O’Leary regarded Higgins’s death as another piece in the puzzle that
+confronted him and not as an isolated crime.
+
+Shortly after lunch Lance O’Leary called me into the office.
+
+“Why did you not tell me that the key to the south door disappeared
+last night?” he began abruptly.
+
+“I forgot it. I ordered a new key to be made for that lock and will
+have it before night. But of course I had to leave the south door
+unlocked last night.”
+
+“It seems to me you forget rather important things.” He spoke sharply.
+
+“I have certain duties to think of,” I responded as sharply. “And
+anyway you didn’t ask me.”
+
+The tightness around his eyes relaxed somewhat but he did not smile.
+He rose, went to the door, and after a dissatisfied glance into the
+main hall he beckoned me into the inner office, shut the door and sat
+down at the desk. For a moment he sat there silently, his face in his
+hands.
+
+“Sit down, Miss Keate,” he said presently, motioning toward Dr.
+Balman’s cot, and as I did so he swung around in the swivel chair to
+face me. “Hope nobody wants to use this room for a few moments,” he
+said wearily. “I’ve got to think. Look here, was that key gone when
+you came on duty last night at twelve o’clock?”
+
+“Yes. Olma Flynn, who has first watch, could not find it. She told me
+of its disappearance as soon as I came on duty.”
+
+He nodded slowly.
+
+“Thus providing an easy way into St. Ann’s. . . . Into the south
+wing——” he murmured, and broke off, staring into space, his eyes
+clouded and far away.
+
+Then all at once he began to talk, leaned back in the chair, and
+linked his hands together.
+
+“In the first place,” he began, “I am convinced that the three crimes
+are all linked together and that the possession of the radium is the
+guiding motive. Other motives, such as protection or fear, may enter
+into the affair but the radium is the main thing. If the radium was
+actually placed in that loud speaker, it is now in the hands of the
+person who killed Higgins. To secure the radium was the reason for his
+entrance into the south wing and into Room 18 last night. We can’t
+know why Higgins was there—unless—unless—— You say that he knew where
+the radium was hidden; he may have tried to take it himself into his
+own hands.”
+
+He paused as if to consider that possibility; it did not appear to
+convince him, for he made an impatient gesture.
+
+“Dr. Hajek,” he resumed, “has flatly denied that he was out last
+night; the mud has been brushed off his trousers and off the window
+sill and it is my word against his. Why is he lying? Then, too, there
+was someone from the Letheny cottage about the grounds last night.
+Huldah says that someone left the house about midnight; she heard
+footsteps on the stairs, and the front door squeaks. She did not know
+whether it was Gainsay or Miss Letheny, but she is certain that
+someone went out of that house about midnight and returned probably an
+hour later.”
+
+“Huldah tells the truth always——” I began, but checked myself. If he
+was willing to talk I was more than willing to listen.
+
+However, I had interrupted him; he looked at me directly and began to
+speak more briskly and less as if he were thinking aloud.
+
+“You see, Miss Keate, it is all simmering down to the same group, the
+same circle of those in and about St. Ann’s. No one else could have
+stolen the key to the south door. And as I say, I am inclined to
+believe that all three crimes had the same motive, if not the same
+motivating force.”
+
+“What do you mean?”
+
+“I mean that in the first two crimes we find several means of death.
+This leads me to believe that there was a definite plan to steal the
+radium, possibly on the part of more than one person. In fact, I am
+quite sure that more than one person had determined to get hold of
+that radium. But the radium was left in the room. Hidden, but still in
+Room 18. Why? There is only one possible reason. The thief was
+interrupted, was forced to hide it there in order to return for it
+later. But why did the radium remain for so long in the speaker? Why
+did not the thief return for it earlier in the game? It all points to
+there being several people interested in that radium, which means, of
+course, that we may be trying to discover three murderers instead of
+only one.”
+
+“_Three!_”
+
+“There were three murders,” he said, laconically cool in the face of
+my horror. “And Higgins’s statement seems to make it sure that the
+first two murders were not committed by the same man.”
+
+“I am positive that the radium was concealed in the loud speaker,” he
+continued after a short pause. “There was no place else for it to be
+and it must have been in Room 18, for otherwise we would not have had
+such a series of disturbances in and about that room. Yes, it is
+evident that several people were convinced that the radium was still
+in the room and were searching for it. The thing that bothers me is
+the failure of the—er—original thief to return and remove the radium
+before anyone else found it.”
+
+“Perhaps it was he last night,” I suggested.
+
+O’Leary did not appear to hear me.
+
+“There is only one reason and that—if true—is amazing.” He reached
+absently for the shabby little stub of pencil and began twisting it in
+his fingers, which convinced me that he was on his feet again, so to
+speak.
+
+Whatever the “amazing” speculation was that had occurred to him, he
+said nothing more of it.
+
+“I have eliminated certain factors. The first thing to do, you know is
+to narrow the field of investigation. I find that Mr. Jackson’s
+relatives, who might be supposed to have an interest in his death,
+have iron-clad alibis.”
+
+“Oh.” I spoke none too brightly as I had never given a thought to Mr.
+Jackson’s relatives.
+
+“Likewise I am gradually eliminating the unknown factor—I mean by that
+the possibility of an outsider, a hobo, perhaps, or professional thief
+acting on the spur of the moment, or following out a planned course of
+action. It seems more and more certain that those guilty of these
+crimes are people who are in and about St. Ann’s. But since that phase
+of the matter is so distasteful to you. . . .” His voice trailed away
+into nothing, he dropped the pencil, adjusted his tie, looked at his
+watch, ran a hand through his hair and reached for the pencil again.
+
+“There are a few matters of which I’ve been wanting to talk with you,
+Miss Keate. This—” he lowered his voice—“this Hajek. Somehow I have
+got the impression that he and Miss Letheny see a good deal of each
+other. Different people have mentioned seeing them together. Huldah
+says he is a frequent caller. What do you think?”
+
+“Why, yes—now that I think of it, it does seem to me that they have a
+sort of——” At loss for a word I stopped. O’Leary completed the
+sentence.
+
+“Understanding?”
+
+“Well, yes. And yet I have seen nothing definite. It is just a feeling
+that I have. And of course, the fact that he has been up at the
+Letheny cottage a great deal. I’ve seen him there often.”
+
+He twisted the pencil up and down; I wondered that there was any shred
+of paint remaining on the shabby thing.
+
+“Another thing,” he began rather hesitantly. “They say—don’t ask me
+who says, for it is a sort of drifting gossip that we detectives have
+to encourage—they say that Dr. Letheny admired the pretty nurse.”
+
+“The pretty nurse. Who?”
+
+“I thought you’d guess,” he said quietly. “I mean Miss Day.”
+
+“If he did admire her, I never knew it,” I said with vigour.
+
+“You never even surmised it?” he persisted gently.
+
+“No,” I said bluntly. “Certainly not.” And then recalled certain
+things. That last dinner—Dr. Letheny’s smouldering eyes on Maida—the
+gesture with which he took her wrap—those burning, restless eyes
+seeking her in the corridor of the south wing before he turned away
+through the door and I caught my last glimpse of Dr. Letheny alive.
+“That is—perhaps—yes,” I amended in a smaller voice.
+
+“Did Miss Day return his—interest?”
+
+“No. I’m sure that she did not. Quite the contrary.”
+
+“Quite the contrary?”
+
+“I mean that I believe she disliked him particularly. I do not know
+why.”
+
+He lifted his eyes from the pencil. They were clear now and very gray.
+
+“You would likely know,” he said casually. “You possess the strangest
+aura of—integrity. One feels you are a respecter of confidences. I
+presume you are the repository of many secrets.”
+
+“I’m sure I don’t know any secrets,” I replied hastily. The man
+needn’t think he could worm things out of me. “I wish,” I added, “I
+wish that you had talked to Higgins.”
+
+His expression became serious at once.
+
+“I wish so too,” he said soberly. “Though as far as that goes I did
+talk to Higgins, but couldn’t get a thing out of him. He must have
+been desperately afraid of getting into trouble.” He eyed the stub of
+pencil solicitously. “. . . getting into trouble,” he repeated
+musingly.
+
+“If I had only known the danger he was in,” I said regretfully. “But
+somehow we never know until it is too late.”
+
+“About this matter of the lights going out last night. It seems to
+coincide too strangely with the affair of Thursday night. The lights
+being out at that time was, of course, an accident, but one is
+inclined to think that someone profited by that accident to such an
+extent that he decided to repeat the fortuitous circumstances. But it
+was actually no accident this time; the switch plug had been purposely
+pulled out. Now then, the switch box is in the basement, on the wall
+next to the grade door that leads out just below the main entrance.”
+
+I nodded as his keen, serious eyes rose to mine.
+
+“That grade door was locked and the key inside the lock as it should
+be. Was there time, Miss Keate, between the lights going out and the
+sound of the shot for someone to come from that grade door around the
+corner of the hospital, enter the south door in the darkness, go into
+Eighteen, which is right next to the south door, take the radium from
+the loud speaker and—and that is as far as we know. We can only
+surmise, now, how Higgins came into it.”
+
+“The intruder might have been Higgins, himself.” I was suddenly struck
+by the thought. “He would have access to the basement, could have
+stolen the key from the chart desk that would open the south door if
+it were locked. Perhaps he was taking the radium out of the speaker;
+he told me, you know, that he knew where it was hidden.”
+
+“All the circumstances point to what we call an inside job,” admitted
+O’Leary slowly. “But someone besides Higgins was in Room 18.”
+
+“The window?” I suggested.
+
+“No. He could not have come through the window for it was still
+bolted. How about it, Miss Keate?” He returned to his inquiry. “How
+long a time elapsed between the lights going out and the sound of the
+shot?”
+
+“It seemed a long time,” I said hesitantly. “You see, it was so still
+and dark and I was a little frightened. I waited for a few moments,
+thinking that the lights would come on again. Yes, I think there was
+time enough for—for all that you think took place. While I waited I
+felt a current of air on my shoulders.”
+
+He looked up quickly.
+
+“That was the door opening, then. You are sure about the length of
+time? You see it is rather important that we settle that point
+definitely for if there was not time for all that to go on, it would
+indicate that there were two people, _besides Higgins_, who were
+interested in getting into Room 18 last night. And that one of them
+managed the business of turning off the lights and the other came into
+Room 18 with the results of which we know. Confound it!” He broke off
+suddenly. “I wish I needn’t have to figure on more than one or two
+ways of getting in and out of this old hospital. Don’t you _ever_ have
+thieves in a hospital! Don’t you ever have to safeguard yourselves!”
+
+“Only the third and fourth floor windows,” I said absently.
+
+He snorted.
+
+“The third and fourth floor windows! That does me a lot of good!”
+
+“On account of delirious patients,” I said rebukingly. “And as for
+there being two people trying to get the radium, I think there must be
+at least that many. I don’t believe that one person, alone and
+unaided, could make so much trouble.”
+
+He grinned faintly at that, and then frowned.
+
+“The chief of police wants to arrest the whole outfit at once. He is
+convinced that you are all in a conspiracy and that Gainsay is the
+leader. Of course, I don’t want to make such a wholesale cleaning.
+Especially since I—I believe that I’m getting warm. But I don’t want
+any arrests yet. I don’t want to put anybody on guard.”
+
+“Mr. O’Leary,” I said eagerly, emboldened by his half-confidence. “I
+have heard things of you, of course—what wonderful success you have
+and all that. What methods do you use?”
+
+He thrust his hands into his pockets, leaned back in the chair and
+sighed.
+
+“Methods? I don’t have any methods. And as to success—wait a few
+days.”
+
+“You don’t have any methods?”
+
+“The moment when I’m feeling most useless and most like a failure is
+not the moment to ask me to tell of my successes. Or my methods. I
+don’t have methods. I take what the Lord sends and am thankful.
+Sometimes it is a matter of luck. Mostly it is a matter of drudgery
+and hard work. Always it is a matter of thinking, thinking, thinking.
+Of eating, living, sleeping with problems for days and nights.
+Usually, just about the time you have decided that none of the pieces
+of the puzzle can possibly fit, all at once something happens
+and—Click! Things clarify. There is a reason for everything. Nothing
+just happens. Nothing is an isolated fact. If you have a fact, you
+know that certain circumstances had to combine to bring it about. It
+is just logic, reason, the physical, material quality of cause and
+effect. There isn’t anything mysterious about it. It is just the—the
+arithmetic of analysis. I don’t mean that I am infallible. I have to
+reconsider and revise and correct mistakes, just like anybody else.
+I’m human—and young. But when you _know_ that there is a solution, to
+the most puzzling problem, all there is to do is worry it out. I
+suppose the subconscious mind helps.”
+
+“That is rather abstract,” I said slowly.
+
+“I suppose it sounds that way. Well—here is one definite and concrete
+trick. As a rule, given enough rope a man can hang himself. Often I
+find that there will be one little circumstance that only the guilty
+man knows. Sooner or later he lets it out. Sometimes I have to trap
+the man I suspect into such an admission.”
+
+I’m sure my eyes were popping out.
+
+“Then that is why you made that extraordinary request of me at the
+first inquest!” I exclaimed. “I could not understand it. The thing you
+mentioned seemed so insignificant.”
+
+It was remarkable that his eyes could be so clear and so unfathomable
+at the same time.
+
+“I trust you are discreet,” he said evenly.
+
+“Oh, I shan’t tell, if that is what you mean,” I promised hastily. “I
+am as interested in solving this mystery as you are. Indeed, I think I
+may say that I am far more deeply interested.”
+
+“Well, keep your eyes and ears open,” he said, smiling and rising to
+open the door for me, and I found myself out in the main hall before I
+knew it.
+
+It was only a few moments later that I saw him leave; I remember
+standing at the window beside the main entrance, and watching his long
+gray roadster swoop silently and swiftly around the curve of the main
+driveway and into the road. He was seated at the wheel, a slight gray
+figure, intent only on the muddy highway ahead of him. There was a
+suggestion of power, of invincibility, in the very repose and economy
+of motion with which he controlled the long-nosed roadster.
+
+As I turned away I met Maida.
+
+“Such a day!” she murmured with a sigh. “Have you been able to sleep?”
+
+“I haven’t tried,” I said. “I knew it would be no use.”
+
+“Miss Dotty is still upset,” went on Maida. “And the training nurses
+are following their own devices, and everybody is afraid of her own
+shadow. I wish this business was all settled and forgotten about.”
+
+“You don’t wish it any more than I do,” I agreed fervently. “But I do
+think that O’Leary is doing everything within his power.”
+
+“I suppose so,” said Maida, without much conviction. She was looking
+pale and rather ill. “Wasn’t that Mr. O’Leary driving away a moment
+ago?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“I didn’t know that he was here at St. Ann’s. He hasn’t seen fit to
+question me yet”—she smiled rather ruefully—“as to poor Higgins.
+Except, of course, as he did at the inquest and that was so little. I
+felt he was reserving his inquiry, didn’t you? But I thought Mr.
+O’Leary had gone back to town long ago.”
+
+“No. He just left.” I paused to yawn. “I’m going to try to get some
+sleep. Better do likewise.” But she shook her head, murmuring
+something about work, and I went to my room.
+
+Luckily I managed to fall into an uneasy sleep. It was when I had
+awakened that I found I possessed but one remaining clean uniform and
+it was of a style that demanded the buttons I had sent to the laundry.
+Recalling the fact that Maida had an extra set, I went to her room to
+borrow. She was not there but I went boldly into the room.
+
+And I found the radium!
+
+It was in the pin-cushion, a pretty trifle of mauve taffeta ruffles
+that I picked up idly to examine more closely. When I felt the shape
+under the taffeta, when my fingers outlined it, I could not have
+resisted tearing it apart. The cotton stuffing had been removed and
+the small box that held the radium was there instead.
+
+I don’t know how long I stood as if frozen to the spot. I remember
+noting that the neat sewing had been torn out as if hastily, and that
+wide hurried stitches held the seam together. And I remember hearing
+the voices of several girls passing in the hall outside and thinking
+that Maida would be coming to her room.
+
+O’Leary had said: “The person who has the radium is the one that
+killed Higgins.”
+
+I could not face Maida with this thing in my hand.
+
+And I could not leave the radium where it was.
+
+In another moment I found myself back in my room, the radium,
+pin-cushion and all, locked away, the key securely hidden and my mind
+made up. Painful though it was I should have to tell O’Leary
+immediately of this thing. I do not hold friendship lightly and the
+shock of finding the stolen radium in Maida’s possession almost
+unnerved me.
+
+I had forgotten about the buttons and it was something of an
+anti-climax to catch myself starting down to dinner in a black silk
+kimono. I had to go to the bottom of my trunk for an old uniform that
+I had cast aside as being too tight. It was still too tight and very
+uncomfortable, being made with a Bishop collar which is high and stiff
+and scratched the lobes of my ears.
+
+There was no need to telephone to O’Leary, for as I neared the general
+office I caught a glimpse of his smooth brown head bent over some
+papers on the long table. I entered.
+
+“I have found the radium,” I said quietly.
+
+He looked up, jumped to his feet. I did not need to repeat my words.
+
+“Where is it?”
+
+“In my room. Shall I bring it to you?”
+
+He hesitated, his eyes travelling around the office with its several
+doors and windows.
+
+“This is too public. Someone would be sure to see it. Where did you
+find it?”
+
+I swallowed.
+
+“In—Miss Day’s room.”
+
+His gaze narrowed thoughtfully.
+
+“You must tell me about it later. First I must have the radium.”
+
+Our voices had dropped to whispers and my heart was pounding.
+
+“Shall we put it in the safe?” I motioned toward the inner office
+which holds a great steel safe, in a prepared compartment of which the
+radium is usually kept.
+
+“No.” O’Leary shook his head decisively. “No. I must put it in the
+hands of the chief of police at once. Look here, Miss Keate; in three
+minutes I shall walk slowly across the main hall with this bundle of
+newspapers under my arm. At the foot of the stairway I shall pass you
+just descending. It is rather dark there by the stairs. Hand me the
+box and keep right on going. Don’t stop. Later I shall see you and
+hear how you found it.”
+
+I followed his bidding. As I came slowly down the last flight of
+stairs he walked carelessly across the hall. There was no one about
+and I was sure that the transfer was effected without anyone’s
+knowledge.
+
+With a casual nod I went on around the turn and followed the basement
+stairs down to the dining room. I ate what was set before me and kept
+my eyes from Maida.
+
+It must have been about twenty minutes later that I ascended the
+stairs again and paused in the main hall. There was a light in the
+general office, excited voices, and Dr. Hajek and Dr. Balman were
+bending over something that lay on the long table.
+
+I entered.
+
+Lance O’Leary was stretched on the table, his face lead-gray, his eyes
+closed. Dr. Balman had out his stethoscope and was listening intently
+and Dr. Hajek was forcing aromatic ammonia through O’Leary’s pale
+lips.
+
+There was a rapidly swelling lump back of O’Leary’s right ear and the
+small box that was so precious was not to be seen.
+
+At a glance I understood.
+
+“Is he—alive, Dr. Balman?”
+
+Dr. Balman nodded, detaching the stethoscope with long hands that
+shook.
+
+“Dr. Hajek and I were starting down to dinner,” he explained. His
+voice sounded hoarse and his anxious eyes were fixed upon O’Leary. “We
+found him like this. All huddled on the floor there near the
+stairway.”
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 14
+
+A Matter of Evidence
+
+I must say that I was considerably relieved to see O’Leary’s eyelids
+flutter, the colour return to his face, and to note that his breath
+began to come more naturally. In a few moments he was sitting upright
+on the edge of the table, supported by Dr. Balman’s arm.
+
+“What on earth happened to you?” inquired Dr. Balman, looking relieved
+also.
+
+“I don’t know,” replied O’Leary rather dazedly. “All I remember is
+something coming down on my head. When did you find me?”
+
+“About fifteen minutes ago. Dr. Hajek and I were just going
+downstairs. It was not very light in the hallway and you were in the
+shadow there by the stairs. It—gave us a nasty shock. Do you know why
+you were attacked?”
+
+O’Leary flicked a warning glance at me and shook his head.
+
+“Haven’t the least idea,” he said flatly.
+
+Dr. Hajek, who had been standing silently by, stirred at this.
+
+“Then you were not on the point of making a—er—disclosure?” he asked
+with an air of disappointment. His ruddy face was as unmoved and
+stolid as ever, but it seemed to me that those dark, knowing eyes were
+restrained and secretive and did not meet O’Leary’s gaze squarely.
+
+“No such luck! By the way, were you men coming up from downstairs when
+you found me?”
+
+“No,” replied Dr. Balman. “No. I had been O.K.-ing some orders in the
+inner office; Dr. Hajek came out of his room into the general office
+just as I, too, entered it and we walked together out into the hall
+and toward the basement stairs.”
+
+“You saw nothing unusual?”
+
+“Nothing. We were talking of advertising for a new janitor. It was—”
+Dr. Balman’s kind, distressed eyes roved over O’Leary anxiously as if
+to be quite sure he was not hurt—“it was, as I said, a shock. For a
+moment we feared the worst.” He drew out a handkerchief and wiped his
+pale lips nervously, his fingers lingering to pull at his thin beard.
+“Mr. O’Leary, I know that you are working hard and I don’t mean to
+criticize but really—I——” he hesitated as if put to it to find words.
+“You see for yourself to what terrible straits this thing has brought
+us. We don’t know what to expect next. Can nothing be done to stop
+it?”
+
+It was just at this interesting point, of course, that Miss Dotty had
+to interrupt and summon me away, and it was something after midnight
+before I saw O’Leary again.
+
+I was on duty at the time, Maida assisting me as usual, and our force
+augmented again, according to another whim of Miss Dotty’s, by two
+training nurses, both obviously unnerved at their contact with the
+south wing of such ill repute. Their blue-and-white striped skirts
+rattled nervously as they trotted here and there about the wing. While
+I did not feel unduly alarmed myself, still it seemed all too clear
+that the guilty one was still about, an unknown menace and hence more
+terrible, and I don’t mind admitting that my ears were alert to any
+alien sounds.
+
+I was sitting at the chart desk when I heard O’Leary’s quick, light
+steps coming along the corridor from the general office. I turned to
+watch him approach, his gray suit and grave, keen face gradually
+emerging into the green circle of light that surrounded me.
+
+“Have you found the radium?” I asked at once.
+
+He shook his head.
+
+“Nor who took it from you?”
+
+“Nor who took it—naturally.” He dropped into a chair beside me. “Now,
+Miss Keate, tell me exactly how you came upon it.”
+
+Feeling that it was no time to mince matters I complied, much as I
+disliked the implications the story involved. He listened
+thoughtfully, drawing a red pencil from his pocket and actually using
+it to scribble some notes in a small, shabby notebook he brought
+forth. He did not comment when I had finished, save to ask if Miss Day
+was on duty. And at the moment Maida herself entered the corridor from
+some sick room, O’Leary rose and intercepted her at once and the two
+disappeared into the drug room.
+
+I was left to wait, always a difficult task for one of my temperament
+and particularly unpleasant that night. It seemed hours but was
+actually not more than twenty minutes by my watch, before they
+emerged. Maida’s chin was in the air, her cheeks quite scarlet, and
+her eyes flashing blue fire, but O’Leary was imperturbable. He stopped
+for a word with me and I suppose noted the anxiety which I was at no
+pains to hide. He smiled into my gaze a bit ruefully.
+
+“She has a reason for everything,” he said quietly. “If I could only
+be sure that she is telling the truth!”
+
+“She always tells the truth!” I cried indignantly.
+
+“I hope so——” he hesitated. “It is difficult to explain, but all
+through her story I had the strangest impression that she
+had—rehearsed the whole thing.”
+
+“What did she say of the radium?”
+
+“Says she found it in a pot of lobelia that was in the hall outside
+Room 18. She noted that the flowers were withered and needed water,
+took it to the kitchen to water, noted that it had been disturbed
+and—found the radium hidden below the plant! She took the radium to
+her own room until she could get in touch with me. She says she did
+not know that I was in the hospital after the inquest until she saw me
+leaving.”
+
+“That is true,” I said quickly. “And I remember the pot of lobelia,
+too. Only——” I wrinkled my forehead thoughtfully. “Why, the last I saw
+it, the thing was still in Room 18! Not in the corridor, at all!”
+
+“When did you see it last?” he asked quickly.
+
+“Last night—about dusk.”
+
+He looked at me soberly.
+
+“Then the man in Room 18 last night—if it was a man—must have hidden
+the radium for fear he would be caught with the incriminating box. He
+must have thrust it hurriedly into the flower pot and left plant and
+all in the corridor in the hope of being able to get hold of the
+radium more easily than if it were left again in Room 18. That is, if
+we are to believe Miss Day’s statement. Positively that lobelia _was
+not in Room 18_ when I examined the room almost immediately after
+Higgins’s death. I did not miss a square inch!”
+
+I was still thinking of Maida.
+
+“Did you ask her about the hypodermic syringe?”
+
+He nodded.
+
+“She says that she found her own needle had disappeared, naturally
+disliked calling anyone’s attention to the fact, in view of the
+existing circumstances, and simply substituted your tool for the lost
+one. She says she acted hastily and only from a dislike of being even
+remotely connected with the tragedies. My own opinion is that someone
+advised her to do so. Especially since there was a cut-and-dried air
+about everything she said.”
+
+“How did the hypodermic syringe get out there in the shrubbery?”
+
+“Miss Day insists that she knows nothing of that. And I’m more than
+half inclined to believe her, there.”
+
+“The cuff link?” I persisted anxiously.
+
+His clear eyes narrowed.
+
+“The cuff link is the reason that I doubt her whole story. She still
+declared that she lost the cuff link and that Dr. Letheny must have
+picked it up. If she would only tell me the truth about that!” He
+pulled a yellow slip of paper from his notebook. I recognized it
+immediately. It was the note Jim Gainsay had written and asked me to
+take to Maida.
+
+“Read it,” said O’Leary.
+
+Thinking it more discreet to say nothing of my own connection with the
+note, I did as he requested. It was headed: “Friday afternoon” and
+read thus:
+
+  Must see you at once. Important. C. knows about last night. Say
+  nothing and let me advise you. Will wait at the bridge. Very anxious
+  since news of this afternoon. Be warned. Cannot urge too
+  emphatically. Please meet me at bridge.
+
+It was signed with a vigorously scrawled “J.G.”
+
+I read the thing, read it again and raised my eyes to O’Leary’s.
+
+“It was found in Miss Day’s room,” he explained. “In a pocket of a
+uniform, in fact; when I asked her to explain it she said at first
+that it was a message of a personal nature and that she would not
+explain it. I was forced to urge and she finally admitted exactly
+three things. First, that the note was written by Jim Gainsay. Second,
+that ‘C’ referred to Corole Letheny. And third——” He paused as if to
+give the coming words more emphasis.
+
+“And third—simply this: That Jim Gainsay was strolling in the orchard
+about one o’clock on the night Dr. Letheny was killed. He passed the
+open window of the diet kitchen, saw her within, and stopped for a
+word or two through the window. Corole Letheny was also in the
+orchard, heard their conversation, and threatened to start a scandal,
+knowing that it would not sound well for a nurse to be seen visiting
+thus when she was on duty and at such an hour. For some reason Corole
+Letheny has developed a violent dislike for Jim Gainsay. According to
+Miss Day, then, he wrote to warn her against Corole.” O’Leary’s clear
+gray eyes searched my face. “Somehow the reasons Miss Day gave do not
+seem to warrant the extreme urgency expressed in this note. Do you
+think so, Miss Keate?”
+
+“I hardly know,” I said thoughtfully. “Of course, it takes less than
+that to start a scandal, particularly if the starter is determined and
+malicious. And Corole is both. She is naturally rather—feline, you
+know.”
+
+He took the note from my hand.
+
+“‘Since news of this afternoon’ can only refer to Dr. Letheny’s death.
+No, Miss Keate. What would a little breath of evil comment such as
+Miss Letheny could start have to do with Dr. Letheny’s death? No—there
+is a deeper reason. I wish I could persuade Miss Day to be frank with
+me. Well, now to see if Gainsay tells the same story. Probably he
+will, but we will see.” He paused to regard me soberly. “Is there any
+room here in the wing where Gainsay and I could be undisturbed for a
+time? This is a case where the very leaves of the shrubbery seem to
+have ears and I don’t want Miss Corole to overhear us—or anyone else.”
+
+“Why, yes,” I said slowly. “There is the drug room.”
+
+The red light above Six gleamed. No other nurse was about, so I
+interrupted myself to answer and bring Sonny a fresh drink.
+
+“I’ve been wishing you would come in to see me,” said Sonny
+cheerfully. “I’ve been alone ever since a man named Gainsay stopped to
+see me just at supper time. He wanted to know where everyone was and I
+told him it was just the time when you were all eating. Say, do you
+know him? I like him. He is a friend of Dr. Letheny’s. Say, why
+doesn’t Dr. Letheny come in to see me?”
+
+“Sonny, did you say that Mr. Gainsay was here in St. Ann’s? Here in
+your room at dinner time?”
+
+“Why, sure, he was here! Just about six o’clock.”
+
+“Where did he go when he left your room?”
+
+“I think he went on up the corridor toward the general office. I can’t
+be sure, though, for I was working a new cross-word puzzle and didn’t
+listen for his steps. Say, Miss Keate, want to see my new puzzle?”
+
+I forestalled the thin hand groping on the bedside table.
+
+“Another time, Sonny. You must go to sleep now.”
+
+O’Leary’s fingers sought the red pencil stub as I told him.
+
+“So,” he pondered, “Jim Gainsay was here in St. Ann’s.”
+
+“Where he had no business to be,” I interpolated grimly.
+
+“And he was here at about the time I was knocked out and the radium
+stolen. This increases my interest in Mr. Gainsay.” He thrust his stub
+of a pencil into his pocket, ran a hand over his already smooth hair,
+and glanced at his watch. “I think we’ll have to disturb Jim Gainsay’s
+rest to-night—if he is asleep. You are sure the drug room will not be
+in use, Miss Keate?”
+
+“If we need anything I’ll get it myself,” I promised hastily. There
+was a sort of repressed smile on his face as he turned away, though
+I’m sure I don’t know why.
+
+Jim Gainsay must not have been asleep, for within five minutes the two
+men were coming along the corridor from the main entrance. One of the
+student nurses saw me lead them into the drug room and her eyes would
+likely have popped out had I not spoken sharply to her. On the theory
+that every cloud has a silver lining I considered it fortunate that
+Eleven chose that very time for a rather cataclysmic upheaval which
+kept Maida thoroughly engrossed for an hour or so, and I don’t think
+she ever knew of the interview that took place there in our wing.
+
+She came very near it once, when she hurried for some soothing drops,
+but I forestalled her by offering to get the medicine myself. If she
+thought my hasty offer curious, she said nothing and went back to her
+patient.
+
+Opening the drug-room door I walked into an electric atmosphere. Jim
+Gainsay, lounging tall and bronzed against the window sill, was
+clearly furious; his eyes were narrow and wary, his lean jaw was set,
+his lips tight and guarded.
+
+I caught the words . . . “entirely a personal matter” in no very
+pleasant voice from Jim Gainsay.
+
+“I must insist upon an answer, however,” said O’Leary. His voice had
+the keenness of a slender, shining steel blade.
+
+Then both men became aware of my presence, and though I was rather
+deliberate in measuring the drops, they said nothing further until I
+left, when the murmur of their voices began again.
+
+The interview prolonged itself and it was a good half hour before I
+had a chance—that is, needed to go into the drug room again, and it
+was only for an ice bag.
+
+“And yet you remain a welcome guest in Corole Letheny’s house?” said
+O’Leary.
+
+“Not so darned welcome,” replied Jim Gainsay, and I caught the flicker
+of a smile on O’Leary’s face as I closed the door.
+
+In a few moments, however, O’Leary opened the door, peered down the
+corridor, saw me and beckoned.
+
+His eyes were shining with that peculiarly lucent look as he motioned
+for me to precede him into the drug room.
+
+“I want you to hear this, Miss Keate,” said O’Leary, his voice very
+quiet but with a tense, alert overtone that caught my ears. “Now,
+Gainsay, will you repeat that about Higgins?”
+
+Jim Gainsay glanced at me rather sheepishly.
+
+“I was telling O’Leary how it happened that I overheard most of your
+talk with Higgins the afternoon before his death. It struck me as
+foolish to let such a mine of information get away, and later in the
+evening I got hold of Higgins and wormed some more of the story out of
+him. For the most part he just repeated what he had already told you,
+Miss Keate. But he did tell me the scrap of conversation that he
+promised to tell you—remember?”
+
+I nodded.
+
+“It seems that he heard it when he stopped there near the south
+entrance on his way to see Dr. Letheny. I suppose it was this
+conversation as much as anything that made him suspicious of what was
+going on in Room 18. It seems that he knew at once who was on the
+other side of the bush; it was Corole and Dr. Hajek. Corole
+said—according to Higgins—‘To follow would be easy, now,’ and Hajek
+said ‘Wait till he comes out.’ Then Corole said something about it not
+being difficult and Hajek said ‘Leave it to me.’ Then Higgins thought
+he must have made some noise among the leaves, for Corole whispered
+‘Hush’ and he heard them slipping away. Higgins followed but soon lost
+them in the dark and himself returned to the interesting vicinity of
+Room 18.” He paused.
+
+“Go on,” said O’Leary grimly.
+
+“Higgins told you how he came back to the porch and stumbled over a
+coat. I got him to tell me something about the coat. He said it must
+have been ‘one of them slickers,’ for it felt cold and oily. And at
+the same time he told me a peculiar thing.” Again he paused as if what
+he was about to say was distasteful to him. I glanced at O’Leary; his
+eyes still wore that strangely luminous expression. Even the glass
+doors of the cupboards all around us and the shining white tiles
+seemed to wait expectantly.
+
+“Go on,” said O’Leary sharply, his words breaking into the crystal
+silence.
+
+Jim Gainsay cleared his throat, felt in his pocket for a cigarette,
+remembered that he was in a hospital and replaced it.
+
+“He said the coat smelled of—ether!”
+
+There was a moment of silence. Then I turned to O’Leary.
+
+“Ether! It was the same slicker! The one that I wore Friday
+afternoon!”
+
+O’Leary nodded thoughtfully.
+
+“It might be. At any rate we know that no slicker was found on the
+porch or about the grounds, so it is likely that the murderer of Dr.
+Letheny carried it away with him. We had a strict guard on St. Ann’s
+the day following the murders. It is barely possible that we can yet
+trace the coat that you wore, Miss Keate.”
+
+“Poor Higgins,” said Jim Gainsay gravely. “I had a hard time getting
+him to tell me that much. He refused to the last to tell me whose face
+he saw there in Room 18.”
+
+“But he failed to raise an alarm even though he had reason to think
+that the radium was being removed,” murmured O’Leary. “Well, that’s
+all now, thank you, Gainsay.”
+
+Jim Gainsay paused for a moment outside the door and I saw him look
+carefully up and down the dim corridor. No white uniform was in sight,
+however. Thinking to facilitate his departure I took the key to the
+south door from its hiding place and let him out that way. When I
+returned O’Leary was standing under the green light, studying his
+small notebook. He slipped it into his pocket as I approached.
+
+“Nothing, Miss Keate, but what you heard,” he said rather wearily.
+“His explanation of the note to Miss Day and his activities during the
+night of the murders are identical with what Miss Day tells us. He
+sticks to the story of his telegram to his business associates that he
+told at the inquest. He says he took Dr. Letheny’s car and left the
+grounds of St. Ann’s very soon after you met him in the dark. And that
+he was at a ‘corner about half a mile from St. Ann’s’ when the storm
+broke—which does not coincide with what we know. That is, if the
+lights you saw were the lights of the car he was driving, and it seems
+reasonable to believe that they were.”
+
+“How about his presence here in St. Ann’s to-night at the time the
+radium was taken from you?”
+
+“That got a rise out of him,” said O’Leary with an unexpected flash of
+whimsical satisfaction. “He was angry in a second. Every time Miss
+Day’s name came up he turned savage. If the radium had not disappeared
+I should be inclined to think that he came to St. Ann’s in the hope of
+seeing Miss Day, but with the radium gone again——” he stopped
+abruptly, his face becoming grave again and dubious.
+
+The green light cast crawling shadows; the black window pane stared
+impenetrably at us; far down the corridor a light went on with a
+subdued click, a glass clinked thinly against something metal, and I
+heard the soft pad-pad of a nurse’s rubber heels.
+
+Presently O’Leary stirred. His eyes, still shining with that very
+lucent look, met mine intently.
+
+“Corole Letheny is next. Do you want to go to see her with me? Very
+well, then, suppose we say at eight in the morning. You might just
+happen into the Letheny cottage and I’ll come. I may be a little
+delayed.”
+
+The remaining hours of second watch dragged a little but passed
+quietly, and promptly at eight o’clock I wrapped myself in my blue,
+scarlet-lined cape, adjusted the wrinkled folds of the detestable
+Bishop collar, and let myself out the south door. The path was still
+wet, the trees and shrubbery were veiled in heavy mist, and the whole
+world very sombre and desolate.
+
+At the bridge I came upon Jim Gainsay. He was sitting disconsolately
+on a log a little aside from the path, staring at a toad hopping
+across his feet and apparently lost in his own morose thoughts. I
+don’t think he had slept for he looked haggard and cold and must have
+been smoking steadily for hours, for there was a little white circle
+of cigarette ends around him.
+
+“Young man,” I said with some acerbity, “don’t you know that
+cigarettes are coffin nails and you are making yourself subject to
+indigestion, nervous disorders, tuberculosis and asthma?”
+
+He rose grudgingly and surveyed me without enthusiasm.
+
+“To say nothing of measles and hay fever,” he said dourly. “Say, Miss
+Keate, is there any chance of seeing—her?”
+
+I did not ask whom.
+
+“I don’t know. Have you not seen her lately?”
+
+He glanced at me suspiciously, then motioned to a seat on the log and
+I found myself seated none too comfortably, with the moisture of a
+tree dripping down and completing the demoralization of my collar, and
+beside me a man whom I suspected of theft and—theft, to say the least.
+
+“That was why I was in the hospital last night about dinner time,” he
+said companionably. “I haven’t seen her for days and days. She is too
+damn’ devoted to duty.”
+
+“Miss Day is a nice girl,” I said uncertainly.
+
+“Nice!” He glared at me. “Nice! Is that all you can say for her? Lord!
+She can have me! The minute I saw her, I thought, ‘There she is!
+There’s my girl!’ Say!” he drew a long breath—“and after I talked to
+her alone, there at that kitchen window last Thursday night, I knew
+Jim Gainsay’s time had come! I drove straight into town and wired the
+company that I should be delayed. And here I stay until she goes with
+me.” He paused and added ruefully: “It may take quite a while to
+convince her that she wants to go.”
+
+“So that was what your message meant?”
+
+He looked at me quickly. No matter what O’Leary said later I do not
+believe that Gainsay’s explanation was anything but spontaneous.
+
+“Why didn’t you explain before?” I asked tartly, thinking of the
+trouble he had caused us.
+
+“Explain!” cried Jim Gainsay in high derision. “The woman says
+‘Explain’! Explain that I’ve gone straight off my head about a girl!
+Please, kind gentlemen, excuse me for hanging around just when murders
+are being perpetrated and no strangers wanted on the premises. But
+really, you know, I’ve just fallen in love. Explain! Hell!”
+
+In some dignity I rose; even justifiable ill-nature can go too far.
+
+“Good-morning, Mr. Gainsay,” I said coldly. But as I turned the bend
+in the path, I looked backward. “I’ll ask her to take a walk this
+afternoon,” I promised, being a fool of an old maid. He brightened up
+at that and the last I saw of him he was casting pebbles at the frog
+with the liveliest interest on the part of each.
+
+The porch of the Letheny cottage was still unswept and desolate, and
+though I rang and rang apparently no one heard me. Finally I opened
+the heavy door and walked into the hall. No one seemed to be about.
+The door to the study was closed, and thinking to find Corole there if
+anywhere I approached it. But with my hand actually on the brass knob,
+I paused, for the door itself swung gently a few inches toward me, I
+heard a low murmur of voices and realized that someone was on the
+other side of the door and in the very act of emerging from it.
+
+“You are sure it is safe there?” said someone clearly.
+
+It was Dr. Hajek’s voice.
+
+“Quite,” said Corole, whose accents were unmistakable.
+
+“Then to-day is as good as any.”
+
+“I—suppose so.” Corole seemed reluctant.
+
+“Are you backing down?” I had not believed that Fred Hajek’s voice
+could be so ugly.
+
+“No,” said Corole. “No.”
+
+“Then why not to-day?” The door closed sharply on the last syllable as
+if propelled by a vigorous motion on the part of the speaker.
+
+In some perplexity I waited. I could still hear the sounds of voices,
+but the words were unintelligible. All at once, however, the man’s
+voice rose as if in anger, and without pausing to consider my action I
+simply grasped that brass knob and flung the door open.
+
+I interrupted a strange tableau.
+
+Corole was leaning backward against the table, her lips drawn back in
+a snarl and her eyes gleaming green fire. Dr. Hajek was no less moved;
+his face was dark red, his fists clinched, his dark eyes glittering
+unpleasantly between slitted lids. He was speaking when I opened the
+door and I caught his last words. They were thick with fury.
+
+“. . . and now you refuse. After all I have done—_for you!_”
+
+“Oh, I don’t refuse,” cried Corole.
+
+Then they both saw me.
+
+Dr. Hajek’s dark face flushed a still deeper, painful red. By an
+effort, apparently of will, he relaxed his hands, reached for a cap
+that lay on the table, muttered something under his breath, and
+wheeled toward the door. Corole recovered her self-possession more
+easily; she raised her eyebrows and shrugged as if in amusement. She
+wore an amazing Chinese coat, stiffly embroidered in gold and green,
+dancing pumps with rhinestone heels and shabby toes, and _no
+stockings_!
+
+“Good-morning,” she said with shameless calm.
+
+I think O’Leary must have met Dr. Hajek in the hall, for I heard his
+voice before he entered the study. At the door he stopped.
+
+“You, too,” said Corole, losing her amused smile.
+
+“May I come in, Miss Letheny?” O’Leary asked. He looked as fresh and
+well groomed as if he had had a long night’s sleep. “I rang the bell
+but no one answered.”
+
+Corole pulled her bizarre coat tighter about her.
+
+“Huldah decided she no longer liked it here,” she said. “She left last
+night—rather abruptly. Yes, do come in, Mr. O’Leary.”
+
+There followed an hour I shall not soon forget. I had never seen Lance
+O’Leary so mercilessly intent. I was both fascinated and awed to note
+the way he cut through Corole’s pretences and poses, her feline
+evasions and her suave smiles, and by sheer strength of will forced
+her to give to his inquiries answers that were direct if they were not
+entirely truthful.
+
+He began with the revolver, but she repeated the denial of all
+knowledge regarding its presence in Room 18 she had given at the
+inquest. Also, to further questions as to her visit to Room 18 on the
+night it had sheltered that irascible patient, Mr. Gastin, she
+repeated the lame explanation she had given at the time. She admitted
+coolly enough that she understood the use of a hypodermic outfit, and
+as coolly, though with an evil glance at me, that she had made a trip
+through the orchard immediately after hearing of Dr. Letheny’s death;
+she had wished to see Dr. Hajek, she said brazenly, to discuss with
+him the news of the tragedy.
+
+It was then that O’Leary held before her eyes the small gold sequin.
+
+“Enough of this, Miss Letheny,” he said coldly. “It would be better
+for you to give me your fullest confidence. Why were you at the window
+of Room 18 last Thursday night? This ornament was found on the window
+sill. How did it get there?”
+
+Corole stared blankly from the gold sequin to O’Leary, but back of
+those queer topaz eyes I felt that she was thinking desperately.
+
+“Well,” she said finally, “I _was_ near Room 18. In fact, I went as
+far as the window sill. You see, I was walking in the orchard. I was
+near the porch of the south wing when I heard something—a sort of
+noise, there at the window of the corner room.” She stopped and ran a
+quick, catlike tongue over her lips. “Room 18, that is. I was rather
+curious so I crept up nearer the window. A man was opening the screen
+and crawling into Room 18. He left the screen up and I slipped quietly
+up to the window. I am rather tall, you know, and as I leaned for a
+moment on the sill I suppose the sequin got detached from my gown.”
+
+“It was very dark that night. Did you see all this?”
+
+She moistened her lips again; they were taking on a bluish tinge.
+
+“I—I see in the dark better than most people.” (Which I, for one, did
+not doubt.) “And anyway I could hear, you know.”
+
+“What could you hear? Why should you think that the noise you heard
+was made by a man crawling in the window of Room 18? That is just a
+little far-fetched, Miss Letheny.”
+
+“It is true, anyhow,” she said sulkily. “I heard the screen catch as
+he pulled it up and the sort of—scrambling sound he made, and I could
+see the patch of light that was his shirt front.”
+
+“If all that is true, why did you not rouse St. Ann’s at once?”
+
+“Because I knew who the man was.”
+
+There was a brief, electric silence.
+
+“Who was the man?” said O’Leary very quietly.
+
+“My cousin, Louis Letheny.” She brought the name out with a suggestion
+of triumph. I do not know whether it was a surprise to O’Leary or not;
+however, he said nothing for a full moment. His clear gray eyes were
+studying Corole’s face.
+
+“Naturally,” went on Corole with a degree of malicious satisfaction,
+“naturally I could not arouse the hospital to advertise the fact that
+the head of the institution had just crawled through a window. Who was
+I to know Dr. Letheny’s purpose?”
+
+“You are lying,” said O’Leary. “I warned you not to lie. The man you
+saw crawling through the window of Room 18 was not Dr. Letheny. You
+and Dr. Hajek were together in the orchard that night and you actually
+did lean at the window sill, intending to enter Room 18, but Dr.
+Letheny was already in Room 18. You and Dr. Hajek discussed whether it
+would be better to wait until Dr. Letheny came out of Room 18, or for
+Dr. Hajek to follow him into that room.”
+
+In the twinkling of an eye Corole had become saffron yellow, the dabs
+of orange rouge on her cheeks stood out, emphasizing her high
+cheek-bones with grisly clearness; her eyes were flat and gleaming and
+her lips had drawn back a little from her teeth and the garish Chinese
+coat accentuated her ugly pallor.
+
+“Who told you that?” she whispered through those hideous lips.
+
+“Higgins told me,” replied O’Leary very distinctly.
+
+“Higgins!” cried Corole hoarsely, flinging up one brown, jewelled hand
+toward her throat. “Higgins! But he is dead!”
+
+“Higgins told me,” repeated O’Leary. “Now then, tell me. What did you
+and Dr. Hajek do?”
+
+“We—we met at the bridge. We walked together through the orchard.”
+Corole’s desperate effort to regain her self-control was not nice to
+witness.
+
+“Go on.”
+
+“Then—as I said—we heard a man in Room 18. And wanted to know what he
+was doing there. That was natural, I think.” She paused.
+
+“Possibly,” said O’Leary. “Why did you not wait until this—this
+man—came out from Eighteen?”
+
+“We did not wait for him. Someone came along. We never knew just who
+it was, though I thought that it was Jim Gainsay. He was in the
+orchard that night, too.”
+
+“Seems to have been a popular rendezvous,” commented O’Leary grimly.
+“So this approaching person frightened you away?”
+
+“Not at all,” denied Corole with a flash of her normal ease. “We
+just—left.”
+
+“Where did you go?”
+
+“Through the apple orchard.”
+
+“And having eluded this—er—unknown person, you returned to the
+intriguing vicinity of Room 18?”
+
+“No,” said Corole flatly. “I came immediately home.”
+
+“And Dr. Hajek?”
+
+“Returned to his room at St. Ann’s.”
+
+“Are you sure?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“How do you know?”
+
+Corole hesitated.
+
+“He told me so, later,” she said lamely.
+
+“Why were you intending to intercept Dr. Letheny—or rather, the man
+whom you thought to be Dr. Letheny?”
+
+Corole leaned forward.
+
+“Look here, I _know_ that Louis Letheny was in Room 18 that night!”
+
+“I know that, too,” agreed O’Leary quietly.
+
+She leaned back on the cushions, her eyes puzzled and her swinging
+rhinestone heels catching red and green lights.
+
+“Why did you intend to intercept him?” repeated O’Leary.
+
+“Because—Dr. Hajek felt he should know the reason for Louis’s strange
+actions.”
+
+“Dr. Hajek being an interne and Dr. Letheny the head doctor,”
+commented O’Leary skeptically.
+
+Corole’s eyes shot a vicious, sidelong look at the detective but she
+said nothing.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 15
+
+Corole Is Moved to Candour
+
+A silence fell in the room. O’Leary walked to the window, pulled the
+heavy, mulberry-coloured drapes aside, and stood there for a moment.
+The world outside was sodden and cold; the dense green shrubbery
+strange and unfamiliar with its fallen leaves rotting and its heavy
+branches dripping. The piano in the alcove opposite me was shrouded
+with a great black velvet cover, but it seemed to me that ghostly
+fingers took up the first haunting strains of the C Sharp Minor
+Prelude. I stirred impatiently and O’Leary turned to face Corole, who
+sat sullenly still in the davenport, her fingernails digging into an
+orange pillow.
+
+“Come, Miss Letheny. Give up the radium and tell me the whole truth.”
+
+“I have not got the radium. If you don’t believe me you can search the
+house.”
+
+“The house has already been searched. Your maid was ordered not to
+tell you. It was done yesterday while you were—out.”
+
+“While I was out yesterday—— Tell me, Mr. O’Leary, is anyone else
+honoured with a—guard? The man from the police department followed me
+all day yesterday and I suppose is out there now, sitting on the porch
+railing or somewhere.”
+
+“O’Brien, his name is,” said O’Leary amiably. “No, you are not the
+only person thus watched.”
+
+“I thought not.” Her eyes glinted with malicious satisfaction. “I
+thought not. What about Jim Gainsay? And Maida Day?”
+
+“Well, what about them?”
+
+“What about them!” To do Corole justice she did hesitate for the
+barest fraction of a second before she went on: “Is it possible that
+you do not know that Maida Day was the last person to talk to Louis?”
+
+There was a pause, during which Corole looked in vain for any change
+of expression in O’Leary’s face.
+
+“Are you not surprised!” she cried impatiently. “Goody-goody Maida
+with her fastidious, touch-me-not ways was in the orchard with Louis
+after midnight last Thursday night.”
+
+“No,” said O’Leary. “No. I am not surprised.”
+
+“I heard the whole conversation,” continued Corole, as if bent on
+getting some sort of more spirited reaction out of the detective. “I
+was there in the shadows and heard the whole thing. Louis was wild
+about Maida—I’m sure I don’t know why. Anyway, she did not hesitate to
+tell him that she didn’t return his love.” Corole smiled a very cruel
+little smile. “Poor Louis! They talked for some time. Louis was one of
+these cold-natured men, as a rule. I was surprised to hear him. It was
+better than a play.”
+
+“Could you see them?” inquired O’Leary drily.
+
+“It was black as tar. But I knew their voices. And anyway I can see in
+the dark like a cat, so I could tell about where they were—could see
+the outline of Maida’s uniform and Louis’s shirt front.”
+
+“They could see each other, of course?” asked O’Leary nonchalantly.
+
+“No, I shouldn’t think so. I thought I told you that I can see in the
+dark better than most people. I’m sure they couldn’t see each other
+for I remember that when they met and began to talk, Maida sort of
+gasped and said ‘Who is it?’ and Louis answered her.”
+
+“How long did they talk?”
+
+“Not long. Perhaps ten or fifteen minutes.”
+
+“That was about what time?”
+
+Corole paused before replying, I suppose to be sure that she was
+admitting nothing as to her own activities on that dark night.
+
+“It must have been just before one o’clock. I think it was just after
+Louis had gone to Room 18 with Sarah to visit his patient there.”
+
+“Did Miss Day return at once to the hospital?”
+
+“Yes, I think so. She was in a rage. I think poor Louis managed to
+kiss her and Maida is deplorably high-spirited. She struck him at the
+last; I was sure of that. They parted on very unfriendly terms.” Her
+eyes slanted maliciously at O’Leary, but he was engrossed in studying
+the soft figures on the rug at his feet.
+
+“Why do you tell me all this, Miss Letheny?” he asked quietly.
+
+She raised her thin, plucked eyebrows at this, delicately.
+
+“Didn’t you ask me to tell you anything that could help you? I should
+think that it would be of value to know that the last person known to
+have been with Louis was quarrelling violently with him.”
+
+“As a matter of fact, you have done Miss Day a favour,” remarked Lance
+O’Leary. “You have very kindly explained the presence of Miss Day’s
+lapis cuff link in the pocket of Dr. Letheny’s dinner jacket.”
+
+Corole’s eyes flickered.
+
+“I thought you said you were not surprised to hear this—as if you
+already knew it.”
+
+“I suspected some such affair. Miss Day made a point of saying that
+the last time she _saw_ Dr. Letheny was when she left your house
+Thursday night, and it was perfectly true. She did not _see_ him when
+she talked to him later. But, of course, I knew that she must have had
+some sort of meeting with him. Indeed,” he went on quietly, “I can
+quite understand Miss Day’s reluctance to tell of the matter. Any
+young woman would shrink from the headlines—can’t you see them:
+‘Beautiful young nurse—Love quarrel with Doctor’—all that sort of
+thing? Doubtless the cuff link got detached from the cuff and into Dr.
+Letheny’s hand and he thrust it into his pocket thinking to return
+it—not knowing what was to happen. Thank you for telling me this, Miss
+Letheny.” He walked to the door and paused with his hand on the knob.
+His face was very stern as he glanced back at Corole. “You are only
+making things worse for yourself when you refuse to tell the whole
+truth. Good-morning, Miss Letheny.”
+
+Once again on that damp path we said little.
+
+“It was Miss Day’s meeting with Dr. Letheny that Corole overheard,
+then, and threatened to tell of; that is what Gainsay’s note to Miss
+Day meant,” said O’Leary musingly as we approached the south door.
+“Well, that meeting does throw a new light on things—doesn’t it? By
+the way, Miss Keate, I expect to stay in St. Ann’s for a night or two.
+I want no one but you to know of it.”
+
+“But where—in what room will you be?”
+
+“Room 18.”
+
+I could feel the colour draining from my face.
+
+“That—room is not safe!”
+
+“Nonsense.”
+
+“But, Mr. O’Leary—I have not told you what I heard this morning!”
+
+“What’s that!”
+
+“Corole—Corole and Dr. Hajek——” He waited in silence while I told him
+of the singular dialogue that I had interrupted.
+
+“Thank you, Miss Keate,” he said quietly when I had finished.
+
+“But—aren’t you going to arrest them at once? Before they do—whatever
+it is they are planning? We don’t want another murder in St. Ann’s!”
+
+He shook his head.
+
+“I don’t think it will come to that. And anyway, you know—give a man
+rope enough——” He did not complete his sentence.
+
+I tightened my lips disapprovingly; it seemed to me that handcuffs
+would be far more efficacious.
+
+“Can you keep a secret, Miss Keate?” said Lance O’Leary suddenly.
+
+I nodded.
+
+“Then, if all goes well, another twenty-four hours will see the end of
+this affair.” And with that he was gone, leaving me to stand as if
+frozen on the step and watch that slight gray figure till it vanished
+around the corner of the hospital.
+
+Another twenty-four hours!
+
+I was still on the step, staring absently into the surrounding greens,
+when a movement through a lane of trees caught my eyes. There,
+strolling through the wet orchard, was Jim Gainsay. At his side was
+Maida, her white cap distinct against that green curtain, her soft
+black hair waving gently about her lovely face. The navy-blue cape she
+wore was thrown back so that its scarlet lining gleamed against a fold
+of her white dress and the scarlet seemed to match her cheeks and
+lips. As I watched, the two suddenly faced each other. Jim caught at
+Maida’s hands and held them against his face and slowly drew her
+toward him. She yielded for a moment, then glanced toward St. Ann’s
+windows and pulled away. He relinquished her hands and laughed and
+after a second she laughed, too. Then they resumed their slow pace,
+and the white cap and scarlet fold of cape and brown Stetson hat
+disappeared among the dense green thickets.
+
+He had succeeded in seeing her, then, and I did not need to fulfil my
+promise.
+
+The rest of the day passed quietly but none too pleasantly, for the
+hospital was gloomy and dark and very hushed, the nurses uneasy and
+nervous, and there was a sort of subdued terror that lurked in the
+very walls of the great, old place.
+
+I could not sleep, as was my custom, during first watch, and it was
+fortunate, as it happened, that I could not for I went down to the
+south wing a little early and thus, I believe, prevented another
+panic. I am sure that any other nurse seeing Corole as I saw her would
+have gone completely to pieces.
+
+This is the way it happened.
+
+I found myself in the south wing a good half hour before midnight and
+strolled casually along the corridor. The south door was locked as it
+should be, the new key having duly arrived and hanging, very bright
+and new, on the nail above the chart desk. I remember that I had just
+decided to find a new and less well-known place for it, and having
+selected a spot at the right of the door in question was endeavouring
+to push in a nail with a glass paper weight, and not having much
+success, when a sort of scratching outside the door caught my ears. I
+paused to peer through the small squares of glass.
+
+The wind had risen again and the low branches of the trees outside
+were tossing and moaning. The corridor was not sufficiently light to
+enable me to see beyond the black panes of glass and they glittered
+emptily, so that I felt as if eyes were looking in at me. Then, all at
+once, a face pressed up against the glass. It was a face so haggard,
+so wild, so fraught with terror that I did not recognize it at once to
+be Corole’s.
+
+As I stared she made an imperative gesture and moved her pale lips in
+words that I could not hear. The key was in my hand and I unlocked the
+door. Corole slipped stealthily inside and I closed the door hastily
+on the wind and rain, locking it before I turned to her.
+
+She was panting, her hair was flying in wet strings about her face and
+her eyes had great, fiery, black pupils that caught and reflected the
+light. She was wrapped in a dark silk cloak trimmed with monkey fur
+that was wet and hung about her neck in long, dank wisps that added to
+her wild aspect. One hand clutched the cloak across her breast and the
+other carried a square, leather-covered jewel-case.
+
+I found my voice.
+
+“What are you doing here?” I whispered.
+
+She cast a furtive glance toward the south door.
+
+“Did you lock the door? Come, is there some place where we can talk?
+Here——” With a swift motion she pushed open the door of Room 18, and
+pulled me inside.
+
+“Don’t turn on the light,” she warned me in a tense whisper. And
+indeed, I had no intention of so doing, for as she spoke I recalled
+O’Leary’s presence in the room. I looked sharply toward the bed and
+chair but could not tell if either were occupied.
+
+Corole took several deep, shaking breaths before she spoke.
+
+“I’ve been running,” she whispered presently. “I had to get rid of
+O’Leary’s watchdogs.” Actually there was an undercurrent of mirth in
+her whispered accents, though I was sure that she had recently had a
+bad fright of some kind.
+
+“Did someone follow you?” I asked.
+
+She held her breath for a second; then she released it.
+
+“Yes,” she said. “I don’t know who it was. Sarah, I had to come here.
+I—I am afraid to stay in the cottage alone all night. Huldah is gone,
+you know. I—am afraid. Can’t I stay here?”
+
+“Certainly not. Don’t be foolish, Corole. St. Ann’s is not a hotel.”
+
+She gripped my arm and her hand was trembling.
+
+“I tell you I am afraid. Sarah, you must let me stay here. I’ll sleep
+anywhere. I’ll sleep right here in this room.”
+
+“No. No. You can’t do that!”
+
+“I must stay in St. Ann’s. You can’t put me out bodily. I’ve got to
+stay.” I felt her shiver violently. “I cannot go through that terrible
+orchard again. I cannot sleep in Louis Letheny’s house to-night. There
+are ghosts, Sarah, ghosts—oh, you don’t know!”
+
+“Ghosts! There are nothing of the kind.” I felt my scalp prickle as I
+spoke.
+
+“Maybe not. Anyway, I must stay here.”
+
+“No,” I repeated but she must have felt me weakening for she renewed
+her pleas, even promising to make herself eligible to a room in the
+hospital by having tonsillitis, if I insisted. She said she felt it
+coming on owing to her getting so wet and being bareheaded. Which was
+not only silly, as I assured her, but was not even to be believed,
+Corole being as sleek and healthy as a young jaguar, and about as
+even-tempered.
+
+“But you can stay,” I relented, “if you will do as I say and keep
+quiet about it.”
+
+“Heavens, yes!” agreed Corole fervently. “All I want to do is keep
+quiet about it. Shall I just stay right here in Eighteen? I am not
+afraid.” She moved toward the bed.
+
+I grasped her cloak and jerked her back.
+
+“No,” I said hastily. “No. You cannot stay in this room.” There may
+have been a note of consternation in my voice and I am quite sure I
+heard a sort of subdued snicker from the direction of the bed.
+
+Corole heard it, too.
+
+“What was that?” she whispered sharply, starting back against me. I
+shuddered aside from contact with that dripping monkey fur.
+
+“Probably a cat,” I said at random.
+
+“A cat!” I could feel her pull her short skirt tighter around her. “I
+hate cats. They remind me of—— I hate cats.”
+
+“Corole, stay right here for a moment or two. _Don’t move from the
+door!_ I shall come back and open the door, and you go as fast as you
+can through the corridor and as far as the general office door. Don’t
+let anyone see you if you can help it and wait there for me.”
+
+She murmured something in assent and in less time than it takes to
+tell, I had manufactured errands to get the nurses into the diet
+kitchen and drug room, had watched Corole move with the lithe
+swiftness of an animal through the long shadowy corridor and myself
+had followed her. My own room was, of course, the only place where I
+could let her sleep. I even loaned her a night garment; she looked at
+its long sleeves and high neck dubiously but accepted it.
+
+I gave myself the satisfaction of locking the door and carrying the
+key away; I did not know whether Corole heard the click of the key or
+not but I did not intend that Corole Letheny should be allowed to
+prowl at large through the dark corridors of St. Ann’s.
+
+It was a little after twelve when I found myself in the south wing
+again. Maida was already there and Olma Flynn and the same little,
+blue-striped student nurse.
+
+I don’t mind admitting that I slipped into the diet kitchen at my
+first opportunity and brewed myself a cup of very strong, black
+coffee. Corole’s advent had shaken my nerves a bit and I did not like
+the way the wind was murmuring around the corners of the great old
+building, stirring up forgotten drafts and rattling windows and
+slapping rain against them.
+
+Second watch, however, passed quite as usual, save for the little air
+of uncertainty and uneasiness that made itself manifest in our
+fondness for each other’s company, our frequent glances into the
+shadows, and one or two broken thermometers owing to the sudden
+crashes of the wind. The light flickered once as if about to go out
+but mercifully did not do so. I might add that the prevalence of
+broken thermometers was one of the minor troubles of that week; a
+thermometer is an easy thing to slip from one’s fingers, especially
+when shaking it, and it is not surprising that Dr. Balman had had to
+order new thermometers for every wing in St. Ann’s.
+
+The hours seemed very long, particularly when it occurred to me that
+if Corole and Dr. Hajek expected to carry out their scheme that “day”
+there were only a few hours left in which to do so. Of course, I had
+Corole safely locked up and if her coming to St. Ann’s in
+well-simulated terror to beg a refuge was actually, as I half
+suspected, only a part of their plan, why then I had stopped any
+further activity on her part. But I could not wholly believe that
+Corole’s coming had been prearranged; her panic had been too genuine.
+
+We were not very busy, so I had plenty of time to think. More than
+once I caught myself eyeing Maida as she went quietly about her
+business.
+
+Once, when we were both at the desk, engaged in a desultory and
+half-hearted conversation, footsteps padding softly along the corridor
+back of us caught our attention and I turned simultaneously with
+Maida. I noted that her eyes flared black as she whirled and her lips
+were a quick, set line, and wondered if my own face showed such
+immediate alarm. However, it was only Olma Flynn, advancing to tell me
+through chattering teeth that she was sure there was _Something_ in
+Room 18. I was startled for a flash, though at once I realized that it
+was O’Leary, and Maida went white though she held her shoulders
+straighter than ever.
+
+I managed to calm Olma, though she clung to her point with a firmness
+that in my heart I labelled plain mule stubbornness.
+
+“If we are all murdered before morning, Miss Keate, it will be your
+fault,” she said at last.
+
+“Nonsense! If it is a ghost, as you seem to believe, you need not be
+alarmed. Ghosts can’t do anything but moan around the corners.” It was
+unfortunate that just then the wind swept through the draughty old
+corridor with a most realistic moan, upon which Olma turned green and
+vanished into the diet kitchen. It was this, I think, that gave rise
+to a swiftly travelling tale that Room 18 was haunted, a tale that the
+south wing has never yet been able to live down.
+
+Thinking to warn O’Leary that he must be more circumspect in his
+behaviour if he wished his presence in that ill-omened room to remain
+a secret, I watched my chance to slip unobserved into Eighteen. Dawn
+was creeping into the room by that time and the furniture loomed up
+dark and black in the cold half-light. The room was quite empty of
+human presence, though to my tired nerves it seemed that there might
+be other presences. I shrugged aside the unwelcome thought. A glance
+at the window showed me that the bolts had been slipped and the screen
+opened. I had no doubt that O’Leary was making use of that low window
+as others had done. I resisted a childish impulse to fasten the bolts
+against his return and returned to the corridor.
+
+
+With the tinny sound of the breakfast bell away down in the basement,
+the straggling through the corridors of the day nurses, freshly
+uniformed if a trifle gray about the eyes, the fragrant smell of
+coffee floating through the halls, my vigilance relaxed a bit. The
+night was past and so far as I knew nothing out of the way had
+occurred. Knowing Corole to be a late sleeper I did not go immediately
+to my room to release her. Instead I followed Maida and Olma and the
+student nurse downstairs to the dining room. It was a sorry meal with
+buckwheat cakes which I despise and which, besides, give me hives, and
+Miss Dotty relating a very lurid dream and dissolving into tears under
+Melvina’s interpretation. The tears dripped dismally down Miss Dotty’s
+inefficient nose, Melvina enlarged upon the meaning of dreams, and I
+found that I had sugared my coffee twice. I was glad when the meal was
+over.
+
+In the intervals of Melvina’s sinister monologue I had come to the
+conclusion that Corole Letheny under lock and key was not a situation
+to be lightly relinquished. I sought O’Leary at once, surreptitiously
+avoiding the day nurses. He was not in Room 18, so I straightened the
+wrinkled counterpane on the bed and left. As I passed through the
+corridor of the second charity ward I took a breakfast tray off the
+dumbwaiter standing there unguarded; the disappearance of the tray
+caused considerable excitement in the ward, I found later, which was
+augmented by its reappearance later in the morning in the second-floor
+linen closet where I had thoughtfully left it, with only the coffee
+splashed a little, for Corole did not even see that breakfast tray.
+
+When I unlocked the door to my room it required only a glance to see
+that my bird had flown, so to speak. I set the tray on the dresser and
+advanced into the room. The bed was tossed and had been slept in,
+though the night garment I had loaned her was still decorously folded
+on a chair. The window was open, letting in gusts of rain on my
+flowered voile curtains which were running in pink and green streaks
+and later had to be replaced. I crossed to close it and in doing so
+found the mode of her exit. St. Ann’s, as I have said, was an old
+building with numerous turrets and towers and roof irregularities
+which included various ledges and wide window casings. From the window
+beyond mine dropped an old-fashioned, iron fire escape fastened to the
+old red bricks with rusted bolts. And from my window to the next ran a
+sort of ledge, narrow, to be sure, and slippery, but there was the ivy
+to cling to and shrubbery below to break a fall. For a woman of
+Corole’s build and propensities it was not a difficult climb and once
+on the fire escape the rest was easy. I leaned out the window. Had I
+still been unconvinced, there was proof of her passage, for caught on
+an ivy strand there hung a dejected, wet, black wisp of monkey fur.
+
+So Corole was gone! I felt guilty for letting her slip through my
+fingers but reflected that O’Leary had known of her presence in St.
+Ann’s, and moreover, a woman cannot go far in a drenched coat and no
+hat.
+
+This comfortable reflection lasted until I went to the wardrobe and
+found that my best hat was gone. The hat was a very beautiful thing
+with quantities of artificial violets on it and three yards of looped
+purple ribbon, and had cost me twenty-five dollars owing to my having
+it made to order to fit my bobless head. And Corole had brazenly worn
+it out in the rain, which did not increase my affection for Corole.
+
+I set forth again to find O’Leary, feeling that he should know at once
+of Corole’s flight, pausing only to leave the tray in the second-floor
+linen closet.
+
+O’Leary turned up at last in the vast old stable, now converted into a
+garage, that is out back of St. Ann’s. He was apparently engaged in
+sniffing at something that I did not see and that he thrust hurriedly
+into his pocket at the sound of my approach.
+
+In as few words as possible I told him of Corole’s departure.
+
+His face became very sober.
+
+“That’s bad,” he said. “That’s bad. I figured she was safe in your
+hands. So she got away across that ledge.” The place was visible from
+where we stood, and he surveyed it thoughtfully through the gray
+streaks of rain.
+
+“Well, it can’t be helped now. You say she wore your hat?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“She would not be apt to return to the Letheny cottage,” he mused.
+“Let me see; it is barely seven o’clock—the stores will not be open
+for another hour. There is plenty of time.”
+
+“The stores?”
+
+“She will go straight to buy a hat,” he explained with remarkable lack
+of tact. “Corole Letheny is not going far in a hat that——” He noted my
+unsympathetic countenance. “A hat that—er—does not suit her. I mean
+that she did not choose herself,” he amended hastily.
+
+Without saying a word I turned toward the gravelled path that leads
+back to St. Ann’s.
+
+“Wait a minute, Miss Keate,” begged O’Leary contritely, seeing perhaps
+that he had offended me in a matter that no woman can freely forgive.
+“Please, wait. If you’ll forgive me I’ll tell you something of
+interest.”
+
+Being exceedingly curious I went back. He drew me into the shadow of a
+big gray ambulance.
+
+“I want you to keep an eye on Miss Day,” he said in a low voice and
+with an odd glance into the shadows of the place.
+
+“Miss Day!”
+
+“Especially if you see this fellow, Gainsay, hanging around.”
+
+“Why, what do you mean? Is Jim Gainsay——”
+
+“Jim Gainsay is the man who was following Corole last night. O’Brien
+was stationed up at the cottage last night and saw him. It seems that
+Corole slipped out a side door. She came out so unexpectedly that she
+was into the orchard before O’Brien was after her. He was going full
+tilt when he found that someone else was ahead of him, both of them
+after Corole, who was having the devil’s own luck, according to
+O’Brien, in avoiding tree trunks and shrubbery. O’Brien says she can
+see in the dark. At the bridge O’Brien caught up with the man and can
+swear it was Gainsay, but just then a low-hanging branch knocked
+O’Brien down and senseless for a moment and when he got to his feet
+Corole and Gainsay were both gone. O’Brien wandered about the orchard
+hunting them for half the night and I ran into him about five o’clock,
+soaked to the skin and his face a welt of scratches and his
+disposition permanently warped.”
+
+“So it was Jim Gainsay who gave Corole such a fright,” I murmured. “I
+wonder what he wanted.”
+
+“It looks bad for Gainsay,” said O’Leary thoughtfully. “Whether he
+killed Dr. Letheny in a mistaken effort to defend Miss Day, or whether
+he killed Jackson for the sake of the radium, or whether, thinking
+that the radium is still at large he is determined to secure it for
+his own use, in any case it looks bad. I hope your little friend, Miss
+Day, is not going to be too much hurt.”
+
+“You mean if she cares for Gainsay? Maida is not one to wear her heart
+on her sleeve. If we could only find that radium,” I concluded
+hopelessly.
+
+“Oh, I have the radium,” said O’Leary simply.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 16
+
+The Red Light Above the Door
+
+“_You have the radium!_”
+
+He nodded. My mouth open I waited for him to tell me more. In the
+little silence I heard a sort of rustle and I looked about me in some
+alarm. O’Leary heard the rustle, too, but his face wore the most
+peculiar expression of mingled satisfaction and anxiety. He made the
+barest perceptible gesture against comment, and just at the moment
+Morgue dropped casually down from an opening above what was formerly a
+hay loft. I jumped a little at his—I mean, _her_ unexpected advent and
+O’Leary spoke unconcernedly.
+
+“Yes, I have the radium. Or rather it is in Room 18 which is, I
+believe, the safest place in the world for it, inasmuch as there is
+not a soul in St. Ann’s who would willingly enter that room—save
+perhaps your intrepid self.”
+
+“How did you find it?”
+
+“Corole brought it to Room 18 last night.” O’Leary’s voice had lifted
+to a normal pitch and I recall thinking that he should speak lower.
+“Corole brought it in her jewel case. The jewel case is there, too;
+she must have doubted your—er—hospitality.”
+
+“Do you mean to say that she had that box of radium in her jewel
+case!” I cried. “And that she left the whole thing there, in
+Eighteen?”
+
+“Possibly she agreed with me that it was the safest place in which to
+leave it. No one would suspect its being back in Room 18. No one would
+voluntarily enter that room. Oh, she took the precaution to cross to
+that closet and place the jewel case away back on the shelf. She did
+that while you were clearing the way for her passage through the halls
+to your room. She came very near sitting down on the bed to wait,”
+went on O’Leary drily. “And I was endeavouring to give an imitation of
+a mattress when you opportunely returned.”
+
+“Oh,” I said brilliantly. “Oh.”
+
+“It was the same closet that hid Dr. Letheny’s body,” added O’Leary
+meditatively. “I will leave the radium in Room 18 until to-night; it
+will be under close guard all day, Miss Keate, but I think it safer to
+wait till to-night, during second watch, when the guards are gone and
+the wing is quiet, to remove it. I’m not going to run the risk of
+Gainsay’s knocking me senseless again. Of course, we shall have to
+locate Corole and keep her out when she returns, as she will, for the
+radium. Then I’ll get the stuff away while the hospital is asleep.”
+
+“Do you think that is wise?” I asked hesitantly. “Do you think that
+will be——”
+
+“Ready to go back to the hospital?” interrupted O’Leary, and as we
+walked along the clean white gravel path he conversed so fluently and
+determinedly about the effect of the continued moisture upon the crops
+that I could not get a word in edgewise. At the grade door we paused
+and O’Leary said a peculiar thing.
+
+“See you later in the day, Miss Keate. Twelve of the twenty-four hours
+I gave myself are gone, you know. And by the way, you couldn’t have
+done better if you had rehearsed.” And with that he was gone, leaving
+me entirely in the dark as to his meaning and feeling rather
+irritated. Morgue, who had followed us along the path, brushed against
+my skirts. She had already lost her air of pride and was taking on a
+certain harassed appearance besides being very thin. But her yellow
+eyes raised to mine were still complacent and knowing and so like
+Corole’s that I thrust her impatiently aside with my foot and closed
+the door sharply.
+
+The rain continued, steadily increasing in fervour as the dreary day
+passed. All morning I remained in my room, the door locked securely, a
+chair in front of the window lest Corole should take a notion to
+return the way she had gone, and myself trying to sleep and succeeding
+for the most part in staring at the ceiling or at the rain-smeared
+window.
+
+At noon I rose, dashed ice water on my tired eyes, dressed and started
+downstairs. The dark day made the vast old place gloomier than ever
+and lights had had to be turned on all over the building which,
+however, failed to dispel the lurking shadows. Apparently the nurses
+were doing their duty as well as might be expected, though I noted
+that they gathered in groups and that there was a noticeable lack of
+smothered talk and laughter.
+
+In the north wing of the second floor I caught a glimpse, as I rounded
+the stairs, of Dr. Hajek, clad in fresh, white duck trousers and coat
+and certainly not much resembling a thief and a murderer, making his
+morning rounds, and at the door of the maternity ward I met Dr.
+Balman, an attendant nurse at his elbow.
+
+It was strange to see the everyday routine going on almost as usual,
+almost as if we were not held in the cold grip of horror. No, not
+quite as usual, for there was somehow about the place, emanating from
+the very, white and expectant walls, an air of suspense, of breathless
+waiting.
+
+Dr. Balman had noted it, too.
+
+“Even the patients are upset and restless to-day,” he said wearily, as
+I stopped to ask him about Sonny, whose cast did not satisfy me. He
+rubbed his hand over his high, benevolent forehead, drew it gently
+over the bruise that still looked red and angry, and sighed.
+
+“It is the weather,” I suggested, though it was nothing of the kind.
+
+“Yes. Yes, it must be the weather. A constant succession of cloudy,
+rainy days such as we have been having is bad for the nerves. I hope
+this rain sees the end of it.” His anxious eyes went past me toward
+the window at the end of the corridor.
+
+“One wonders where it is all coming from,” I commented. “I think, too,
+that the patients feel the—er—atmosphere of the hospital. The nurses
+are uneasy and nervous, jump at every sound, and there is a distinct
+feeling of suspense and—breathlessness in the air.”
+
+Dr. Balman nodded; his eyes looked tired and sad under his thin
+eyebrows.
+
+“I understand what you mean. There is a psychic undercurrent of unrest
+and alarm that is bound to communicate itself to the sick.”
+
+“You aren’t looking well, Dr. Balman,” I said. “You should have that
+bruise attended to.” And I thought, though I did not say it, that he
+would profit by some liver pills.
+
+“I haven’t had time——” he began; a nurse rattling up to us in her
+crisp skirts interrupted him with a question and I went on downstairs.
+
+A letter was waiting for me on the rack in the hall. I did not
+recognize the handwriting, which was square and distinct and very
+painstaking; the signature, however, caught my attention and I ran
+through the note hastily, read it again more carefully, and with an
+involuntary glance about me I withdrew into a secluded corner of the
+hall and read it once more. It was short and to the point.
+
+  Dear Miss:
+
+  I think it is my dooty to tell you somthing I heerd. It is about Mr.
+  Gansie I liked him but he is croked. He thinks Miss C whuz name I
+  will not menshun has the radeyum, she said you know more than you
+  will tell about those murders too and he said well what if I do what
+  I want is the radeyum. Then she said youd better get out of here
+  before you land in jail and he said speak for yourself. Then the
+  kitchen door blew shut. You can tell that little man with the gray
+  eyes if you want to.
+
+  That Gansie is a bad man he has a revolver in his pocket.
+
+  I have left Miss C for good.
+
+      Yours respectfully,
+          Huldah Hansinge.
+
+Aside from reading “croked” to be “croaked” and thinking for a wild
+second that she was announcing Gainsay’s death, I had no difficulty in
+understanding Huldah’s amazing epistle. It sounded exactly like her,
+and Huldah is honest, so I did not even have the dubious satisfaction
+of doubting her word. It was my duty, too, to turn the thing over to
+O’Leary, and I should have done so at once had I been able to find
+him. But he was not to be found and I finally went down to lunch with
+a heavier heart.
+
+The afternoon passed as slowly as the morning. O’Leary stayed out of
+sight, I heard no news about Corole or the radium, and the note from
+Huldah was simply burning a hole in my pocket. I tried telephoning to
+O’Leary but could not even get an answer from his servant. It was
+while I was in the general office that someone telephoned for Dr.
+Hajek. Miss Jones was at the telephone and asked me to call him,
+saying he was in the south wing.
+
+“It’s a woman,” she said, winking at me. “She wouldn’t give her name
+or number.”
+
+I found Dr. Hajek in Room 17 changing a dressing. He dropped his
+forceps and pulled off his rubber gloves so hastily that they split
+across one palm.
+
+“Pick up those forceps and sterilize them,” he directed the attendant
+nurse. “I’ll be back in a moment.”
+
+I suppose he noted the disapproval in my face, for as we left he
+murmured something about having expected an important call and
+Seventeen being all right until he returned. In the corridor, tipped
+back against the door of Eighteen, lounged a policeman. Dr. Hajek
+regarded him speculatively but said nothing concerning his presence,
+which was, to my mind, an extraordinarily stupid arrangement. It
+seemed far better, to me, to remove the radium under guard to a place
+of safe-keeping, but O’Leary’s business was O’Leary’s.
+
+It seemed a singular thing that this man Hajek was at liberty to go
+about the hospital, his opinions deferred to by the nurses, his duty
+to administer to the sick, and at the same time he was most certainly
+involved somehow in the ugly, sordid tragedy that had befallen us. I
+followed his white coat through the intervening corridors and,
+recalling a record I had meant to look into, also into the general
+office. But as I bent over the filing cabinet, though every word of
+his brief conversation was audible to me, I could make nothing of it.
+It consisted of three “Yes’s,” one “No,” and finished with “All
+right.” Upon which he hung up the receiver and departed briskly toward
+the south wing and Seventeen. Miss Jones was no wiser than I, for his
+eyes had been on her as he talked and she had not dared listen in.
+
+“There’s one thing I know, Miss Keate,” she said as I was about to
+leave. “That voice at the other end sounded for all the world like
+Miss Letheny’s.”
+
+And some twenty minutes later I was quite sure that I saw Dr. Hajek
+going unostentatiously out the grade door toward the garage, though
+when the bell rang for dinner he was sitting in the general office
+smoking a forbidden cigar and reading the evening papers with the
+utmost composure.
+
+I spent most of the intervening time wandering about the halls; I was
+very restless and could not settle down to anything, and altogether
+the afternoon was a total loss so far as anything interesting was
+concerned, so I was not in the best of humours at dinner.
+
+Once I caught a fragment of conversation from a little group of nurses
+down at the end of the table.
+
+“. . . and I said, ‘What on earth is that man doing out in the
+elderberry bushes in all this rain?’ and she said, ‘He is watching
+Room 18.’”
+
+“Why are they watching Room 18?” asked Miss Ferguson, wide-eyed.
+
+“Don’t ask me!” The first girl shrugged her shoulders. “But there have
+been a couple of men, besides that policeman in the south wing,
+hanging around all day; I don’t think they are police because they
+don’t wear uniforms, but they didn’t have their eyes off the windows
+of Room 18 all day long.”
+
+“What do you suppose is the reason?” whispered someone in a tense,
+shrill whisper that carried.
+
+“I don’t know!”
+
+“Mercy, I’m glad I’m not on duty in the south wing,” said someone
+else, and all the eyes at the table immediately focussed on me.
+
+“Well, whatever it is, I wish it would be settled,” announced Miss
+Ferguson vigorously. “I’m getting so nervous I drop everything I
+touch. And my neck is stiff from twisting it to look back over my
+shoulder.”
+
+Melvina Smith cleared her throat and I left the table at once. I have
+nothing against Melvina, but if she had been in the south wing during
+the past week she would have got her fill of horrors.
+
+With the gathering darkness the feeling of impending catastrophe that
+had hung over us all day intensified itself. By midnight I was as
+jumpy as a race horse, my heart leaping to my throat at every sound
+and my hands shaking so that I could scarcely turn off my alarm clock
+and adjust my cap.
+
+The storm had grown steadily worse and by twelve o’clock was blowing a
+gale with thunder and lightning making the night hideous. The old
+building seemed to tremble at each onslaught, and every window casing
+rattled and every curtain flapped and the whole place seemed to quiver
+and shudder as if it were alive.
+
+On the way down to the south wing, I don’t mind saying that I suffered
+from something very near to stage fright, at least there was a rock in
+the pit of my stomach and the backs of my knees felt shaky and not to
+be depended upon. I very nearly shrieked when I heard footsteps back
+of me on the stairs, but it was only Maida, going down to duty, and
+together we walked through those deserted, creaking halls.
+
+I had not been on duty more than twenty minutes when I found a note
+pinned to the order blank and addressed “Miss Keate”! It was sealed,
+and across the paper was a single sentence splashed hurriedly:
+
+  When the red light shines above 18 answer it.
+
+I wheeled to stare down the length of corridor toward that closed,
+inscrutable door at its far end. The corridor lost itself in the
+shadows and the door was itself indistinguishable, but it seemed to me
+that the faraway panes of glass in the south door caught green glints
+of light from the shade above my head.
+
+“When the red light shines above 18 answer it.”
+
+What was going on in the dark room? What did it mean?
+
+It was fortunate that I had plenty of assistance, for I could not
+possibly have gone about my duty with this amazing thing in my mind.
+In fact, I paid very little attention to the demands of the wing and
+alternated my gaze between my wrist watch and that shadowy end of the
+south wing corridor.
+
+When the red light shines above 18!
+
+When would it shine—what would I see upon opening that heavy gumwood
+door?
+
+When the red light shines . . . After what seemed eons of time I
+strolled casually and with attempted calm in that direction. My heart
+began to pound violently as I approached that mysterious door. I
+paused at the south end of the corridor, pretending to scrutinize a
+thermometer that hung on the wall and listening with all my ears
+toward that dully gleaming panel of gumwood. Not a sound came from it,
+and though I lingered for some time in the vicinity, still I heard
+nothing.
+
+On the way back Olma Flynn stopped me.
+
+“Eleven says he will not take his medicine, Miss Keate. What shall I
+do?”
+
+I must have answered her rather vaguely and, in fact, barely heard her
+question. At any rate, she gave me a strange look, whirled to follow
+my gaze down the corridor south and, seeing nothing, faced me again.
+
+Her eyes were very wide and her mouth hung open.
+
+“What—what did you say, Miss Keate?”
+
+“I’ll see about it in the morning,” I replied, quite at random. She
+retreated, eyeing me with trepidation, and later I saw her whispering
+with the student nurse in the drug room and both of them regarding me
+distrustfully.
+
+Somehow the seconds dragged along. I took up my post at the chart
+desk, turning the chair so that it faced the long length of empty,
+dark corridor, and the dark space above Eighteen was visible to me.
+
+Maida stopped at the desk now and then, and once paused to survey me
+curiously.
+
+“What on earth is the matter with you, Sarah?” she asked.
+
+“Nothing,” I replied, looking for the thousandth time at my watch. It
+was then a quarter of two.
+
+She studied me oddly for a moment.
+
+“What a night! The wind and rain is getting awfully on my nerves.” She
+unpinned her thermometer, took off the cap and held it closer to her
+eyes. “I was taking a temperature a moment ago when that loud crack of
+thunder came and it startled me so that I dropped the thermometer. I
+don’t think”—she paused to squint interestedly along the small glass
+tube—“I don’t think I broke it. For heaven’s sake, Sarah!” she broke
+off in sudden irritation. “Stop staring down the corridor. You make me
+edgy. What are you looking for? What do you——”
+
+I did not hear the rest of the sentence. I sprang to my feet, peering
+through the semi-darkness to be sure my eyes had not mistaken me.
+
+They had not!
+
+Gleaming above the door of Eighteen was a single, small red light!
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 17
+
+O’Leary Tells a Story
+
+The next thing I remember is finding myself at the door of Room 18, my
+fingers on the door knob, my breath coming in gasps and my heart
+literally in my throat.
+
+What would the opening of that door disclose?
+
+I took a long, shuddering breath, pushed open the door and took a few
+steps forward.
+
+Intense blackness met my eyes, but through it I heard scraping sounds
+and heavy breathing and the impact of flesh against flesh, and the
+indescribable sounds of two bodies struggling together. Instinctively
+I stepped inside the room, closed the door behind me, and felt along
+the wall for the electric button.
+
+And at that instant a vivid flash of lightning lit up the room and I
+caught a glimpse of two men interlocked and swaying and I heard
+O’Leary’s hoarse whisper.
+
+“Don’t—turn on—the lights! Don’t——” the rest was lost.
+
+I stood there as if frozen to the spot, longing to take a hand in
+things and not daring to do so. Then all at once someone said
+breathlessly:
+
+“O’Leary!”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Hell.”
+
+The men seemed to fall apart.
+
+“All right, then! Here it is!” The words were whispered in a panting
+voice that I did not recognize.
+
+Then I felt rather than saw that the slighter of the two figures
+tiptoed to the window next to the bed, peered through the dashing of
+rain outside for a moment, and then tiptoed as cautiously back.
+
+“Into that corner! There, back of the screen! Miss Keate?”
+
+“Yes.”
+
+“Over here, quick!”
+
+I stumbled a little as I passed the foot of the bed, found a hand
+outstretched in the darkness to guide me, and in a flash was in the
+darkest corner of the room, behind the burlap screen.
+
+“Be quiet!” warned O’Leary sternly.
+
+Beside me, breathing quickly, was that other man; as I shrank back a
+little I came in contact with something cold, touched it tentatively
+with my fingers and drew back, chilled. It was square and hard and
+pressing into the coat of the man at my side. It must be held in
+O’Leary’s hand.
+
+And I was standing within an inch of the thing. I must have made a
+sudden movement for O’Leary whispered sharply again: “_Hush!_”
+
+As if petrified, the three of us stood behind that burlap screen.
+There was not a sound in the room. As my eyes became adjusted to the
+darkness I found that the window near the bed was faintly visible
+through the crack in the screen and I glued my gaze to that crack.
+
+Once the man at my side stirred a little and then quieted abruptly,
+and I had no doubt that that menacing revolver was thrust closer into
+his ribs.
+
+Just as I felt that my lungs were bursting I became aware that there
+was a shadow, deeper than the surrounding shadows, there at the
+window. I blinked and peered closer. Yes, I was sure. Silently, with
+amazing lack of sound it crept from the window sill into the room,
+paused for a second and then, so silently that it did not seem to be
+anything human, it glided across the room and out of my little angle
+of vision.
+
+Then I was aware that O’Leary was gone and simultaneously I heard a
+sound like the creaking of a bed spring and O’Leary’s voice, cold and
+hard as that vicious revolver.
+
+“Stand where you are! Hands up! Turn on the light, Miss Keate. Hands
+up! I’ve got you!”
+
+Turn on the light!
+
+Cross that room to the door? No, here was the light above the bed!
+Where was the cord! Ah! My fingers grasped it, pulled convulsively and
+light flooded the room.
+
+There was a muffled exclamation from the closet door. A man standing
+there flung his hands over his head. O’Leary was standing on the high,
+narrow bed, his revolver covering the room. The man behind the screen
+was still motionless.
+
+“All right, O’Brien,” said O’Leary very quietly, without moving his
+head.
+
+“All right,” echoed a voice at the window. There was O’Brien’s head at
+the window and along the sill gleamed the barrel of another revolver,
+and then another as a stalwart policeman loomed up beside O’Brien.
+
+My head cleared and my eyes stopped blinking in the sudden light.
+
+The man at the closet door was Dr. Fred Hajek. His face was
+putty-coloured. His small eyes gleamed like a frightened animal’s. His
+raincoat dripped moisture in a little puddle on the floor.
+
+“Got him covered, O’Brien?” said O’Leary cheerfully.
+
+“Right!” said O’Brien.
+
+O’Leary leaped lightly from the bed, strode over to the burlap screen,
+and pulled it back.
+
+Jim Gainsay stood there, his cap pulled low over his eyes, his lean
+jaw set. One hand was thrust into the pocket of his coat, and the
+other grasped a small, square box. At the sight of the box I gasped
+something and pointed.
+
+“The—the radium!”
+
+“It’s you, is it?” said O’Leary in a strange voice.
+
+Hajek made a sudden movement; O’Leary whirled.
+
+“Stop that!” his voice cracked like a whip. Hajek, with a furious
+glance at the men in the window, subsided.
+
+O’Leary turned again, walked to the middle of the room and paused,
+looking from one man to the other with a curious expression in his
+eyes.
+
+“Well,” he said. “I’ve got you both.”
+
+Gainsay started to speak and stopped as the nose of one of the
+revolvers shifted restlessly.
+
+“Put down your hands if you want to, Hajek,” said O’Leary easily.
+“Or—wait a moment.”
+
+He crossed to him, ran his hands quickly over Hajek’s pockets,
+unheeding the fury in those little eyes, extracted a small revolver
+and tossed it on the bed and smiled.
+
+“There you are, Doctor,” he said politely. “You may lower your hands,
+now.”
+
+There was a slight commotion at the window.
+
+“Here’s somebody, Mr. O’Leary,” said someone. “He was in the shrubbery
+and you said not to let anybody get away.”
+
+O’Leary peered into the little group at the window, then his eyes
+lightened.
+
+“Oh, it’s you, Dr. Balman. You came at just the right time. I think we
+have bagged our birds. Can you come through the window, Doctor?”
+
+It was Dr. Balman, sure enough, water running off his shoulders and
+shining in the light as he crawled through the window assisted by the
+policeman.
+
+Once inside the room Dr. Balman looked slowly about him.
+
+“What is this? What have you found, O’Leary?” His puzzled gaze found
+the box in Gainsay’s hand. He started. “Why—why is that the radium?”
+
+“It may interest you to know, Dr. Balman, that we have caught the
+murderer and thief.”
+
+“What!” cried Dr. Balman. His eyes travelled slowly around the room
+and his voice broke a little as he cried: “Not—not Fred Hajek?”
+
+O’Leary’s keenly exultant eyes softened a little.
+
+“Wait,” he said. “There is another in the room.”
+
+Taking a key from his pocket, he crossed lightly to the closed door of
+the further closet, unlocked it and swung it open. I took a step
+forward and cried out involuntarily. Instantly I recognized my own
+purple hat, sodden and drenched, and then, cramped in that small
+space, a woman’s huddled figure. It was Corole!
+
+As we stared she glared back at us for a moment. Then she rose slowly,
+struggling with cramped muscles. Her eyes, narrow with hate, were
+fixed on Lance O’Leary.
+
+“I’ve been there for hours,” she said in a strange voice that was
+hoarse and strained with fury. She stamped her feet to start
+circulation and flexed her arms slowly. Then she pulled my hat from
+her head, tossed it contemptuously out of the way and ran her brown
+hands through her tossed, yellow hair. “You are going to suffer for
+this,” she said. “How dare you force me into that closet, lock the
+door and leave me!” She took a tigerish step or two toward O’Leary,
+her nails gleaming suggestively.
+
+“Not so fast, my lady,” interposed O’Brien, who had slipped silently
+through the window. Corole shifted her malignant gaze, regarded
+O’Brien for a moment, then slowly and malevolently swept the room.
+
+“So you are here, too?” she said to me. “And Dr. Balman. And Jim.
+Quite a family party.”
+
+“You are right,” agreed O’Leary smoothly. “Quite a family party. In
+fact, we need only one more to make our circle complete. Miss Keate,
+will you please summon Miss Day?”
+
+My heart leaped again as I heard the name, and I heard Jim Gainsay
+mutter something that was quickly silenced. I opened the door and slid
+into the corridor; there was no need to call Maida, for there she was,
+standing opposite the dark door above which still gleamed that ominous
+red light. She was very white but said nothing as I beckoned her
+inside the room.
+
+At our entrance O’Leary became active. He motioned to the available
+chairs.
+
+“Sit down, Miss Day—Miss Keate. Dr. Balman, there is a place on the
+bed. We may as well make ourselves comfortable for I have a story to
+tell.”
+
+I suppose my eyes went in some anxiety to the precious box in Jim
+Gainsay’s hand that was the cause of it all, for O’Leary smiled a bit
+grimly.
+
+“Don’t be alarmed, Miss Keate. The radium is not in that box; I took
+it immediately to—a safe place. The box over there was only a bait.”
+
+With a disgusted exclamation Jim Gainsay dropped the box and folded
+his arms. His eyes sought Maida’s but she did not return his gaze.
+
+“Well, Dr. Hajek,” said O’Leary. “It is too bad it has turned out this
+way. I thought better of you.”
+
+Dr. Hajek lifted his lip in something very like a snarl but said
+nothing. Corole made a sudden movement which she checked under
+O’Leary’s regard.
+
+“Are you sure it was Dr. Hajek? Tell me about it, O’Leary.” The ring
+of authority was manifest in Dr. Balman’s weary tones.
+
+“In my own way,” promised O’Leary with an apologetic glance toward Dr.
+Balman. “In the first place, the superstition which so unpleasantly
+impressed you, Miss Keate, has been fulfilled again.” He paused
+dramatically, and from somewhere in the room came a sharp sigh of
+suspense. “The murderer of Jackson _was_ near by when you saw blood
+flowing from that small wound. But he was in—that closet.” He pointed.
+The silence breathed a question that none of us dared speak.
+
+“Yes,” said O’Leary, answering the unspoken inquiry. “Yes. It was Dr.
+Letheny.”
+
+“Dr. Letheny!” cried Jim Gainsay.
+
+“Not—not Dr. Letheny,” faltered Dr. Balman.
+
+“It was Dr. Letheny,” repeated O’Leary quietly.
+
+“I knew it!” cried Corole. “I knew it!”
+
+No one looked at her. Our eyes were without exception fastened upon
+O’Leary’s face.
+
+“How do you know?” I said at last.
+
+O’Leary glanced about the room in indecision, then he shrugged.
+
+“As well here as anywhere,” he said. “How did I know that it was
+Letheny? Why did not Higgins rouse the place? Because he saw the
+head doctor in this room. Why was there need to hunt for the
+radium? Because that man who hid the stuff was dead; Dr. Letheny,
+disturbed about the ugly business, afraid of being caught with it
+in his possession, hid the thing in the loud speaker, thinking
+no one saw him. And only Higgins knew where it was, and Higgins,
+terrified at what he had seen, was afraid to tell for he knew that
+someone—_someone_ had come upon Letheny and killed him and Higgins
+hoped to escape the same fate. And since there were—others desiring
+the radium, a hunt was made for it. A search that was finally
+successful.” His clear gray eyes went from Corole to Hajek.
+
+“But just as Dr. Letheny was about to leave the room another man came
+upon the scene, determined to take the radium for himself. Then—I
+don’t know exactly what happened but the two men struggled and in the
+struggle Dr. Letheny’s head struck with such force that it killed
+him—_this_”—he crossed the room to the massive, square-cornered
+lavatory. “I am sure of that,” went on O’Leary, “for I examined it
+before a thing in the room had been touched. The other man, frightened
+perhaps, knowing that he was in desperate danger of being charged with
+murder, dragged Dr. Letheny’s body into that closet, locked the door
+and got rid of the key, hoping to postpone the discovery of Dr.
+Letheny’s death for as long as possible and thus cover his own tracks.
+But first he found that the radium was not to be found and knew that
+Letheny must have hidden it somewhere in the room. He did not dare
+search for it then, he would have to return. He retreated by the way
+he had come, through the window, there, and—and crawled through the
+window of his own room in the hospital in time to answer Miss Keate
+who, by that time, was pounding on the door.”
+
+His eyes went to Dr. Hajek, whose face was quite ghastly.
+
+O’Leary forestalled the words on Dr. Hajek’s lips.
+
+“Not now,” he said sternly. “You will have plenty of time to
+talk—later.”
+
+“Then—then you feel sure it was Dr. Letheny who killed Jackson?” asked
+Dr. Balman incredulously.
+
+“Positive,” said O’Leary. “As further proof, the revolver that belongs
+to Miss Letheny bears Dr. Letheny’s finger prints. Why should he bring
+a revolver to a hospital if his errand was entirely peaceful? He
+wanted the radium, he needed the money—I honestly believe that the man
+wanted the money for research.” There was a shade of pity in O’Leary’s
+voice. “And as to the mechanics of the situation, Dr. Letheny must
+have made up his mind quite suddenly to secure the radium for his own
+use; he came to St. Ann’s—I wonder what his feelings were when he
+examined the patient whom he was soon to rob, I do not think the
+murder was intentional—then, presumably he left. Outside the hospital
+he accidentally came upon Miss Day and detained her for some
+time—er—seizing her sleeve as she attempted to return to the wing, and
+in so doing detached her cuff-link. Is that right, Miss Day?”
+
+Without a word Maida nodded assent but her deep, blue eyes shot a
+glance of gratitude toward the young detective.
+
+“Then, determining to carry out his hastily formed plan for stealing
+the radium, he watched his chance and while Miss Day was busy in the
+kitchen and Miss Keate was detained for some fifteen minutes in—Room
+11?”
+
+“Room 11,” I said.
+
+“—he must have slipped along the corridor into the drug room and
+helped himself to morphine tablets and hypodermic needle and hurried
+back, unseen, to Room 18. Jackson very likely never knew what
+happened, but Dr. Letheny was safe because, in the first place,
+Jackson was not surprised at the presence of his doctor and would have
+had no occasion to object to a hypodermic injection, and furthermore,
+on waking from a drugged sleep, impressions immediately preceding that
+sleep are vague and confused and could scarcely be given as evidence.
+I do not believe that Dr. Letheny intended to make the dose fatal; I
+believe he only intended that Jackson should know nothing of the
+radium being removed, but in his natural excitement Dr. Letheny either
+misjudged the dose he was giving or the resistive powers of his
+patient, with the result that we know. Dr. Letheny tossed the needle
+through the open window, where it was later found. In the main, I
+believe I am right; there may be slight discrepancies. One can’t be
+absolutely sure when both—er—participants are dead.”
+
+There was a moment of tense silence. Then Corole spoke.
+
+“So it was Louis,” she said in a tone of ugly satisfaction. “I knew
+it. I knew it all along for I watched——” She checked herself.
+
+O’Leary turned sharply.
+
+“Just a moment,” he said coldly. “Your skirts are not entirely clear.
+There is Higgins’s death yet to explain, and the theft of the radium.”
+
+“I knew nothing about Higgins’s death,” cried Corole.
+
+“Go on, Mr. O’Leary,” begged Dr. Balman. Under the light his face
+looked drawn and aged.
+
+“From that night on the struggle has been for the discovery and
+possession of the radium. It was thought, by those who knew of Dr.
+Letheny’s participation in the affair, to be still in Room 18. Hajek
+was determined to find it, even going so far as to steal the key to
+the south door in order to effect an entrance at any time.”
+
+Again Dr. Hajek made an inarticulate murmur which O’Leary silenced.
+
+“Becoming impatient at his continued failure to locate the radium,
+Miss Letheny herself, who was in—er—in cahoots with Hajek, took a hand
+in the matter. Knowing what had happened in the room and being by
+nature extremely superstitious, she was intensely frightened when upon
+entering Room 18 in the middle of the night in order to make a search
+for the radium herself, she saw a sheeted figure on the bed. She, too,
+failed to find the radium.”
+
+“You are perfectly right about that,” said Corole brazenly. “But you
+are wrong about——”
+
+“Then one night Hajek grew desperate; he wanted the radium and
+Corole—that is, Miss Letheny—was reproaching him for his continued
+failure to find the radium. He recalled the circumstance of the
+electric-light connection having been damaged by lightning on the
+night of June seventh, decided that that condition was a valuable help
+and, repeated, would aid him in making a thorough and prolonged search
+in Room 18. So he went to the basement, disconnected the electric
+current, let himself out the grade door, ran around the corner of the
+hospital, entered the south wing by the unlocked south door, for the
+windows were bolted, and was into Room 18 in about a minute and a half
+after he pulled the light switch. Either from reflection or because he
+had exhausted all the other available hiding places, he went at once
+to the loud speaker, which by an odd circumstance was the original
+speaker that was in Room 18 the night of the seventh. But Higgins, in
+the basement, saw him and followed him. Higgins came upon him in Room
+18. As I say, Hajek had at last found the radium and at the knowledge
+of someone witnessing his theft he shot wildly in the dark, the bullet
+killing Higgins instantly. Likely Higgins had said something,
+indicated in some way that he knew what Hajek was about and what he
+had taken from that loud speaker. I don’t know how it happened that
+Higgins got up courage enough to follow and threaten Hajek with
+exposure, but he evidently did. Hajek, frightened at the consequence
+of his deed, simply acted from primitive impulse; if he were caught on
+his way from the hospital the possession of the radium would be a
+distinctly incriminating fact, no matter how he tried to explain it
+away. He had only a few seconds in which to act, and he followed Dr.
+Letheny’s example, hiding the radium in the first place that came to
+hand which was—a flower pot. He scooped out the dirt, thrust the box
+into the aperture and the soil in his pocket and hurried from the
+wing, around the hospital, in the basement door and to his room—where
+we found him later. He had barely time to get to his room unobserved.”
+
+“I didn’t! You are lying! I didn’t!” cried Dr. Hajek, his face livid
+and those glaring eyes going from one to the other of us. “I tell you
+I didn’t!”
+
+At a motion from O’Leary, O’Brien stepped closer to Hajek, thrusting
+the revolver he held close to Hajek’s ribs.
+
+“But—but the mud on the window casing,” I began, bewildered. “If he
+used the grade door and came up by the basement——”
+
+O’Leary interrupted me.
+
+“Miss Day happened on the radium in the pot of lobelias; it was in the
+corridor where Hajek had placed it in his hurry, knowing that Room 18
+would be thoroughly searched. Miss Keate in the meantime—I think we
+need not go into that. Anyway it came thus to my hands for a moment or
+two before Hajek knocked me senseless and took the radium. He had
+managed, from his room off the general office, to hear Miss Keate’s
+announcement and must have watched until she gave it to me——”
+
+“I’ll admit to that,” cried Dr. Hajek. “But not to that oth——”
+
+“There, there!” O’Brien poked him suggestively and Hajek stopped
+talking.
+
+“But,” began Dr. Balman uncertainly, “I never dreamed it was Dr.
+Hajek. Why he was right there with me when we found you, O’Leary,
+there by the stairs. He seemed as astonished as I was.” Dr. Balman
+reached unsteadily for his handkerchief and passed it over his
+forehead. “This is terrible, O’Leary, terrible.” His voice shook. “Do
+you realize that you are accusing a doctor of St. Ann’s of unspeakable
+crimes? That you are——”
+
+“Truth is truth.” There was a queer, icy look in O’Leary’s gray eyes.
+“If a doctor of St. Ann’s is guilty, he is as guilty as any other man
+would be.”
+
+“Oh, yes. Yes, I suppose so,” agreed Dr. Balman, reluctantly. “But it
+is no less—terrible.” He shuddered visibly.
+
+I found my tongue.
+
+“Then what part has Mr. Gainsay in all this?”
+
+O’Leary eyed me curiously before replying. Then he turned to Jim
+Gainsay.
+
+“Gainsay,” he said slowly, “is a young man who is going to get into
+serious trouble sometime through not minding his own business. He is
+incurably inquisitive and has been quite sure that he and he alone
+could solve this mystery.” There was a gleam of mirth back of those
+clear, gray eyes.
+
+Jim straightened up, felt absently in his pocket and drew out a pipe,
+which he held without lighting, the policeman at the window watching
+him with an impassive countenance.
+
+Jim sighed.
+
+“I _am_ a fool,” he admitted abruptly. “But, Lord, it didn’t seem to
+me that you were getting anywhere. I had to take a hand in it. I
+thought the first thing to do was to find the radium.”
+
+Corole’s slitted eyes flashed green fire.
+
+“You nearly got it, too,” she said viciously. “But I got away from
+you.”
+
+“Where did you hide it when Hajek turned it over to you immediately
+after stealing it from me?” asked O’Leary mildly.
+
+Corole’s face was sullen but she replied, taking, I think, a certain
+pleasure in being the centre of the stage for a moment.
+
+“I dug a hole under one of the trees out there,” she motioned with a
+long, brown hand, on which the topaz shone, toward the orchard. “I
+left it there all day yesterday—I mean, day before yesterday.” She
+glanced at the window, which was beginning to show a dim, gray light.
+“And then that night I got away from you,” she looked at O’Brien—“and
+you”—at Jim, this time—“and got it out and brought it here in my jewel
+case. I thought it would be safe in this room and Sarah was so
+excited”—she cast a malicious glance toward me—“she never noticed that
+I came out without my jewel case when she so thoughtfully took me to
+her room and _locked me in!_ How did you find it?”
+
+O’Leary did not reply.
+
+“When Miss Letheny returned for the radium about eleven o’clock
+to-night I—er—detained her.” O’Leary glanced toward the closet from
+which she had emerged. “I am interested to hear that you admit to
+having the radium in your possession.”
+
+“What can you do about it?” flashed Corole insolently. “And you are
+all wrong about Dr. Hajek. I know that he did not shoot Higgins and I
+know that he did not kill Louis for he was with me both times——”
+
+“That will do, Miss Letheny. Or rather, Mrs. Hajek.”
+
+Corole started. Her brown hands clutched at the wall back of her.
+
+“How did you know that?”
+
+O’Brien cleared his throat self-consciously and at the sound Corole
+whirled to face him.
+
+“I suppose you were following us this afternoon,” she said
+vindictively.
+
+“They were married this afternoon,” said O’Leary. “Owing to a
+conversation overheard by one of us”—I daresay it was my turn to look
+self-conscious—“we have reason to think that possibly the bride was a
+bit reluctant, but however that was, they were actually married at the
+courthouse with Mr. O’Brien—near at hand. Your own desire to perjure
+yourself, Mrs. Hajek, will not be of any help in the matter, for your
+husband cannot be cleared.”
+
+A strange silence fell; the torrents of rain seemed to be lessening
+slightly and I heard a roll of thunder away off in the distance.
+
+I was engaged in going over and over to myself O’Leary’s explanations;
+it did not seem to me that he had covered everything, and I was about
+to inquire into certain matters when O’Leary spoke again.
+
+“Is everything clear to you, Dr. Balman?” he asked deferentially.
+
+Dr. Balman hesitated.
+
+“I don’t know,” he said with a puzzled and worried air. “I really
+don’t know. This is”—he paused to pass his hand across his eyes,
+rubbing the bruise on his cheekbone a little as if it itched—“this is
+a terrible responsibility, Mr. O’Leary.”
+
+O’Leary nodded.
+
+“But you are head of St. Ann’s,” said O’Leary. “And while the case
+belongs to the state to prosecute, still I should like to feel that
+you, as head of the institution of St. Ann’s—are satisfied with our
+findings.”
+
+“It doesn’t seem—it doesn’t seem possible,” said Dr. Balman.
+
+O’Leary looked obviously irritated, but said with restrained
+impatience:
+
+“Is there anything that I have overlooked, Dr. Balman?”
+
+“No. No, I suppose not,” Dr. Balman replied uncertainly.
+
+“Perhaps I have not made myself perfectly clear,” said O’Leary, still
+patiently. “Let’s begin at the beginning again, Dr. Balman, and piece
+things out in their logical order. I want to be sure that it is all
+clear to you.”
+
+“No, no! That will not be necessary.”
+
+“Yes,” insisted O’Leary. “You being head of St. Ann’s, Doctor, should
+be given every scrap of information in my power to give.”
+
+“No, no!” said Dr. Balman. “It is very painful to me. And anyway, I
+think I understand. Dr. Hajek got into Room 18, just after Dr. Letheny
+had hidden the radium. Isn’t that it?”
+
+O’Leary nodded and there was a quickly subdued growl of dissent from
+Dr. Hajek.
+
+“The two men struggled then, and Dr. Letheny was killed in the
+struggle?”
+
+Again O’Leary nodded.
+
+“Yes, I think I understand. Still it doesn’t seem possible.” Dr.
+Balman regarded Dr. Hajek doubtfully.
+
+“No,” said Lance O’Leary slowly. “It does seem strange that Miss Keate
+should hear nothing of it.”
+
+“I believe she did hear something of it,” said Dr. Balman, his
+distressed countenance turning to me. I made some gesture of assent.
+
+“Yes,” said O’Leary. “For don’t you remember that she came down to the
+end of the corridor——” He left his sentence hanging in the air, and as
+he spoke he moved his hand slightly and I was faintly surprised to see
+little beads of sweat glistening on the back of it, though the night
+was cool. His face was quiet and composed as usual.
+
+“Oh, yes,” said Dr. Balman. “I remember now. Strange she saw or heard
+nothing of all this when she opened the door of Room 18 and stood
+there for a moment.”
+
+Queer how silent the room was. No one seemed to breathe.
+
+Then Lance O’Leary’s voice broke the silence; it was tight and strange
+and shook a little.
+
+“_Only the murderer could know that!_” He shot a glance at O’Brien.
+“Quick!” The last word was like the sharp lash of a whip.
+
+I was never sure just what happened then. There was a scream as Corole
+flung herself upon Dr. Hajek. There was another struggle going on
+somewhere else. Figures blurred in rapid motion—there were outcries—I
+found myself clutching at Maida—Jim Gainsay’s tall figure flashed
+before our eyes.
+
+Then O’Leary’s tense voice commanded the situation.
+
+“Right, O’Brien!” he said sharply.
+
+Then the room seemed to clear; things resumed their normal dimensions.
+
+I stared and rubbed my eyes and stared again.
+
+Then my knees weakened under me and I think I screamed.
+
+The handcuffs glittered coldly on Dr. Balman’s wrists.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER 18
+
+O’Leary Revises His Story
+
+It was fitting that the thing should end as it had begun, in Room 18.
+
+I have only a dazed and chaotic memory of them taking Dr. Balman away.
+Of Corole and Fred Hajek going under guard. Of myself sitting numbly
+in Room 18, with Maida beside me gripping my hand, until O’Leary
+returned. Jim accompanied him.
+
+I think it was seeing Jim sit down on the white bed with his coat
+still wet with rain, and noting the marks of muddy shoes and wet coats
+on the once white counterpane, that aroused me to a sense of reality.
+
+It was dawn by that time. The electric light was paling and growing
+sickly under the gray streaks of daybreak at the windows, and I recall
+a vague little feeling of amazement when the thin rays of washed-out
+sunlight began to find their way into the room. Sunlight after a week
+of rain!
+
+O’Leary, entering the room, had closed the door and crossed to the
+radiator and sunk wearily down upon it. He appeared worn and
+enormously tired, with no shred of the jubilance I should have
+expected.
+
+“Well,” my voice quavered a little as I spoke. “Well—you have
+succeeded.”
+
+“Yes. I’ve got my man.”
+
+“You don’t seem to be rejoicing about it.”
+
+“I am not,” said Lance O’Leary flatly. “That is, don’t misunderstand
+me—I am glad that I have done my duty. But I am sorry to see a man, a
+brilliant scientist, a scholar, a useful surgeon—go wrong. Dr. Balman
+has actually given his life—mistakenly of course, for his science. He
+wanted the radium, he needed the money it would bring. For the rest he
+was, as much as anything, a victim of circumstance. It is a sad
+thing—yet just.”
+
+“Dr. Balman was a wicked man,” I said. Odd how we were speaking of him
+in the past tense.
+
+“Yes,” agreed O’Leary. “But Dr. Letheny was equally culpable. Strange
+how a man can devote his life to a woman or—a career. Well,” he broke
+off, shrugging, “there’s no use philosophizing. Don’t mind my low
+spirits. I should feel much lower if I had failed.”
+
+“I didn’t know what you were doing until Dr. Balman said: ‘When she
+opened the door.’ Then I began to have a premonition, for I recalled
+the request you made at the first inquest.”
+
+“What was that?” asked Jim.
+
+“I asked Miss Keate not to mention the fact that when she came down
+the corridor after hearing the sound that she thought was a door
+closing and was actually——”
+
+“Don’t!” I interrupted with a shudder.
+
+“—was actually something else, she came to the door of Eighteen and
+opened it and stood there for a few seconds listening.”
+
+“Why? Did she hear something? Or see anything?”
+
+“No. But I reasoned that the guilty man must have still been in Room
+18. It had not been a moment since the sound of the blow that—the blow
+that killed Dr. Letheny, and I knew that the man who did it could not
+have dragged Dr. Letheny’s body to the closet, locked the door, and
+made his escape before Miss Keate got to the door of Eighteen. Hence I
+knew that only the guilty man _knew what she had done_.”
+
+“Did you plan that far ahead? Did you know you could work him to admit
+that knowledge?” cried Jim in honest amazement.
+
+O’Leary shook his head, smiling ruefully.
+
+“No. I am but human. But I plan to take every chance. Hoard every
+possible bit of evidence. That was small but conclusive.”
+
+“Is that the only proof you have against Dr. Balman?” asked Jim.
+
+“No. I have others. But I wasn’t quite satisfied. You see, I let
+Balman know that the radium was in this room and would be guarded
+all day but not at night because I intended to remove it then. Miss
+Keate helped me there. Dr. Balman was on the other side of the door
+in the garage this morning—or rather yesterday morning,” explained
+O’Leary to me. “Of course, I had actually removed the radium at
+once and substituted a dummy box. I expected Balman would try to
+secure it in the dark of night and hoped to catch him red-handed. But
+instead—you, Gainsay, nearly spoiled the works for me. You have been
+a good deal of trouble, one way and another,” he interpolated, with
+a glance that held nothing humorous. “However, I know the reason
+for your—er—meddling.” O’Leary smiled openly at Maida; it was that
+extraordinary winning smile that he reserved for certain occasions and
+Maida smiled, too. “I can’t say that I blame you for that. Though if
+you had advised her to tell of the cuff link business in the first
+place——”
+
+“That cuff link!” murmured Maida with contrition. “I am sorry. I
+should have explained it immediately. But it—would have meant such
+publicity. It was so disagreeable.” She flushed pinkly and Jim’s heart
+was in his steady eyes fastened upon her.
+
+“But what else do you have against Dr. Balman?” I inquired hastily,
+for once uninterested in matters of the tender sentiment.
+
+“The story that I told here to-night is, in the main part, true if you
+simply change the name of Hajek to Balman. For the points against
+Balman——” he checked off the items on his fingers. “First, finger
+prints on that revolver of Corole’s. Dr. Letheny’s and those of Dr.
+Balman were very clear. It was some time before I could get a good
+print of Balman’s, though I had those of everyone else connected with
+the case. Then there was the fact that he _asked_ to have this low
+window bolted and the request came simultaneously with the
+disappearance of the key to the south door; having provided himself
+with a mode of entrance he was anxious to keep others out of the room
+that held the radium. Then there was the matter of the ether that you
+smelled, Miss Keate, the ether that Higgins said was somewhere about
+the coat that was left there just outside the window of Eighteen, and
+that you found on a handkerchief in the pocket of that yellow slicker.
+I found on investigation that the only person seen to leave St. Ann’s
+that Friday evening just at dinner time was Dr. Balman and that he
+wore a yellow slicker. That was not conclusive, for he might have
+borrowed it as Miss Keate did. But yesterday morning I found in the
+side pocket of his car a small empty bottle and a sponge that still
+had a lingering trace of that very clinging odour.”
+
+“But why ether?” said Jim.
+
+“He had evidently intended to anesthetize Mr. Jackson, steal the
+radium while the patient was unconscious and get away. But when after
+waiting about the grounds for some time until he thought the coast was
+clear he finally got into Room 18, he found another man in the room,
+the radium gone and his patient dead. The next thing for me to do was
+to break what appeared to be an alibi. I did so when I found that
+there was a freight elevator at the back of the apartment house in
+which Balman lived. He knew how to operate it and must have taken
+precautions to leave by way of the freight elevator and the basement
+so that the night man in the front of the house never dreamed that
+Balman had gone out again. He returned the same way and must have got
+there just in time to answer the telephone. It was his car that left
+along the lower road just as the storm broke, Miss Keate.”
+
+“He must have driven like mad,” I speculated.
+
+“Think what he left behind him,” said O’Leary grimly. “He knew, too,
+that at any moment the alarm might come and his presence would be
+needed at the hospital. He must be in his rooms when the call came.”
+
+“All put together those things are almost—positive proof,” said Jim.
+
+“Almost,” agreed O’Leary. “But I wanted to trap him into a final
+admission. To catch him in the act of making off with the radium. And
+there I failed. When you turned on the light here to-night, Miss
+Keate, and I saw only Hajek and Gainsay, I was sure that I had failed.
+But when Dr. Balman came on the scene I began to see my way clear. I
+caused Hajek considerable anguish of soul but he deserved it. What on
+earth did you come blundering around for, Gainsay?”
+
+Jim looked uncomfortable.
+
+“Why, you see, O’Leary, I saw Corole come into the south door of St.
+Ann’s last night and watched through the pane of glass. I had nearly
+caught her and I was convinced that she had the radium in her jewel
+case. I could barely see in the hospital corridor through that door,
+but I saw that she left the jewel case in Room 18. So I figured that
+she likely thought Room 18 a safe place in which to leave the stuff.
+Thinking it over during the day, I came to the conclusion that it
+would be a fine thing to recover the radium myself.” He laughed rather
+shamefacedly. “I—didn’t think much of you, O’Leary. And I was worried
+about Miss Day, too. And well—I just made an ass of myself generally.”
+
+“You did,” said O’Leary. “You did. You had better stick to bridges
+after this, Mr. Gainsay.”
+
+“You are right,” said Jim heartily. “But I can’t say that I regret
+having been here. And I still hope that I have not failed—at one thing
+I have undertaken.” His eyes were on Maida and she turned entirely
+crimson and O’Leary laughed boyishly.
+
+I sighed; time enough for romance when this thing was all clear to me.
+
+“Mr. O’Leary,” I said, “can you prove all this?”
+
+He sobered instantly.
+
+“The only thing that is supposition—or rather based solely upon
+reason, is Dr. Letheny’s part in the business, and even there, we know
+that only certain events could have taken place. As for the rest of
+it, change Hajek’s name to Balman’s and—there it is.”
+
+And I may as well say here and now that Dr. Balman confessed to the
+whole thing, and the only point on which O’Leary was mistaken was
+this: it was Dr. Hajek who took the key from its place above the chart
+desk on that Sunday night when Maida and I were so frightened. He had
+slipped out his window with the key, but when he heard us coming he
+fled from Room 18, around St. Ann’s to his room, through the window
+again, through the corridor from the main part of the hospital to the
+south wing, tossed the key on the desk and hurried back to his own
+room.
+
+“Then that arraignment of Hajek was entirely fictitious?” asked Jim.
+
+“Not entirely. He was actually out of the hospital and in the orchard
+the night Higgins was shot and at the sound of the commotion he
+hurried back to his room. But he had gone to meet Corole; they were,
+of course, determined to get the radium and were conspiring together
+at every opportunity. And on the night of the seventh he and Corole
+were in the orchard. Their story of seeing a man crawl through the
+window of Eighteen and waiting to catch him when he emerged is not
+true, for only Higgins knew of Balman’s entrance and he did not know
+who the man was. But Corole and Hajek knew enough of Dr. Letheny’s
+entrance into St. Ann’s to make them sure that, when he was found
+dead, the radium must still be in the room. For they had listened at
+the window of Room 18—don’t forget the gold sequin. Oh, yes. Hajek and
+Corole were determined to get that radium and it _was_ Hajek who
+knocked me senseless there in the hall. That much of my story was
+true. I saw that the only way to get Balman was to put him off his
+guard. I was not sure that I could—pull it off; I was afraid my very
+voice would betray me, that I’d be too eager, too insistent, clumsy,
+blundering. The least thing would have warned Dr. Balman. I had to get
+him to talking of it, and he, not yet having descended so low as to
+want to send someone else to prison for his deed, was willing to
+temporize, ask questions, attempt to think of something that would
+clear Dr. Hajek, without at the same time incriminating himself. He
+was trying to think fast of such possibilities.” O’Leary smoothed back
+his hair and straightened his impeccable tie. “Those few moments were
+a strain.”
+
+“Suppose he had just kept silent, had said nothing at all?” I
+suggested curiously.
+
+“Oh, I knew he would talk. He had a guilty conscience, you know. It
+wouldn’t have been human to refuse to talk. He knew his own guilt and
+hence would try to appear innocent. He was bewildered, too, and was
+never a practical, quick-thinking man. It was a chance but not a
+risk.”
+
+There was a long silence. Away down the hall I heard the faint,
+muffled sound of the breakfast bell. With that I roused myself and
+thought for the first time of the wing. I rose, picked up my ruined
+hat, and at the door stopped to look back on that room.
+
+Room 18! What it had held! What it had witnessed!
+
+O’Leary followed me from the room, Maida and Jim, too. Once in the
+corridor I found that the small, red signal light was still gleaming
+dully. I returned to Room 18, pulled the light cord, mechanically
+straightened the bed, and closed the window.
+
+Maida and Jim had disappeared when I returned to the corridor. O’Leary
+was standing at the south door, looking through the glass with an
+amused twinkle in his clear gray eyes. Following his glance I saw
+Maida’s white uniform and Jim’s tweed coat vanishing along the once
+more sunny orchard path.
+
+“Young idiots,” I murmured. “And before breakfast, too.”
+
+The path recalled to me the Letheny cottage at its other end.
+
+“What about Corole and Hajek?” I asked.
+
+“They were after the radium,” said O’Leary hesitantly. “But after all,
+I think the best thing to do is to get rid of Hajek and let them
+leave.”
+
+“This means reorganization, new doctors, new methods—everything.”
+
+O’Leary nodded.
+
+“How true it is,” he said thoughtfully, “that even in one of the
+noblest professions there are scoundrels.”
+
+“But the proportion is much smaller,” I said loyally. “You’ll find a
+hundred defaulting bankers for one doctor who is untrue to his trust.”
+
+He smiled at the warmth of my defence.
+
+“You are recovering yourself, Miss Keate. That last remark was quite
+in your normal manner.”
+
+And at that Olma Flynn tugged my sleeve.
+
+“Will you O. K. the charts, Miss Keate?” Her eyes were round with
+curiosity and she cast a speculative glance toward Room 18.
+
+Well, that is about all.
+
+The staff doctors met that morning, and the board of directors, and
+were most generous in their assistance. It was not long before we were
+fully equipped with resident doctors and reorganized.
+
+Our new head doctor has a wife of Anglo-Saxon ancestry who has filled
+the cottage with chintz-covered furniture and muslin curtains and
+likes to head committees. She has a nosy disposition and we don’t get
+along well. We have two new internes, too; fresh-cheeked boys whom
+Miss Dotty pets something scandalous.
+
+Dr. Balman developed an infection in the bruise on his cheek and lived
+only a short while. Corole and Hajek disappeared and have not been
+heard of since, though lately a report came to me that a woman much
+resembling Corole and dressed very beautifully had been seen at a
+European pleasure resort where she made large sums of money gambling.
+I judged that Corole was falling into soft spots as usual, unhampered
+by a conscience.
+
+Maida and Jim left for Russia very soon after the events that I have
+herein recorded took place. I hear from them every so often, long
+letters full of news and snapshots.
+
+I see Lance O’Leary once in a while, too, and indeed, have given him
+some slight help on a case or two.
+
+But for the most part I am still at St. Ann’s, going about my business
+as usual, save that I miss a pair of steel-blue eyes.
+
+And I avoid the closed, mysterious door of Room 18.
+
+
+The End
+
+
+
+TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
+
+This transcription follows the text of the US Doubleday edition
+published in 1929. However, the following alterations have been made
+to correct what are believed to be unambiguous errors in the text:
+
+ * “breathlessnes” has been corrected to “breathlessness” (Chapter 1);
+ * “unpholstered” has been corrected to “upholstered” (Chapter 6);
+ * “yould” has been corrected to “would” (Chapter 11);
+ * “ummoved” has been corrected to “unmoved” (Chapter 14);
+ * “into diet kitchen” has been corrected to “into the diet kitchen”
+   (Chapter 15);
+ * A sentence missing a closing parenthesis has been repaired.
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75384 ***
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+<title>The Patient in Room 18</title>
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+<body>
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75384 ***</div>
+
+<figure>
+  <img id="coverpage" src="images/cover.jpg" alt="Book cover">
+</figure>
+
+<div class="section" id="titlepage">
+
+<h1>The Patient in Room 18</h1>
+<p class="authorprefix">by</p>
+<p class="author">M. G. Eberhart</p>
+
+<p class="copyright">Copyright, 1929 by Doubleday, Doran & Company, Inc.</p>
+<p class="copyright">Garden City, New York</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="section" id="contents">
+
+<h2>Contents</h2>
+
+<ol class="toc">
+<li><a href="#ch01">An Unpleasant Dinner Party</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch02">In Room 18</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch03">Dr. Letheny Does Not Return</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch04">A Yellow Slicker and Other Problems</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch05">A Lapis Cuff Link</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch06">I Make a Discovery—and Regret It</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch07">The Disappearing Key and Part of an Inquest</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch08">A Gold Sequin</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch09">Under the Barberry Bush</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch10">A Midnight Visitor</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch11">By the Light of a Match</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch12">Room 18 Again</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch13">The Radium Appears</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch14">A Matter of Evidence</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch15">Corole Is Moved to Candour</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch16">The Red Light Above the Door</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch17">O’Leary Tells a Story</a></li>
+<li><a href="#ch18">O’Leary Revises His Story</a></li>
+</ol>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="section" id="dedication">
+
+<p>To</p>
+<p>William and Margaret Good</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="section" id="disclaimer">
+
+<p class="head">NOTE</p>
+
+<p>All of the characters
+in this book, as well
+as St. Ann’s Hospital,
+are entirely fictitious.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch01">
+
+<h2>1. An Unpleasant Dinner Party</h2>
+
+<p>St. Ann’s is an old hospital, sprawling in a great heap
+of weather-stained red brick and green ivy on the side
+of Thatcher Hill, a little east and south of the city of
+B——. The building, though remodelled and added
+on to here and there, still retains the great, solid walls,
+the gumwood and walnut woodwork, the large,
+old-fashioned rooms, and the general air of magnificence
+and dignity that characterized what was known, in the
+grandiloquent nineties, as the Thatcher mansion.</p>
+
+<p>Time has made changes; quantities of windows, low
+and wide, modern plumbing, electricity, a telephone to
+every floor, and added wings whose brick walls have
+been carefully weather-stained to match the original
+walls are some of them. On the west is the main
+entrance, an imposing affair of massive doors and great
+travertine pillars and curving driveway. But on the
+south, at the extreme end of the south wing, is another
+and less imposing entrance, a small, semi-circular,
+colonial porch and a glass-paned door that leads from
+the hushed hospital corridor directly upon a narrow
+strip of grass and then shrubbery and apple orchard
+and willows and thickets of firs. From this door, too,
+is a path leading up and around the hill, and, considerably
+below and beyond the thickets of trees and brush,
+winds a road, dusty and seldom used.</p>
+
+<p>The south wing is the most recently rebuilt wing
+of St. Ann’s, and time was when Room 18 was the
+brightest and sunniest room of the whole wing. I say,
+time was. Room 18 is now cleaned and dusted regularly
+twice a week by two student nurses. Occasionally Miss
+Jones, the office superintendent, tries to enter a patient
+in Room 18, but patients from the city remember too
+well the newspaper headlines—such as <span class="sc">Room 18
+Claims Its Third Victim</span>—and refuse at the first hint
+of that significant numeral. Patients from out of town
+present a no less serious problem in that, even though
+they take the room assigned to them without demur,
+they invariably demand removal to another room after
+only a few hours’ residence in Room 18. Once we tried
+giving the whole wing a new set of numbers but it made
+no difference. Room 18 was Room 18 and the patients
+placed there, with one exception, have never remained
+past midnight.</p>
+
+<p>I do not know whether this situation is due to the
+patients mysteriously getting wind of Room 18’s
+history, in spite of the nurses being forbidden to speak
+of the unfortunate affair, or to the undoubtedly sinister
+aspect the room has managed to acquire. This latter
+has puzzled me more than a little. The room has the
+same hygienic and utilitarian furniture it always had,
+the same southeast corner location, the same outlook
+of close-encircling orchard and dense green shrubbery,
+though, of course, the shades are drawn to a decorous
+length, and the same rubberized floor covering. It is
+true that the last item may somewhat induce the atmosphere
+of the repellent that Eighteen’s very walls seem
+to exude, because it holds, despite the efforts of various
+scrubwomen, a certain darkish stain there at the foot
+of the narrow bed.</p>
+
+<p>It is a fact that five minutes in that too-still room
+bring chills up the small of my back, clammy moisture
+to the palms of my hands, and a singular and pressing
+desire to escape. And I have a good stomach, no nerves,
+and little imagination.</p>
+
+<p>And in the long, dark hours of the second watch,
+between midnight and early morning, I still avoid the
+closed, mysterious door of Room 18!</p>
+
+<p>The night it began, Corole Letheny had a dinner
+party up at the doctor’s cottage on the hillside, at the
+end of the path from the south door. She telephoned
+hastily, late in the afternoon, for Maida Day and me.
+She was giving the dinner, it appeared, for a young
+civil engineer, a friend of Dr. Letheny’s, who had
+dropped in unexpectedly on his way from a bridge in
+Uruguay to another bridge in Russia. Ordinarily I do
+not care for Corole’s dinners, which are apt to acquire
+an exotic tinge that is distasteful to me, but a travel
+tale and an engineer allure me equally and since I did
+not go on duty that night until midnight I promised
+to come. Maida was a little harder to get, seeming,
+indeed, to be unusually reluctant, and her voice, as I
+heard it, standing beside her at the telephone, was
+anything but cordial.</p>
+
+<p>“Never mind,” I said as she hung up the receiver
+and Corole’s warm, husky tones ceased. “Never mind.
+It may be quite diverting. And this is cold roast beef
+night here at St. Ann’s.”</p>
+
+<p>Maida laughed.</p>
+
+<p>“Corole’s dinners often are—diverting,” she said
+rather cruelly. “I shouldn’t have gone but she really is
+in a mess. The man just arrived this afternoon and he
+is leaving in the morning. Corole knew, too, that we
+both had second watch this two weeks and that we
+could be away from the hospital until twelve.”</p>
+
+<p>“I think,” I said reflectively as we strolled from the
+office, whither we had been called to the telephone,
+back along the narrow corridor that leads to the south
+wing, “I think I shall wear my silver tissue.”</p>
+
+<p>Maida nodded, giving me the straight look from
+her intensely blue eyes that I had so grown to like in
+the three years that she had been a graduate nurse
+at St. Ann’s.</p>
+
+<p>“Do so, by all means,” she agreed. “And put your
+hair up high on your head.”</p>
+
+<p>Maida professes to a great admiration for my hair,
+and I daresay it is well enough in its way; that is, if
+you like red hair and plenty of it. I have never cut it;
+no woman of my years, especially one with a high-bridged
+nose and inclined to embonpoint, freckles, and
+ground-grippers, should cut her hair.</p>
+
+<p>Later, gowned in the silver tissue, and with a dark
+silk coat over my finery, for the June night had turned
+cloudy, I slipped into the south wing for a last look
+to be sure that everything was going well. Having been
+superintendent of the wing for more years than I care
+to mention, I feel a natural sense of responsibility.
+Dinner I found to be well over, seven o’clock temperatures
+taken, the typhoid convalescent in Eleven a bit
+less feverish, and the new cast on Six a little more
+comfortable.</p>
+
+<p>Six caught at a fold of my dress admiringly.</p>
+
+<p>“All dressed up?” he said. He was a nice boy, who
+had a tubercular hip bone and had spent the last six
+months in a cast.</p>
+
+<p>“Isn’t she fine?” said Maida from the doorway. I
+saw the boy’s eyes widen before I turned toward her.</p>
+
+<p>I had grown accustomed to Maida in her stern white
+uniform. Now her black hair and the sword-blue of
+her eyes and the vivid pink that flared into her cheeks
+and lips at the least touch of excitement—all this, above
+a wispy, clinging dinner gown of midnight-blue that was
+somehow barely frosted in crystal beads, affected me
+much as it did the boy.</p>
+
+<p>“Gee!” he breathed finally.</p>
+
+<p>Maida laughed a little tremulously; the compliment
+in his eyes was pathetically genuine.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t be silly, Sonny,” she said, but her blue eyes
+shone. “How is the new cast?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh—all right,” said Sonny gamely.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll come in and tell you about the party when we
+get back,” promised Maida (knowing that in the agony
+of a ten-hour-old cast he would still be awake).</p>
+
+<p>“Gee,” said Sonny again, “will you, Miss Day?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” said Maida with that grave sincerity that
+was one of her charms. “Ready, Sarah?”</p>
+
+<p>I followed Maida from the room and along the corridor
+south to the end of the wing. Once through the
+door and across the small porch we reached the path
+that wound through the orchard, over a small bridge,
+and across a field of sweet-smelling alfalfa to the
+Letheny cottage.</p>
+
+<p>The path is not wide enough for two abreast, so
+Maida preceded me and I found myself studying her
+slim shoulders and gracefully alert carriage. Maida
+always seemed to me to be poised on the crest of a
+wave; as if she were continually victorious and yet
+not arrogant. She is that rare thing, a born nurse. She
+can deal successfully with the most difficult
+hypochondriacs and yet I have seen her in furious, desperate
+tears over a case like Sonny’s. It is not my intention
+to rhapsodize over Maida. I suppose I admired her
+because she was so gloriously what I might have been
+in my younger days had things been a little different.
+Though, of course, I am not and never was the beauty
+that Maida was.</p>
+
+<p>Well, we found Corole waiting for us and the other
+guests already having cocktails. Dr. Letheny greeted
+me as meticulously as if we had not operated together
+that very morning. He was a tall man, dark and thin,
+with an extraordinarily precise manner, and was almost
+too correct as to dress. He lingered a little over
+taking Maida’s wrap and said something in a low voice
+that I did not understand, though Maida replied briefly
+and turned away, her slim black eyebrows registering
+annoyance.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Balman, Dr. Letheny’s assistant, was there; a
+lanky man of medium height, with a thin, pale face,
+a high benevolent forehead, thoughtful eyes that were
+usually detached and rather dreamy, and a thin pointed
+beard that was awry now, as always, owing to a habit
+he had of worrying it with his slender, acid-stained
+fingers. His scant, light hair was ruffled and needed
+to be trimmed, his cravat uneven, and his dress clothes
+formal and old-fashioned.</p>
+
+<p>There was Dr. Fred Hajek, too, pronounced “Hiyek”
+and referred to flippantly among the student nurses
+as “Hijack.” He was the interne who lived at the
+hospital, answered the telephone nights, took care of
+dressings and emergencies, and generally made himself
+useful. He was considerably younger than the other
+two doctors, though one wouldn’t have guessed it from
+his matured, well-built figure. He had a squarish head,
+a ruddy face with more than a hint of the foreign in it,
+a hint that was augmented by his small, black
+moustache, and dark eyes whose somewhat slanted lids
+looked too small for the eyes and thus gave a curious
+impression of tightness and restraint. He had a pleasant
+manner, however, and a fresh, vigorous appearance
+that was not unattractive.</p>
+
+<p>Then my eyes were caught by a blond young giant
+who advanced as Corole spoke.</p>
+
+<p>“Jim Gainsay,” she murmured casually over her
+creamy brown shoulder as she offered Maida a
+cocktail.</p>
+
+<p>He said something or other to me politely but I saw
+his keen eyes go to Maida and linger there as if unable
+to take themselves away, while I quite deliberately
+took stock of this tall young fellow with bronzed hands
+and face who built bridges here and there over the
+world and looked as if he hadn’t more than got out
+of university. In fact, a fraternity crest gleamed on
+the surface of the thin, white-gold cigarette case that
+he held open in one hand as if the sight of Maida had
+frozen him in the very act of drawing out a cigarette.
+On closer observation, however, I was obliged to revise
+my hasty estimate. There were wrinkles about his
+eyes; his sun-tanned eyebrows were a straight,
+inscrutable line almost meeting over his nose; his jaw was
+lean and rather ruthless; his smooth-fitting Tuxedo
+disclosed lines that were muscular, without an ounce
+of superfluous flesh. Here was a man accustomed to
+dealing with other men; yes, and of shaping them to
+suit his own ends, or I was no judge of character.</p>
+
+<p>And just then Huldah, Corole’s one maid, announced
+dinner somewhat breathlessly as if she must fly back
+to the kitchen, and we all took our places around the
+long, candle-lit table.</p>
+
+<p>The soup was bad and the fish poorly seasoned, but
+the Virginia-baked ham was delicious and I found
+myself warming to the soft, wavering lights, the gleam
+of silver and glass and flowers, the white and black
+contrasts presented by the men setting off Maida’s
+red-and-white beauty and Corole’s rather blatant charm.
+Corole had charm, in spite of my questionable
+adjective—charm of a sort rather flagrant and too warm, but
+still it was difficult not to fall a little under its sway.
+She sat at the foot of the table with Jim Gainsay on
+one side and Dr. Hajek on the other. Her hair was
+arranged in flat, metallic, gold waves and she wore
+a strange gown of gold sequins with gleams of green
+showing through. It clung smoothly to her and was
+extremely low in the back, showing Corole’s brownish
+skin almost to the waist, and I could not help speculating
+on the probable reaction of our board of directors
+to such a gown worn by our head doctor’s housekeeper.
+Corole was a cousin of Dr. Letheny’s and had kept
+house for him since the death of old Madame Letheny.
+We knew little of her history and I should have liked
+to know more, though I am not inquisitive. I often
+wondered what circumstances produced the brown-skinned,
+gold-haired Corole we knew. She was a great
+deal like a luxuriant Persian cat; she even had topaz
+eyes and a peculiarly lazy grace.</p>
+
+<p>The conversation during the dinner was rather
+languid. Corole did not seem much concerned about the
+dinner, but she was a little abstracted, though
+automatically, if one-sidedly, flirting with Jim Gainsay, who
+had eyes for no one but Maida. That was very clear
+to me, though none of the others seemed to notice
+it—with the possible exception of Dr. Letheny, who saw
+everything through the perpetual cloud of cigarette
+smoke that almost obscured his narrow, dark eyes. Dr.
+Balman was frankly absorbed in dinner and admitted
+that he had been interested in a laboratory experiment
+and had not eaten during the day.</p>
+
+<p>“But you left it to come to my dinner,” smiled Corole.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, no,” said Dr. Balman flatly, without looking
+up from his salad. “I had finished anyhow.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh,” said Corole, and Dr. Letheny’s thin mouth
+curved the least bit.</p>
+
+<p>“So you have been bridge-building in Uruguay?”
+I addressed Jim Gainsay. He turned his keen eyes
+steadily toward me.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose Uruguay is now prosperous, European,
+and civilized?” I went on, hoping to get him started
+telling of some of the adventures that must have
+befallen him. I have an explorer’s instincts and
+stay-at-home habits, so have to get my travels by proxy.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Though the remoter portions are still, in some
+respects, the Banda Oriental.”</p>
+
+<p>“The Banda Oriental?” said Corole blankly.</p>
+
+<p>“The Purple Land that England lost,” said Maida
+softly, and Gainsay’s eyes met hers with quick
+interest—interest and something more.</p>
+
+<p>Corole’s eyelids flickered.</p>
+
+<p>“Serve coffee in the Doctor’s study, Huldah,” she
+said. “And open the windows.”</p>
+
+<p>The night had turned unbelievably sultry while we
+sat at the table, so hot that the very breath of the
+tapers seemed unbearable and we all felt relieved, I
+think, to leave the table and dispose ourselves comfortably
+in the great, cushioned chairs and divans in Dr.
+Letheny’s study. The one lamp on the table was enough,
+though it left the room for the most part in
+shadow—rather uncanny green shadow, for the lamp was
+shaded with green silk and fringe. The windows had
+been flung to the top but there was not a breeze
+stirring, even here on the windward side of the hill, and
+it was so quiet that we could hear the katydids and
+crickets down in the orchard, and the faint strains of
+radio music from the open windows of the hospital,
+whose lights gleamed dully through the trees.</p>
+
+<p>“Radio in a hospital?” queried Jim Gainsay
+amusedly.</p>
+
+<p>“Lord, yes!” Dr. Letheny’s voice was edgy. “You
+have been out of the world a long time, Jim, not to
+know that a fashionable hospital must have all the
+latest fancies, including the best radio set to be had,
+with specially made loud-speakers connecting with it
+in every room. The money that is wasted,” he added
+bitterly, “on such notions could be employed to a good
+deal better advantage in other ways. How can we make
+much headway in research if all our money must be
+thrown away on—on lawns and flowers—” he waved
+impatiently toward the hospital—“on expensive
+apparatus that we seldom if ever use, on eight-thousand-dollar
+ambulances, on weather-staining bricks, on——”</p>
+
+<p>“On radios,” suggested Gainsay blandly.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Letheny smiled faintly but the hand that lit a
+fresh cigarette seemed a little unsteady.</p>
+
+<p>“On radios,” he agreed.</p>
+
+<p>“You are right though, Dr. Letheny.” Dr. Balman,
+who had apparently been engaged in digesting his
+dinner, spoke so suddenly that I jumped. He lounged
+toward the window and stood with his hands in his pockets
+looking down at St. Ann’s lights.</p>
+
+<p>“You are right,” he repeated. “If I had one-half the
+money that is thrown away down there the experiment
+that failed for me this afternoon might have succeeded.”
+The bitterness in his voice was so grim that I think
+we all felt a little startled and uncomfortable. All, that
+is, except Corole, whose feelings are not easily
+accessible and who was manipulating the coffee machine over
+by the lamp. Its light brought the flat, gold waves
+of her hair into relief.</p>
+
+<p>“Here is the coffee,” she said huskily. “As coffee
+should be: black as night, hot as hell, and sweet as
+love.” She offered the tiny cup to Gainsay.</p>
+
+<p>Well, the rest of us had heard her say that before
+and Gainsay did not appear to hear her now. I could
+see that she was hesitating on the verge of repetition,
+but she was too wise for that.</p>
+
+<p>“Can’t you stop needless expenditure?” asked
+Gainsay.</p>
+
+<p>“Stop it?” Dr. Letheny laughed acidly. “Stop it
+when the hospital is privately endowed and the board
+of directors a bunch of ignorant, conceited asses! Look
+at this matter of radium. Nothing must do but that
+we buy a whole gram of radium. They had heard of
+radium. Other hospitals had it. Radium we must have
+and radium we bought. But try to talk to them of
+research, of discovering a new remedy for an old need,
+of the necessity for laboratories, for equipment, for
+study. You might as well try to stop the thunder storm
+that is coming as to ask them to see anything that is
+not squarely in front of their fat stomachs.”</p>
+
+<p>“But radium,” said Gainsay mildly, “is a good thing
+for a hospital to have, isn’t it? I thought it a great
+discovery.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course, of course!” broke in Dr. Balman. “But
+we don’t need that much. Half a gram, a fourth of
+it—even a sixth of it would have served our purpose.
+But no! We must spend sixty-five thousand dollars for
+one tiny gram of radium. Sixty-five thousand dollars!
+And to my plea for half of that—only half of that
+money—they laughed. Laughed at study! At research!
+At laboratories and equipment! And called me a
+visionary. God! A visionary!”</p>
+
+<p>It must have been that the increasing sultriness of
+the night and the tension of the approaching storm
+made us all a little nervous and easily stirred. A curious
+hush followed Franz Balman’s outbreak, during which
+I became aware of the heavy breathing of Dr. Hajek
+near me. I stirred impatiently and moved away. I had
+never either liked or disliked Fred Hajek, but that
+night I felt suddenly a sharp distaste for him. The
+atmosphere in the room seemed unbearably heavy and
+I shivered a little despite the heat and wondered if my
+dinner was not going to agree with me.</p>
+
+<p>Gainsay got up, moved to get an ash tray, and sat
+down again in another chair. I noted that the move
+brought him nearer Maida, whose fine white profile
+was visible in the shadow near the window. She did
+not smoke—not, I believe, from any fastidious prejudice,
+but merely from distaste—and her hands, delicate
+yet strong, lay passively on the carved arms of the
+chair. She was the kind of person whose silences seem
+thoughtful and neither flat nor detached; a most
+companionable person to have around.</p>
+
+<p>Corole noted the move, too, for she took my seat
+next to Hajek and murmured something under her
+breath to him.</p>
+
+<p>“Are you both experimenting in the same field?”
+asked Gainsay, his ordinary, easy tone making my
+disquiet seem uncalled-for and silly.</p>
+
+<p>“No,” said Dr. Letheny shortly.</p>
+
+<p>“No,” said Dr. Balman. He turned abruptly away
+from the window and sat down at the shadowy end of
+the davenport; his shirt front thrust itself up in an
+ungainly hump but he did not appear to care.</p>
+
+<p>“Well,” said Corole, “if I were a millionaire I should
+give you both the money to work to your heart’s
+content.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed.” Dr. Letheny spoke so satirically that I
+feared an outburst from our hostess, whose temper
+was never of the best.</p>
+
+<p>But she surprised me.</p>
+
+<p>“No!” she retracted with disarming frankness. From
+habit Corole could lie like a trooper, but when she
+was inclined toward truth-telling she was quite candidly
+honest. “No,” she went on, “if I had a million dollars
+I should spend it—oh, <em>how</em> I should spend it! Silks
+and furs and jewels and servants and cars and cities
+and——”</p>
+
+<p>“By that time it would be gone,” observed Dr.
+Letheny drily.</p>
+
+<p>“Maybe,” Corole laughed huskily. “But how
+gloriously gone.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose,” began Fred Hajek, with a little of the
+awkwardness that assails one who has remained silent
+a long time while others of the group are talking, “I
+suppose that idea is a sort of unacknowledged fairy
+dream hidden in everyone’s mind.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course.” Dr. Letheny’s voice grated to my ears.
+“Everybody wants money. Usually for reasons such
+as Corole has so charmingly admitted.”</p>
+
+<p>“Not always,” disagreed Gainsay. “You and—er—Dr.
+Balman have just agreed that you both needed it
+for research.”</p>
+
+<p>“A selfish reason, though,” replied Dr. Letheny.
+“We get the same pleasurable reaction out of study and
+science that Corole does out of clothes and jewels
+and—cream in general. Miss Keate, over there,” he nodded
+toward me, “gets the same kick out of hard work and
+a smooth-running hospital routine. Only
+her—demands——are not so expensive.”</p>
+
+<p>His tone irritated me. It may be true that I am
+considered something of a martinet, especially among the
+student nurses, but somebody has to see to things.</p>
+
+<p>“Nonsense,” I spoke sharply. “I want money just
+as much as anybody.”</p>
+
+<p>I suppose my words rang sincere, for Dr. Letheny
+sat up.</p>
+
+<p>“What is your repressed desire, Sarah Keate?” he
+demanded with just the shade of amusement in his voice
+that always riled me. “Come on, out with it! Do you
+long for the gay night life? Or have you secret urges
+to become a front-page sensation?”</p>
+
+<p>And I must say that, in the light of what was to
+occur, it was remarkable that he said just that.</p>
+
+<p>“She might make a splendid aviatrix,” said Jim
+Gainsay, smiling into the dusk.</p>
+
+<p>After that I was not going to tell them that above
+all things I longed to travel and that everybody knows
+travel costs money. I said curtly:</p>
+
+<p>“Everybody wants money.”</p>
+
+<p>“How about you, Maida?” broke in Corole rather
+maliciously.</p>
+
+<p>Maida is, as a rule, almost too perfect at the art
+of concealing her emotions. It may have been that the
+semi-darkness of the room concealed an intended air
+of frivolousness, or it may have been that the threat
+of the approaching storm plucked at her nerves and
+pierced her habitual armour of reserve. At any rate
+her answer was unexpected.</p>
+
+<p>“Money!” she said. “Money! I think I would give
+my very soul for money!”</p>
+
+<p>Of course, I knew she didn’t mean that. But Dr.
+Letheny shot her a glance that fairly pierced the dusk,
+Corole laughed a little metallic ripple, and Jim
+Gainsay turned straightway around in his chair to face
+Maida’s shadowed eyes.</p>
+
+<p>“I haven’t any money,” he said directly and quite as
+if Maida had asked him a question, though I think the
+others were too preoccupied to observe this. “I haven’t
+any money at all.”</p>
+
+<p>“And are you happy without it, Jim?” asked Corole,
+her warm voice caressing.</p>
+
+<p>“Well . . .” Jim Gainsay paused. “I was, until
+lately.”</p>
+
+<p>He was still speaking to Maida. I believe Dr.
+Letheny understood that somewhat singular fact, also,
+for he spoke so quietly that there was a suggestion of
+deliberate restraint about his words.</p>
+
+<p>“And what do you intend to do in the face of this
+sudden realization?”</p>
+
+<p>“Make some money,” replied Jim Gainsay simply.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Letheny laughed—not pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>“But my dear fellow, is it so simple as that?”</p>
+
+<p>“It should not be difficult.” Gainsay did not appear
+to be disturbed by the perceptible edge of irony in Dr.
+Letheny’s questions.</p>
+
+<p>“Owing to the fact that several billions of people
+over the face of the earth are engaged in profitless
+efforts in that direction, will you tell us just how you
+propose to accomplish it with such expedition?”</p>
+
+<p>“Certainly not. If I can manage to lay my hands
+on—say—fifty thousand I can make—oh, as much money
+as I want. I can do it. And I will.” He was grave and
+yet quite casual. A mere matter of information for
+Maida. If she wanted money he would see that
+she got it and that was that! It seemed so clear to
+me that I felt something very like embarrassment,
+though neither Maida nor Jim Gainsay seemed
+disturbed.</p>
+
+<p>“Fifty thousand dollars,” mused Dr. Letheny softly.
+“That is quite a lot of money. Many a man has failed
+for its—inaccessibility.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll get it all right,” said Jim Gainsay.</p>
+
+<p>“And when you get it what are you going to do
+with it? How are you going to make it grow into as
+much money as you want?”</p>
+
+<p>“Contracting.” There was an undercurrent in the
+short reply that warned Dr. Letheny off.</p>
+
+<p>Corole laughed again.</p>
+
+<p>“Funny!” she said. “Every single one of us has
+confessed to a fervent desire for money. That is, all
+but Franz and Dr. Hajek. And we all know that Franz
+would give his very eyes—no, he needs them for
+experiment—ten years of his life, then, for money to carry
+on those same precious experiments.”</p>
+
+<p>“It is a good thing we are all law-abiding citizens,”
+I remarked drily.</p>
+
+<p>“I think I shall be on the safe side, though, and lock
+up my jewels to-night!” said Corole.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t be a fool,” observed Dr. Letheny.</p>
+
+<p>Corole’s topaz eyes caught a glint of angry green
+light.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, really, Louis, being what one can’t help is
+better, at any rate, than longing for what one can’t
+get.”</p>
+
+<p>Her somewhat stupid reply did not, to my mind,
+warrant its effect. Dr. Letheny moved suddenly upright
+in his chair, his thin lips drawn tight over his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>“Until later, dear cousin.” The words had a sharp
+edge of fury. “Until later. We have guests at present.”</p>
+
+<p>I could only suppose that the stifling atmosphere had
+disturbed Dr. Letheny’s always hair-trigger nerves.
+Otherwise he had not been so needlessly vulgar. He was
+a brilliant man with a cutting tongue, but gossip had
+whispered that what Corole lacked in the way of brains
+she more than made up for in feline cunning of attack.
+This was the first time, however, that I had heard the
+two ill-assorted housemates come to open and
+bad-mannered warfare.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Hajek relieved the strained silence that naturally
+followed the little contretemps.</p>
+
+<p>“I hear that you used the radium to-day.” He had
+a peculiarly inflectionless manner of speech that made
+him seem heavy and dull.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.” Dr. Letheny rose and pulled the curtain still
+farther from the window. “Torrid night, isn’t it? Yes,
+we are trying it for old Mr. Jackson.” He paused. “I
+don’t know that it will do any good,” he added callously.
+“But we may as well try it. By the way, Miss Keate,
+I shall be in shortly after midnight to see how the
+patient is getting on. You might leave the south door
+unlocked for me. Let me see—he is in Room 18,
+isn’t he?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, Doctor.”</p>
+
+<p>“So you are going to Russia on another bridge project,
+Jim?” Dr. Letheny was again master of himself.</p>
+
+<p>“What—oh, yes! Yes.” Jim Gainsay started a little
+as if Dr. Letheny had recalled him to a forgotten fact.</p>
+
+<p>“Will it be a long stay?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes, probably. It should take about two or
+three years. It will be an interesting job. The preliminaries
+are rather sketchy, but it looks as though there
+might be some problems involved.”</p>
+
+<p>He spoke in an oddly detached way, as if he were
+not much interested in the subject, and it was not
+surprising that the conversation flattened out again.
+Presently Corole suggested bridge and even made up
+a table, but Dr. Balman definitely refused to play and
+Jim Gainsay, being engaged in watching Maida’s eyelashes,
+did not appear to hear Corole’s suggestion that
+he make a fourth, so Dr. Letheny made a reluctant
+partner for me against Corole and Dr. Hajek. However,
+we played only a few desultory hands until Maida
+and Gainsay drifted over to the window and fell into
+a low-voiced conversation, when Dr. Letheny, who had
+been darting quick glances in that direction, trumped
+my ace, flung down his cards, said it was too rotten
+hot to play and, paying no attention to Corole’s
+protests, went to the piano.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Letheny was a discriminative musician of far
+more than amateur skill, and the great, jarring,
+Moscow bells of the C Sharp Minor Prelude presently
+surged over the room. I am a practical, matter-of-fact
+woman and I have never been able to account for the
+strange disquietude that crept over me as I listened.
+It was the strangest thing in a strange and unreal
+evening. The couple at the window turned and moved closer
+together. Corole’s flat eyes caught the light like a cat’s.
+Dr. Balman stared at nothing from the shadows and
+worried his beard. Only Dr. Hajek was unmoved by
+that passionate sweep of sound.</p>
+
+<p>All at once the room was intolerable to me. I twisted
+about in my chair and fought down a childish desire
+to run from its heat and breathlessness. And then the
+keys under Dr. Letheny’s white fingers slipped into the
+higher notes of the second movement and a hot, fetid
+breath of air from the hushed night billowed the
+curtain a little and touched my hot face and heightened
+the nightmare that had taken possession of me.</p>
+
+<p>By the time the climax had carried us all along with
+it in its torrent, and the Doctor had sat, in the hush
+that followed the last note, for a long moment before
+he turned to us again,—by that time little beads of
+perspiration shone all along the backs of my hands and
+my heart was pumping as if I had been running a race.</p>
+
+<p>I rose.</p>
+
+<p>“I must go,” I said, my voice breaking harshly into
+the silence. “I must go. It is nearly twelve.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” said Maida. “Yes. We must go.”</p>
+
+<p>Somehow we got away. I remember being vaguely
+surprised when Jim Gainsay merely took Maida’s hand
+for a conventional instant, although I’m sure I don’t
+know what I had expected.</p>
+
+<p>Maida and I walked slowly, feeling our way through
+the great, black velvet curtain that was the night. The
+hospital was now darkened and the path twisted
+unexpectedly. The air was as heavy with the presage of
+storm, there under the trees, as it had been in Corole’s
+lamp-lit house. The sky was thick and black with not
+the glimmer of a star showing through. The katydids
+and crickets were all hushed as if waiting. The path
+was hot under our thin-soled slippers, the alfalfa
+sickeningly sweet in its warm breath, the shadows of the
+thickets were dense and not a leaf stirred. I know that
+orchard and those clusters of trees and elderberries
+and sumac as well as I know the twists and turns of
+the old hospital corridors, and never until that night
+did I catch my breath when my hand brushed against
+a leaf, or take a long sigh of relief when we emerged
+from those suddenly unfriendly thickets into the silence
+of the long, night-lighted corridor of the south wing.</p>
+
+<p>Up in the everyday surroundings of the nurses’ dormitory
+I still failed to shake off the sense of the unreal
+that had come over me. Together we changed into our
+crisp, white uniforms. I remember we talked of silly,
+inconsequential things—such as the sogginess of the
+bread pudding we had had for lunch, and the new
+cuff-links that Maida was inserting into her cuffs. They
+were small squares of lapis-lazuli edged in engraved
+white gold. Lovely though they were, they yet contrived
+to be simple and dignified at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>“I like lapis,” said Maida without much interest.
+“I like things that are real.” She was adjusting her
+proud, white cap as she spoke. In spite of the businesslike
+white linen that became her so well, she was still
+the flushed and vivid Maida of the blue and
+crystal-frosted dinner gown, whose eyes had grown starry
+under Jim Gainsay’s regard. I sighed as I pinned on
+my own cap. I had always felt that if love came to
+Maida it would be swift and compelling.</p>
+
+<p>I thrust in the pin too forcefully and withdrew my
+scratched thumb with an irritated exclamation. I had
+read somewhere that thin old maids were pathetic and
+fat old maids gross and all old maids sentimental, and
+had resolved to be none of the three, myself.</p>
+
+<p>So, I was not in the best of moods as I wound my
+watch, took my way to the south wing, and stopped
+at the desk for a glance at the charts. If only the storm
+would break and give us a breath of fresh, cool air.</p>
+
+<p>The two nurses going off duty were very evidently
+glad to be relieved.</p>
+
+<p>“It is a queer night,” said one of them, Olma Flynn.
+“Makes me feel creepy.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m,” I spoke brusquely. “Likely you have been
+eating green apples again.” And she flounced
+indignantly away.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch02">
+
+<h2>2. In Room 18</h2>
+
+<p>That night began much the same as other nights and
+with no suggestion of the events it was to unfold. There
+was the usual twelve-o’clock stir of drinks and temperatures
+and pulses and hot pillows to be turned and electric
+fans to be brought. The only unusual thing, and that
+was natural enough, was that the sick patients had
+turned restless under the heat and the breathless hint
+of storm and were fretful and somewhat peevish. We
+were very busy for some time, but I remembered to
+leave the south door unlocked for Dr. Letheny’s call.</p>
+
+<p>It happened that I was in the corridor when he came
+in about twelve-thirty. The gleaming white and black of
+his pearl-studded shirt front and smooth-fitting dinner
+jacket were incongruous in the bare, night-lighted hall,
+with its long length of white walls, shadowy now in
+the darkness that was relieved only by the shaded light
+over the chart desk at the far end, and the tiny red
+signal lights that glowed here and there over sick-room
+doors. A hospital is never a cheerful place, especially
+at night, and its long, dark corridors with black voids
+for doors, and its faint odours of ether and antiseptics
+and sickness are not, to say the least, conducive to
+good spirits.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Letheny was still nervous and irritable. He gave
+Mr. Jackson a rather cursory glance, felt his pulse for
+a moment, and examined the dressing. The trouble he
+was trying to cure with radium was in the patient’s left
+breast and the radium itself, placed as is usual in a sort
+of box that is especially made for the purpose, was
+arranged in such a manner that its rays would penetrate
+the afflicted area. It was held in place by means of wide
+straps of adhesive, and would have been, to the layman,
+a strange-appearing affair. All was well and the patient
+seemingly reacting as favourably as might be expected,
+so Dr. Letheny did not linger. After rearranging the
+pillows and turning out the light over the bed, I
+followed the Doctor into the corridor. He paused for a
+few moments, asking me unimportant questions as to
+various patients in the wing, and smoking rapidly,
+regardless of the rules which he himself had made against
+smoking in the hospital. More than once I caught his
+gaze travelling past me down the corridor toward the
+diet kitchen and drug room, and finally he asked me
+outright if Miss Day was on duty.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” I said. “She is about—somewhere in the
+wing,” thinking, as I replied, that I had not seen Maida
+for a few moments. Doubtless, however, she was busy
+with some patient, or paying her promised visit to
+Sonny.</p>
+
+<p>He lingered for a little after that, but presently
+strolled to the south door and disappeared. I did not
+follow him and lock the door according to custom; it
+was breathlessly hot, as I have said, and we needed
+every atom of air that we could get. Later, when the
+rain came, I should close it.</p>
+
+<p>An errand took me to the diet kitchen; as I passed
+down the length of the darkened corridor I glanced
+into the open doors along the way but did not catch
+a glimpse of Maida’s white uniform. The place was
+very hot and very still and the vases of flowers along
+the walls, on the floor outside various doors, sent up
+a hot, sickening breath. I snapped on the light in the
+diet kitchen, wishing as I did so that there were more
+lights in the corridor outside. I had to search for and
+open a fresh bottle of beef extract, so it took me some
+time to prepare the beef tea, but at length I started
+into the corridor with the cup in hand. As I reached
+the door I glanced down the hall toward the south
+door just in time to see a white uniform gleam against
+the blackness of the night as it entered from the porch
+outside. It was Maida, of that I was sure, for her
+movements were unmistakable, and just as the thought
+ran through my mind that she had been outside trying
+to get a breath of fresh air, I also realized that I had
+no spoon to accompany the beef tea and turned back
+into the diet kitchen. Someone had cleaned the silver
+drawer that day, and it took me a moment or two to
+find a spoon, and when I entered the corridor again I
+met Maida face to face.</p>
+
+<p>In the dim light it seemed to me that she was very
+white, but in that night-lighted corridor nothing retains
+its normal colour, so I thought nothing of it.</p>
+
+<p>“I was wondering where you had gone to,” I said
+carelessly as I passed her.</p>
+
+<p>She regarded my casual remark as an inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>“I—I’ve been with Sonny,” she said. Her voice was
+unsteady.</p>
+
+<p>“Poor boy, he is having a hard time,” I murmured
+and went on. It was not until I was standing beside
+Eleven watching him drink the beef tea that I recalled
+with a little start that she had not been with Sonny,
+that I had seen her with my own eyes coming into
+the corridor from the porch.</p>
+
+<p>Beef tea and Eleven did not go well together; in
+fact, a few moments after drinking it he was violently
+sick and for about a quarter of an hour I was fully
+occupied with him. I had closed the door into the corridor
+at first symptoms of his unhappy reaction, so that
+the disturbance should not arouse patients in near-by
+rooms. I stayed with him until he was back on his
+pillows again, quiet and exhausted, then I turned out the
+light, opened the door into the corridor, and left him.
+The hall was silent and dark and not a signal light
+gleamed in the whole length.</p>
+
+<p>I felt a little ill myself from the heat and stifling air,
+and judging it to be a good time, I slipped quietly to
+the south door and let myself out onto the little colonial
+porch. The air was a shade less fetid there and I
+remember standing for a moment or two at the curved
+railing. The dim light coming from the door back of
+me made a little circle on the porch, faintly lighter
+than the surrounding night, and beyond that stretched
+thick blackness. Far below me toward the west twinkled
+vaguely the lights of the city and above on the hillside
+I caught the barest glimpse of green light through the
+trees; it was shining from Dr. Letheny’s study. All else
+was impenetrable darkness.</p>
+
+<p>I could not have stood there for more than five
+minutes when without any warning an inexplicable thing
+occurred.</p>
+
+<p>There was a sudden, sharp little whisper of motion
+from somewhere back of me, something flew past my
+shoulder, caught for a fleeting second the reflection of
+a light from the corridor back of me, and was gone
+into the dense shadows of the shrubbery, beyond the
+railing.</p>
+
+<p>The thing was gone before I could realize that it had
+actually happened.</p>
+
+<p>I started, drew in my breath sharply, and stifled the
+exclamation that rose to my lips. I stared in the direction
+the thing, whatever it was, had taken and strained
+my eyes to see into the thick black void that surrounded
+the porch. It was exactly as if an arrow, small and sharp
+and gleaming, had been shot from somewhere behind
+me into the shrubbery. But no one shoots arrows from
+hospitals in the dead of night.</p>
+
+<p>I rubbed my eyes angrily and, but for the sharp little
+whisper of sound the thing made as it passed me, would
+have doubted their evidence. But that sound, coupled
+with the flash of light, was conclusive. Someone had
+deliberately thrown some small article with all the
+force at his command across the porch and into the
+shrubbery that extends downward into the orchard. It
+had come from one of the windows at either side of the
+door or from the door itself. Hastily in my thoughts
+I ran over the patients then in the wing. Not one of
+them was able to walk. Maida was the only person in
+the wing who could have been about, and what on earth
+was Maida throwing out into the night!</p>
+
+<p>Feeling this to be a curious circumstance that should
+be investigated I took a few steps toward the path
+that leads from the east corner of the little porch. It
+was very dark there, and without pausing to reflect
+that in the night I could never find the thing that so
+puzzled me and that was now hidden somewhere in the
+orchard, I groped for the iron railing and made my
+way cautiously down the two or three steps. I paused
+at the path, my ear caught by the sound of footsteps.
+And at the very instant, the sudden little rush of sound
+came closer swiftly and someone running at top speed
+along the outside wall of the hospital collided with me,
+gasped, swore, caught me in mid-air and set me on my
+feet again and was gone, leaving me trying to get my
+breath and dazedly righting my cap. I could hear his
+footsteps still running along the little path toward
+the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>“Well——” I said. “Well——” and found myself
+both angry and frightened. People have no right
+to run around hospitals at night, knocking middle-aged
+nurses about and swearing and what not. Who was this
+midnight prowler?</p>
+
+<p>Evidently the man was up to no good purpose and
+as evidently he was in a hurry to get away. My heart
+began to beat rapidly as I walked along the hospital
+north in the direction the man had come from. But
+the windows above me all seemed dark and undisturbed.
+Built on the slope of the hill as St. Ann’s is, the
+windows are at varying heights from the ground, some of
+them not more than three or four feet above it, but
+I doubted if an intruder could have made his way into
+that silent wing without arousing it. I walked as far
+as the lighted window of the diet kitchen. It, too, was
+open and I could see the top of Maida’s white cap as
+she stood at the farther end of the small room.</p>
+
+<p>All seemed quiet and I dismissed the half-formed
+notion of rousing Higgins, the janitor and so-called
+night-watchman, and demanding a thorough search of
+the premises. I was still uneasy, however, as I retraced
+my steps, and I drew back into the shadow of the
+orchard in order to see into the windows of the wing
+without, possibly, myself being seen.</p>
+
+<p>It was just as I passed the thick clump of elderberry
+bushes about midway of the long wing that my foot
+struck something in the grass that gave a dully metallic
+sound. I reached over to fumble in the grass and picked
+up a small, flat object, smooth and hard. I turned it
+rapidly over in my hands. It was pitchy dark there in
+the shadows and the air was extraordinarily close.
+I slipped the object I held into my pocket for future
+examination and as I did so I sniffed. There was
+something in the air—some familiar odour—but something
+entirely out of place in an apple orchard. It was—a
+swift vision of the operating room rose before me and
+I realized that my nostrils had caught a faint but
+unmistakable odour of ether.</p>
+
+<p>Ether in an apple orchard! And in the middle of
+the night! Why, it was impossible! Something in the
+heated air, some mingling of alfalfa and sweet clover
+and growing things had combined to deceive me. I
+shrugged, tried to laugh, and feeling all at once that
+absurd fear that something is about to clutch at your
+heels, I hurried through the dense shadows toward the
+little porch. It was still deserted.</p>
+
+<p>I recall glancing up at the impenetrable sky and
+catching, away off toward the south, a faint gleam
+of lightning. Surely the storm would break soon and
+I would be relieved of this feeling of oppression that
+was strangely mingled with something very like fear.</p>
+
+<p>The corridor, too, was still deserted. Maida was not
+in sight, and as I looked a red signal light down toward
+the chart desk clicked. I went to answer it, my starched
+skirts whispering along the hushed hall.</p>
+
+<p>It was Three, begging for a bromide, and it took
+me a few moments to convince her of the fact that
+she didn’t in the least need it.</p>
+
+<p>Then I sat down at the desk, which is at the north
+end of the corridor, opposite the south door, with all
+the shadowy length of gray-white walls and dark doors
+of the corridor intervening. A shaded light over this
+desk is the sole illumination and a person seated at the
+desk faces the chart rack and has her back turned to
+the corridor. It remained hot and very still and I
+wondered if the wind that accompanies our western thunder
+storms would not soon rise.</p>
+
+<p>I had not more than entered Three’s pulse and the
+time—one-thirty—when a sudden sound, dull and
+heavy, brought me standing, facing the corridor and
+unaccountably startled. Only the bare walls met my
+eyes. Perhaps the south door had blown shut. It had
+sounded like the muffled bang of a door—or possibly
+like a window that had dropped to the sill. The chart
+in my hand, I walked quickly through the corridor to
+the south door. It was still open and I felt no breeze.</p>
+
+<p>As near as I could tell the sound that had aroused
+me had come from this end of the wing. The door
+of Room 17 was open and a glance assured me that
+the window was still open for I could see the dim
+shadow of the sash. The door of Eighteen was closed,
+however, so I opened it cautiously in order not to wake
+Mr. Jackson. I did not enter the room; I stood there
+only for a moment, holding the door half open and
+peering through the dim light from the corridor. The
+patient was lying quiet and the window seemed to be
+open, so I closed the door as gently as I had opened
+it and took my way down the corridor again.</p>
+
+<p>And when I reached the chart desk I found that
+my knees were trembling and there was a little damp
+beading under my cap.</p>
+
+<p>“It is the night,” I assured myself. “It is a nerve-racking
+night. I shall suffocate if I don’t get some air.”</p>
+
+<p>But nevertheless I felt nervous and ill at ease. I
+forced myself to study the charts, and in the middle
+of Eleven’s temperature chart I recalled the small flat
+object I had found in the orchard. I was in the very
+act of drawing it from my pocket when, with a swoop
+of wind through the corridor, a blinding flash of
+lightning and a crash of thunder, the storm broke.</p>
+
+<p>I ran the whole length of the corridor. The wind
+was sweeping along it with such fury that my skirts
+were pulled back tight around me, my cap slipped back
+on my head, and several top-heavy vases of flowers
+must have blown over for we found them so later.
+With some difficulty I closed the door. As I fastened
+it, leaving the key in the lock in my haste, I could see
+through the panes of glass the first great spatters of
+rain, and down below the hospital on the little back
+road shone the lights of a hurrying automobile. Then
+they were gone and another flash of lightning nearly
+blinded me and there was a sharp crackle and sputter.
+Simultaneously the light went out as if by black magic,
+leaving me alone in the dark with eighteen windows
+to get down and eighteen patients to reassure.</p>
+
+<p>I knew in an instant what had occurred; the power
+line from the city had been struck and the fuses burnt
+out or some such matter. Where was Maida? The rain
+was coming in torrents by the time I had felt my way
+into Room 17 and closed the window. Occasional lightning
+aided me as I groped my way to Room 18, crossed
+it and pulled down that window. As I turned toward
+the door again a bright flash of lightning lit up the
+whole room and in the brief second I saw that the
+patient had not roused in spite of the tumult of the
+storm. He lay still. Too still.</p>
+
+<p>Then the light was gone and, scarcely knowing what
+I did, I reached the bed and put my hand on his face
+and sought his pulse.</p>
+
+<p>A seasoned nurse knows when death has come. Even
+in the gibbering darkness with the storm outside crashing
+against the window I knew at once that our patient
+was dead.</p>
+
+<p>Standing there for what seemed an eternity, but
+what was actually not more than a moment or two, my
+mind raced over the situation and strove to comprehend
+it. There was no reason for his death of which I knew.
+Barring the affliction for which he was being treated
+and which in its present stage had not been critical,
+our patient had been in good health only an hour or so
+ago. What had caused this? It could not have been heart
+failure for his heart had been sound.</p>
+
+<p>I must have a light. I must call Dr. Letheny. I
+must—— There was the sound of windows being
+lowered. I found my way to the door. If I could make
+Maida hear me—but, of course, I couldn’t through the
+confusion of patients calling out from fright as they
+found the lights failing to go on, and the constant roll
+of thunder and crashing of rain. The flashes of lightning
+were frequent and I caught a fleeting glimpse of
+Maida crossing the corridor farther down the hall.</p>
+
+<p>It would be of no use to call her; furthermore, she
+was busy. I disliked leaving Eighteen with no one in
+the room, but I must have a light. I ran down the
+length of the corridor—it seemed long and unfamiliar—groped
+in a drawer of the cupboard in the diet kitchen,
+found the burnt end of a candle and some matches, and
+flew back to Room 18. At the door I met Maida. Our
+faces gleamed eerily in the lightning and then vanished
+into darkness.</p>
+
+<p>“Isn’t this awful!” she cried. “Where were you!
+Every window in the wing was open. And the lights
+have gone out! What—what in the world are you
+doing?”</p>
+
+<p>She was at my elbow in Room 18. My fingers shook
+so that I could scarcely light the candle, and when I
+did succeed it made only a feeble little flicker that did
+not dispel the shadows.</p>
+
+<p>She followed me to the bed.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Sarah! Is he——” She reached over to place
+her hand on his face as I had done. “<em>He is dead!</em>”</p>
+
+<p>Setting the candle on the table, I pushed aside the
+covers to find his heart. If there were the least flicker
+of life, something could yet be done. But there was not.</p>
+
+<p>It was as I drew back that I made the astounding
+discovery.</p>
+
+<p>The box that held the radium was gone! Adhesive
+and all had been stripped clean!</p>
+
+<p>“Look——” I tried to cry out but a roll of thunder
+that shook the very foundations drowned my voice.
+I pointed with a finger that shook and held the futile
+little flame nearer, while Maida searched frantically
+among the sheets.</p>
+
+<p>It was a useless search. That I knew even in the
+moment of lowering my candle to look under the bed.
+The dead man had not torn from himself that box
+with the wide strips of adhesive.</p>
+
+<p>Arising from my knees I stared across the narrow
+bed into Maida’s panic-stricken eyes.</p>
+
+<p>The very storm outside quieted for a second as if
+to give my words significance.</p>
+
+<p>“He is dead,” I whispered. “And the radium is
+gone!”</p>
+
+<p>She nodded, her hands at her throat, her face as
+white as her cap.</p>
+
+<p>The tiny flame wavered and jumped and threatened
+to go out, the shadows in the room crept nearer, the
+gusts of wind and rain beat upon the black window
+pane with renewed fervour.</p>
+
+<p>“We must telephone to Dr. Letheny. Then get lights
+and see to the wing. Will you go down to the office
+and telephone to the Doctor? I shall stay—with this.”</p>
+
+<p>Maida’s eyes widened and she flung out her hands
+with an odd gesture of panic.</p>
+
+<p>“No,” she stammered. “No. I—I <em>can’t</em> call Dr.
+Letheny!”</p>
+
+<p>Not knowing what to say I stared at her. Suddenly
+she straightened her shoulders and mastered her
+agitation.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” she said. “Yes. I’ll call him immediately.”</p>
+
+<p>I was too disturbed to worry over Maida’s aversion
+to telephoning to Dr. Letheny, although it was to
+recur to me later. I set the candle down again, wishing
+that the lights would come on and that my knees would
+not shake.</p>
+
+<p>It was clear to me, even in those first terrifying
+moments, that the radium had been stolen. And a
+hideous conjecture was slowly settling upon me. It did
+not seem possible that my patient had died a natural
+death!</p>
+
+<p>What had caused his death?</p>
+
+<p>It is strange how one’s hair prickles at the roots
+when one is frightened. My hair stirred and I peered
+fearfully about the room. A curious sense of something
+evil and loathsome near at hand was creeping over me.
+The room, however, was as bare as any hospital room.
+I even took the candle in my hand, and holding my teeth
+tight together to restrain a disposition toward chattering,
+I made a circuit of the room, holding the candle
+into the corners. Of course, there was nothing there.
+Indeed, there was scarcely any place to hide in the
+whole room. There were the usual shallow closets,
+two of them, barely large enough for a patient’s
+travelling bag and clothes. I opened one closet which held
+a bag and a light overcoat. The other one was locked
+and the key gone, probably lost by some student nurse.</p>
+
+<p>The candle was dripping hot wax on my hand so I
+placed it again on a saucer on the table.</p>
+
+<p>Maida had been gone for some time, surely time
+enough to rouse the whole hospital staff. A thousand
+fears crossed my mind while I stood there waiting;
+my eyes kept travelling from one corner of the room
+to the other, and the feeling of a presence near me other
+than that of the dead man on the bed became stronger
+with the dragging seconds.</p>
+
+<p>I was beginning to think that I could remain no
+longer in that fear-haunted room, with only the ghastly
+flickering of the candle-light for company, when there
+was a quick rush of footsteps and Maida was in the
+room, panting, her eyes black and frightened.</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Letheny is out,” she cried. “Corole didn’t know
+where he was. She said he wasn’t anywhere in the house.
+She thought he had gone for a walk in the orchard and
+got caught in the storm.”</p>
+
+<p>“A fine time to go for a walk,” I cried, fright making
+me irritable.</p>
+
+<p>“So then I telephoned to Dr. Balman,” went on
+Maida hurriedly. “It was so dark I couldn’t see the
+directory, so I had to ask Information for the number.
+He finally answered and said he would be right out.
+It’s as dark as a black cat all over the building.”</p>
+
+<p>“Did you call Dr. Hajek?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. That is, I knocked at his door and called him
+several times but couldn’t wake him. Girls from other
+wings are running around in the dark, there near the
+general office. Nobody has lights and the bell that
+connects with the basement is out of order. At least, they
+can’t rouse Higgins.”</p>
+
+<p>I thought rapidly. Such a situation! No lights, a
+storm, frightened patients—it only needed the news
+of the radium theft and this strange death to complete
+our demoralization.</p>
+
+<p>“We can’t both leave this room,” I thought aloud.
+“We must not leave him alone. His death is so
+strange—so——”</p>
+
+<p>Maida must have been struck with something in
+my manner for she gripped my arm.</p>
+
+<p>“What do you mean?”</p>
+
+<p>“I mean,” I replied with difficulty, speaking through
+oddly stiff lips, “I mean that—I’m afraid this is—is
+murder.”</p>
+
+<p>She shrank back, her face as white as the dishevelled
+sheets.</p>
+
+<p>“Not—that!”</p>
+
+<p>“You see, he was in good condition. And combined
+with the theft of the radium—Oh! I know it is a fearful
+thing to suspect. But what explanation is there?”</p>
+
+<p>“Who could have done it? How——”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know.” With an effort I pulled myself
+together, forced myself to think. “We have no time to
+think of that now. We must keep things going—get a
+doctor.” I paused, eyeing her dubiously. “Could you
+stay here with—with it—while I go to the office, rouse
+Dr. Hajek and the janitor, and get some sort of lights?”</p>
+
+<p>She glanced from the bed, where her horrified eyes
+had fastened themselves, to the feeble ray of the candle.</p>
+
+<p>“The candle is almost burnt out,” she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>“I know,” I said. “I’ll hurry.”</p>
+
+<p>Her lips tightened to a thin white line.</p>
+
+<p>“Hurry.”</p>
+
+<p>Once groping my way through that dark corridor
+I was vaguely surprised to find my hands like ice and
+my face damp. My mind was whirling but one thought
+was predominant: I must not leave Maida alone for
+long in that terrifying room with what it held, I must
+hurry.</p>
+
+<p>As I turned into the corridor running east and west,
+that connects the south wing with the main portion of
+the hospital, the storm burst upon the place with
+renewed savagery. At another time the fury of the
+thunder and lightning and wind and rain would have
+appalled me, but then it seemed all in a piece with what
+I feared had happened.</p>
+
+<p>I have only a chaotic memory of colliding with various
+other nurses, of ringing for the janitor, of calling
+the Electric Power Company only to hear a pert-voiced
+operator tell me that the wires must be down in our
+direction, of being afraid that the matches the nurses
+were lighting would set fire to the whole place, and
+of bruising my knuckles on Dr. Hajek’s door. He finally
+opened it, and I was so unstrung by that time that at
+the sound of his slow voice I clutched into the darkness
+with both hands. My touch encountered his coat, which
+was damp.</p>
+
+<p>“Go to Room 18,” I stammered, half-sobbing from
+fear. “Hurry, Doctor. Room 18 in the south wing.”</p>
+
+<p>“It is dark. Can’t you turn on the lights?” he said
+stupidly.</p>
+
+<p>“The lights have gone out. The storm—— Hurry!”
+I believe I pushed him toward the door. Somebody had
+found a lamp and the hall was full of weird, wavering
+shadows.</p>
+
+<p>“What is it? What has happened?” asked some nurse
+at my elbow.</p>
+
+<p>I have never known what I replied; I remember
+only her frightened, pale face. But somehow I restored
+things to a semblance of order, mercifully thought of
+some lamps and candles that were in the storeroom,
+unearthed a couple of flashlights and sent someone
+to wake Olma Flynn to help out in the south wing.
+Then, taking the flashlights, I hurried back to the wing.</p>
+
+<p>At the door of Room 18 I paused.</p>
+
+<p>Maida was standing beside a table, staring downward,
+her face paper-white; her sleeves had been rolled
+up and a wisp of dark hair across her cheek gave her
+a curiously dishevelled appearance. Dr. Hajek was
+standing at the foot of the bed; he was gripping the
+foot-rail with such force that the knuckles on his small
+hands showed white. Dr. Balman had arrived; he was
+sitting at the other side of the bed and I did not see
+him until I stepped into the room. His stethoscope
+dangled from his hands, his gleaming raincoat dripped
+moisture steadily on the floor. He, too, was staring
+downward.</p>
+
+<p>No one moved as I approached the bed. It was as
+if some evil spell held us all staring at the dead man.
+And through that brooding silence, broken only by
+the hurling rain and wind outside, I knew as well as
+I shall ever know anything that I was right. That the
+man there on the bed had been murdered!</p>
+
+<p>My throat was very dry. I had to make several
+efforts and finally achieved a single word:</p>
+
+<p>“How—”</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Balman glanced at me, apparently noting my
+presence for the first time.</p>
+
+<p>“Overdose of morphine,” he said.</p>
+
+<p>“Morphine!” I was shocked out of the numbness
+that had enveloped me. “Morphine. But he was not
+to have morphine. How do you know?”</p>
+
+<p>With a laconic gesture he showed me the tiny
+hypodermic scar on the patient’s arm.</p>
+
+<p>“That—and look here—the pupils of his eyes,”
+Dr. Balman drew the lids upward gently. “As well as
+his general condition. You know——”</p>
+
+<p>I nodded slowly. Morphine!</p>
+
+<p>It was then that a strange thing happened. We were
+all staring at the small wound, else we should not have
+seen the little pin-prick of red that crept slowly from
+it. It was not a drop by any means, it was barely enough
+to be visible, but it brought to our minds the old
+superstition: a corpse bleeds when its murderer is near. A
+cold shiver crept up my back as I looked, and Dr.
+Balman sprang to his feet with a hoarse word or two, and
+Maida cried out, gasping, and started back, and even
+phlegmatic Dr. Hajek muttered something under his
+breath and drew his hand across his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>With an effort I controlled myself. This sort of
+thing would turn us all into gibbering idiots and there
+was much to be done.</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Balman,” I said, my voice sounding strange
+to my own ears, “Dr. Letheny is caught out in the storm
+somewhere and we have not yet been able to find him.
+Mr. Jackson was not to have morphine: it was not
+ordered and moreover at twelve-thirty he was all right.
+He has evidently been—killed—so that someone could
+steal the radium. There will be—confusion. Someone
+must take charge from now on—and since Dr. Letheny
+is gone——”</p>
+
+<p>“Leave things to us, Miss Keate,” said Dr. Balman
+at once. “See to your wing as usual and Dr. Hajek and
+I will do what is necessary.”</p>
+
+<p>“Do you intend to call the coroner?” I asked.</p>
+
+<p>“Certainly. I shall telephone at once. It means
+police—detectives—all that, but this is a terrible thing.
+Steps must be taken immediately. A delay in such a
+matter——”</p>
+
+<p>“Here I am, Miss Keate,” said Olma Flynn from
+the doorway. “I hurried to get dressed. What——” her
+pale eyes travelled past me to the bed. “Why—why
+what is it? He is—<em>dead!</em>” Her voice rose. I suppose
+our very attitudes and gray faces told her the truth,
+for suddenly she began to scream. I seized her by the
+arm none too gently, clapped my other hand over her
+mouth and pulled her outside, closing the door behind
+me.</p>
+
+<p>But it was too late. Others had heard her screams,
+and there was no keeping the thing secret, especially
+as some prowling nurse heard Dr. Balman and Dr.
+Hajek telephoning for the police and the coroner. The
+story was over the hospital in ten minutes and only
+the strictest measures prevented a panic. Terror-stricken
+nurses crowding into the halls and wing, the
+demands of the sick to whom the excitement seemed
+to have communicated itself, flaring, inadequate lamps
+and candles and their little flickering circles of light
+that made frightened faces whiter and the surrounding
+gloom blacker, horrified questions that no one could
+answer, stark fear in every pair of eyes—all this made
+it an hour not soon forgotten.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately Maida and I found that our own patients
+had not suffered from our enforced absence from duty.
+It was a difficult matter, however, to calm some of the
+more nervous ones and keep the knowledge of what had
+happened from reaching their ears. Olma Flynn’s assistance
+was of the slightest as she refused to stir three
+feet from Maida or me, and her hands shook so that
+she spilled everything she touched.</p>
+
+<p>We were very busy and I did not see the coroner and
+the police when they arrived and went directly to Room
+18. Along about half-past three I slipped into the diet
+kitchen and made some very strong coffee which I
+shared with Maida and Olma Flynn. We felt a little
+better after that though still weak and sick and
+controlling our fears by sheer strength of will.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow the weary gray hours dragged along. Dawn
+came through still gusty rain and wind and the cold
+light crept reluctantly into the sick rooms. Breakfast
+was late that morning owing to the cook’s not being
+able to find enough candles for adequate lights, but
+the day nurses finally came on duty, white and
+fear-stricken over what the night had held.</p>
+
+<p>By that time, however, policemen were all over the
+place and I must say that their broad, blue backs gave
+me a welcome sense of security. Dr. Letheny had not
+turned up yet; at least, if he had I had not seen him.</p>
+
+<p>The breakfast trays came up at last and Maida,
+Olma Flynn, and I washed our hands and faces and
+descended to the dining room in the basement. We said
+little. The candles on the long table flickered; the rain
+beat against the small windows; our uniforms were
+wrinkled and looked cold; our eyes were hollow and
+our faces drawn and gray, and already we were
+starting nervously at sudden sounds and were beginning
+to cast furtive glances over our shoulders as if to be
+sure there was nothing there.</p>
+
+<p>But it was not until I had finished drinking some very
+black coffee and playing with my toast that the reason
+for our strained silence made itself clear to me.</p>
+
+<p>Only someone connected with the hospital could have
+known that the radium was out of the safe and in use
+in Room 18. Only a doctor or a nurse would have known
+how to administer morphine with a hypodermic syringe.</p>
+
+<p>It might be—anyone! It might be one of us!</p>
+
+<p>The thought threatened that remnant of courage I
+still maintained. I rose, pushing back my chair. It scraped
+along the floor and at the sound heads jerked in my
+direction too quickly and someone cried out nervously.</p>
+
+<p>I hurried from the room, up the stairs and to my
+room in the nurses’ dormitory. I am not ashamed to
+say that I locked the door. But though I needed rest
+I could not sleep.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch03">
+
+<h2>3. Dr. Letheny Does Not Return</h2>
+
+<p>From sheer fatigue, however, I must have dozed for
+I awoke at the sound of a repeated knocking at the
+door. It was a frightened little student nurse wanting
+to know if all training classes and lectures were to be
+suspended.</p>
+
+<p>“Suspended?” I said, the horror of the past night
+sweeping over me. “Suspended? I—why, Dr. Letheny
+will tell you.”</p>
+
+<p>She blinked.</p>
+
+<p>“But Dr. Letheny—we—they—nobody knows
+where Dr. Letheny has gone.”</p>
+
+<p>“What!” I was fully awake.</p>
+
+<p>“No, ma’am. They can’t find him anywhere.” Frightened
+though she was, she yet appeared to take a naïve
+relish in being the first to tell me the news. “They can’t
+find him at all. Miss Letheny has telephoned
+everywhere that he might be and the police are working
+on it and they have been asking us all kinds of questions.”</p>
+
+<p>I reached for a fresh uniform.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll come down immediately,” I said. “About the
+training classes, did you speak to Dr. Balman?”</p>
+
+<p>“No. Miss Dotty said to find out if you knew what
+was to be done.” Which was like Miss Dotty, she being
+amiable but not very clear-thinking.</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Balman is Dr. Letheny’s assistant. I have
+nothing to do with it.”</p>
+
+<p>The little student nurse rustled away and ten minutes
+later, refreshed by a bath and a clean uniform, I
+followed her.</p>
+
+<p>I found the main portion of the hospital fairly
+shuddering with excitement. To my extreme annoyance it
+appeared that the moronic fraction of our nursing staff
+was beginning to take a melancholy satisfaction in
+the tumult and posing freely for the reporters who,
+with their flashlight affairs, were swarming over the
+whole place. I might say here and now that I soon
+stopped that and did not mince matters in so doing,
+though I could not prevent the headlines that had
+already found their way into the city newspapers.</p>
+
+<p>In the main office Dr. Balman and Dr. Hajek, both
+looking worn and haggard, were literally surrounded
+by our board of directors who, it seemed, had descended
+in a body and were determined to hold somebody
+responsible for the terrible thing that had occurred. I
+learned later that there was some trouble in convincing
+them that Mr. Jackson’s death was not due to a
+mistake on the part of the nurses. Some policemen were
+in the room, too, and the chief of police, himself, a
+burly fellow who looked habitually as if his darkest
+suspicions were about to be verified.</p>
+
+<p>This expression intensified itself as I entered the
+room, which, by the way, was the first indication of
+a fact that later became all too painfully evident, namely
+that I, Sarah Keate, occupied a prominent place in the
+list of suspects, for had I not been in the south wing?
+Had I not been in a position to administer the morphine
+that caused the patient’s death? Had I not been the
+one to find him?</p>
+
+<p>One or two of the board had the grace to rise as I
+entered, but most of them were too agitated to
+remember their manners.</p>
+
+<p>“What is this about Dr. Letheny?” I began.</p>
+
+<p>“Are you Miss Keate?” asked the chief of police.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” I replied, none too graciously.</p>
+
+<p>“We were just about to send for you,” he informed
+me. “Now suppose you tell us everything you know
+of this affair. Mind, I say <em>everything</em>.”</p>
+
+<p>I turned to Dr. Balman.</p>
+
+<p>“Hasn’t Dr. Letheny returned yet?”</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head slowly.</p>
+
+<p>“Come, come, Miss Keate,” said the chief.</p>
+
+<p>“Doesn’t Miss Letheny know where he is?” I
+insisted anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>“Apparently not.” It was Dr. Hajek who answered.</p>
+
+<p>“Will you answer my questions?” demanded the
+chief loudly.</p>
+
+<p>“Another time,” I stated impatiently. Didn’t the
+man see what the pressing issue was! “When did Miss
+Letheny see him last?”</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Hajek shook his head. “She has not seen him
+since last night about twelve-thirty.”</p>
+
+<p>The chief rose.</p>
+
+<p>“Now, look here! We’ll have no more funny
+business,” he began to bluster.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, <em>do</em> be still!” I may have spoken somewhat irritably;
+at any rate the chief turned purple. “Don’t you
+see,” I explained reasonably, “don’t you see that we
+must find Dr. Letheny? That so much hinges upon our
+finding him? Why, so far as we know, <em>he</em> decided to
+remove the radium, perhaps he——” I stuck, appalled
+by the literal truth of my words.</p>
+
+<p>The chief was quick to pick me up.</p>
+
+<p>“So you have already formed your opinion. And
+quite right, too. It is very clear that this Letheny fellow
+has got away with the radium.” The chief actually
+began rubbing his hands together and smiling. “Now,
+Miss Keate, just tell us why you suspect Dr. Letheny
+of this crime.”</p>
+
+<p>“But I don’t!” I cried in exasperation. “I have not
+had time to suspect anyone yet. I have been too busy.
+The reason I spoke as I did of Dr. Letheny is that he
+is the attendant physician; he knew more of Mr.
+Jackson’s condition than any of us. He may have decided
+that the radium was—er—not doing any good and may
+have removed it for that reason. It seems to me that
+our hands are tied without him.”</p>
+
+<p>“Just a moment, chief,” remarked one of the most
+intelligent members of the board. “Suppose we follow
+your suggestion and leave all investigation until this
+man—what is his name?”</p>
+
+<p>“Lance O’Leary,” supplied the chief sulkily.</p>
+
+<p>“Until this Lance O’Leary gets here. You seem to
+have great confidence in him and——”</p>
+
+<p>“Him and me always work together,” interpolated
+the chief.</p>
+
+<p>“He is out of town at present,” went on the board
+member, addressing me.</p>
+
+<p>“Suits me,” said the chief. “I’ve wired him and he
+will be here on the afternoon train. We’ve got
+everything under guard and can leave the room just as we
+found it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then there is no need for us to stay any longer,”
+remarked a particularly well-fed board member, getting
+fussily to his feet and kicking a little to shake down
+his trousers over his fat calves. “I’ve got to get to the
+office. And now see here, Dr. Balman—and you others—of
+course we don’t say that this is your fault——”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, I should hope not!” I interrupted tartly.</p>
+
+<p>“Your fault,” he repeated, eyeing me severely. “But
+at the same time it shouldn’t have happened. There is
+something wrong somewhere. Here we go and put sixty-five
+thousand dollars into a whole gram of radium and
+now look what happens!” The other members shook
+their fat cheeks in sympathy.</p>
+
+<p>“You seem to forget,” I remarked with some asperity,
+“that there was also a murder in the hospital last
+night, which might have been prevented had we had
+an emergency gas line installed. We were without lights
+a good share of the night.”</p>
+
+<p>This was not quite true, in that the murder had been
+committed, I had no doubt, before the lights had gone
+out, but the subject of gas for emergency use had been
+a matter of contention between the board and the staff
+for some time and I was glad to note that the entire
+board looked distinctly uneasy as it filed fatly from the
+office.</p>
+
+<p>“A splendid group of gentlemen,” commented the
+chief approvingly.</p>
+
+<p>“Then we are to do nothing until this detective
+arrives?” I asked impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>“So it seems,” said Dr. Balman, sighing wearily.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, and nothing is enough,” said the chief, whose
+name, by the way, proved to be Blunt. “Once Lance
+O’Leary gets his teeth in anything it is as good as
+finished. Say—I could tell you things——”</p>
+
+<p>“If only we could find Dr. Letheny,” I reflected. “It
+is so strange, his disappearing like this and at such a
+time.”</p>
+
+<p>“Maybe it ain’t so strange as you think,” remarked
+Chief Blunt. “There is many a man would like to
+disappear with about sixty-five thousand dollars in his
+pocket. Say, what does that radium look like? How
+would you carry it anyhow? Wouldn’t it burn you?”</p>
+
+<p>“It is carried in a small steel box that is especially
+made to protect it—and you,” explained Dr. Balman.
+As I glanced at him I was struck by the unbelievably
+drawn and haggard appearance of his face, which was
+intensified by a bruise on one cheek bone that was turning
+a dark, purplish green. “It would be a ticklish thing
+to dispose of,” he added thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, we shall have some disclosures in another
+night,” said the chief comfortably. “And mark my
+words, this Letheny has had something to do with it.
+A man don’t disappear like this for nothing. In the
+meantime we’ll guard Room 18 and keep everybody
+away from it. And let nobody leave or come into the
+hospital.”</p>
+
+<p>“No visitors?” I inquired, with the first shade of
+approval I had felt for the chief so far.</p>
+
+<p>“No visitors,” he agreed.</p>
+
+<p>“And in the meantime,” said Dr. Balman, “business
+as usual. Eh, Miss Keate?”</p>
+
+<p>“By all means. But Dr. Balman—you don’t think
+that Dr. Letheny killed Mr. Jackson and got away with
+the radium——”</p>
+
+<p>“Certainly not,” said Dr. Balman. “There is
+nothing upon which to base such a conclusion.”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t be too sure of that,” muttered Chief Blunt
+from the depths of the telephone transmitter.</p>
+
+<p>It took a few moments for Dr. Balman and Dr.
+Hajek to arrange between them to take over Dr. Letheny’s
+work in case, we were careful to say, Dr. Letheny
+did not come to St. Ann’s that day, while Chief Blunt
+put the telephone to such good use that at the end of a
+few minutes he assured us that Dr. Letheny would be
+found within twenty-four hours. This I thought to be
+a somewhat sweeping prophecy but said nothing.</p>
+
+<p>Leaving the office, I walked thoughtfully down to
+the south wing. It was a compliment to St. Ann’s routine
+that, with the exception of a certain nervousness on the
+part of the nurses, all was quite as it should be.
+Morning baths had been given, breakfasts were all over and
+rooms dusted, and discipline in general had been
+maintained. However, there is no use saying things were
+just as usual for they were not. It was dark and cold
+that morning, with one of those quick changes of
+temperature for which our part of the country is famous. The
+electric service had not yet been repaired and there
+were lamps at intervals along the corridor. Miss Dotty,
+wisely for once, had doubled the number of girls on
+duty, and blue-striped skirts and white aprons of
+training nurses, as well as the severe white of graduate
+nurses, glimmered everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>So far we had been successful in keeping the news
+of the murder from the ears of the patients, but of
+course they were aware of some kind of disturbance
+during the night, and several of them were quite fussy
+and upset and demanded to be moved to another wing,
+which naturally we could not do. We kept the newspapers
+from them, too, but one of the minor troubles
+of the day was the continual telephone calls from
+anxious relatives, which began as soon as the morning
+extras were out.</p>
+
+<p>Oh, yes, the newspapers got out extras with all kinds
+of pictures and the most absurd statements that made
+St. Ann’s appear to be something between a boarding
+school and a den of iniquity. This unfortunate impression
+was helped by the pictures of nurses in conjunction
+with the murder and radium theft.</p>
+
+<p>And in spite of our efforts to carry on work the same
+as usual, in spite of cleaned rooms and spick-and-span
+corridors and careful charts, there lingered, somehow,
+pervading the very old walls of St. Ann’s, a certain
+gloom, a sense of foreboding, that centred in the south
+wing.</p>
+
+<p>Room 18 was closed and guarded by a stalwart
+policeman, who sat uncompromisingly in front of the
+door, but that end of the corridor was shunned as if
+there were live smallpox there, and when one of the
+nurses had to go to Room 17, opposite, or to the next
+room, Sixteen, she quite frankly sought the company
+of another nurse.</p>
+
+<p>Old Mr. Jackson’s lawyer had been notified immediately
+of the tragedy, I learned, and he, in turn, had
+notified the dead man’s only relatives, a cousin and a
+nephew, living somewhere in the East. Along in the
+middle of the morning a rather impersonal telegram
+came from them to Chief Blunt, bidding him spare no
+expense and keep them informed of developments.</p>
+
+<p>What with one thing and another I had very little
+time of my own until about two o’clock in the afternoon
+when, after firmly getting rid of Miss Dotty, who
+evidenced a distressing disposition to cling and whisper
+in horrified italics, I sat down at the south-wing chart
+desk, drew a blank chart toward me, and presenting
+as forbidding a back against interruption as I could,
+I tried to think. Until that moment the whirl of events
+had so caught me that I had had to act and had had
+literally no time in which to consider the matter.</p>
+
+<p>I began, logically enough, at twelve-thirty, the time
+I had last seen Dr. Letheny. In spite of my defence of
+Dr. Letheny before Chief Blunt, I felt in my heart that
+his absence at such a time was, to say the least, rather
+strange.</p>
+
+<p>It had been a queer night, even before its shocking
+development; that strange dinner at Corole’s, where
+everyone had seemed strung to such a singular pitch of
+excitement, our walk home through the suffocating heat,
+Maida’s preoccupation, my own disquiet, the
+storm—— And now a memory recurred to me with such force
+that I almost jumped—that man with whom I had
+collided there at the corner of the porch! Who was he?
+What had he been doing?</p>
+
+<p>And then, of course, I recalled the flat, smooth object
+I had found at the edge of the orchard, there below
+the kitchen window.</p>
+
+<p>It took only a moment or two to hurry to my room
+and dive my hand into the pocket of my soiled uniform.
+Then I sank down on the edge of the bed, staring at
+the thing in my hand.</p>
+
+<p>I recognized it at once.</p>
+
+<p>It was Jim Gainsay’s cigarette case.</p>
+
+<p>The engraved fraternity shield winked at me as I
+turned it over in my hands and snapped it open; inside
+were two or three cigarettes; dazedly I noted the
+brand—Belwood’s. Jim Gainsay! It was he, then, whom I
+had met there at the steps of the porch. What had he
+been doing? What had been his business about St. Ann’s
+after midnight? And my breath caught and my heart
+began to pound as I recalled his words of the previous
+night: “If I can manage to lay my hands on fifty thousand
+dollars . . . can make as much money as I want . . .
+I can do it . . . <em>and I will</em>.”</p>
+
+<p>And he had heard our discussion of the radium. He
+had even heard—yes, I remembered distinctly—he had
+even heard in what room the radium was in use and
+that the south door was to be left unlocked. To be
+sure, I might have been expected to lock the door
+following Dr. Letheny’s visit, but there were windows
+and——</p>
+
+<p>Someone was knocking at the door and I had barely
+time to slip the cigarette case under the pillow. It was
+Miss Dotty, her eyes fairly popping with excitement.</p>
+
+<p>“Where is the key to the closet in the south wing?”</p>
+
+<p>“What closet? There are several——”</p>
+
+<p>“I mean the closet in Room 18, of course. Do you
+have the key?”</p>
+
+<p>“No. And I don’t know where it is. Who wants it?”</p>
+
+<p>“They want it downstairs.”</p>
+
+<p>“They?”</p>
+
+<p>“That little, slim detective. He has just come. And
+oh, Miss Keate, he is so handsome,” she rolled her
+rather vacant eyes upward.</p>
+
+<p>“Who is handsome?” I spoke somewhat snappishly.
+Miss Dotty’s rhapsodies aggravate me.</p>
+
+<p>“That Mr. O’Leary. Just wait till you see him. Such
+a way of speaking! Such clothes! And his eyes are
+simply wonderful!” Miss Dotty appeared to recall
+herself from Mr. O’Leary’s charms with difficulty. “But
+I must hurry. They said if we couldn’t find the key they
+would have to take the door off the hinges.”</p>
+
+<p>“Take the hinges off, you mean. Indeed they shan’t!
+That lovely gumwood door! They’ll be sure to scar
+it. Maybe some of the student nurses locked it. Ask
+them. Or—wait! I’ll come down myself.”</p>
+
+<p>But Miss Dotty’s starched skirts were already
+scuttling away.</p>
+
+<p>Before leaving the room, and not without a guilty
+feeling in my heart, I placed the cigarette case in a safe
+hiding place which was nothing more nor less than the
+bottom of my laundry bag. Almost without conscious
+volition on my part I had resolved to keep the matter
+of the cigarette case a secret and in my own possession,
+at least until I knew more certainly where my duty lay
+concerning it. It carried with it too grave an implication
+to act upon readily.</p>
+
+<p>Then, still preoccupied, I took my way downstairs,
+through the main portion of St. Ann’s, past the general
+office, and turned into the corridor leading to the south
+wing. As I approached the chart desk, one of the student
+nurses seized upon me tearfully with a tale of Three’s
+hysterics, and wouldn’t I help for she had not the least
+idea what to do. There was nothing for it but to go to
+her assistance, much as I was interested in the
+proceedings in Room 18. And it was a good thing for me
+that I did! Otherwise I should have been in the room
+when they opened the closet door.</p>
+
+<p>Three’s hysterics proved to be of an unusually stubborn
+kind, really virulent in fact, and though I was
+aware of a sort of subdued confusion and tremor of
+excitement outside the door I could not clearly
+understand what it was about. I heard faintly the sound of
+hammering, of feet running along the corridor, of a
+man’s voice calling out something indistinguishable, and
+a hastily hushed, woman’s scream which Three promptly
+and wilfully echoed. Then several people hurried
+through the hall, and as they passed the door I heard
+the unmistakable little metallic rattle of the wheels of
+the stretcher-truck, and caught the words—“Call Dr.
+Balman,” and something about an ambulance.</p>
+
+<p>This was too much for me and I left my patient as
+soon as possible. No one was to be seen in the corridor,
+however, so I walked hurriedly down toward Room 18.
+Just as I reached it a policeman opened it, saw me, slid
+hastily through the narrow aperture and, closing the
+door, stood squarely before it.</p>
+
+<p>“You can’t go in there, miss,” he said firmly.</p>
+
+<p>“But—what has happened? What is all the
+commotion about?”</p>
+
+<p>“You can’t go in there,” he repeated stupidly. To
+my surprise I saw that the man was actually frightened.
+His eyes were staring, his weather-beaten face a sort
+of yellow-green, and his breath coming in gasps. “You
+can’t go in there. You can’t——”</p>
+
+<p>He seemed capable only of keeping me out of the
+room, so without wasting time or effort I turned about
+and retraced my steps. As I passed the linen-closet door
+I saw a group of nurses inside. One of them was lying
+back in a chair in a dead faint and the others were
+clustered around talking excitedly in low voices and nearly
+drowning the recumbent one with cold water.</p>
+
+<p>“What on earth?” I exclaimed and at my voice they
+turned; one of them was frankly sobbing and the other
+two were white as ghosts.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Miss K-K——” began one, her teeth chattering
+so she could not speak, while the others just stood there
+with their mouths opening and closing like so many fish.
+Naturally it was very trying and I believe I shook her
+till her teeth chattered in good earnest.</p>
+
+<p>“Now tell me what has happened,” I said, releasing
+her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Miss Keate, the most terrible thing has——”</p>
+
+<p>“Is this Miss Keate?” interrupted a clear voice from
+the doorway.</p>
+
+<p>I whirled.</p>
+
+<p>A man stood in the doorway; at the moment I was
+conscious only of a pair of extraordinarily lucid gray
+eyes; later I noted that he was slender and not very
+tall, that his gray business suit was well tailored, his
+gray socks of heavy silk and with a small scarlet thread,
+his scarf neatly knotted and chosen with care, his face
+clean-shaven, with clear rather delicately cut features,
+and that he wore an air of well-groomed prosperity.
+I knew at once that this was Lance O’Leary.</p>
+
+<p>“I am Miss Keate,” I replied.</p>
+
+<p>“I am Lance O’Leary,” he said (superfluously, but
+he did not know that). “I should like to talk to you if
+you have time. Will you come to the office with me,
+please—I think we shall be undisturbed there.”</p>
+
+<p>Being a woman of some strength of mind, I had
+intended to take a firm line with this detective whom
+everyone seemed to think so remarkable, but I found
+myself walking as meekly as any lamb at his side, and
+once inside the general office with the door closed, I sat
+as resignedly in a chair opposite him as if there were
+not a thousand and one things that I should be doing.</p>
+
+<p>“You are the superintendent of the south wing?”
+He spoke very quietly and with what I found later to
+be a wholly deceptive air of detachment.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“You were on duty last night between twelve and
+six o’clock?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Maida Day was your assistant?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Balman tells me that Miss Day telephoned to
+him about two o’clock—possibly ten minutes before
+the hour. I judge that was only a few moments after
+you found that your patient was dead?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. It must have been about that time. It was something
+after one-thirty when the storm broke and I hurried
+along the corridor and closed the south door. Then
+I closed the window in Room 17 and went directly into
+Eighteen.” My voice was not quite steady at the recollection
+of those moments and he waited briefly, his clear
+eyes studying a pencil in his hands, before he went on.</p>
+
+<p>“The windows in Room 18 were also open?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. All the windows in the wing were open. It had
+been very hot and close before the storm began.”</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>“Those windows are not far from the ground. Do
+you think someone from outside could get into the
+hospital without attracting your attention?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” I said slowly. “It might be done but does not
+seem very probable. With the doors to the sick-rooms
+open and the night so still I believe I should have heard
+any unusual sound. But the door to Eighteen was closed.
+I can’t be sure.”</p>
+
+<p>“You heard no unusual sound, then?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, no—except that a few moments before the
+storm began I heard a sort of bang—as if a window had
+dropped to the sill. It was not very clear.”</p>
+
+<p>He was looking directly into my face, his eyes as
+clear as water.</p>
+
+<p>“You are sure it was a window? It might have been
+a door closing.”</p>
+
+<p>“It was not the door for it was still open. I am not
+sure—I investigated but found nothing. The south door
+was still open—and as far as I could tell the windows
+were as they had been.”</p>
+
+<p>“Did you look in Room 18?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>There was a slight pause. Then:</p>
+
+<p>“The patient was—quiet at the time?”</p>
+
+<p>“The room was dark and still so I did not enter it.
+I just stood there for a moment holding the door half
+open; I was afraid if I entered the room I would wake
+him. He was asleep—that is——” I stopped abruptly
+as it occurred to me that he had not been asleep; that
+the incident had occurred not more than fifteen minutes
+before I found him dead.</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary seemed to read my thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” he said quietly. “He must have been
+dead—then. Can you be certain of the time?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. It was shortly after one-thirty. I remember
+because I had just noted the time on a patient’s chart,
+when I heard that dull sound and went to see what it
+was.”</p>
+
+<p>He returned to his pencil, a shabby little red thing
+it was, which he rolled absently between his well-kept
+fingers.</p>
+
+<p>“Was this sound sharp and loud?”</p>
+
+<p>“No—” I hesitated, trying to recall just how it
+had seemed. “No—it was rather dull—muffled—and
+yet heavy. It was not very distinct.”</p>
+
+<p>“There were no other unusual circumstances?
+Nothing out of the ordinary?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes. There was someone—a man——” I
+broke off abruptly. That man must have been Jim Gainsay.
+I had no wish to involve him in the matter, at least
+until I became convinced that his movements should be
+investigated.</p>
+
+<p>But Lance O’Leary’s gray eyes looked straight
+through to my back hair.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes?” he inquired.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.” I spoke with an accent of finality, and gazed
+nonchalantly out the window as if the subject were
+closed.</p>
+
+<p>“Where was he?”</p>
+
+<p>“Running around the hospital,” I replied curtly,
+wishing I had held my tongue.</p>
+
+<p>“Around and around?” inquired O’Leary blandly.</p>
+
+<p>“No,” I snapped. “Running along the east side of the
+wing. I—he—we collided.”</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary sat up straighter.</p>
+
+<p>“What!”</p>
+
+<p>“I had gone out on the porch for a breath of fresh
+air,” I explained rather sullenly. “Just as I stepped off
+the porch I ran into him.”</p>
+
+<p>I stopped as if the incident were concluded.</p>
+
+<p>“Go on,” suggested the O’Leary man after waiting
+a moment; he was being very polite and very pleasant
+and altogether disagreeable.</p>
+
+<p>“That’s all,” I said waspishly. I fastened my gaze on
+his extremely well-made shoes—an attention that I have
+found invariably disconcerts men—vain creatures! But
+this one was impervious.</p>
+
+<p>“And what did you say?” he persisted with the most
+insulting good-humour.</p>
+
+<p>“I said ‘Well——’ ” I stared steadfastly at the shoes.</p>
+
+<p>“And what did he say?”</p>
+
+<p>I resisted an evil impulse to tell him literally and
+with feeling.</p>
+
+<p>“I hope you don’t think I’d repeat such language,”
+I replied, and I’m sure he smiled.</p>
+
+<p>“Then what happened?”</p>
+
+<p>“He—er—set me on my feet again and kept on
+running.”</p>
+
+<p>“Very chivalrous,” remarked O’Leary. “So he kept
+on running—around the hospital?”</p>
+
+<p>“No,” I answered peevishly. “He ran along the path
+toward the bridge.”</p>
+
+<p>“What did you do?”</p>
+
+<p>“I walked in the direction he had come from as far
+as the wing extends but saw nothing unusual.”</p>
+
+<p>“Did you not call anyone? Were you not alarmed?”</p>
+
+<p>“I thought of calling Higgins, the janitor, but when
+I found that things seemed to be all right I decided it
+was not necessary.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then you came back to the hospital?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“And all that time you saw or heard nothing
+uncommon?”</p>
+
+<p>“Well—I smelled something.”</p>
+
+<p>He made a perceptible motion of surprise.</p>
+
+<p>“You smelled something? Did you say <em>smelled</em>?”</p>
+
+<p>I nodded, taking a small degree of satisfaction in his
+discomposure.</p>
+
+<p>“As I passed that clump of elderberry bushes I
+smelled ether. It was quite distinct. You know ether has
+a penetrating odour.”</p>
+
+<p>“But surely that was unusual?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. But the night was so hot and ether out there
+in the apple orchard so impossible that I decided I must
+be mistaken, that it was just the mingled scents of alfalfa
+and clover and other growing things.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well—which was it? Ether or imagination?”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know,” I said firmly. “I’m just telling you
+what happened. I know it sounds queer—but last night
+was a queer night. That dinner at Corole’s and
+everything,” I finished thoughtlessly.</p>
+
+<p>“Dinner at Corole’s? That is Miss Letheny?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Letheny was there?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“Anyone else?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Miss Day, Dr. Balman, Dr. Hajek, and a
+friend of Dr. Letheny’s—a Mr. Gainsay. He is an
+engineer who stopped for a day’s visit with them.”</p>
+
+<p>“And you and Miss Letheny?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“You implied that it was—‘queer,’ I think was the
+word you used. How was it queer?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh—I scarcely know. It was very hot and oppressive
+you know—that sort of electric atmosphere that
+precedes a thunder storm.”</p>
+
+<p>“Aside from the—er—electricity in the air, was
+everything quite as usual?”</p>
+
+<p>I paused for a long moment before replying.</p>
+
+<p>“No,” I said candidly. “I think we were all a little
+nervous and uneasy on account of the heat and
+suffocating air. That is, I was. And Dr. Letheny—and Miss
+Day——”</p>
+
+<p>“But not the others?”</p>
+
+<p>“Well——” It was difficult to define that curious
+tensity I had felt in the air all the night. “No one seemed
+quite natural to me. It may have been only I who was
+a little nervous. I really can’t tell you anything definite.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why did you say definitely that Dr. Letheny and
+Miss Day were unlike themselves?”</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Letheny is a rather quick-spoken man—when
+you know him you will understand what I mean. He
+goes on his nervous energy, is very high-strung and
+temperamental. He seemed especially explosive last
+night. And Miss Day was a little abstracted, tired, I
+think.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose you talked—played bridge—had a little
+music?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. All of that.”</p>
+
+<p>“Any special topics of conversation?”</p>
+
+<p>“No——”</p>
+
+<p>He noted the uncertainty in my voice.</p>
+
+<p>“Radium wasn’t mentioned?”</p>
+
+<p>“Well—yes. But only in a general way.”</p>
+
+<p>“Didn’t speak of using it? Having it out of the safe?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” I admitted reluctantly.</p>
+
+<p>“Didn’t say for what patient it was being used? In
+what room?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. But only casually.” I explained Dr. Letheny’s
+request to leave the south door unlocked.</p>
+
+<p>“Anything else?”</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing in particular. We just talked of general
+matters.”</p>
+
+<p>“Such as——”</p>
+
+<p>I glanced at him impatiently.</p>
+
+<p>“Such as?” he repeated.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh—how warm it was, and how everybody longs
+for something that money will buy, and how St. Ann’s
+is equipped with radios and expensive ambulances and
+a whole gram of radium and how much such things cost
+and all that—and then we played a few hands of bridge
+and then Dr. Letheny played the piano and then
+Maida—Miss Day—and I came back through the orchard to
+St. Ann’s and changed into our uniforms and went on
+duty.”</p>
+
+<p>“You talked of money and how everybody longs for
+something that money will buy,” mused O’Leary, adding
+with uncanny intuition, “I suppose several of you
+admitted a special desire for money?”</p>
+
+<p>“Every single one of us,” I confessed. “That is,
+except Dr. Hajek. He just listened and seemed amused.”</p>
+
+<p>He smiled. “Don’t be alarmed over such an admission.
+That doesn’t mean anything, that you all wanted
+money. Everyone wants money. But suppose you tell
+me, word for word, as much as you can remember of
+the conversation. Don’t be afraid of implicating anyone,
+Miss Keate. I make the request only because I like to
+get as clear an idea of the general surroundings as
+possible.” He smiled again. He had an extraordinarily
+winning smile; it brightened his whole face, for all that
+it was so brief, and I found myself warming under its
+influence.</p>
+
+<p>Not seeing how I could possibly harm anyone I
+repeated as much of our conversation as I could remember,
+and since I have usually a good memory I think I
+omitted very little of it.</p>
+
+<p>When I had finished he sat for some time turning
+and twisting his pencil. I might say that I never but
+once saw him use that pencil sensibly as a pencil is meant
+to be used. I even grew to cherish a notion that the
+pencil aided his mental processes and that if it were
+taken away from him his ability to think might go along
+with it. Like Samson’s hair, you know. Then I aroused
+myself from such childish speculation.</p>
+
+<p>“If that is all——” I hinted. “This is a busy day for
+us, you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“Not quite all, Miss Keate.” The smile had completely
+gone from his face; his expression lost its youthfulness
+and was very grave. “When did you last see
+Dr. Letheny?”</p>
+
+<p>“Last night, shortly after twelve-thirty.”</p>
+
+<p>“He had come to see Mr. Jackson?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. He was here only a few moments.”</p>
+
+<p>“You saw him leave?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“And he did not return, to your knowledge?”</p>
+
+<p>“No.”</p>
+
+<p>“He said nothing of leaving town?”</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing.”</p>
+
+<p>“He said nothing that would lead you to believe that
+he was—er—worried about anything? Had had any
+trouble?”</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing. I really think, Mr. O’Leary, that he will
+return before the day is over. Some accident has
+detained him. There will be some explanation.”</p>
+
+<p>“You—admire Dr. Letheny?” Lance O’Leary was
+scrutinizing a dripping shrub outside the window as he
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” I replied dubiously. “That is, he is a splendid
+surgeon, very cool and very daring. I like to assist him.”</p>
+
+<p>“You have known him for a long time?”</p>
+
+<p>“Several years. That is, I have known him as everyone
+else knows him. I do not believe that any of us feel
+particularly well acquainted with him. He is rather
+distant, very much interested in some research that he is
+carrying on.”</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t know the kind of research—the special
+subject of study?”</p>
+
+<p>“No.”</p>
+
+<p>There followed a long silence; the rain beat steadily
+against the window; outside in the corridor I heard the
+sound of the four-o’clock nourishment trays being
+carried along, the glasses of orange-juice and egg-nogg
+clinking together. It was chilly there in the office and
+I shivered a little.</p>
+
+<p>“I do wish that Dr. Letheny would return,” I said.
+“It is bad for the head doctor of St. Ann’s to be away
+at such a time.”</p>
+
+<p>Lance O’Leary turned slowly to me.</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Letheny will not return,” he said, eyeing me
+keenly.</p>
+
+<p>“Not return? What do you mean?”</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>“He will not return,” he said very slowly and
+distinctly. “Dr. Letheny is dead.”</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch04">
+
+<h2>4. A Yellow Slicker and Other Problems</h2>
+
+<p>The slow words beat their way into my brain like so
+many dull little hammers. I opened my mouth, tried to
+say something, but could not seem to make him hear,
+felt curiously sick and dizzy, had a flashing memory of
+the first time I served in the operating room and all at
+once the table before me began to waver, the room
+whirled, and a great black blanket overwhelmed me.</p>
+
+<p>Then, without any interval at all, I found myself
+lying on the couch in the inner office. I still felt sick but
+my face was wet and cold and my uniform damp around
+my shoulders and someone was saying in a dull voice:
+“Dr. Letheny is dead—Dr. Letheny is dead.”</p>
+
+<p>“All right now, Miss Keate?” inquired a voice
+anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>Wearily I opened my eyes, saw a gray arm and met
+the gaze of a pair of clear gray eyes. Instantly my head
+cleared. I pushed away the supporting arm and sat up,
+feeling automatically for my cap, though my hands
+shook.</p>
+
+<p>“That was beastly to shock you so,” Lance O’Leary
+was saying with honest contrition. “I hope you’ll
+forgive me, Miss Keate, I’m really awfully sorry.”</p>
+
+<p>“Did you say—Dr. Letheny is dead?” I asked, bringing
+out the words with the peculiar difficulty that one
+experiences in dreams.</p>
+
+<p>“He is dead,” he answered gravely.</p>
+
+<p>“Not—not—— Tell me how he died.”</p>
+
+<p>“Are you sure you can stand it? You’ve got to know
+sometime.”</p>
+
+<p>“Go on,” I said, bracing myself.</p>
+
+<p>“He has been dead for more than twelve hours. He
+was in the closet in Room 18.” He paused, regarding
+me doubtfully, but at my horrified gesture continued:
+“He had received a blow of some kind. It fractured his
+skull. He must have died immediately.”</p>
+
+<p>“Wait.” Rising I walked to the window, stared with
+unseeing eyes at the rain-drenched landscape, found my
+palms were stinging under the pressure of my
+fingernails, unclinched my hands, clinched them again and
+turned to face O’Leary. It was true that I had felt no
+fondness for Dr. Letheny—but I had often worked at
+his side.</p>
+
+<p>“I say, Miss Keate,” Lance O’Leary was protesting
+boyishly, “I’m awfully sorry to have been so brutal
+about it. But you see, I had to know whether this was
+news to you or not. Someone locked that closet door,
+you know. And in my business we suspect
+everything—everybody—the very walls themselves.”</p>
+
+<p>I was too deeply shocked to be indignant at the lack
+of compliment in his implication; after a moment he
+continued.</p>
+
+<p>“There is nothing more for you to help me with
+now,” he said. “We just found Dr. Letheny’s body this
+afternoon when we pried the closet door off its hinges.
+I examined everything at once, called the ambulance,
+and now the room can be cleaned and used again. The
+only reminder you will have of all this, I hope, is that
+I shall likely be about more or less for a few
+days—or longer. That depends upon the luck I have.” He
+smiled again. Evidently he was trying to be as
+considerate as possible and I found myself liking him. “Of
+course, there will have to be a coroner’s inquest, but
+that is merely a matter of form and need not annoy
+you. That is all now, thank you, Miss Keate. Can’t
+you take some rest? Do you have night duty again
+to-night?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” I answered the last question. “Mr. O’Leary,
+do you have any idea as to who—who has done this?”</p>
+
+<p>His face sobered instantly.</p>
+
+<p>“No,” he said simply. “Will you help me find out?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.” I spoke very thoughtfully. “It is only right
+and just to do so.”</p>
+
+<p>“Thank you.” He seemed sincere. “You may be
+interested to know that you have helped me already.”</p>
+
+<p>“Helped you! How? There was nothing I told
+you——”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll see you again, Miss Keate. By the way, I am
+leaving one or two policemen about to-night. It may
+help to steady some of the nerves in St. Ann’s.” He
+opened the door and before I knew it I was in the main
+hall with my question still unanswered.</p>
+
+<p>I still felt ill and weak from shock, and it was
+fortunate that the exigencies of the situation demanded
+action. That was the only saving feature of these fearful
+days; we were all so busy that we had little time for
+brooding.</p>
+
+<p>The news could not be kept from the nursing staff,
+of course, though I hoped that we could keep it from
+the patients, many of whom had been directly under
+Dr. Letheny’s care. And there was Corole—in common
+decency I must go to her.</p>
+
+<p>I snatched somebody’s slicker from the rack near
+the main door and turned into the corridor leading to
+the south wing, intending to slip out the south door
+and along the path to Corole’s cottage, it being much
+closer that way.</p>
+
+<p>In the corridor I met Dr. Balman.</p>
+
+<p>“I have heard,” I said briefly. “I am going to see
+Corole.”</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>“At the request of the Board of Directors I shall
+take Dr. Letheny’s place—temporarily at least. I have
+just called a meeting of the whole nursing staff, Miss
+Keate. You were with Mr. O’Leary so I did not disturb
+you. I told them of the situation, gave orders that
+this thing must not get to the ears of the patients,
+suspended training classes for a few days, and doubled the
+number of girls on duty in the various wings and wards
+until we get a working routine established. I find that
+the girls are nervous over being alone.” He spoke very
+calmly, but his extreme pallor caught my eye.</p>
+
+<p>“You had better get some rest, Dr. Balman. And
+have that bruise on your cheek attended to—it looks
+bad.”</p>
+
+<p>He passed his hand over the bruise.</p>
+
+<p>“I bumped it while running through the apple orchard
+last night. I wasted no time after I talked to Miss Day
+over the telephone.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh—then you came by the side road?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Thought I’d save time by not going around
+by the main entrance. I didn’t expect this.” He fingered
+the spot cautiously.</p>
+
+<p>“Put iodine on it,” I advised.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll sleep here in the hospital for a while,” he said.
+“I’ll be there on the couch in the inner office. So if there
+is anything wanted I shall be right here.”</p>
+
+<p>I nodded approvingly and went on, but while hurrying
+through the corridor I became conscious of something
+about the casual sentences that affected me
+disagreeably. What was it? Ah! “I bumped it while
+running through the apple orchard.” To be sure he had
+followed the words immediately with a very reasonable
+explanation, but wasn’t that in itself suspicious! On
+the other hand, however, I had been quite sure that
+the man with whom I collided had been Jim Gainsay.</p>
+
+<p>Well, there was no way to make sure. And I resolved
+that I must not allow myself to become suspicious of
+anything and everything. The affair was strain enough
+on one’s nerves as it was, without adding the horror
+of suspecting one’s nearest associates.</p>
+
+<p>Immersed in my own not too pleasant thoughts I
+passed the door of Room 18 without seeing it, an
+occurrence that I was to find unusual. On the porch stood a
+policeman, his broad back to the door, but he made no
+effort to stop me when I descended the steps. Once
+in the path the trees dripped steadily on my head, the
+wind blew the light slicker so that it was difficult to
+hold it around me, and I bent my head and ran through
+the damp welter of leaves and small sticks, with the
+branches of the trees sweeping so low as to brush my
+hair and cap, and the shrubbery reaching out thorny
+twigs to clutch at my white skirt. It was shadowy there
+in the orchard and the hospital soon disappeared behind
+the intervening shrubbery and trees and gray mist.
+It was nearing five o’clock by that time and already
+growing dark so that the path was not an altogether
+agreeable place in which to linger.</p>
+
+<p>I turned another little bend that sloped rapidly down
+to the bridge and almost ran into a tall figure that was
+leaning upon the railing. At my startled exclamation it
+turned to face me. It was Jim Gainsay, a sodden hat
+pulled low over his eyes and the collar of his capacious
+tweed coat turned up. He was smoking (it was a pipe
+I noted, thinking of the cigarette case) and casting
+pebbles across the water, which is not a rainy day pastime.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh. It’s you.” I said.</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Keate! Say, you are the very person I’ve been
+wanting to see. Can you tell me something of poor old
+Louis?”</p>
+
+<p>“Louis? Oh, you mean Dr. Letheny.” I suppose I
+paled a little at the name. At any rate Gainsay glanced
+sharply at me.</p>
+
+<p>“I didn’t mean to—disturb you,” he said apologetically.
+“You see, I only heard of it an hour or so ago,
+and only what that fellow O’Leary told me. Don’t talk
+if you would rather not.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then I know no more than you, for the detective,
+Mr. O’Leary, told me of it, too. Of course, it was a
+shock.”</p>
+
+<p>Jim Gainsay nodded, his gaze again on the little
+stream that, swollen by the night’s rain, swept in a
+bubbling current almost to our feet.</p>
+
+<p>“Poor old Louis,” he muttered.</p>
+
+<p>“You have known him a long time?” I said absently,
+my eyes too on the water.</p>
+
+<p>“Since university days,” said Jim Gainsay slowly. “I
+always liked Louis though I can’t say I understood him;
+no one ever did. In the last few years I have seen him
+only a few times. It was terrible to—go like that. Do
+they have any idea as to who—who killed him?”</p>
+
+<p>“Not that I know of,” I said and shivered at the
+thought of the black night so recently past and of the
+unknown and ghastly presence that Room 18 had held.
+And I had taken that futile little candle and searched
+the room for the thing that some sixth sense warned
+me was there! I shivered again and caught my breath
+and Jim Gainsay turned to me again.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t let me keep you out here in the storm. You
+are cold in that slicker thing.”</p>
+
+<p>“A little. I am going to see Corole. How does she take
+it?”</p>
+
+<p>Jim Gainsay’s frown deepened.</p>
+
+<p>“I hardly know. I can’t understand her any better
+than I could understand Louis. She looked—sort of
+bad—this morning. Tired, you know. And kept saying
+Louis would return. But she was terribly nervous.
+Prowled over the house like a cat.” He shrugged in
+distaste. “Fairly gave me the creeps to watch her. Then
+when they came up to the house to tell her that—that
+they had found him she just sort of froze all up. Hardly
+said a word.”</p>
+
+<p>“Wasn’t she dreadfully shocked?”</p>
+
+<p>“Well—I don’t know. You never can tell how Corole
+is feeling or what she is thinking about. Of course, she
+and Louis sort of got on each other’s nerves a little.
+That is—you know what I mean——” He glanced at
+me uncertainly.</p>
+
+<p>“I know.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose St. Ann’s is awfully upset?”</p>
+
+<p>“We are trying to keep everything going as well as
+possible. It is a bad situation, naturally. The nurses
+are doing their best but there is a sort of undercurrent
+of hysteria.” My mind on Corole, I did not immediately
+note where his inquiries were leading.</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Day was with you in the south wing last
+night, was she not?” He knocked his pipe carefully
+against the railing.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“How—er—— Is she feeling any bad effects from
+the fright?”</p>
+
+<p>“I have seen her only for a few moments at lunch,”
+I replied; at another time I should have smiled at his
+elaborately impersonal air.</p>
+
+<p>“I—don’t suppose I could see her? For a little
+while?”</p>
+
+<p>“She will be free between six and seven o’clock. But
+we are allowing no visitors for a few days . . .” My
+voice trailed doubtfully into space.</p>
+
+<p>“But see here, Miss Keate, I—it is important that I
+see her.” He spoke rather defiantly as if he dared me
+to ask why. “Will you carry a note to her, then?”</p>
+
+<p>Well, I was willing to carry a note to Maida, so I
+shivered under the folds of the flapping slicker while
+he stood with his back to the rain and wind, scribbling
+hastily on a bit of yellowish paper he pulled from his
+pocket. He held the paper close to him to protect it
+from the rain but I noted that it was an unused Western
+Union telegraph blank.</p>
+
+<p>“There, and thank you, Miss Keate.” He handed me
+the folded scrap of paper and I slipped it into my pocket.</p>
+
+<p>But at the end of the bridge I turned.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, Mr. Gainsay,” I exclaimed. “I had forgotten.
+You were to leave this morning!”</p>
+
+<p>His face had lost the youthful look with which he
+had begged me to take the note to Maida, and had
+become lined again, and his narrowed eyes were
+unfathomable under that shadowy hat brim.</p>
+
+<p>“I shall not go for a few days,” he said after a barely
+perceptible pause. “I can scarcely leave at such a time.
+Louis was a friend. They have no relatives here. Corole
+needs someone.”</p>
+
+<p>His disjointed explanation did not please me. I
+restrained a rather obvious remark as to chaperonage;
+after all, Huldah was a militant and vigorous enough
+chaperon to suit the most meticulous Mrs. Grundy.</p>
+
+<p>I daresay, however, that my disapproval was apparent
+in my expression, for Jim Gainsay added hastily:</p>
+
+<p>“My boat doesn’t sail till next week.”</p>
+
+<p>“Your boat?”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m to sail on the <i>Tuscania</i>.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh,” I said flatly, and there being nothing further
+I took my way on around the hill.</p>
+
+<p>The Letheny cottage looked cold and grim as I
+approached it. Puddles stood along the turf path; the
+flowers were beaten down by the wind and leaves had
+blown all over the porch. Huldah answered the bell,
+her eyes red and swollen and the cap that Corole had
+forced her to adopt hanging dejectedly over one ear.</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Keate!” she cried. “And so wet!” She took
+my slicker, holding it so it could not drip on the rug.
+“Oh, Miss Keate! Such a t’ing! Such a t’ing!” It is
+only when Huldah is tremendously moved that she
+forgets her digraphs.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, it is dreadful, Huldah,” I said. “How is Miss
+Corole?”</p>
+
+<p>Huldah shrugged her heavy shoulders oddly.</p>
+
+<p>“There she is, in the study.” She motioned toward
+the door without answering my question and then followed
+me, her china-blue eyes curious and round like a
+rabbit’s between their pink rims.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, it’s you,” said Corole with not very flattering
+indifference. “For Heaven’s sake, Huldah, take that
+wet coat to the kitchen. And close the door behind you,”
+she added viciously. “I suppose you came to offer
+sympathy,” she went on, moving a pillow to a more
+comfortable position under her arm. She was half-lying,
+half-sitting on the big davenport. A fire had been built
+in the fireplace but had burned down to a few sullen
+ashes with a red gleam here and there. There was no
+light in the room beyond the gray, rainy dusk from the
+windows.</p>
+
+<p>Corole’s hair was disarranged a little from its usual
+flat gold waves, and her eyes had great dark circles
+under them, and her face in the ghostly gray light was
+sallow and drawn. But she was gowned in a coppery-green
+silk thing that clung smoothly to her rather
+luxuriant curves. A heavily embroidered Chinese scarf, whose
+usual place, I recalled, was on the long table near her,
+had been flung over her feet and somehow, I presume
+because she glanced obliquely at it and reached
+surreptitiously to rearrange it, I got the impression that
+she had hastily flung it over her feet as I came into the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” I replied gravely. “I am very sorry that this
+thing has happened.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, of course, it is terrible,” she agreed quickly.
+“The whole thing is simply unspeakable.”</p>
+
+<p>There was little for us to say; I offered the usual
+remarks; Corole told me that Dr. Letheny’s body would
+be sent to New Orleans for burial with others of the
+family and thanked me perfunctorily for my offers of
+assistance.</p>
+
+<p>“Jim Gainsay is staying on for a few days,” she said.
+“Nice of him but I really don’t see what he can do.”
+There was a faint ring of resentment in her voice that
+surprised me. Corole was not a woman to resent
+masculine company.</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose Huldah is making you comfortable?” I
+said for lack of something better.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, yes,” replied Corole discontentedly. “She does
+as well as usual. She was awfully upset about all this.
+Jumps every time I speak to her.”</p>
+
+<p>“Would you like someone to come and stay with
+you for a few days?”</p>
+
+<p>“No,” said Corole sharply. “No. Why should I?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh—in case of anything—er—happening. I should
+think you would be a little nervous.” My explanation
+sounded somewhat lame and I recalled that Corole
+actually had no idea of the things we had gone through
+last night. . . . A swift recollection of that shallow,
+locked closet in Room 18 came to me and I arose
+suddenly, moved to another chair, and tried to think of
+something else.</p>
+
+<p>“. . . not that Huldah would be any good if something
+did happen,” Corole was saying. “She would simply
+pull the covers over her head and shriek. But there’s
+Jim.” She added the last name grudgingly as if to say,
+“such as he is,” and lapsed into silence.</p>
+
+<p>“I must get back to the hospital,” I said presently,
+not seeing that my presence was vital to Corole.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t suppose they have any idea as to what happened
+to the radium,” she observed casually as I arose.</p>
+
+<p>“No. I don’t know what to think.”</p>
+
+<p>“It would seem natural to believe that whoever killed
+Mr. Jackson and—er—Louis—did so in order to get
+the radium.”</p>
+
+<p>“So it would seem,” I agreed. “For my part, I have
+not had time to speculate on possibilities. It is—too
+shocking.”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t you think that they will try to trace the
+radium?”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t think anything about it,” I replied caustically.
+Her interest in the radium annoyed me. I felt repelled
+at her callous lack of grief. Suppose she and Dr.
+Letheny had not been on the best of terms, nevertheless
+they were cousins and housemates.</p>
+
+<p>“Well,” she kept on, “it all seems very strange. Didn’t
+you see or hear a thing while all that was going on?”
+Her catlike eyes, whose pupils shone large and flat and
+black in the semi-twilight, flickered over me with
+interest.</p>
+
+<p>“No,” I said shortly. I did not relish being questioned
+by Corole Letheny. “If there is nothing I can do for
+you I am going.”</p>
+
+<p>“No need to be in a hurry,” she said indolently,
+yawning a little as she moved with a luxuriant stretching
+of muscles to a more comfortable position among
+the cushions.</p>
+
+<p>“Good-night,” I said curtly. “And do have some
+light!” As I spoke I reached abruptly for the lamp cord,
+pulled it, and the green light fell on the davenport.</p>
+
+<p>Corole sprang upright with a startled half word,
+clutched the Chinese scarf and pulled it more securely
+over her feet.</p>
+
+<p>“Good-night,” I said again and left.</p>
+
+<p>Huldah was waiting in the hall. As I took my coat
+it seemed to me that there was something hesitant in
+her attitude, as if she wanted to speak to me, but I
+was in a hurry and furthermore in no mood to condole
+with her. So I threw the slicker over my shoulders and
+splashed along the sodden path.</p>
+
+<p>I scarcely noticed the rain, however, nor the cold
+discomforts of the path. When I entered the south wing
+and slipped quietly along its hushed length, I was still
+rotating in my mind a certain question.</p>
+
+<p>When the light had flashed on there in Dr. Letheny’s
+study, I had caught a brief but distinct view of Corole’s
+slippers. They were beautiful pumps, high-heeled bronze
+kid with dainty, cut-steel buckles. But they were
+mud-stained and sodden with moisture and had wet leafmold
+clinging to them.</p>
+
+<p>Where had Corole Letheny gone that afternoon?
+What errand had been so urgent that she had gone
+out of the house through the rain and storm in such
+haste that she had not had time to remove those dainty
+slippers?</p>
+
+<p>Facing my own white, tired face in the mirror, I
+pushed my loosened hair together, removed little torn
+pieces of leaves from it and righted my cap. My shoes
+were soaked, so I changed them. Premonitory pangs
+of neuralgia began to shoot over my left temple, and
+I wished that I had not stood so long in the rain talking
+to Jim Gainsay.</p>
+
+<p>With the thought came memory of the note with
+which I had been intrusted and I planned to give it to
+Maida at dinner; the bell was just ringing for the meal,
+then.</p>
+
+<p>In my abstraction I had worn the borrowed slicker
+to my room; as I started down to the dining room I
+threw it over my arm. Idly wondering whose coat I had
+appropriated I ran my hand into a pocket, drawing out
+a man’s handkerchief. It was large and white and had
+no distinguishing marks on it. But there was a faint
+scent—I pressed the square of linen to my nose,
+sniffed—and sniffed again with quickened interest. Faint but
+unmistakable, the scent of ether emanated from its
+folds.</p>
+
+<p>I stopped midway on the stairs, stared at the thing
+and deliberately went through the other pockets. There
+was nothing more to be found; no identifying label or
+initials on the whole garment.</p>
+
+<p>One yellow slicker is very much like another, and
+search though I did I found no means of discovering
+its owner. I felt, however, that I should like to have
+the ether smell clinging to that handkerchief explained.
+Possibly if I returned it to the rack and watched to
+see who came for it I should learn, at least, the identity
+of its owner. Thinking that no one would call for it
+during the dinner hour, the quietest time of the whole
+day, I replaced the handkerchief and hung the slicker
+on the hook from which I had taken it, and went down
+to dinner. But when I returned some fifteen minutes
+later, after hurrying over my dinner, the slicker was
+gone and I had not the faintest idea as to who had
+removed it.</p>
+
+<p>I gave the note from Jim Gainsay to Maida when
+I met her in the hall outside the dining room and had
+the dubious satisfaction of seeing her crimson vividly
+as she read it. The crimson, however, was succeeded by
+a pallor that went to her lips as she finished reading
+the few sentences, and during the meal she kept her
+eyes steadfastly on her plate and ate practically nothing.
+And shortly after dinner, happening to be standing
+near an east window, I saw a slim, shadowy figure,
+crowned in a white cap, winding its way into the apple
+orchard. Something after seven o’clock, when I was
+catching forty winks in my own room, Maida came in.
+The soft frame of black hair around her face had little
+beads of mist caught in it and I did not doubt that Jim
+Gainsay had succeeded in seeing her.</p>
+
+<p>She did not mention him, however, but fussed around
+the room for a while, playing with the manicure things
+I had left on the dressing-table top, flipping through the
+leaves of the last <i>Surgical News</i>, and generally behaving
+as a woman does whose thoughts are elsewhere. She
+even picked up my tool kit, commenting on the curved
+bandage scissors and shining forceps and playing idly
+with the tiny plunger of my own hypodermic set.</p>
+
+<p>We said nothing of the affair of the previous night;
+it was too recent, its developments too terrifying; we
+were both, I suppose, unconsciously fortifying
+ourselves against the ordeal of the coming second watch,
+which the memory of the last was not calculated to make
+easier.</p>
+
+<p>Maida had two crimson spots on her cheeks—from
+the walk in the rain, I judged—but her eyes had slender
+purple shadows under them, her hands, usually so
+steady, fluttered a little over the tools she was
+fingering, she either spoke too rapidly of some trivial
+matter or lapsed into silence, and when someone passing
+coughed suddenly Maida started visibly, the pupils of
+her eyes darkened swiftly, and she cast a quick,
+apprehensive glance over her shoulder toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>But since it was only to be expected that we both
+show the strain of the last twenty-four hours, I thought
+nothing of her evident uneasiness.</p>
+
+<p>She had not been in the room more than half an hour
+when I was called to the third-floor telephone. The
+connection was poor and it took a few moments to find
+that it was Miss Neil who was wanted, and when I
+returned to my own room Maida had gone and I did not
+see her again until we met in the south wing at twelve
+o’clock.</p>
+
+<p>Contrary to our unacknowledged apprehensions,
+second watch that night went much the same as on other
+nights. The electric lights had finally been repaired,
+though the utmost illumination was little enough to
+suit my taste. Just in front of the south door a policeman,
+tipped perilously back in his chair, slumbered
+spasmodically and I must say that, though he was no beauty,
+he was a most agreeable sight.</p>
+
+<p>Fortunately for our piece of mind, it was a busy night.
+We actually needed the extra help, Olma Flynn and
+a student nurse, and the two extra uniforms, here and
+there about the wing, made it seem a little less silent
+and ghostly.</p>
+
+<p>Along about two o’clock Sonny’s light went on and
+I answered it.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, hello, Miss Keate,” he said, as I turned on
+the light above his bed. “You haven’t been in to see
+me since last night.”</p>
+
+<p>Was it only last night?</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve been busy, Sonny,” I replied. “How is the cast
+doing?”</p>
+
+<p>“It was pretty bad last night.” He moved a little
+to ease his tired body. “It is better to-night, though.
+Quite a lot more comfortable. What happened last
+night, Miss Keate? I heard somebody scream.”</p>
+
+<p>“One of the girls had a little fright.” I made my
+explanation casually but Sonny’s gaze remained puzzled.</p>
+
+<p>“To-day has been so queer, too. So many people in
+and out and strange footsteps past the door. And this
+afternoon, about two o’clock, they shut all the doors
+and I heard the wheels of a truck being taken along
+the corridor. Did—did one of the patients die, Miss
+Keate?”</p>
+
+<p>When I can’t tell the truth I made it a rule to tell
+as near the truth as possible.</p>
+
+<p>“One of the patients died, Sonny. He was an old
+gentleman.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh,” said Sonny, eyeing me doubtfully. I reached
+over to straighten his sheets. Through long hours of
+suffering, of lying helpless in bed and being at times
+rather nearer the other world than this, Sonny has
+developed a highly sensitive intuition.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh,” he said again. He was not satisfied but had
+good manners. “Did you have a nice time at the party?”
+he asked cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>“At the party—— Why, no, Sonny. It—er—wasn’t
+a very nice party. It was too hot.”</p>
+
+<p>“I guess Miss Day didn’t get time to come in and
+tell me about it. I looked for her. But she must have
+been too busy.”</p>
+
+<p>“But I thought——” I checked myself abruptly,
+continuing: “Maybe she will come in to see you to-night.
+What is it you wanted, Sonny?”</p>
+
+<p>“Just a fresh drink, please. And would you change
+my pillows?”</p>
+
+<p>I brought the fresh drink and made him as
+comfortable as possible.</p>
+
+<p>So Maida had not been in to see Sonny last night after
+all! And she had volunteered the information, I
+remembered; I had not even asked for it. I deliberated over
+the matter for some time before I came to the reluctant
+conclusion that only an affair of importance would
+have brought Maida to the point of telling a deliberate
+lie. Which conclusion did not lighten my state of mind.</p>
+
+<p>The night didn’t go so well after that.</p>
+
+<p>From midnight until four o’clock are the dreaded
+hours of St. Ann’s régime. They are gray, cold, dreary
+hours—hours when pulses lag most feebly, when the
+breath comes most wearily, when life seems a burden
+that is all too easily escaped and the other world seems
+so near that the nurse must cling to her patients with
+all her will to keep them from making that quiet, easy
+journey. It is one of the demands of our profession that
+the most is asked of our strength at a time when it is
+at its lowest ebb.</p>
+
+<p>Last night there had been two dead men in our
+wing—and dead by another’s hands. Whose hand had it
+been?</p>
+
+<p>Somehow during those black hours in that hushed
+and shadowy wing the thing that struck me with the
+most horror, that brought my heart, quivering, to my
+throat and gooseflesh all up my arms, was the memory
+of that locked closet.</p>
+
+<p>Dead men can’t walk. Dead men can’t carry keys.
+Dead men can’t lock doors.</p>
+
+<p>Who had locked that door? We <em>must</em> believe that
+it was some intruder, someone outside our little circle
+at St. Ann’s. And surely the police had searched the
+place and that fearful intruder could not still be about,
+hidden in some recess of the dark old halls and
+passageways.</p>
+
+<p>And yet—who would be familiar with the plan of
+St. Ann’s? Who would know that the radium was in
+use? Who, indeed, would know of its value?</p>
+
+<p>Eleven’s signal light clicked and I hastened to answer,
+putting down the chart at which I had been staring
+without even seeing its red temperature line.</p>
+
+<p>I found Eleven in a chill, which was followed, as I
+expected, by a raging fever under which he grew steadily
+delirious. Dr. Balman’s orders for the night had
+included an opiate if conditions warranted it, so I went
+to the drug room.</p>
+
+<p>The drug room is at the north end of the wing, directly
+opposite the diet kitchen. We always keep there
+a small supply of drugs for which we have frequent
+need. We do not keep the door locked as the drugs are
+in small quantities. In the drug room, too, we keep
+the various tools we are apt to need, among them a
+hypodermic syringe and a supply of needles. During
+the week past the syringe belonging to the south wing
+had got something wrong with its small plunger and
+Maida had brought her own outfit down for us to use,
+which had reposed beside the broken one in a drawer.</p>
+
+<p>Pulling open this drawer I lifted the only syringe it
+contained and found it to be the broken one. Maida must
+be using the other, I reflected, and after waiting a few
+moments for her to return it I started out to find her.</p>
+
+<p>She was in the kitchen, preparing a malted milk.</p>
+
+<p>“May I have the hypo?” I asked hurriedly.</p>
+
+<p>“The hypodermic syringe?”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course. I need it at once.”</p>
+
+<p>“Isn’t it in the drug room?” She was measuring the
+cream-coloured powder carefully.</p>
+
+<p>“No. I thought you had it.”</p>
+
+<p>“I haven’t used it to-night.” She did not look at me.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll see if Miss Flynn has it.” I turned quickly away.
+But Miss Flynn did not have it, and had not had it.
+She hinted that I must have overlooked it and even
+walked back to the drug room with me, pulling out the
+drawer with her own hand.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, there it is!” she exclaimed triumphantly.</p>
+
+<p>And to be sure, there it was!</p>
+
+<p>I was considerably chagrined, especially as Miss Flynn
+laughed and said something not at all witty about my
+eyesight.</p>
+
+<p>And in the very act of filling the thing I caught sight
+of something that almost made me drop it. It was only
+a scratch across the bit of nickel where the manufacturer’s
+name is engraved but it was a scratch I myself
+had made in order to identify it. In a hospital it is easy
+to get such things confused, so I had simply taken a pair
+of surgical scissors and scratched across the letter “K”
+which appeared in the manufacturer’s name,
+Kesselbach.</p>
+
+<p>My own hypodermic syringe! How had it got there?
+Like a flash my mind reverted to the memory of Maida,
+sitting on the edge of the window sill, looking at my
+tool kit and taking this same tool in her pink-tipped
+fingers.</p>
+
+<p>I administered the hypodermic automatically, sterilized
+the needle and replaced it, and returned to Eleven.</p>
+
+<p>But in that darkened room, listening to the gradually
+less rapid breathing of the sick man, and the still
+gusty wind and rain through which a slow gray dawn
+was beginning to make itself felt, I found myself
+possessed of new problems.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch05">
+
+<h2>5. A Lapis Cuff Link</h2>
+
+<p>From that morning on I took an active interest in the
+case—I mean, in solving the problem. Indeed, Mr.
+O’Leary has had the kindness to say, since, that I
+helped—well, I need not repeat his words. However, it is
+true that I did everything in my power, which was little
+enough, to solve the mystery that confronted us. While
+I am not at all inquisitive, nevertheless I do have an
+inquiring mind, due doubtless to the fact that I have
+lived in a hospital for a number of years and hospitals
+are hotbeds of gossip. Not malicious gossip, you
+understand, for nurses are one class of women in the world
+who can keep the faith which the ethics of the
+profession as well as individual integrity demand.</p>
+
+<p>But anything that happens in our small world is of
+interest; the patient in the charity ward who almost
+swallowed a thermometer and had to be up-ended and
+shaken, the precipitate arrival of a new baby in a roadster
+out in front of the hospital, or the alcoholic whose
+language shocked—or diverted as the case might
+be—a whole wing.</p>
+
+<p>Besides the fact that the murders had occurred in
+the south wing, for which I feel a responsibility—the
+wing, I mean, not the murders!—there were other and
+as serious considerations. Chief among these was the
+affair of the hypodermic syringe and Maida’s
+inexplicable behaviour the night of the seventh, and the
+presence of Jim Gainsay as testified by that gold
+cigarette case.</p>
+
+<p>A hospital ought to be sanctuary and it seemed to
+me an offense against all the laws of humanity that
+this hideous thing should have happened within our
+walls of mercy. I deliberately tried to put myself in
+the frame of mind to be suspicious about anything and
+everything—and I trust it is no reflection on my
+character to say that I succeeded without much effort.</p>
+
+<p>I found plenty to be suspicious about, and without
+going out of the way to do so. The only trouble was
+that, though I pride myself on being a keen and
+clear-minded woman and have more than the usual amount
+of determination, I could not arrive at any conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>I worried all day about Maida, however, and when
+Lance O’Leary turned up about four o’clock, with a
+polite request for an interview, I did not know whether
+to be glad or sorry.</p>
+
+<p>We went into the general waiting room to talk. It
+was a chilly place, with slippery leather-covered
+furniture and on the wall a none too cheerful picture of
+the burning of Joan of Arc. The weather had settled
+into a steady, dripping rain by that time, the clouds
+were still heavy, and the very concrete steps of the main
+entrance, just below the windows, oozed moisture. It
+was an added distress that not once during those strange
+days did we see the sun. Everything we touched was
+damp and cold and sweaty.</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary was as meticulously groomed as he had been
+the day before, but there was about him a sort of quiet
+but intense concentration that seemed to detach him
+from ordinary affairs of the world. I have seen the same
+thing in the face of an artist I used to know—and in
+the face of a dear and saintly old nun under whom I
+trained.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing, however, of the poseur about
+him. He was ordinarily rather silent, was occasionally
+oddly boyish and young, was simple and direct—it was
+his unconscious absorption that marked him. And those
+extraordinarily clear gray eyes.</p>
+
+<p>He asked a few commonplace questions as to how I
+felt, and were things going well, and was the policeman
+of any use. Then, he reached absently into his pocket
+and drew out the stubby red pencil.</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Day was your assistant in the wing the night
+of the seventh?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. We have second watch together this two
+weeks.”</p>
+
+<p>“How long has she been here at St. Ann’s?”</p>
+
+<p>“Three years.”</p>
+
+<p>“She is a good nurse, I judge? Cool and restrained?”</p>
+
+<p>“One of the best.”</p>
+
+<p>“She is a friend of yours?”</p>
+
+<p>“I admire her very much,” I said warmly. “She is a
+girl of high moral character, thoroughly honourable
+and reliable.”</p>
+
+<p>“M’h’m——” He began to roll the inevitable little
+pencil.</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose a nurse becomes fairly well acquainted
+with the other nurses, as well as the doctors, who
+frequent the hospital?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” I said doubtfully, not seeing just where his
+questions were tending.</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Day looks to be a girl of strong likes and
+dislikes.”</p>
+
+<p>Well, that was perfectly true so I contented myself
+with a nod.</p>
+
+<p>“She was a good friend of Miss Letheny’s and—of
+the doctor’s?”</p>
+
+<p>“Not—particularly,” I said slowly. “We were all
+on friendly terms. Corole had us over there often.”</p>
+
+<p>“Did Miss Day work much with Dr. Letheny?”</p>
+
+<p>“About as I did. She is a good surgical nurse.”</p>
+
+<p>“You mean she is efficient in assisting with
+operations?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose that requires—nerve? Courage? A cool
+hand?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.” I was beginning to feel uneasy.</p>
+
+<p>He paused for a moment, his gray eyes on the heavy
+clouds beyond the window.</p>
+
+<p>“Tell me again, Miss Keate, just what you did when
+you first found that Mr. Jackson was dead.”</p>
+
+<p>“I left Room 18 and went to get a candle. When I
+returned Miss Day was in the doorway of Eighteen.
+There was a flash of lightning, and I saw her and she
+spoke to me.”</p>
+
+<p>“What did she say?”</p>
+
+<p>“Just something about the storm. She had been
+closing windows in the wing.”</p>
+
+<p>“Did she know that Jackson was dead?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, no! Not until I lit the candle and she saw
+him.”</p>
+
+<p>“She was surprised, of course?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then, as I understand it, she went through the dark
+corridor to the general office to telephone to Dr.
+Letheny. Was she willing to go? Or was she—reluctant?”</p>
+
+<p>“I—she——”</p>
+
+<p>He caught my hesitation.</p>
+
+<p>“She did not wish to telephone to him?”</p>
+
+<p>“The corridor was so dark you could hardly see
+your hand before you,” I remarked crisply. “And it
+was storming.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course, of course,” said O’Leary pacifically.</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Letheny told Miss Day that the doctor was
+out,” he went on quietly. “Then she, Miss Day, had
+the presence of mind to call Dr. Balman. I suppose she
+knew his telephone number? Or was there some kind
+of light in the office?”</p>
+
+<p>“She asked Information for the number.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then Dr. Balman came out here at once?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. He was here in just a few moments. He lives
+at the first apartment house off Lake Street and it
+is only a short drive.”</p>
+
+<p>“In the meantime you waked Dr. Hajek?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. He sleeps in that little room that opens into
+the general office. He usually answers ’phone calls at
+night and—keeps an eye on things. Unless he is asleep,”
+I added waspishly, thinking of how soundly he had
+slept when we needed him most.</p>
+
+<p>“Why did not Miss Day call Dr. Hajek, when she
+called Dr. Balman?”</p>
+
+<p>“She did try to but could not wake him. But Dr.
+Balman was Dr. Letheny’s assistant and should be
+called in a matter of such importance.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then you called Dr. Hajek yourself. I suppose you
+told him what had happened.”</p>
+
+<p>“No. I was so excited that I just told him to go at
+once to Room 18. I even pushed him toward the door.”
+I smiled a little. “I took him by the coat and——”</p>
+
+<p>“Took him by the coat? Then he was fully dressed!”
+O’Leary’s gaze pierced mine.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.” I paused as a certain recollection thrust itself
+upon me. “He must have been outside! In the rain!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why do you say that?”</p>
+
+<p>“His coat was damp.”</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary studied the pencil for a long time.</p>
+
+<p>“Then what happened?” he asked finally in an
+inflectionless voice.</p>
+
+<p>“Why—then—then I got hold of some lights and
+went back to Eighteen. They were all there, Maida
+and Dr. Hajek and Dr. Balman. They were just staring
+at the patient and doing nothing. Dr. Balman told me
+that he had died of an overdose of morphine. Of course,
+I knew that not a grain of morphine had been ordered.
+So that meant that it was done purposely. It was while
+we were standing there that——” I stopped. No need
+to tell that!</p>
+
+<p>But he glanced at me quickly.</p>
+
+<p>“Go on, Miss Keate.”</p>
+
+<p>“It was nothing.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then you should not object to telling of it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well,” I began reluctantly, “it was only that, as
+we were standing there, all at once there was a tiny
+bit of red that came from the hypodermic wound. You
+know the little pin prick where the needle has been
+inserted. It was——” I coughed to hide the tremble in
+my voice. “It was—very unusual.”</p>
+
+<p>I could see that Lance O’Leary, for all his professional
+frigidity, was somewhat shaken, for his hands
+gripped the pencil tightly and he drew a deliberate
+breath.</p>
+
+<p>“That old superstition means nothing,” he said. “But
+it must have been—grisly. And there were only you and
+Miss Day and Dr. Hajek and Dr. Balman in the room?”</p>
+
+<p>My throat being dry I made an assenting gesture.</p>
+
+<p>“And—Dr. Letheny in the closet,” added O’Leary
+softly.</p>
+
+<p>At that I must have gone quite pale, for Lance
+O’Leary, eyeing me with that oddly lucid gaze, spoke
+abruptly, as if to distract my thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>“I believe you are a woman of some discretion.”</p>
+
+<p>“I ought to be! At my age.”</p>
+
+<p>“The fact inclines one to talk with you,” he said
+drily. “Look here, Miss Keate, this is not going to be
+an easy job. In the first place it is obvious that the
+guilty person is very likely someone who is familiar
+with St. Ann’s.” I made some protestant motion and
+he went on: “Surely that has occurred to you?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” I replied in a small voice.</p>
+
+<p>“Why?”</p>
+
+<p>“Because it must have been someone who knew that
+the radium was being used and in what room.”</p>
+
+<p>“And one who was familiar enough with the hospital
+routine to know the best time to enter the wing
+unobserved,” said O’Leary.</p>
+
+<p>“That eliminates Jim Gainsay,” I remarked without
+thinking.</p>
+
+<p>He regarded me keenly.</p>
+
+<p>“We will come to him later,” he said. “As to the
+radium—yes, I think we can assume that the radium
+theft was at least one of the motives. Its disappearance
+indicates that, though it might be merely a blind. But
+the radium is very valuable, a small fortune to many
+men. As a matter of routine we have taken steps to
+insure the immediate reporting of anyone trying to
+dispose of a quantity of radium. I do not expect to hear
+from this, however, for the person who has the radium
+will naturally wait until this affair has blown over
+before attempting to sell the stuff. Yes, the radium
+theft may account for the death of Jackson but not
+for Dr. Letheny. At least not unless——”</p>
+
+<p>“Unless he caught the thief?” I interrupted eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>“If that were true, how account for his stealthy
+return to St. Ann’s and the fact that he did not call
+for help?” He paused but I said nothing and he
+continued: “Then there is the obvious conjecture that
+the person who administered the morphine must have
+been either so skilled that he could do so without
+awaking Jackson, or someone to whom the patient was
+accustomed. Dr. Letheny had charge of the case——”</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Hajek helped him some,” I blurted. “And
+Dr. Balman was in to see him once or twice. And there
+were the nurses——”</p>
+
+<p>“Then it appears to lie between Dr. Hajek and Dr.
+Balman and you and Miss Day,” said O’Leary all too
+coolly. I gasped and he went on: “And the unknown
+element which is always to be considered. We can’t
+tell which died first—Dr. Letheny or his patient. We
+do not even know for certain whether Dr. Letheny
+met his death inside the walls of the hospital or not,
+but I have reason to believe that it was in Room 18.
+Otherwise it would have been difficult and purposeless,
+so far as I can see, to convey his body into the room
+and into that closet. Almost impossible for a woman,”
+he added as if in afterthought, and his eyes on that
+aggravating pencil. “I am inclined to think that the
+sound you heard and believed to be a window dropping
+to the sill was actually the blow that meant death for
+Dr. Letheny.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh——!”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.” His eyes were meeting mine, searching my
+face so intently that I felt as if my very thoughts were
+visible to them. “Now, Miss Keate, please tell me
+something of this Corole Letheny. I understand that
+she and her cousin were not on the best of terms.”</p>
+
+<p>“That is true,” I acknowledged hesitantly.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t be afraid of incriminating anyone,” said
+O’Leary impatiently. “Clues are funny things. When
+they seem to point one way they are very apt, on close
+investigation, to point another way entirely. So please
+don’t hesitate to answer my questions.”</p>
+
+<p>This reassured me somewhat; not that I have ever
+cared for Corole Letheny, but one does pause to
+consider one’s speech in such a serious matter.</p>
+
+<p>“Corole and Dr. Letheny never did get along well
+together. But I don’t think she can be involved in this.”
+Thinking of the oddly mud-stained slippers, I paused
+again. That incident could have had nothing to do with
+the murders, of course, but still it was singular.</p>
+
+<p>“What is it, Miss Keate?”</p>
+
+<p>Before I knew it I had told him of the muddied
+bronze kid pumps.</p>
+
+<p>“Indicating that Miss Letheny had some errand that
+took her hurriedly into the storm and that within a
+few moments following the discovery of Dr. Letheny’s
+death. Suppose you ask this maid, Huldah, about it.
+She will be more willing to talk to you. Oh, yes”—he
+smiled a little—“we must investigate every incident,
+every straw, no matter how small and insignificant it
+appears. And moreover,” he drew something from his
+pocket, “I am interested in Miss Letheny because of
+this.” He placed the small, square object on the table
+before us. I stared. It was Corole Letheny’s revolver.
+She had bragged about the thing often enough so I had
+no difficulty recognizing it. Someone had made her a
+gift of it, and it was very unsuitably decorated with
+some sort of silver trumpery and had her initials
+engraved upon it.</p>
+
+<p>“We found this on the floor of the closet in which
+Dr. Letheny was found,” said O’Leary quietly.</p>
+
+<p>For a long moment I sat there in silence, my eyes
+fascinated by the dully gleaming thing. What could
+it tell?</p>
+
+<p>“But—neither of the men was shot!” I said at length.</p>
+
+<p>“No,” agreed O’Leary, still quietly. “No. There is
+only the fact to go on that Corole Letheny’s revolver
+was found in the room where two men met their death
+in one night. That is all. It only indicates her probable
+presence at some time in the room. And a revolver
+usually means that whoever carried it had reason to
+believe he was in danger—or expected trouble of some
+kind.”</p>
+
+<p>“But—Dr. Letheny might have brought it himself.
+He might have suspected that someone was planning
+to steal the radium.”</p>
+
+<p>Lance O’Leary smiled slowly.</p>
+
+<p>“You are loyal, Miss Keate. It may interest you to
+know that on going through Dr. Letheny’s deed box,
+I found that he was the beneficiary of a reasonably large
+income and that on his death it goes to Corole. I find,
+too—you see we detectives make our living by questions
+and answers,” he interpolated, as I suppose I
+looked as I felt, very much puzzled at the knowledge
+he appeared to have secured—“I find, too, that Dr.
+Letheny kept his household down to the most moderate
+of expenses and gave Miss Letheny only a barely
+sufficient allowance.”</p>
+
+<p>“It is true that she has complained a great deal
+about money,” I admitted thoughtfully. “She is rather
+beautiful, you know, and loves to dress well.”</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>“You have seen her then?” I asked.</p>
+
+<p>“Yesterday. I talked to her. Yes, I suppose she does
+love clothes and finery. It is on account of her—dark
+blood.”</p>
+
+<p>“Her what?” I sat bolt upright.</p>
+
+<p>“Good Lord, Miss Keate! Didn’t you know that?”</p>
+
+<p>“Know that Corole Letheny is a——?”</p>
+
+<p>“I think it comes to her by way of Haiti,” he
+interrupted. “And a very beautiful mother.”</p>
+
+<p>“But—her light hair and eyes! You must be
+mistaken!”</p>
+
+<p>“Her eyes are yellow, Miss Keate. A good deal
+like a tiger’s. In fact she is a rather tigerish lady, on
+the whole. I suspected it when I first saw her brown
+hands, and was convinced when I found a reference to
+her in Dr. Letheny’s papers; once he mentions her
+rather bitterly as ‘my mulatto cousin,’ and another
+time refers to her birthplace and his aunt, Jolbar, who,
+it seems, traced her lineage directly, if unobtrusively,
+to a cannibalistic royal line. Don’t be so shocked, Miss
+Keate. A little mixture of blood doesn’t hurt her. It
+only increases my difficulty.”</p>
+
+<p>“Increases your difficulty?” I murmured, feeling
+rather dazed.</p>
+
+<p>“By increasing the complexities of a personality
+that I must classify and index. You see,” he went on,
+as I still did not wholly understand him, “Corole is
+a factor to be considered along with the rest of the
+possibilities. And this fact warns me that she likely
+has a streak of savagery back of those yellow eyes; that
+the beat of tom-toms would stir her, for instance. She
+is apt to be rather indolent, too, and to seek what she
+desires in unconventional ways. Such as by the use of
+revolvers.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes,” I murmured idiotically. “Murder <em>is</em>
+unconventional.”</p>
+
+<p>“So you see, the counts against Corole are interesting,
+to say the least. Then, there are the others at that
+ill-fated dinner party. We shall have to consider the
+possible culpability of every single one of them—even
+of you, Miss Keate.” He added this with a half smile
+but I did not relish his joke—if joke it was. I was
+inclined to think it was not.</p>
+
+<p>“Corole Letheny,” he checked her off on his fingers.
+“Because her revolver was found in the closet of Room
+18, because she knew of the radium being in use
+and of the hospital routine and of the door being left
+unlocked and because she benefits by Dr. Letheny’s
+death.”</p>
+
+<p>“But I’m sure she did not know what had happened
+to the radium,” I said, going hastily on to tell him of
+her questions concerning it.</p>
+
+<p>“She shows considerable interest, however,” commented
+O’Leary. “And at an inappropriate time, too.
+Yes, we must consider Corole.”</p>
+
+<p>“But she—oh, she could not have done that!” I
+cried, revolted.</p>
+
+<p>“We can’t be sure of anything, Miss Keate, until
+it is proved,” remarked O’Leary drily. “Then, there
+is Dr. Hajek; he was like the others, familiar with the
+circumstances, he had access to the morphine, being a
+doctor, and his coat was damp when, after some delay,
+you finally succeeded in rousing him, which, of course,
+leads one to believe that he was absent from his room
+and had recently been out in the rain.”</p>
+
+<p>“But,” I objected, “Dr. Hajek was the only one
+of us who did not admit to wanting money—if we are
+to consider the radium as the motive.”</p>
+
+<p>“That does not prove anything. Indeed, it was more
+natural to admit a desire that everybody experiences
+at one time or another. Then, there was Dr. Balman.
+He, too, was familiar with the circumstances. Of course
+there remains the important questions of how Dr.
+Letheny comes into the puzzle, and whether Dr. Balman
+could have had time to drive to his apartment in order
+to be there when the telephone rang to call him back
+to the hospital.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes,” I said thoughtfully. “He could have
+done so. You see, just as the storm broke and I was
+at the south door, closing it, I saw the lights of a car
+on the lower road. That <em>could</em> have been Dr. Balman.
+But the idea is absurd. Dr. Balman is too mild, too
+kind—too—— Oh! It is impossible!”</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing is impossible,” commented Lance O’Leary
+gravely. “But those lights may have belonged to
+another car. One driven by Jim Gainsay.”</p>
+
+<p>I may have imagined it, but it seemed to me, in view
+of my guilty knowledge of that cigarette case, that he
+eyed me rather closely as he spoke. However, if so
+he gained nothing by it, for I was honestly surprised.</p>
+
+<p>“Jim Gainsay!” I cried.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” he answered, going on to explain. “The
+sedan owned by Dr. Letheny was seen standing in front
+of the Western Union office at about two o’clock that
+night. This information was brought to my ears and
+upon investigation I found that Gainsay took the
+Doctor’s car—Huldah, in fact, saw him leave—and drove
+into the city, starting shortly before the storm began.
+He sent a message, of which I shall have a copy before
+the day is over. We also know that Gainsay frankly
+said he intended to get hold of fifty thousand
+dollars—wasn’t it that?” I nodded dumbly and he went
+on. “And he intended to go to New York this morning
+but is still here, work or no work. Also, as with the
+others, he knew something of the circumstances, and
+while his being able to obtain and administer morphine
+is a point to consider, still I understand that engineers
+almost have to have a practical working knowledge
+of medicine. But even if we could safely exonerate
+him from causing Jackson’s death there is still the death
+of Dr. Letheny, for which somebody is responsible.
+And this Gainsay is a strong young fellow who looks
+as if he would stick at little.”</p>
+
+<p>“But he looks honest, too,” I protested.</p>
+
+<p>“They all look honest. Everyone of you.”</p>
+
+<p>“It seems terrible to consider people one knows in
+such a sordid connection. Why not all the other people
+in and around the hospital?”</p>
+
+<p>He looked at me as if he were amused.</p>
+
+<p>“But, Miss Keate, is it possible that you do not
+know that we immediately accounted for every soul
+in St. Ann’s? And that every nurse and every patient
+has a perfect alibi, save you and Miss Day, Dr.
+Balman and Dr. Hajek? In a hospital run with such
+efficient routine as this one, it is a simple matter. The
+only person besides those I have mentioned, for whom
+we can’t be absolutely certain, is Higgins, and that
+because he sleeps in the basement next to the furnace room
+and no one saw or heard of him during that night, since
+no one else sleeps in the basement. Of course, we shall
+have to include him in our list of suspects, but so far
+there is nothing but opportunity with which to suspect
+him.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then Maida and I are the only nurses who cannot
+prove just where we were between twelve-thirty and
+two o’clock that night?” I asked uneasily.</p>
+
+<p>“We know <em>where</em> you were,” said Lance O’Leary
+very soberly. “You were both in the south wing.” He
+paused to look at his watch, a thin, platinum affair
+that reposed in a pocket of his impeccable vest, and
+I felt a quite warranted chill creep up my back.</p>
+
+<p>“So you see our paths of search are limited,” he said
+easily, replacing the watch, and returning to that
+abominable red pencil.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” I agreed weakly. “Limited.” Altogether too
+limited!</p>
+
+<p>“Of course, there is always what I spoke of as the
+unknown element. There might have been an outside
+intruder, but so far nothing has come to light that would
+indicate that possibility. The use of the radium seems
+to have been absolutely unknown to all but the hospital
+staff and the guests at Miss Letheny’s dinner party.
+Now then, Miss Keate, there are three things that
+particularly interest me to-day. One of them is the
+identity of the man with whom you collided at the
+corner of the porch. Did you receive any sort of
+impression that would serve to identify him?”</p>
+
+<p>Nervously I tried to think of something besides the
+cigarette case.</p>
+
+<p>“He—I think he wore a raincoat. I seem to remember
+the slippery feeling of rubber. And I think he must
+have been wearing a dinner-jacket, for I seem to recall
+feeling his starched shirt front.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then it might have been one of the four men at
+Corole Letheny’s dinner?”</p>
+
+<p>“It might have been, of course,” I spoke rather
+irritably, as I foresaw the next questions.</p>
+
+<p>“Was it Dr. Letheny?”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t think so. I can’t be sure.”</p>
+
+<p>He was surveying me so closely that I found my eyes
+going toward the floor in spite of myself.</p>
+
+<p>“Was it Dr. Balman?”</p>
+
+<p>“It might have been. Though it seemed he was a
+little taller than Dr. Balman.” I was studying the roses
+on the old-fashioned Brussels.</p>
+
+<p>“Was it Dr. Hajek?” he went on mercilessly.</p>
+
+<p>“I—I tell you, I can’t be sure who it was. It might
+have been anybody.”</p>
+
+<p>He leaned back in his chair and I could feel his
+smile.</p>
+
+<p>“I’m beginning to understand your—er—temperament,”
+he said easily. “I suppose it was this Jim Gainsay.
+Now you may as well tell me what you were doing
+with his cigarette case in your laundry bag.”</p>
+
+<p>I blinked.</p>
+
+<p>“How did you know it was there?”</p>
+
+<p>“A policeman found it while searching your room.”</p>
+
+<p>“Searching my room!”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. We have had all the personal belongings of
+those in whom we are—interested—searched. We were
+at first surprised to find you were addicted to
+smoking——and more surprised when we traced its ownership.
+Now, please, tell me just how you came upon it.”</p>
+
+<p>In as few words as possible I complied.</p>
+
+<p>“Will you hold Jim Gainsay?” I asked finally, as he
+turned and twisted the stubby red pencil thoughtfully
+in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>“We shall watch him,” he amended. “So far he has
+stayed of his own free will, a thing that is in itself
+strange. Of course, if he should attempt to leave I
+should be forced to restrain him.”</p>
+
+<p>The dinner bell rang just then and he looked at his
+watch, again frowning as he noted the time.</p>
+
+<p>“Another thing, Miss Keate. That smell of ether
+interests me. Especially since to our knowledge ether
+was not used at all. Are you sure?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.” I spoke decidedly. “I am sure now, because
+of the slicker I wore yesterday afternoon.”</p>
+
+<p>“The slicker?” he inquired. “Yesterday afternoon?”
+And listened intently while I explained the whole thing.</p>
+
+<p>“And you had no means of identifying it?” he asked,
+presently.</p>
+
+<p>“No. Everybody wears a yellow slicker. You know
+how popular they have been the last year or two.”</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>“I wear one myself,” he said. “Well, thanks a lot,
+Miss Keate. You are a present help in time of trouble.”
+He smiled at me with that engagingly warm and
+youthful look.</p>
+
+<p>I started toward the hall, paused and turned around.</p>
+
+<p>“Didn’t you say there were three things you were
+particularly interested in right now?” I said. “What
+is the third one?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, yes.” He studied me for a moment as if to see
+how far the discretion with which he had complimented
+me might be trusted. Then he drew something from his
+pocket—something so small that it was hidden in his
+hand until he held it toward me.</p>
+
+<p>And when I looked, I cried out and shrank back,
+my heart leaping to my throat. There on his outstretched
+palm lay a small cuff link; it was a neat square
+of lapis lazuli, set in engraved white gold.</p>
+
+<p>“I see that you recognize it?”</p>
+
+<p>Speechlessly, I made a motion of assent.</p>
+
+<p>“You need not tell me that it is Miss Day’s. I already
+know that. One or two of the nurses recognized it
+as I left it casually on the table in the general office.
+Oh, I watched it carefully—I suppose they thought she
+had lost it. They did not know where it was found.”</p>
+
+<p>“Where it was found——” I repeated, huskily, my
+voice losing itself somewhere in my throat.</p>
+
+<p>“It was found—in Dr. Letheny’s pocket.” He spoke
+very deliberately, his clear, gray eyes searching mine.
+Then he turned. “Good-night, Miss Keate,” he said
+courteously and was gone.</p>
+
+<p>As for me, I stood there quite still, staring at the
+gathering darkness outside the window, and at the
+slow rivulets of moisture trickling down the glass.
+Finally I aroused myself, straightened my cap, and
+moved toward the door. I was late for dinner, of course,
+and remember that someone was complaining about the
+steak being burned. It might have been ashes so far
+as I was concerned. Once I stole a look at Maida, across
+from me and down the table a few places. She was
+very white and tired-looking and it seemed to me that
+she avoided my eyes. I felt rather sick as I noted that,
+though it was a chilly day, she was wearing a uniform
+with short sleeves that had no need of cuff links.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch06">
+
+<h2>6. I Make a Discovery—and Regret It</h2>
+
+<p>I must admit that I went about my duties somewhat
+automatically that night and could not help keeping
+an eye on Maida, not from suspicion, you understand,
+but simply because the matters of recent development
+troubled me considerably. Indeed, I had plenty to think
+of that night.</p>
+
+<p>Corole’s dinner party, followed by its terrifying
+sequel, had taken place on Thursday night. Early Friday
+afternoon the body of Dr. Letheny had been found.
+Friday night we had taken second watch with the policeman
+tipped against the sinister door of Room 18, and
+Saturday was the day just past. It was while I was
+sitting at the chart desk during second watch of
+Saturday night—really early Sunday morning—that
+the amazing idea occurred to me. I had been staring at
+the charts, absorbed in the baffling problems those days
+had brought, when all at once I began thinking of the
+morphine.</p>
+
+<p>Might it not prove something if we were to discover
+where that morphine had come from? Morphine is
+not something that one carries about in a pocket or
+vanity bag; it is very difficult to secure and in St. Ann’s
+a most rigid check is kept on the quantities of the drug
+used. Would the morphine record for that week in the
+south wing balance?</p>
+
+<p>With the thought I was up on my feet and starting
+toward the drug room. As I passed the door of the
+diet kitchen I saw Maida standing at the open window.
+Why do women bother with silks and laces and jewels
+when there is nothing that so sets off beauty as the
+severe, white simplicity of the nurse’s uniform? Maida’s
+face was like a proud young flower above the white collar
+of her tailored uniform. The stiff white cap perched
+piquantly on top of her head and contrasted nicely with
+her soft black hair. Her eyes were a deeper blue, her
+clear, gardenia skin and soft crimson lips were still
+lovelier above that plain white dress. I sighed, glanced
+down the corridor to see that there were no signal
+lights, and slipped into the drug room, closing the door.</p>
+
+<p>A dose of morphine is a simple matter to prepare;
+it is the administering that requires skill. The preparation
+is a mere mixture of sterile water with the white
+morphine tablet, in the amount prescribed. At St. Ann’s
+there is a careful check of the amounts used, and the
+drug room record must check with the doctors’ orders.
+It was a simple matter for me to compare the two
+records with the remaining supply of morphine. And
+it was with a heart that dropped to my shoes that I
+found they emphatically did not check. And that the
+amount of discrepancy was more than enough to drug
+a person far more heavily than was safe.</p>
+
+<p>When had this disappeared and how? A young,
+strong man might survive such a dose, or one accustomed
+to taking the drug. But an old man, whose heart
+reaction would be slow—well, it seemed all too apparent
+that the morphine that had killed Jackson might have
+come from our own south wing drug room. It was not
+a pleasant possibility.</p>
+
+<p>Maida was still in the kitchen when I passed it again
+and I stopped. She was washing her slim, pink fingers
+vigorously.</p>
+
+<p>“Eleven does get hungry at the most erratic times.
+He wants beef tea now and an hour ago he had malted
+milk,” she said, drying her hands.</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Gainsay did not leave Friday after all,” I said,
+coming directly to one of the things that troubled me.</p>
+
+<p>She glanced swiftly toward me, lifted her straight
+black eyebrows a little, and spoke rather coolly.</p>
+
+<p>“Evidently not. He said his boat did not sail till next
+week. Is this beef extract fresh?”</p>
+
+<p>“I think so. I suppose he is quite a comfort to Corole.”</p>
+
+<p>“Corole needs friends at a time like this,” said Maida.</p>
+
+<p>“Of course, he was such a good friend of Dr.—Letheny.”
+For the life of me I could not speak that
+name naturally and easily.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” agreed Maida briefly. She turned to the stove,
+lit the gas flame, and held a small saucepan of water
+over the blue points of fire. I could not see her face.</p>
+
+<p>“Maida,” I said abruptly, “when did you last see
+Dr. Letheny—alive?”</p>
+
+<p>She whirled toward me at that, and—well, it was
+not nice to stand there and see her face turn a dreadful,
+slow white with bluish hollows around her mouth and
+nose. But she answered at length, quite clearly:</p>
+
+<p>“I last saw him at Corole’s dinner party. When we
+said good-night and left.”</p>
+
+<p>She looked into my eyes for a moment after she
+ceased to speak, almost as if she were daring me to deny
+her statement. And I knew that it could not be true.
+Else how could her lapis cuff link have got out of the
+snowy cuff in which I had seen her place it <em>after</em> we
+were safely within the walls of St. Ann’s, and into Dr.
+Letheny’s pocket?</p>
+
+<p>“Oh—Sarah,” she cried suddenly, throwing out her
+hands toward me in a gesture that was like an appeal
+and with a half sob in her voice. But as suddenly she
+drew her hands sharply backward and turned again
+to the stove. To this day the salty, meaty smell of beef
+boiling always brings to me a vision of those shining,
+white-tiled walls and the enamelled gas stove and
+Maida’s straight, white-clad shoulders and beautiful,
+troubled face.</p>
+
+<p>“Tell me,” I said at last. “Is there anything you know
+that might help solve this mystery?”</p>
+
+<p>But Maida turned an unfathomable blue gaze
+toward me.</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing. Nothing that would help.”</p>
+
+<p>And it was not until she had departed with the beef
+tea steaming hot on a tray that I noted her ambiguous
+wording.</p>
+
+<p>I could not disguise to myself the fact that I was
+deeply alarmed. Particularly because I had caught her,
+and wished I had not, in a deliberate lie. Either that
+or that abominable cuff link had simply jumped itself
+out of her cuff and into the pocket of Dr. Letheny’s
+immaculate dinner coat.</p>
+
+<p>I shall not conceal the fact that I gave voice to
+several expletives that made up in fervour for what
+they lacked in content. And I had learned quite a
+vocabulary from my parrot, a nice bird who died last
+year on his ninety-sixth birthday, unless the dealer lied,
+and was much mourned by those of the nurses whose
+rooms are at the far end of the dormitory. Owing to
+the night air making the dear bird talkative there was
+a sort of feeling against him among the rooms within
+hearing distance of my own.</p>
+
+<p>However, in this case the utmost of his vocabulary
+did not relieve my feelings.</p>
+
+<p>All went as well as might be expected, and we did
+not once need a policeman, so it was as well that he
+had been withdrawn. Of course, I’m not saying it was
+a pleasant watch, for it was not. The south end of
+the corridor seemed darker than any other portion
+of it and the sinister door of Eighteen was somehow
+black and menacing and altogether unpleasant. But on
+the whole the night passed quietly, which was a mercy,
+for that was the last night that we pinned on our caps
+with any assurance of how long they would stay there.
+Dawn came at last, cold and gray, and with it the slow
+melancholy sound of the five o’clock bell for early
+prayers. The north wing of St. Ann’s ends in a small chapel
+that is dignified with age and has a pipe organ, high
+walnut pews, and old, stained-glass windows. It is open
+on week days for prayer and meditation and on
+Sundays the young assistant rector from St. B——’s down
+in the city comes to St. Ann’s to conduct prayers and
+confession and church.</p>
+
+<p>The Sunday then dawning was destined to remain
+long in my memory as a sort of interlude between what
+had been and what was to follow.</p>
+
+<p>In the first place, Morgue, the basement cat, who
+is thin and ill-tempered and kept for utilitarian
+purposes only, surprised us all by having three healthy
+kittens. For some years the assumption had been that
+this was a feat biologically impossible and the news,
+brought to the table by a student nurse who had actually
+seen the kittens, caused quite a stir and for a moment
+distracted our minds from the too-absorbing problems
+of the last few days.</p>
+
+<p>There were some disbelievers at table, this despite
+the student nurse appearing to clinch the matter by
+quoting Higgins’s opinion that Morgue had displayed
+considerable talent in this connection, and after
+breakfast we all trooped down to the furnace room to see
+with our own eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Higgins was down there, fussing around a grape
+basket which he had lined with an old duster, which,
+by the way, made the baby cats smell quite distinctly
+of cedar oil and must have puzzled their proud and
+complacent mother. The kittens themselves were not
+much to boast of, resembling, indeed, very young and
+scrawny rats and squirming vigorously and squealing
+when the girls picked them up and passed them from
+one to the other. There was a heated discussion over
+their names; it was felt they should bear some relation
+to the mother’s name, and Morgue is not an easy name
+with which to relate. They settled on Accident,
+Appendicitis, and Ambulance. The kittens were all black, to
+my mind not a particularly happy or propitious colour,
+and Melvina Smith, who is pale and superstitious and
+would not touch an opal with a ten-foot rod, exclaimed
+in italics that trouble was coming to St. Ann’s. Upon
+which someone murmured that trouble had already
+come and Melvina said, yes, but it always came in
+Threes and these three black cats were a sure sign that
+bad luck would come in threes here. She pointed out,
+reasonably enough, that Morgue could as well have
+had four kittens, or two, but no, she had had three.
+And that furthermore, who ever heard of Morgue having
+kittens before, and it was certain she had had them
+this time just to warn us of the third—er—trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Well, for my part, I felt that Morgue would not go
+to so much bother, she being by nature unobliging
+and apt to mistrust our most friendly advances. But already
+the girls were putting the kittens in the basket and
+casting rather frightened glances into Morgue’s
+inscrutable yellow eyes, and drifting toward the stairway.
+I could have wrung Melvina’s foolish little neck, but
+naturally I followed them.</p>
+
+<p>On the way upstairs Olma Flynn remarked earnestly
+that it was nice that Morgue hadn’t had ten kittens.
+Upon which several of the less idiotic laughed and
+Melvina cast a look of pale reproach upon Olma, who,
+as a matter of fact, had spoken with single-minded
+gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>As I reached the top of the stairs Higgins called
+to me.</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Keate.”</p>
+
+<p>I turned. He was standing at the foot of the stairs,
+looking up.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“Can you spare some time now, Miss Keate? There
+was—something I wanted to—ask you about.”</p>
+
+<p>I hesitated. It seems to me that when anyone around
+St. Ann’s has a complaint it is brought to my ears and
+I was in no mood that morning to listen to complaints.</p>
+
+<p>“I was just going to get some sleep, Higgins,” I said.
+“Will another time do?”</p>
+
+<p>How often, since then, I have wished that I had
+stopped then and there. But I thought of nothing more
+important than leaky gutterpipes or the canna bulbs not
+doing well.</p>
+
+<p>“Well—yes,” agreed Higgins slowly. Something in
+his tone made me regard him sharply, thinking that
+he seemed quite reluctant and perplexed. However, as
+I say, I was tired and sleepy and had already more
+than enough problems before me, so I took my way
+upstairs.</p>
+
+<p>On the way I picked up the Sunday paper. The
+supplement had the hospital pictures again, groups of
+nurses, a sort of history of St. Ann’s, stressing its long
+years of service but winding up with a lurid résumé of
+the past few days, which is the way of Sunday
+supplements but not unpleasant. I even found a picture of
+myself taken some years ago when pompadours and bosoms
+were in style. It was not a flattering picture and neither
+was the caption below it, which described me as one of
+St. Ann’s oldest nurses! Oldest in point of service, it
+went on to say tactfully, but the picture dated me
+indisputably and I flung the paper in the waste basket and
+tried to compose myself to sleep. And, I might add, did
+not succeed.</p>
+
+<p>I found the noon service in the little chapel remarkably
+well attended, with prayer books in evidence and
+the nurses turning out <i>en masse</i>. The young rector
+preached a rather nice sermon about “Be ye not afraid,”
+which I considered a little too apropos for comfort
+and good taste.</p>
+
+<p>Sunday is usually a rather festive day in St. Ann’s
+but that Sunday was anything but pleasant. No visitors
+were permitted, which made the patients fretful
+and hard to please. Moreover, we could not prevent
+an almost constant stream of morbidly inclined
+sight-seers whose automobiles splashed along the muddy
+road in front of the hospital, and who stared through
+the fog and pointed with melancholy satisfaction.</p>
+
+<p>I drifted uneasily about the dismal corridors for
+some time before I found Maida, ensconced unhappily
+in a cold window seat with a magazine which she was
+holding upside down.</p>
+
+<p>She had not been to see Corole yet, she told me, and
+was dreading the visit that convention demanded.
+Wouldn’t I go with her? And though I had no relish
+for Corole’s company I found myself following the
+blue and scarlet of Maida’s nurse’s cape along that
+sodden, desolate path, holding my own cape tight around
+me and wishing I had brought an umbrella.</p>
+
+<p>On the porch we met Dr. Hajek, just leaving.</p>
+
+<p>“Bad weather,” he murmured as we passed him. His
+dark eyes slanted knowingly toward us; his face was
+very fresh and ruddy and his square teeth gleamed
+under that small black moustache.</p>
+
+<p>Huldah opened the door, her cap very properly on
+her head this time but her face sullen.</p>
+
+<p>We found Corole comfortably seated in what had
+been Dr. Letheny’s study, a warm fire glowing in the
+grate and the tea cart drawn up to the davenport and
+laden with her best silver tea service and some fascinating
+little French pastries that could only have come
+from Pierre’s, a very exclusive and high-priced sweet
+shop. I registered the impression that Corole was not
+wasting any time enjoying her newly augmented income,
+and gave my cape to Huldah. Corole and Maida were
+murmuring polite sentences and, recalling my promise
+to O’Leary, I followed Huldah to the hall.</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Letheny feeling any better, Huldah?” I asked.</p>
+
+<p>She gave me an expressive glance.</p>
+
+<p>“H’m!” she grunted. “There’s not much mourning
+going on in this house! She—” she jerked her head
+toward the study—“dresses all up like a hussy every
+day and entertains callers. You know as well as I do
+that ain’t any way for a lady to do!”</p>
+
+<p>“I noticed she was wearing that green silk thing
+with her bronze slippers the other day,” I remarked
+tentatively.</p>
+
+<p>“She won’t wear them bronze pumps again, anyhow,”
+said Huldah in dour satisfaction. “She had to
+wear them out in the rain and now they are ruined.”</p>
+
+<p>“Had to wear them out in the rain?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, ma’am! The very afternoon we heard the bad
+news. Not an hour after them gentlemen was at the
+house to tell her about the doctor being dead. Nice
+gentlemen they was, too—them police officers.” She
+stopped, apparently musing on certain blue-coated
+figures. I had to prod her gently.</p>
+
+<p>“Where was she going in such a hurry that she didn’t
+change her shoes?”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness knows! As soon as they had gone she
+grabbed a shawl and ran out the back door and across
+the alfalfa field. The last I saw she was scooting into
+the apple orchard and she didn’t get back for a full
+hour. It was raining, too, and she might have taken
+an umbrella at least. But not she! Catch her doing
+anything like a Christian!” concluded Huldah resentfully.</p>
+
+<p>“Would you like some tea, miss?” she went on, after
+a moment’s brooding. “Some tea and one of my own
+cakes I made myself yesterday before she ordered them
+silly French things? Like as not poison, too, with all
+such coloured candies on top.”</p>
+
+<p>“Indeed, I should, Huldah,” I said soothingly,
+though her cakes are, as a rule, sprinkled too liberally
+with caraway seeds. “And let me have a small anchovy
+sandwich,” I added, thereby winning her to a reluctant
+smile as she departed kitchenward.</p>
+
+<p>I was not much wiser than I had been, and I really
+could not see that I could have questioned Huldah any
+further. Anyway it was likely she had told me all she
+knew, for Huldah’s natural disposition is to spread
+anything she hears.</p>
+
+<p>I joined the other two in the study in time to catch
+a strained something in the atmosphere that made me
+pause involuntarily and look from one to the other.
+Maida was standing very stiff and straight, her eyes
+flaming like blue fire, her fingers clutched together
+until the knuckles and fingernails were white, and her
+whole attitude breathing defiance and anger and—yes,
+alarm. Corole was lying gracefully back in her chair,
+her creamy lace teagown falling softly away from her
+brown neck, the topaz on one hand catching light from
+the fire, and her strange eyes narrowed lazily in an
+expression so like Morgue’s that I almost gasped.</p>
+
+<p>But as to that, resemblance to a cat or other animal
+is nothing to hold against a person, I argued reasonably
+to myself; there is a cashier in the City National who
+looks like nothing so much as a mild and woolly sheep
+and is yet, as far as I know, an upright and respectable
+man.</p>
+
+<p>Neither Maida nor Corole seemed inclined to break
+that brittle silence, so I settled wearily into a chair.</p>
+
+<p>“Huldah seems to resent the French pastries,” I
+said. “Where did you get them, Corole? At Pierre’s?”</p>
+
+<p>“She resents everything,” said Corole indolently.
+“Yes. At Pierre’s. You must try them. I’ll make some
+fresh tea. Do sit down, Maida. You make me nervous,
+standing there so stiff.”</p>
+
+<p>I think Maida was about to say something, but just
+then Jim Gainsay lounged into the room, straightened
+up with interest when he saw Maida, and she subsided
+into a chair while he greeted us with every evidence
+of pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>It was, however, a very uncomfortable hour, with
+the conversation painfully limited to commonplaces,
+Jim trying in vain to catch Maida’s eyes, and Huldah
+slapping down the tea things with venom and making
+it distressingly clear that I, alone of the company, was
+in her good graces. Corole was almost indecently easy
+and flippant in her manner, and Maida very quiet.</p>
+
+<p>As for me, I was reminded vividly of the last time
+we had been together in that room, especially after
+Dr. Balman arrived. His coming made the gathering
+begin to seem too much like a party, so I prepared to
+leave. But Dr. Balman had come on business, and after
+speaking in a low aside to Corole he went to Dr.
+Letheny’s desk, glanced hastily through a card index,
+and noted something in his small notebook. I remember
+thinking as he did so that Dr. Balman was not having
+an easy time of it; it is difficult enough to step suddenly
+into the position of head of a hospital, without having
+the burden of investigations into two murders on one’s
+hands. And Dr. Balman looked as if he were feeling
+the strain of his duties, for his mild eyes had circles
+under them, his scant eyebrows wore a perplexed frown,
+and his pale cheeks were hollow. He looked as if he had
+not been eating much lately, and indeed, I didn’t
+wonder at it. The bruise on his cheek had not received
+proper attention, for it was dark and ugly-looking and
+I longed to take it in hand.</p>
+
+<p>“Is that what you wanted, Dr. Balman?” asked
+Corole.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes—yes. This is all.” He was writing busily.</p>
+
+<p>“You must have some tea,” offered Corole
+graciously.</p>
+
+<p>“What?— Oh, tea?” Dr. Balman compared the
+notes he had written with the original and raised his
+eyes to glance about the room with rather obvious
+distaste. He was always a man of keen sensibility and I
+daresay he felt much as I had felt on entering this
+room that spoke so clearly of Dr. Letheny.</p>
+
+<p>He was about to decline, I think, when Huldah
+opened the door, said “Mr. O’Leary,” as if she were
+firing a shotgun, and Lance O’Leary entered, his gray
+eyes twinkling a little at the manner of his
+announcement.</p>
+
+<p>It was odd to see how the appearance of this slight,
+perfectly groomed young man, with his clear, gray eyes
+and thoughtful, well-shaven face, affected us all. Dr.
+Balman sat down slowly as if after all he had decided
+to stay. Jim Gainsay fastened a narrow, enigmatic look
+upon the newcomer and lit another cigarette, Maida’s
+eyes widened a little and her hands sought each other
+in her white lap—and Corole adjusted the lace of her
+gown, smiled seductively at O’Leary, remembered she
+was mourning and sobered wistfully.</p>
+
+<p>“No, thanks,” said O’Leary pleasantly. “No tea,
+Miss Letheny. I hope you’ll forgive my intrusion but
+I came on business.”</p>
+
+<p>Corole blinked but repeated warmly: “Business?”
+and motioned toward a chair.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Thanks, yes, I’ll sit down.” He drew a chair
+nearer the glowing fire. “It’s wet out,” he remarked
+with a half smile.</p>
+
+<p>“Would you like something besides tea?” asked
+Corole, her graceful brown hand on the tiny silver
+bell that decorated the tea cart. I could not help noting
+how pink her palm was, how brown her fingers, and
+how purple the shadows on the fingernails.</p>
+
+<p>“No. No.” The high-backed chair O’Leary had happened
+to choose, upholstered in needlepoint tapestry,
+and with slim carved arms of softly gleaming walnut,
+added somehow to his natural dignity. “How are you,
+Doctor? Not feeling this strain too much, I hope.”</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Balman smiled wanly. “No, thanks, Mr.
+O’Leary. It is quite a task though. However, Dr.—Dr.
+Letheny left everything in perfect order.” He
+glanced at Corole apologetically as he spoke, but she
+was interested only in O’Leary.</p>
+
+<p>The conversation dragged along very uncomfortably
+for a few moments, during which the only person in
+the room who was thoroughly at ease was Lance
+O’Leary. As soon as I decently could I rose to leave,
+for O’Leary had said he came on business and I
+naturally supposed that it was business with Corole.</p>
+
+<p>Maida rose, too, and of course, the men.</p>
+
+<p>“Just a second, Miss Keate,” remarked O’Leary in
+a quiet and commonplace voice. “I only wanted to tell
+you all that the coroner’s inquest will be to-morrow
+morning and that you are all to be called as witnesses.
+I’m sorry to have to tell you at such a time.”</p>
+
+<p>It just happened that I had my eyes on Corole as
+he spoke and thus saw her soft brown fingers grip the
+macaroon she held until it fell on the tea cart, a small,
+powdered mound of sugar. I looked quickly at O’Leary,
+but his gaze was apparently on the log in the fireplace.</p>
+
+<p>It was an uncomfortable moment, there in that room
+of which the very books along the wall and the grand
+piano in the alcove spoke so vividly of Dr. Letheny.
+We were “all” to be called as witnesses then. And a few
+nights ago we had sat here in this room and listened
+to the Prelude in C Sharp Minor played by those strong
+white hands that would never touch a piano again.</p>
+
+<p>I shook myself free from such morbid reflections, said
+a brusque good-bye to Corole, and left. Maida went
+with me, and somewhere along the path Jim Gainsay
+turned up.</p>
+
+<p>As the path narrowed under the trees and I preceded
+the other two, I am sure I heard Jim Gainsay
+say rather huskily to Maida:</p>
+
+<p>“I had to see you alone. You must do as I say. It
+is import——”</p>
+
+<p>“Sh! I know!”</p>
+
+<p>“Try to see it my way.” (This in a still more urgent
+voice.) “It is dangerous to——”</p>
+
+<p>“Hush!” she interrupted sharply again.</p>
+
+<p>And just then I think that Maida stumbled over a
+branch that had blown across the path. At any rate
+I heard a quick motion and a sort of gasp and then
+Maida said rather breathlessly: “That branch—I
+nearly fell.” And I turned in time to see Jim Gainsay
+pick up the stick, bow to it gravely and say: “Thank
+you, old fellow,” before he tossed it off into the orchard.
+At which Maida turned quite pink and Jim Gainsay
+gave her a long look and laughed rather shakily.</p>
+
+<p>Then we were at the south entrance and Gainsay
+swung on his heel with a brief “Good-night.”</p>
+
+<p>And it was not fifteen minutes later that I glanced
+through the society section of the paper that someone
+had left on the chart desk, and my eyes fell on a small
+news item:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+  <p>Mrs. J. C. Allen left Tuesday of this week for New York City.
+  She sailed on the <i>Tuscania</i>, Saturday night, June ninth.</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>On the <i>Tuscania</i>, Saturday, June ninth. That was
+yesterday. And I was positive that Gainsay had said
+the <i>Tuscania</i>.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch07">
+
+<h2>7. The Disappearing Key and Part of an Inquest</h2>
+
+<p>“Yes, I saw that this morning,” said a quiet voice beside
+me. It was Lance O’Leary; I did not know he was
+near until he spoke. “Our friend Mr. Gainsay seems
+to be a little confused as to his dates.”</p>
+
+<p>I daresay my eyes reflected a question for he added,
+leisurely:</p>
+
+<p>“He told me that he intended to sail on the <i>Tuscania</i>
+next week. I see that he told you the same thing. He is
+not a very discreet young man, else he’d have known
+that I should look up the <i>Tuscania’s</i> sailing date
+without delay.”</p>
+
+<p>I sighed; all those unpleasant little doubts of Jim
+Gainsay were returning in full force.</p>
+
+<p>“If he has the radium, it is not in his room in the
+Letheny cottage,” said O’Leary meditatively.</p>
+
+<p>“How do you know?” I inquired stupidly.</p>
+
+<p>“We have searched the rooms and personal belongings
+of each of those present at that dinner party last
+Thursday night.”</p>
+
+<p>“What!”</p>
+
+<p>“In fact, I daresay that there is not a room in the
+whole of St. Ann’s, as well as in the Letheny cottage,
+that has not been thoroughly ransacked.”</p>
+
+<p>I ran my tongue over dry lips. This was getting down
+to work with a vengeance.</p>
+
+<p>“Why?” I stammered.</p>
+
+<p>There was a glimmer of impatience in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>“For the radium, of course. Surely you did not think
+we were going to let it get away from us without a
+struggle.”</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment or two of silence during which
+I studied the polished glass surface of the desk before
+me without seeing it.</p>
+
+<p>“Did you ask Huldah about Miss Letheny’s errand
+through the rain last Friday afternoon?” inquired
+O’Leary after a contemplative pause.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.” I told him in a few words the little that Huldah
+had told me. “And there is something else I have
+discovered,” I went on miserably. “I’ve got to tell you,
+though I must say I do not want to do so. It is—that
+morphine. The morphine that killed Mr. Jackson, you
+know. I—I know where it came from!”</p>
+
+<p>“You—what!” O’Leary was for once startled out
+of his usual composure.</p>
+
+<p>“I know where it came from,” I repeated reluctantly.
+“At least, I think that I do. You see,—there is morphine
+missing from our south wing drug supply.”</p>
+
+<p>I had to tell him the whole thing, of course, under
+his searching questions and no less searching gaze, and
+even explain our system of keeping account of the drugs.
+He had to see the drug room and the charts and the
+records for himself. It was while I was showing him the
+drawer in which the morphine was kept, that I made
+my regrettable slip about the hypodermic syringe.</p>
+
+<p>I had started to show him how the needles were
+fitted into the small mechanism, and I reached for a
+hypodermic syringe. It turned out to be my own.</p>
+
+<p>“This one is mine,” I said thoughtlessly, fitting the
+slim, hollow needle into the tiny instrument. “The other
+one that we were using disapp——” I stopped so
+suddenly that my breath came out in an explosive little
+pop and O’Leary’s face hardened slightly. It was an
+expression that I was growing to recognize.</p>
+
+<p>“You may as well finish. So the other one ‘disapp’-eared,
+did it? When and how? Whose was it? There
+is still one in the drawer. What about the one that
+disappeared?”</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know,” I said flatly. “Then, you see, we
+take the sterile water and measure the liquid into——”</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary looked at his watch.</p>
+
+<p>“I haven’t much time,” he said pleasantly. “But I
+have enough time to wait right here until you tell me
+about the hypodermic syringe that disappeared. Or if
+necessary I can dog your footsteps the rest of the night,
+reiterating my question at frequent and embarrassing
+intervals. Of course, I can have the whole hospital
+searched extensively and every hypodermic needle
+accounted for, especially if missing. I can follow you
+to your meal—isn’t that the bell?—and keep on asking
+you.” He added meditatively: “I suppose it might cause
+considerable interest among the other nurses.”</p>
+
+<p>I regarded him furiously. The thing was that he
+would be quite capable of doing just that. I began to
+understand the force of the words of the chief of police
+when he had said—“Once Lance O’Leary gets his teeth
+into anything, it is as good as done.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose you’ll have to know sometime, anyway,”
+I said sulkily.</p>
+
+<p>The flicker in his gray eyes was like a ripple across
+a very calm, deep lake.</p>
+
+<p>“You are right, Miss Keate. So why not tell me now?”</p>
+
+<p>Well, to make a long story short, I told him of the
+missing hypodermic, which after all, was little enough:
+barely the fact that Maida’s syringe had been removed
+and my own substituted, but this without my knowledge.
+And that Maida had had the opportunity to take my
+own, and if she had wished to use it, all that she needed
+to do was ask me for it.</p>
+
+<p>“Which she conspicuously did not do,” commented
+O’Leary. “Oh, by the way, Miss Keate, have you ever
+attended an inquest?”</p>
+
+<p>“No.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, don’t get bothered. Our coroner is a decent
+old fellow but he does love to be pompous. Just answer
+what he asks, tell your story as briefly as possible and
+don’t—er—volunteer anything. You see there are some
+things that you and I know that will not come up at
+the inquest.”</p>
+
+<p>“You mean—they would warn the guilty one?”</p>
+
+<p>He nodded briefly as he turned away.</p>
+
+<p>Maida was already in the south wing when I rounded
+the right angle of the corridor leading from the main
+office, at exactly twelve o’clock that night.</p>
+
+<p>“I locked the south door,” she said, hanging the key
+on its customary nail above the desk.</p>
+
+<p>“That was right,” I approved, glancing over the
+charts. It appeared that Eleven’s digestive apparatus
+was still doing business at the old stand, so to speak,
+but otherwise all was well and I settled briskly into
+the business of second watch.</p>
+
+<p>Midnight temperatures had scarcely been taken,
+however, when Olma Flynn developed a sick headache,
+worse when I was within hearing distance, and had to
+be excused from duty. We didn’t actually need the extra
+help, as Maida and I had been accustomed to care for
+the whole wing ourselves, but nevertheless it was a
+little annoying, especially as, about two o’clock, the
+little student nurse burned her wrist over the gas flame
+in the diet kitchen, and the burn had to be salved
+extensively and the nurse sent to bed with an aspirin
+tablet.</p>
+
+<p>Thus Maida and I found ourselves alone in the
+south wing for the first time since those terrifying events
+of Thursday night. This precarious situation was a
+matter that was, I think, predominant in our thoughts but
+neither of us mentioned it; we even manufactured an
+artificial sort of—not gaiety, that would be asking too
+much—but of brisk attention to work and a determined
+avoidance of conversation that might lead back to
+things we were anxious to forget.</p>
+
+<p>All went well, in spite of our hidden fears, until about
+three o’clock. I was pouring out a small dose of
+bromide for Three, who had made up her mind not to
+sleep that night and naturally was not doing so, when
+Maida opened the door of the drug room.</p>
+
+<p>Her face was so ghastly white that at first glimpse
+of it my hand began to tremble and the medicine poured
+all over the spoon. Blindly I set the bottle down.</p>
+
+<p>“What is it?”</p>
+
+<p>“There’s something in Room 18!” she gasped
+through ashy lips.</p>
+
+<p>“Room 18!”</p>
+
+<p>“Just now—I saw something go into that room from
+the corridor!”</p>
+
+<p>“Someone—is sleep-walking.” I grasped at the first
+rationality that presented itself.</p>
+
+<p>After the light in the diet kitchen the long corridor
+seemed peculiarly dark and shadowy and the green light
+over the chart desk was miles away. It never occurred
+to me to call for help, and we sped along toward that
+dark end of the wing that we had good cause to fear.</p>
+
+<p>But we stopped stock still as we came close enough
+to see the door of Room 18, and a cold shiver crept
+up from my back.</p>
+
+<p>The door of Room 18 was standing wide open!</p>
+
+<p>It had not been opened, so far as I knew, since the
+police had left that room. It had been shunned by all
+the nurses. Who had opened it? Who would dare
+open it?</p>
+
+<p>Who was inside that dark place?</p>
+
+<p>A long, shuddering sigh came from Maida beside me
+and I felt her cold hand grip my wrist. The contact
+nerved me and I did what, I afterward realized, was
+a very foolish thing.</p>
+
+<p>I took a few steps forward, advanced to the very
+door of that grisly room, reached a shaking arm
+through the open doorway, groped for the
+electric-light button, found and pressed it.</p>
+
+<p>The cold white dome on the ceiling flooded the room
+with light.</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing out of the way to be seen. There
+were the plain dresser, the bedside table, two chairs,
+the folded burlap screen and the high, narrow
+bed—nothing else. Something caught in my throat as I
+glanced at the bed and toward the closet doors.</p>
+
+<p>“The—closet——” breathed Maida at my side.
+“Oh! You are not going to open that!” as I took a
+more decisive step forward.</p>
+
+<p>It was no easy thing to do, for I knew well that
+those shallow closets were yet large enough to
+hold—what one of them had held.</p>
+
+<p>They were both unlocked this time. And there was
+nothing in them!</p>
+
+<p>I turned to Maida, whose white face had been beside
+me during the ordeal. Without saying a word we
+retreated to the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>“Are you sure you saw something?” I asked, my
+voice hoarse.</p>
+
+<p>“I am positive,” whispered Maida. “You see, I was
+just answering Fourteen’s light, which brought me
+fairly near to Eighteen. I came out the door and was
+starting down toward the chart desk when something—I
+don’t know what—some rustle or sound, perhaps,
+made me turn around, facing this way, so I could see
+the south door. And I was just in time to see a sort
+of movement at the door of Eighteen.” Her hands
+went to her throat as she spoke and I did not feel very
+comfortable myself.</p>
+
+<p>“It couldn’t have been one of the patients?” I
+murmured.</p>
+
+<p>“No! There isn’t a one of them who is able to walk.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then who——”</p>
+
+<p>“Or—<em>what</em>——” said Maida.</p>
+
+<p>A remnant of common sense saved me, I think, from
+stark terror. I took a firmer hold on my imagination.</p>
+
+<p>“Nonsense,” I spoke decidedly but still, for some
+reason, in a whisper. “There are no such things
+as—as—— I mean to say, the shadow you saw was either
+an optical illusion or a living, breathing person.”</p>
+
+<p>“Certainly,” agreed Maida, adding inconsistently:
+“I don’t see how a living person could have got past
+us, through this long corridor without one of us seeing
+him—<em>it</em>.”</p>
+
+<p>My eyes fell on the south door near at hand; the
+tiny panes of glass winked blackly at me as I crossed
+to it, grasped the brass latch and pulled. The door
+swung slowly open, letting in a current of cold,
+mist-laden air.</p>
+
+<p>“There, you see?” I said to Maida. “Only a real,
+material thing needs a door to go through.”</p>
+
+<p>Maida was looking at me strangely.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t see that that helps matters any,” she said.
+“I locked that door myself, to-night. It just proves that
+someone was actually here. That the murderer is still
+about the hospital.”</p>
+
+<p>“Not necessarily,” I said, though my heart was
+pounding in my throat. “You are sure you locked it?”</p>
+
+<p>“Positive.”</p>
+
+<p>“And you hung the key there on the nail above the
+chart desk?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>We both swung hastily around. At the other end of
+the shadowy corridor gleamed the green-shaded light
+over the desk. With one accord we started toward it.</p>
+
+<p>The key was not on the nail above the desk!</p>
+
+<p>But even as our frightened gaze took in that amazing
+fact my eyes fell on the glass top of the desk. There
+on its shining surface lay the key. We stared at it for
+some time before our eyes met. Then I picked up the
+key, my fingers seeming to shrink from the cold, clammy
+metal, returned to the south door, locked it securely
+and put the key in my pocket.</p>
+
+<p>And as I did so, a thought struck me. The person
+who had got into the wing by means of the south door
+must also have got out again. He couldn’t have gone
+through the corridor and south door for Maida was,
+by that time, in the hall.</p>
+
+<p>The light was still glowing in Room 18, and I crossed
+the room, not without a queer feeling in the region of
+my knees, as if they would give way with me, without
+notice. Sure enough, the window was unlocked; it was
+even open a fraction of an inch at the bottom, though
+the screen, which has a spring snap, was closed.</p>
+
+<p>I pushed the window the rest of the way down,
+locked it, not without an unpleasant impression that
+something was out in that gleaming darkness back of
+the window pane watching my every move, turned off
+the light, and closed the door again. Maida was
+standing in the corridor and we walked slowly toward the
+more cheerful region of the chart desk and diet kitchen.</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose,” she mused at length, “that someone
+could have taken the key from the nail and returned
+it when we were in Room 18.”</p>
+
+<p>“But who? It would have to be someone in St. Ann’s.
+And that is unthinkable.”</p>
+
+<p>“There are likely ways in and out of St. Ann’s,” she
+said finally, and with that a signal clicked somewhere.
+I recalled Three who would be in a tantrum by this
+time, and we separated.</p>
+
+<p>We were very busy for the rest of the night, and
+dawn was never so welcome a sight. But during those
+slow hours I came to the conclusion that there were
+only two things we knew without doubt. The key to
+the south door had been removed from the nail and
+left on top of the chart desk, and the sinister door of
+Room 18 had been opened and left open.</p>
+
+<p>Who had done this and why was a matter of conjecture,
+and I resolved to say nothing of it save to
+Lance O’Leary. I should leave it to O’Leary.</p>
+
+<p>Leave it to O’Leary! I had so far recovered from
+my fright that I smiled faintly at the phrase, but I
+could have embraced the day nurses when they came
+on duty, and the rattle of the dishes in the small,
+rubber-tired dumbwaiter, as it came up with the
+breakfast trays, sounded like music to my ears.</p>
+
+<p>On the way to the basement for breakfast, I had
+time for a word or two with Maida.</p>
+
+<p>“We’ll say nothing about it, save to O’Leary,” I
+murmured in a low voice and she nodded, just as Miss
+Dotty joined us with one of her insufferably bright
+good-mornings.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Dotty keeps a book at her bedside, entitled
+<i>Every Day a Sunny Day</i>, and memorizes verses from
+it. Her verse that morning was:</p>
+
+<blockquote class="verse">
+
+  <p>If you’re lonely, sad and blue,</p>
+  <p>Keep smiling.</p>
+  <p>Luck will bring you someone true</p>
+  <p>Who understands and loves just you.</p>
+  <p>Keep smiling,</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>which seemed not only inane but downright offensive,
+as coming from one old maid to another.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>The inquest was set for nine-thirty. We had an early
+operation and at eight o’clock prompt I was tying Dr.
+Balman into his white apron and hood and counting
+sponges in the operating room. The patient’s appendix
+proving to be elusive, turning up, in fact, on entirely
+the wrong side, the operation was more interesting than
+we had expected. Dr. Balman looked haggard from
+fatigue and worry, his thin hair and beard were
+dishevelled and his eyes were hollow, but his hands were
+steady, if rather slow, and every last detail was
+thoroughly attended to.</p>
+
+<p>The inquest was held in the nurses’ library in the
+basement. It is not a cheerful room, particularly on wet,
+rainy mornings. It was chilly in the place; the
+white-washed walls looked cold and bare, even the medical
+books along the walls had none too happy titles. The
+linoleum rug caught dismal highlights, the chairs
+borrowed from the dining room were slippery and
+uncomfortable, and moisture dripped steadily down the small
+windows. Someone had turned on the lights but they
+did not improve matters.</p>
+
+<p>At a little table sat a stout, elderly gentleman, whom
+I had no trouble identifying as the pompous coroner.
+He wore a pair of nose-glasses attached to a button
+on his broad vest with an important black ribbon. The
+board of directors were ranged near at hand, some
+of them constituting the jury, which would have
+surprised me had I not known the weight in politics and
+otherwise that some of those names carried.</p>
+
+<p>Corole Letheny was there in a soft brown frock daringly
+tailored and very short so that her silk-clad—er—ankles
+and so forth were much in evidence; she wore a
+small green hat pulled low over her eyes and carried
+a large and gorgeously beaded bag which made a
+spot of vivid colour in that neutral gray room. Huldah,
+very stiff in her Sunday black silk, sat beside her.</p>
+
+<p>A little way off among a group of nurses sat Maida,
+her beauty and the distinctive air of breeding in the
+very lift of her chin making her stand out from the
+others as if they were only the frame for a picture.
+Jim Gainsay stood at the back of the room with a group
+of reporters. He wore an air of ease that was a shade
+too deliberate; his impenetrable eyes looked at nothing
+in particular but, I had no doubt, missed not the smallest
+movement in the room. He was attractive, clean, young,
+vigorous, but I could have wished him less
+restrained—less poised—less wary.</p>
+
+<p>There were the staff doctors, of course, talking to
+Dr. Balman and Dr. Hajek. I was interested to note
+that a bit of Dr. Hajek’s ruddy colour had deserted
+him; he said little and his black eyes darted here and
+there about the room, occasionally lingering upon
+Corole. Save for those restless eyes he was as unmoved
+and stolid as was usual with him.</p>
+
+<p>There were several policemen, too, Higgins, the
+cook and a few curious student nurses sitting with Miss
+Dotty, who being something of a simpleton took that
+occasion to shed a few tears, presumably for Dr.
+Letheny. And there was O’Leary, of course, gray and
+quiet, sitting near the coroner’s table.</p>
+
+<p>It being the one and only inquest I had ever attended
+(for which I am truly thankful), I was not able to
+compare it with others and did not know whether the
+undercurrent of excitement, the low whispers, the
+white faces, the nervous little movements and darting
+glances here and there, are typical of all inquests or
+peculiar to that one.</p>
+
+<p>All at once the coroner put down the papers he had
+been studying, took off his nose glasses, and began to
+talk. I did not notice what he said, for at the same
+moment O’Leary rose quietly and moved toward the
+back of the room. As he passed me he dropped a small
+bit of folded paper in my lap. Under the cover of my
+wide cuff I read the brief message it contained. I read
+it again; it didn’t seem to make sense, but of course,
+I was willing to obey the terse request. Just as I slipped
+the paper into my pocket I heard my name being called
+and I rose and walked to a chair indicated by the
+coroner.</p>
+
+<p>After convincing the coroner and the jury that I was
+actually Sarah Keate, superintendent of the south wing
+and on duty the night of Thursday, June seventh, I was
+allowed to proceed.</p>
+
+<p>It was not so difficult as I had feared it would be;
+I was allowed to tell my story in a brief and
+straightforward manner. The only time I became confused
+was when I got to the incident of the arrow-like
+projectile that had whizzed over my shoulder while I stood
+for a moment there on the little south porch. It was
+then, for the first time since the night it occurred, that
+I recalled the trifling incident, and I was already
+launched upon it and could not head off the coroner’s
+questions. I caught a reproachful look from O’Leary
+but had to continue; however, the coroner’s questions
+could prove nothing for there was little I could tell of
+the matter.</p>
+
+<p>The coroner questioned me rather particularly, too,
+as to the man with whom I collided, but I had expected
+this and gave guarded replies. He also tried to make
+me identify the owner of the cigarette case which lay
+there on the table before him, but I refused to commit
+myself beyond telling how and when I found the thing.</p>
+
+<p>As I say, it was not difficult—that is, until I reached
+the actual events leading to the crime. It was then that
+my voice faltered.</p>
+
+<p>“It was while I was sitting there at the chart desk,
+at exactly one-thirty—I had just entered the time on
+a chart—that I heard a sort of—bang. It sounded like
+a door closing.” I went on speaking with more and
+more difficulty. “So I got up and walked along the
+corridor but the south door was still open. Then I went
+back to the chart desk and was there when the storm
+broke and I had to run to close the door and the
+windows. When I went into Room 18 to close the window
+I found——” I stuck and had to clear my throat.—“I
+found that the patient, Mr. Jackson, was dead. The
+lights had gone out but a flash of lightning lit the
+room and I felt for his pulse and knew that he was
+dead. I ran to the diet kitchen, found a candle, and ran
+back to Eighteen. Miss Day had been closing the
+windows in the wing and had just got to Room 18 when
+I returned with the candle. It was after we knew we
+could do nothing for him that we found the radium
+had been stolen.”</p>
+
+<p>My testimony continued for some time after that,
+but I simply answered the coroner’s questions as briefly
+as possible and volunteered nothing, and presently
+resumed my seat, feeling that, with the one exception,
+I had conducted myself creditably.</p>
+
+<p>Then Dr. Balman and Dr. Hajek were called in
+turn, to testify as to the causes of death, first of Mr.
+Jackson’s, and later of Dr. Letheny’s. They used
+technical terms, and told the methods of determining the
+length of time each had been dead before discovery.
+It was a difficult half hour for both of them, knowing
+Dr. Letheny as they had, and they both looked quite
+exhausted when the coroner had finished with them.
+Dr. Balman was frankly mopping his high forehead
+and even Dr. Hajek’s stolidity was shaken, for his eyes
+darted nervously about him and he retreated to the
+back of the room, where he lit a cigarette with
+unsteady hands.</p>
+
+<p>Then Miss Maida Day was called and as she took
+the witness chair my hands gripped each other and I
+watched her with strained attention.</p>
+
+<p>She testified very coolly, though. No, she had not
+seen Dr. Letheny when he called to visit his patient
+at twelve-thirty. She had been busy in one of the sick
+rooms. Yes, she had stepped out on the porch for a
+breath of air. Yes, she had attended the dinner party
+given by Miss Letheny. The coroner seemed to be supplied
+with all the topics of conversation of that dinner
+and Maida agreed imperviously to every one of them,
+even to the fact that she had said she wanted money.</p>
+
+<p>“I believe your words were ‘I’d give my very soul
+for money’?” inquired the coroner nastily.</p>
+
+<p>“I think I did say something like that,” said Maida
+quietly, though a tiny flush mounted to her cheeks. “Of
+course, I didn’t mean exactly that. One often
+exaggerates one’s statements.”</p>
+
+<p>The coroner did not comment on that but looked
+expressively at the jury.</p>
+
+<p>Then she corroborated, under his questions, every
+detail I had told of our finding of the body of Mr.
+Jackson and of our subsequent actions. He made his
+questions very searching and important indeed, and I
+felt something between a fool and a liar during the
+process; I am not accustomed to having my word
+doubted.</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Letheny answered the telephone, when I
+called for the doctor,” Maida explained, “and said that
+she couldn’t rouse him, and when I said we must have
+him immediately she went away from the telephone
+and when she came back told me that he was not in
+the house and she didn’t know where he had gone.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then you telephoned to Dr. Balman?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“Did he answer immediately?”</p>
+
+<p>“No. I think he must have been asleep. When he did
+answer I told him simply of Mr. Jackson’s unexpected
+death and that we could not locate Dr. Letheny.”</p>
+
+<p>“About how long was it until Dr. Balman arrived?”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m not sure. I was—agitated naturally. But I
+should say about fifteen minutes.”</p>
+
+<p>“How was he dressed when he arrived?”</p>
+
+<p>“In—a dinner jacket, I think—and slicker. It was
+raining, you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Day, have you lately lost a cuff link?” asked
+the coroner, without warning.</p>
+
+<p>I was watching Maida closely and saw the little flush
+that had been in her face drain steadily away; her eyes
+darkened but did not falter in their steadfast gaze.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” she replied quietly.</p>
+
+<p>“Is this it?” He placed a small object in her hand
+that I could not see but had no doubt was the square
+of lapis.</p>
+
+<p>“It—seems to be,” she said, after a pause during
+which we others scarcely breathed. “It resembles the
+one I lost.”</p>
+
+<p>“Do you think you can say that it is your cuff link?”
+asked the coroner smoothly.</p>
+
+<p>“Why—yes. At least, it is identical with mine.”</p>
+
+<p>“Can you explain its presence in Dr. Letheny’s coat
+pocket when he was found—dead?”</p>
+
+<p>“No,” said Maida steadily, her steel-blue eyes
+meeting the coroner’s directly.</p>
+
+<p>“When did you discover its loss?”</p>
+
+<p>If possible, Maida went still whiter, and her nostrils
+took on a pinched look.</p>
+
+<p>“Shortly after I had returned from the porch,” she
+said steadily enough, but her eyes went to the back of
+the room for a brief instant.</p>
+
+<p>“How did this get into Dr. Letheny’s possession?”
+persisted the coroner.</p>
+
+<p>“I do not know. I suppose I—dropped it. Lost it
+from my cuff, and Dr. Letheny must have—found it.”</p>
+
+<p>“In the dark?” inquired the coroner suavely.</p>
+
+<p>Maida flushed again but her chin went higher.</p>
+
+<p>“I do not know.”</p>
+
+<p>He continued to question her at some length but
+with no success, and finally he dismissed her, with a
+grudging “Thank you.”</p>
+
+<p>Corole Letheny was the next witness and I settled
+myself more comfortably in my chair to listen. She was
+extremely self-possessed, and sat down as gracefully
+as if she had been paying a call. She looked rather nice,
+or would have, but for the clear beauty of the face
+that had just preceded her. Maida’s immaculate uniform,
+her clear white skin, her amazing blue eyes under
+their straight black eyebrows, that little, aristocratic
+air which somehow always surrounded her, made Corole
+seem a little tarnished, a little tawdry, a little theatrical,
+in spite of her perfect grooming and her expensive
+clothing.</p>
+
+<p>By that time the repetition of the details of that
+oft-referred-to dinner party were growing stale and I did
+not pay the strictest attention to the first questions of
+the coroner. I was aroused, though, by hearing him say
+suavely:</p>
+
+<p>“You will pardon me, Miss Letheny, but were you
+and Dr. Letheny on the best of terms?”</p>
+
+<p>She stared at him, her yellowish eyes widening and
+reflecting green lights from her hat brim.</p>
+
+<p>“What do you mean?”</p>
+
+<p>“Following the departure of your guests that night,
+did you not have a heated disagreement?”</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes slowly left the coroner and went to Huldah
+in an exceedingly unpleasant gaze.</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose my maid told you that. Yes, we did
+quarrel. Louis—was not an easy man to get along with.”</p>
+
+<p>“What was the subject of your quarrel that night?”</p>
+
+<p>“About as usual. Nothing in particular.”</p>
+
+<p>“Can you recall any of the exact—er—subjects?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why—no,” said Corole slowly. “That is, he told
+me I was running the house too extravagantly. He
+always said that.”</p>
+
+<p>The coroner surveyed her for a moment or two.</p>
+
+<p>“Is this your revolver?” he said suddenly, reaching
+for the shiny revolver and holding it before her.</p>
+
+<p>She started, quite visibly. One brown hand, with a
+great topaz shining on it, reached out as if to clutch
+the thing, and then drew slowly back.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch08">
+
+<h2>8. A Gold Sequin</h2>
+
+<p>“Does this revolver belong to you?” the coroner
+repeated.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes,” Corole said huskily. “That—is mine.”</p>
+
+<p>“Can you explain its presence in the closet in which
+your cousin’s body was found?”</p>
+
+<p>She ran her tongue nervously over her lips.</p>
+
+<p>“No,” she said. “No.”</p>
+
+<p>“When did you see it last.”</p>
+
+<p>“I—don’t know. It was usually kept in the drawer
+of the table in Louis’ study. I—don’t remember just
+when I saw it last.”</p>
+
+<p>“You didn’t bring it to the hospital, then?”</p>
+
+<p>“Certainly not,” flashed Corole. Her eyes narrowed
+so suddenly that I almost expected her to flatten her ears
+and spit like a cat.</p>
+
+<p>“When did you last see your cousin, Dr. Letheny?”</p>
+
+<p>“When I went upstairs at a little after twelve.”
+Mentally I figured that their quarrel must have been
+short and to the point.</p>
+
+<p>“Where did you leave him?”</p>
+
+<p>“He was sitting in his study.”</p>
+
+<p>“When you answered the telephone when Miss Day
+called, did you search the house?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“Had his bed been disturbed?”</p>
+
+<p>“Apparently not.”</p>
+
+<p>“You can swear, then, that he was not in the house
+at—two o’clock?”</p>
+
+<p>“If that was when Miss Day telephoned, yes. I did
+not look at my watch.”</p>
+
+<p>There were a few more, rather unimportant,
+questions, then Corole was dismissed.</p>
+
+<p>After that the inquest rather dragged for awhile,
+although Huldah telling very succinctly of Jim Gainsay
+taking out the Doctor’s sedan a short time before the
+storm broke was one of the points of interest. Several
+policemen had to tell just what they found; during the
+description of finding Dr. Letheny’s body, I saw Corole
+wince for the first time and raise her laced handkerchief
+to her face.</p>
+
+<p>Then Dr. Balman was summoned to tell of his movements
+following the dinner party. He had gone directly
+to his room, it appeared, and was asleep when the
+telephone rang.</p>
+
+<p>“Asleep?” said the coroner astutely. “Not in your
+dinner jacket, Doctor.”</p>
+
+<p>“I was very tired that night, having worked hard
+all day. I sat down in an armchair to rest and went to
+sleep. The first thing I knew the telephone was ringing.”</p>
+
+<p>“And what did you do then?”</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Day sounded frightened—and it had been my
+impression that Mr. Jackson was doing very well
+indeed. I took my coat, for it was raining, got into my
+car and drove as fast as I could to St. Ann’s.”</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Hajek, too, corroborated as far as possible every
+feature of the testimonies Maida and I had given.
+No, he had not heard any knocks on the door of his
+room, until I knocked. The lights were out and he did
+not understand at once what was wanted. However,
+when he did understand that there was some trouble
+in Room 18, he hurried to that room. He had only
+time to make the briefest of examinations, when Dr.
+Balman arrived. Dr. Balman came by the south door
+into the wing, instead of going around to the main
+entrance. The south door had been closed and the key
+in the lock and Miss Day had let Dr. Balman into the
+corridor. Yes, they had immediately agreed as to the
+cause of death.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. James Gainsay was the next witness. As he
+advanced a queer little stir crept over the room.</p>
+
+<p>He admitted freely that he had been walking in the
+orchard previous to the storm. The night was hot and
+sultry, he said, and he had thought it might be cooler
+outdoors. As freely he admitted that the cigarette case
+belonged to him.</p>
+
+<p>“I’m certainly glad it was found,” he said, grinning
+a little. “I value that cigarette case and did not know
+where I had lost it.”</p>
+
+<p>The coroner frowned; this levity was out of place.
+He moved the slim, gold case to the side of the table
+farther away from Gainsay.</p>
+
+<p>“Was it you who collided with Miss Keate, there
+at the porch steps?” he asked.</p>
+
+<p>Jim Gainsay’s sun-tanned eyebrows drew closer
+together, but his mouth retained a half-amused smile.</p>
+
+<p>“I think it likely,” he said easily. “At least
+I—collided with some one.”</p>
+
+<p>His candid air did not remove, to my mind, any of
+the significance of his presence near the hospital.</p>
+
+<p>“Why were you running?”</p>
+
+<p>“I was in a hurry,” said Gainsay simply.</p>
+
+<p>“Where were you going?”</p>
+
+<p>“To Dr. Letheny’s garage.”</p>
+
+<p>“Did you go directly to the garage?”</p>
+
+<p>There was the barest possible hesitation. Then:</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“What did you do, then?”</p>
+
+<p>“Took Dr. Letheny’s car and drove into town.”</p>
+
+<p>“How long were you gone?”</p>
+
+<p>“About an hour, I should say. The roads were new
+to me and the rain made it bad driving.”</p>
+
+<p>“You wanted to send a telegram?”</p>
+
+<p>If Jim Gainsay was surprised, he gave no sign of it.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” he said quietly. I don’t know what it was in
+the tightening of his mouth and the quality of his voice
+that made me quite sure that the question had, in some
+manner, put him on his guard.</p>
+
+<p>“What was the telegram?”</p>
+
+<p>“A matter of business,” replied Gainsay smoothly.</p>
+
+<p>At this point Lance O’Leary reached over the coroner’s
+table and pushed something across it to the coroner.
+The coroner took it in his hands, a slip of yellow
+paper, and adjusted his spectacles. After reading what
+was written there, he glanced disapprovingly over his
+glasses at Gainsay, deliberately read the message again
+and finally spoke.</p>
+
+<p>“Was this the message you sent?”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m sure I don’t know,” said Jim Gainsay,
+good-naturedly, though there was a wary look in his
+half-closed eyes.</p>
+
+<p>A little gust of laughter was frowned upon by the
+coroner, who poised his spectacles again to read in a
+measured way: “ ‘Delayed owing to unexpected
+development stop cannot make the <i>Tuscania</i> stop may not
+get away soon signed J. Gainsay.’ That yours, huh?”</p>
+
+<p>I was astounded to see that Gainsay had gone rather
+white and his jaw was set.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” he said very quietly.</p>
+
+<p>“What do you mean, ‘unexpected development’?”</p>
+
+<p>“I—am not at liberty to state.”</p>
+
+<p>Something in Gainsay’s manner seemed to irritate
+the coroner.</p>
+
+<p>“Not at liberty to state! Well, see here, young man,
+you’d better be at liberty to state and that mighty fast!
+You’ve admitted to skulking around St. Ann’s, at a time
+of night when respectable people are in bed and leaving
+cigarette cases——”</p>
+
+<p>“Now, now,” remonstrated Jim Gainsay gently. “I
+object to the word ‘skulking.’ ”</p>
+
+<p>“You object! You object!” The coroner removed
+his eyeglasses for freer gesticulation and somehow they
+detached themselves from the ribbon and flew out of
+his hand. He paused in slight discomposure and Lance
+O’Leary stooped, returned the eyeglasses, and as he did
+so, leaned over and said something in a low voice.</p>
+
+<p>“H’m-m. R’r’h’m!” remarked the coroner weightily,
+fixing a profound gaze upon Jim Gainsay, as if his
+blackest doubts of this young man had been justified.</p>
+
+<p>“That is all, Mr. Gainsay. For the present.” He
+surveyed Gainsay unpleasantly and added, as if he liked
+the sound of the words: “For the present.”</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the inquest was not interesting and was
+mostly a matter of repeating things that I already knew.
+The coroner seemed rather addled but very determined
+to catch somebody in an untruth. I knew where his
+trouble lay; it was not that he lacked clues, it was rather
+that he had too many of them and they all seemed to
+point in different directions. I was glad that Lance
+O’Leary appeared to have kept his own counsel about
+certain matters of which I had told him, though I should
+have liked to see the faces of the board members if
+it had been brought to their attention that the
+morphine had very likely been stolen from our own south
+wing.</p>
+
+<p>The bell was ringing for lunch when the coroner concluded
+his somewhat pointless inquiries, and after a few
+moments in which the room was in utter silence the
+decisions were given. I was not surprised to hear that
+Dr. Louis Letheny had come to his death at the hands
+of a person or persons unknown. And a little later, in
+a hush so tense that we could hear the dripping of rain
+from a gutter pipe outside the windows, the same decision
+was given as to the death of our patient, old Mr.
+Jackson.</p>
+
+<p>We stirred our cramped muscles, rose slowly and
+straggled out of the room by twos and threes. To tell
+the truth I felt as if nothing but a formality had been
+accomplished. But as I left the room I turned for a
+look backward and saw Lance O’Leary’s smooth brown
+head bending close over the coroner’s bald spot in
+earnest consultation. That one glimpse convinced me that
+O’Leary actually, if not openly, controlled the inquest
+and did so to suit his own inexplicable motives. I longed
+to tell him of the mysterious visitor the south wing
+had had the previous night but had no opportunity until
+later in the day.</p>
+
+<p>What with one thing and another troubling me I did
+not rest well that afternoon. By the time I had napped
+spasmodically, had a bath, and got into a fresh uniform
+and cap it was four o’clock and I wandered through
+the curiously hushed corridors, down the stairs and into
+the general office. Miss Jones was writing in the record
+book of incoming cases and I paused to find out who
+had been entered. It was something to know that even
+the disagreeable publicity we had been given had not
+affected St. Ann’s prestige.</p>
+
+<p>“I’m putting him in Eighteen, in your wing,” she said
+as I bent over her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>“In Eighteen!”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes. The room is available for use, isn’t it?
+He wants a downstairs room and that is the only one
+left.”</p>
+
+<p>“Whose patient?”</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Balman’s, I think—yes.” She referred to the
+typed card.</p>
+
+<p>At the moment Dr. Balman entered the room from
+the inner office.</p>
+
+<p>“Just copy this history, please, Miss Jones, and let
+me know if——” he glanced at the record she was
+preparing. “Are you putting him in Eighteen?” he asked
+sharply.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Isn’t that right, Doctor?”</p>
+
+<p>His long fingers sought his beard perplexedly.</p>
+
+<p>“This affair is so recent——” he said doubtfully.
+“But, if there is no other room?”</p>
+
+<p>“He especially asked for a downstairs room.”</p>
+
+<p>“Very well, then,” he agreed after a moment during
+which his thoughtful, rather kind eyes studied the
+record. He spoke wearily. “Put him in Eighteen. We
+will have to use the room sooner or later, in any case.
+Oh—Miss Keate. Better warn the nurses to say nothing
+of Eighteen’s—er—history. The patient will be here
+at least two or three weeks, perhaps longer.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, Doctor,” I said as meekly as if I shouldn’t
+have known that I must do that, anyway. And I must
+say I did not relish the idea of a patient in Eighteen,
+knowing, as I did, that if it proved to be a surgical
+case with no private nurse, much of the care would fall
+on my shoulders, which meant many errands into
+Room 18.</p>
+
+<p>“Very good,” he said and turned toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, Dr. Balman,” Miss Jones called him back
+hastily. “Did you not want me to copy that history?”</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Balman wheeled, glanced at the typed paper
+still in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>“I forgot,” he said abstractedly. “Thank you, Miss
+Jones.” He handed her the paper. “The patient will
+be in about six o’clock, I think,” he added, as he
+disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>He had not any more than got out of the room,
+when Dr. Hajek entered.</p>
+
+<p>“Was there a telephone call for me—thank you,”
+as Miss Jones handed him the pad with a number
+scribbled on it.</p>
+
+<p>He took down the telephone.</p>
+
+<p>“Main 2332, please,” he said into the mouthpiece,
+adding aside to Miss Jones, “Any new cases this
+afternoon?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, Doctor. A Mr. Gastin is coming in. I have put
+him in Eighteen.”</p>
+
+<p>“In Eighteen! What? Oh, yes—Main 2332—”
+he turned again from the telephone. “Did you say you
+put him in Eighteen? Eighteen in the south wing?” he
+asked sharply.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes,” said Miss Jones. “That was the only
+downstairs room left.”</p>
+
+<p>“But——” began Dr. Hajek, only to be interrupted
+by the operator’s voice again. “Yes. Main 2332—Oh,
+there you are. Yes, this is Dr. Hajek. What’s that? . . .
+Did you take his temperature? Oh—yes I see. . . .
+Try a hot water bag and a little warm milk. . . .
+Yes. . . . Yes.” He hung up with a click. “About that
+new patient, Miss Jones, I really don’t think it wise to
+put him in Eighteen. If he is inclined to be nervous——”</p>
+
+<p>I was tired of discussing the matter.</p>
+
+<p>“He will not know a thing about what has happened
+there,” I interrupted very rudely and not at all in
+accordance with professional etiquette. “We’ve got to use
+the room sometime. Why not now?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” agreed Dr. Hajek, surveying me absently.
+“Yes, I suppose so. Yes. Did you say he comes this
+afternoon?”</p>
+
+<p>“About six o’clock,” said Miss Jones, and with a nod
+he swung toward the inner office.</p>
+
+<p>Thinking that I must see that Room 18 was in order,
+I hurried toward the south wing. The room had not
+been cleaned beyond a brief straightening up, so I sent
+two nurses to clean it and went along myself to
+superintend the affair.</p>
+
+<p>It was not pleasant to open that door, but I had
+opened it under still less agreeable circumstances. The
+room was very gloomy and cold with dismal shadows
+on the white walls, and the window panes so beaded
+with moisture that the gray light from outside filtered
+but faintly into the place. I relented so far as to turn
+on the electric light, which threw the whole room into
+sharp relief, and the two girls set to work.</p>
+
+<p>The air was stale, so I crossed to the low window
+near the porch, unlocked the catch and flung it wide,
+letting in the damp mist. I stood there, thinking of
+the intruder of the previous night. Who had been in
+this room? What had been his purpose? What would
+O’Leary say when I told him of it? Had the visitor
+escaped by this window? I looked at the wide sill. There
+was a screen there, to be sure, but it worked on a spring
+catch and could easily be opened from either side, this
+to facilitate the shaking of rugs and dusters and the
+adjusting of awnings. Idly I pushed back the screen,
+running my finger along the sill. I was about to close
+it again when a faint reflection of light from something
+in the corner of the sill caught my eye. I leaned toward
+that corner to look more closely, reached out and slowly
+turned the tiny flat thing over with my fingernail.</p>
+
+<p>It was a gold sequin!</p>
+
+<p>I should never have seen it save for that minute reflection
+of light, for the upper surface was all tarnished
+and stained, though the under side was still bright. A
+wisp of frayed green thread still clung to the small
+hole for a needle at the top of the flimsy bit of metal.</p>
+
+<p>I needed no one to tell me from where the thing had
+come; the night of June seventh Corole Letheny had
+worn a dress of gold sequins cunningly arranged over
+net with flashes of green here and there.</p>
+
+<p>And it did not seem probable to me that she had
+worn the gown since that night.</p>
+
+<p>By the time I had digested this amazing fact the
+girls, to whom fear seemed to lend astonishing speed,
+had got the room cleaned.</p>
+
+<p>“A patient is coming,” I explained to them. “That
+is all now.” They were glad to be dismissed and
+hurried away.</p>
+
+<p>I did not remain alone in that room. Strolling down
+the corridor, the tiny sequin still in my hand, it occurred
+to me that it would be a fine thing to be able to tell Lance
+O’Leary, when I gave him the sequin, whether or not
+Corole had worn her gold gown since the night of her
+dinner party. Huldah would know, and somehow in the
+face of this last development, I had no scruples as to
+inquiring of Huldah concerning the affairs of her
+mistress.</p>
+
+<p>It was a matter of only a few moments until I was
+on my way.</p>
+
+<p>The path through the orchard squdged wetly under
+my feet; the trees dripped steadily on my starched,
+white cap, and the mist lay so heavy and close that I
+could not see more than ten or fifteen feet ahead of
+me. The shrubs massed around the trees were hazy,
+shadowy outlines, and the raw air fairly hurt my throat.</p>
+
+<p>I walked on slowly through the wet alfalfa field,
+passed the clump of pines that made a black blot amidst
+the fog, and through the gate. The porch of the Letheny
+cottage still looked dreary and Huldah had not swept
+it that day.</p>
+
+<p>Corole came to the door.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh,” she said unenthusiastically. “Oh, hello, Sarah.
+Come in. I was boring myself over a book.” She threw
+my cape on a chair and I followed her into the study.</p>
+
+<p>“You decided not to go to New Orleans, then, with
+the—that is, for the funeral?”</p>
+
+<p>“There was no need to.” Her face darkened. “He
+has relatives there who—never cared for me.”</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Jackson’s body was sent East,” I said. We
+lapsed into silence. Presently Corole stirred.</p>
+
+<p>“I’d give you tea but Huldah is in bed with a headache.
+She went to sleep right after lunch but I suppose
+is awake by now. I told her not to worry about
+dinner; I’ll drive in to the Brevair. I’ve been wanting
+to get out, anyhow, and they say there’s a wonderful
+new chef there.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, for goodness’ sake, Corole, don’t make yourself
+conspicuous. There’s that matter of the revolver
+at the inquest, you know.”</p>
+
+<p>Corole glanced curiously at me and laughed.</p>
+
+<p>“But my dear, I don’t know a thing about that
+revolver getting over to St. Ann’s. And I do happen to
+know that there are other, far more intriguing things,
+that might bear a little investigation.” She smoothed
+the flat wave in her hair gently. “A little investigation,
+at least,” she murmured as if amused, but her expression
+was not pleasant. Indeed a look in her flat, yellow
+eyes reminded me that this woman had lived in strange
+places, had seen strange things, was likely familiar with
+dark secrets and black rites and primitive passions—product
+of the twentieth century though she seemed,
+with her laces and jewels and sophisticated eyebrows.
+Jungle nights, tom-toms and the word “voodoo” came
+into my mind—and though I have never been at all sure
+just what voodoo means, I found my skin crawling.</p>
+
+<p>“I think I’ll go up to see Huldah,” I said, rising
+abruptly, and feigning a professional interest.</p>
+
+<p>“Do,” said Corole, smiling not at all tenderly into
+the fire. “You know the way to her room? I’m too lazy
+to go along.” At my nod she continued indolently:
+“Huldah highly approves of you, Sarah. She has never
+quite trusted me, you know.” She laughed again.</p>
+
+<p>I found Huldah very drowsy and her headache worse.</p>
+
+<p>“It is on account of the cloudy weather,” I said, and
+we talked for some moments very pleasurably of our
+experiences with neuralgia; my own were much more
+interesting than Huldah’s but I listened forbearingly to
+her tale.</p>
+
+<p>“I felt better for awhile after Miss Letheny gave
+me some medicine she has,” went on Huldah. “I went
+right off to sleep. She gives it into your arm so it doesn’t
+take long to——”</p>
+
+<p>“Into your arm!” I cried, struck by the phrase.
+“What do you mean?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why with one of them—what do you call them?
+Sort of like a needle.”</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t mean a hypodermic needle?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes!” Huldah smiled happily. “That is it. I just
+couldn’t think of what she called it. It is fine. You see,
+that way the medicine goes directly into your——”</p>
+
+<p>“Huldah! Do you mean to say that Miss Letheny
+gave you a hypodermic?”</p>
+
+<p>She nodded, pulling up the sleeve of her outing-flannel
+wrapper and showing me the tiny scar. I scrutinized it
+closely. It had been most deftly done. There were no
+skin abrasions, the vein had been carefully avoided,
+the needle quite evidently had been thrust into the flesh
+by a practised and unfaltering hand. And that hand
+belonged to Corole Letheny!</p>
+
+<p>“Wasn’t that all right, Miss Keate? It didn’t hurt
+at all——”</p>
+
+<p>I recalled myself to the present.</p>
+
+<p>“Huldah,” I said severely, “never let anyone but
+a doctor or a trained nurse give you a hypodermic.
+Never!” And as her face turned rather green I added,
+“That was likely just some headache medicine that
+Dr. Letheny, or some one, had given Miss Letheny.
+So it is all right this time.” And, indeed, I could tell
+that Corole had actually given her only a mild opiate
+to relieve, most unwisely, her headache.</p>
+
+<p>“Now,” I went on, as I caught sight of my wrist
+watch pointing to five o’clock. “Can you tell me something
+that I want to know, and forget that I asked you?”</p>
+
+<p>Huldah is shrewd; she raised herself on one gray
+flannel elbow and looked at me keenly.</p>
+
+<p>“I can keep a secret, Miss Keate. There’s many a
+thing I could tell if I wanted to.”</p>
+
+<p>“What I want to know is this: Has Miss Letheny
+worn her gold dress lately?”</p>
+
+<p>“You mean that green and gold, snaky thing with
+the scales on it?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“Let me see. She wore it last the night Dr. Letheny
+was killed.”</p>
+
+<p>“Are you sure, Huldah?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes’m. I remember well. Poor Dr. Letheny!”</p>
+
+<p>“Feeling better, Huldah?” said a voice from the
+doorway.</p>
+
+<p>It was Corole, of course.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch09">
+
+<h2>9. Under the Barberry Bush</h2>
+
+<p>I left rather abruptly. But on the darkening path
+toward St. Ann’s I decided that Corole could not have
+heard our conversation. Feeling that I must get these
+last two pieces of news, as well as the occurrence of the
+previous night to O’Leary as soon as possible, I walked
+rapidly along through the fog. I crossed the little bridge
+and was hurrying through the apple orchard when I
+came face to face with O’Leary.</p>
+
+<p>“You are the very person I want to see, Miss Keate,”
+he said at once.</p>
+
+<p>Taking my arm he drew me a few steps from the
+path; he motioned and following his gesture I found
+I had a view of the south door and small colonial porch.</p>
+
+<p>“Tell me, Miss Keate, exactly where you were
+standing the night of June seventh when
+the—er—arrow-like affair was thrown over your shoulder?”</p>
+
+<p>“I had truly forgotten that—I should have told you.”</p>
+
+<p>“That’s all right,” he brushed my apology aside. “Can
+you recall about where you were standing and the line
+it took over your shoulder?”</p>
+
+<p>“I think so,” I replied slowly and thoughtfully. “It
+seems to me it should have fallen somewhere about that
+clump of barberry. Over there.” I pointed with my finger
+toward the shrubbery that edges the apple orchard.
+“I suppose you are trying to find what it was.”</p>
+
+<p>“If no one else has found—or retrieved it yet,”
+agreed O’Leary.</p>
+
+<p>With O’Leary going ahead and holding back the
+more importunate branches and shrubs, we made our
+slow way to the spot I had indicated. I remember that
+we took some pains not to be seen from the hospital
+and, bending over as I did, to keep my white cap
+invisible from those windows, I had an absurd feeling
+that I was playing a grim game of hide-and-seek. In
+the excitement of the search I did not notice my soaked
+shoes and my wet hair, and remember only how I groped
+along the sodden leaf mold, and around the slippery
+brown roots of the shrubs and trees. If we had known
+what to look for, it would have been an easier task,
+O’Leary informed me, after some twenty minutes’ vain
+delving in the wet underbrush. He was inclined to be
+a little pettish about it, implying that I might have
+noticed the thing more carefully. That remark was
+made the time he slipped on some wet leaves and flung
+his hands into a barberry bush to keep his balance. He
+looked amazingly human and ordinary, picking out the
+thorns. It was just a few moments after that that I
+heard him utter a sudden ejaculation of pain. He was
+on the opposite side of a large clump of barberry bush
+and I crawled cautiously around to discover what had
+happened.</p>
+
+<p>I found him squatting on his heels, with his thumb in
+his mouth and the other hand clasping a small object
+that, from his glance, seemed to have pleased him
+inordinately.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve found it, Miss Keate,” he said, achieving
+triumphant utterance in spite of the thumb. “Look!
+Could it have been this?”</p>
+
+<p>It was a mercy I was so near the ground for my knees
+simply caved in under me. In his hand was a small
+hypodermic syringe. The nickel on it was rusted a little
+from the weather.</p>
+
+<p>This syringe whizzing over my shoulder was exactly
+what I had seen. It was heavy enough to acquire
+considerable velocity and, as I peered through the
+shrubbery and trees to the porch, I knew that it would have
+fallen about here. The trouble was that it looked very
+much like the south wing’s missing syringe. Of course,
+all hypodermics are much alike, but I knew a certain
+way that it could be identified, for Maida had taken
+a cue from me and marked all her tools with a small
+scratched “D.”</p>
+
+<p>“Let me see it,” I said.</p>
+
+<p>Without a word he handed the thing to me. On the
+top of the little flat button was a rudely scratched “D,”
+rusty but still distinct.</p>
+
+<p>“I see you recognize it,” said O’Leary, taking his
+thumb out of his mouth, and regarding it as thoughtfully
+as if he had not another object in the world. “It
+is Miss Day’s, is it not?”</p>
+
+<p>I nodded.</p>
+
+<p>“Everyone in the wing had access to it. The fact
+that it may have originally belonged to Maida doesn’t
+mean that she threw it out here.”</p>
+
+<p>“No—no, of course not,” he said contemplatively.
+“Well—we found it, Miss Keate. Though I could wish
+that I had not run into it so forcibly.”</p>
+
+<p>He regarded the scratch on his thumb. “You don’t
+suppose that rust harbored any tetanus germs?”</p>
+
+<p>“It has bled enough by this time to clean itself,”
+I said without much sympathy, feeling indeed that if he
+<em>would</em> find things it served him right to get stuck!</p>
+
+<p>“You nurses!” he said, looked at me and laughed.
+“I wish you could see yourself, Miss Keate.”</p>
+
+<p>Conscious not only of my undignified posture but also
+of an increasing dampness penetrating my skirts, I rose.
+He followed me through the shrubbery toward the
+path.</p>
+
+<p>“This is as secluded a place in which to talk as we
+can find, Miss Keate,” he said. “Have you come upon
+any new developments that I’d like to hear about?”</p>
+
+<p>“How did you know I had?” I asked, not any too
+pleasantly.</p>
+
+<p>He smiled. “By the look in your eyes and your
+general aspect of—er—having swallowed the canary, so
+to speak.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, as a matter of fact there is a thing or two.”
+As briefly as I could, I told him of the gold sequin
+and of the fact that Corole had last worn that gown
+the night of June seventh. I also told him that she was
+an adept at the use of a hypodermic needle. And then,
+somewhat reluctantly, and glancing rather nervously
+into the foggy shadows that were increasing under the
+dripping trees about us, I told him of the visitor to
+Room 18 of the previous night. He asked several
+questions, seeming to be extremely interested.</p>
+
+<p>“It goes without saying that the person, whoever it
+was, who entered Room 18 last night had some purpose.
+That there was—or is—something yet in Eighteen
+that he wanted.” He frowned. “I don’t see what I could
+have missed.”</p>
+
+<p>“There was the sequin,” I suggested.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, there was the sequin. You said it was under
+the screen? Yes, I missed that. But somehow I don’t
+see Corole Letheny coming back for it.”</p>
+
+<p>“She has likely not missed it—there are hundreds of
+the things on that dress.”</p>
+
+<p>“Huldah was positive she hadn’t worn the dress since
+Thursday night? She might have left it there last night,
+you know.”</p>
+
+<p>I shook my head.</p>
+
+<p>“No. Huldah was sure. And it must have been then,
+for the side of the sequin that lay uppermost is all
+tarnished from the rain.”</p>
+
+<p>“That is true. Then the question is, Who was in
+Room 18 last night? And what did he want?” His gray
+eyes were like two clear lakes.</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Keate,” he said suddenly. “This radium: I’ve
+been hunting through encyclopedias about the stuff, but
+there is something I want to know. Could it be carried
+about in a pocket? Without burning, you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, if it were in the box made for it. Radium is
+used in a variety of tools, for many purposes. But in
+this case it was in a sort of boxlike container, quite
+small.”</p>
+
+<p>“And could be carried in a pocket or in one’s hand?”
+he insisted. “Or even hidden in one place or another?”</p>
+
+<p>“Goodness, yes!” I replied. “I’ve seen tools containing
+it carried about in doctors’ bags often enough.”</p>
+
+<p>He did not speak for a moment or two, studying me
+in the meantime with thoughtful eyes that did not in
+the least see me.</p>
+
+<p>“I should think that it would be hard to dispose
+of—though as to that——” He broke off abruptly.
+“Look here, Miss Keate, how is it that such a valuable
+thing is used with so little precaution against theft?”</p>
+
+<p>“In some hospitals radium is guarded,” I explained.
+“There is one very large hospital, to which patients
+come from all over the world, where guards are placed
+in the sick-room whenever radium is used. But it was
+not deemed necessary here at St. Ann’s. Nothing of
+the kind has ever happened before and our class of
+patients is, as a rule, of the most respectable. St. Ann’s,
+you know, has really the best standing——” I stopped
+in the middle of my rather snooty remark as I saw the
+half smile on his face.</p>
+
+<p>“Still it did happen,” he said softly.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” I retorted. “And it is your business to recover
+it.”</p>
+
+<p>His face sobered instantly.</p>
+
+<p>“Not an easy task, Miss Keate,” he said at once and
+most amiably. “And I’m grateful for the help you give
+me. In return I shall tell you, since you ask it, that
+there are a few possible premises that interest me. You
+might give me your opinion of them. For one thing—we
+have found that there were three possible means of
+death, in or about Room 18. There was a revolver,
+ether, and a hypodermic syringe and enough morphine
+missing from the drug room to more than accomplish—what
+we believe it did accomplish. Three weapons
+where only one was necessary! Dr. Letheny met his
+death by a fourth means. Three weapons! Does that
+not indicate that there was more than one person
+interested in your patient’s death?”</p>
+
+<p>“Three!” I gasped. “Three!” In consternation I
+went over the list of names of that dinner party of ill
+memory. “But there were only six of us at that dinner
+to whose personnel you limit your suspects.”</p>
+
+<p>“Seven,” corrected O’Leary. “There is Dr. Letheny,
+you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“But Mr. O’Leary, it sounds like a club.” I was very
+much in earnest but the man had the impudence to
+laugh.</p>
+
+<p>“It <em>does</em> sound like an association of some kind,”
+he said coolly. “The cuff link and the affair of the
+disappearing hypodermic needle point to Maida. The
+presence and continued presence of Jim Gainsay, plus
+that somewhat ambiguous wire, point to him.
+Possibility includes you and the two doctors. And as to
+Miss Letheny, we have several counts against her. So
+you see it does look rather like a conspiracy.”</p>
+
+<p>“Nonsense,” I said irritably. “I assure you that all
+six of us did not band together for the purpose of
+doing away with Dr. Letheny and his patient.”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course not,” agreed O’Leary soothingly.
+“Though you must admit, Miss Keate, that there are
+a good many clues—no, we’ll call them merely facts
+that intrigue the curious mind—that seem to include all
+of you.”</p>
+
+<p>“Coincidence,” I said with considerable decision.</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary’s eyebrows went up a little.</p>
+
+<p>“Have it as you will,” he agreed amicably.</p>
+
+<p>“You have forgotten the fact that Fred Hajek’s
+coat was wet that night when I finally aroused him.
+Why didn’t you inquire about that at the inquest?”</p>
+
+<p>“I had already done so,” said O’Leary. “He
+explained that the window in his room was open and
+that the coat was lying across a chair beside the
+window when the rain began. He did not waken
+immediately and it rained on his coat.”</p>
+
+<p>“H’m,” said I skeptically. “How about Dr. Balman?
+Are you going to take his word for it that he
+was in his own apartment during the time all this took
+place? What about that bruise on his face that he said
+he got running through the orchard? Mightn’t he
+have got it earlier in the night?” Though my heart
+reproved me as I spoke, for Dr. Balman, torn from
+his beloved studies, forced into a thousand responsibilities,
+worn and haggard and tired and troubled, was a
+pathetic figure.</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Balman is too busy a man these days to bother
+much with questions,” said O’Leary simply. “However,
+since you have inquired, I have proved his statement.
+According to the elevator man at the apartment house
+in which Dr. Balman lives, Dr. Balman arrived from
+the Letheny’s at twelve-fifteen and did not leave until
+the same elevator man, who also attends the switchboard
+during the night, gave him a call from St. Ann’s.
+The elevator man obligingly listened in to the
+conversation, had the elevator at the door of Dr. Balman’s
+apartment immediately, and took the doctor down to
+the first floor at exactly three minutes after two.”</p>
+
+<p>“Now then,” he continued after a short silence,
+“about this hypodermic needle: I should like to have
+a little talk with Miss Day. And also I want to visit
+Room 18 again.”</p>
+
+<p>“There is a patient in Room 18.”</p>
+
+<p>“Already!”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. I don’t think Dr. Balman, or Dr. Hajek either,
+wanted to permit the room to be used, but there was
+no other place for the patient.”</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary’s clear eyes considered me absently for a
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>“It isn’t likely, then, that there will be a repetition
+of last night’s affair,” he said finally. “But suppose you
+let me go over the room again, when I can do so
+without disturbing the patient.”</p>
+
+<p>A figure moving through the mist caught our eyes.
+It was Maida, her white cap gleaming above her blue
+and scarlet cape.</p>
+
+<p>“Good-afternoon, Miss Day,” said O’Leary,
+stepping into the path.</p>
+
+<p>I think Maida was a little startled, for her eyes
+darkened and she glanced hurriedly along the path
+toward the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>But: “Good-afternoon, Mr. O’Leary,” she answered
+composedly enough. “Oh, there you are, Sarah,” she
+went on as her eyes fell on me. “I was wondering
+where you had gone.” Her eyes travelled to my hair,
+and she exclaimed: “How wet your hair is! You’ll get
+neuralgia, won’t you?”</p>
+
+<p>I put a hand to my hair. It was wet and very
+draggled where the branches from the trees and shrubs
+under which I had crept had pulled it. I straightened
+my wilted cap and tucked up the more adventurously
+straying locks.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve been looking for something.”</p>
+
+<p>“I think you must have been,” agreed Maida, a
+flicker of mirth in her blue gaze. “You must have looked
+for it under the barberry bushes.”</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact I had done just that. But before
+I could say anything O’Leary took up the conversation.</p>
+
+<p>“Did you lose your hypodermic needle, Miss Day?”
+he asked without prelude.</p>
+
+<p>Maida’s face sobered instantly and she glanced
+swiftly at him.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes, I did lose it,” she said immediately.</p>
+
+<p>“Is this the one you lost?” he asked, holding the
+syringe toward her in his outstretched palm and keeping
+his extraordinarily clear eyes on her face so keenly
+as almost to read her thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>So I am sure he saw her lips tighten, as I did, and
+her chin go up defiantly.</p>
+
+<p>“It seems to be,” she said. “I had scratched my
+initial on mine.” She reached for the syringe and turned
+it so she could see the small plunger with its marked
+top.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” she said quietly. “That is my own syringe.”</p>
+
+<p>“I found it just now in a clump of bushes. Do you
+know how it got there?”</p>
+
+<p>“No,” said Maida flatly.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, then,” said O’Leary very softly, “did you
+replace it with Miss Keate’s needle?”</p>
+
+<p>Maida turned toward me at that, her eyes again
+unfathomable. But before she could reply Jim Gainsay,
+whose approach we had not noted, swept
+impetuously between us.</p>
+
+<p>“Hello, Miss Keate—O’Leary. Here you are, Miss
+Day.” And without any ado about it, he simply took
+Maida’s arm and hustled her away from us and along
+the narrow path toward the bridge before we had time
+to blink.</p>
+
+<p>It was rather astonishing, and O’Leary and I stood
+there in silence for a moment until the fog hid the
+gleam of scarlet from Maida’s cape.</p>
+
+<p>“Well,” remarked O’Leary then, turning to me; I
+saw that his eyes were twinkling with a sort of unwilling
+admiration that was half amusement. “Well—somewhat
+piratical is Mr. Gainsay. I suppose he brazenly
+listened to what we said. It is evident that he did not
+want Miss Day to answer my last question—also, that
+he is more or less in her confidence and that he was
+meeting her by appointment. Or”—he paused for a
+moment—“or it might be that he has reasons of his
+own for not wishing it to be known just why Miss Day
+substituted your needle for her own. At least,” he
+concluded briskly, “he knows more than an innocent
+man should know.”</p>
+
+<p>And with that I had to be content, for he would not
+say another word and we walked silently along the
+dusky path until we came to the colonial porch of the
+south wing.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll go on around to the main entrance,” said
+O’Leary, then. “I want to use the telephone in the
+general office. I’ll be around to your wing later; there
+is something about Room 18 that I must know.” He
+took off his cap as he walked away from me—a nice
+gesture that was somewhat marred in effect by his
+very dirty hands.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch10">
+
+<h2>10. A Midnight Visitor</h2>
+
+<p>I slipped unobserved into the diet kitchen, where I
+left my cape and to some degree repaired damages.
+I found, on emerging from the kitchen, that the new
+patient in Eighteen had arrived. It is a rule with me
+personally to superintend the installation of a new
+patient, so I went at once to Room 18. I still found
+it unpleasant to enter that room, especially since the
+figure on the narrow bed reminded me forcibly of that
+other figure that had lain there.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Gastin was an elderly man, somewhat peevish
+at being thrust into bed, and quite to my liking. He
+must have been a person of some importance, for flowers
+galore had already arrived, among them a potted lobelia,
+a sinister-looking flower that I have never liked.</p>
+
+<p>He replied rather bitterly that he was as comfortable
+as might be expected and asked for the evening
+papers.</p>
+
+<p>“I’m sorry,” I said, “but we don’t have them.”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t have them!” he exclaimed, eyeing me
+shrewdly. “Oh. Oh, yes, I see why. Where did all this
+trouble occur, anyway? And see here, what’s the matter
+with this radio? The thing don’t work. Is it turned
+on at this hour? I want the stock reports. I want to tune
+in myself.”</p>
+
+<p>“The radio is in the general office,” I explained
+hastily, fearing he would return to the question I did not
+wish to answer. “The speakers in the different rooms
+connect with it. It is usually turned on at this hour,
+but I don’t know whether they have got the stock
+reports or not.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, bring me a speaker that works, anyhow,” he
+said, hitching himself on one elbow among the pillows
+and then flopping back again. “Anything for amusement.
+I suppose it will be bedtime stories. Well, bring
+’em on. And you might slip me a cigar.”</p>
+
+<p>I felt rather sad as I took the loud speaker, pulled
+the plug from its connection above the bed, and started
+away. It doesn’t take five minutes to place a new patient
+in his correct category and I knew all too well where
+this one belonged. Someone had labelled them “crippled
+captains of finance,” and the title stuck.</p>
+
+<p>Being in a hurry I took the faulty speaker into Sonny’s
+room. He was engrossed with a new block puzzle and
+paying no attention to the radio so I exchanged the
+speakers, taking the one in Sonny’s room to Mr. Gastin
+for the time being. Once connected, soft and dulcet
+tones rang through Number 18: “. . . and then
+Bunny Brown Eyes—scampered along . . .”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, hell,” remarked Mr. Gastin.</p>
+
+<p>“The dinner concert comes on at seven,” I suggested.</p>
+
+<p>“Think I can stand this till then?” he asked, but left
+the plug in. “Can you bring me a—er—blanket or two,
+nurse? Somehow this room seems sort of—I don’t
+know—cold, I guess. You might turn on that light up
+there—yes, and the one over the dresser, too.”</p>
+
+<p>The light over the bed was already glowing, but
+I did as he asked. Which only goes to prove that Room
+18 was already getting in its work. I left the door open
+and remember that I spoke very earnestly when I told
+him to turn on the signal light if he wanted anything.</p>
+
+<p>He did not have to listen to the bunny story after
+all, however, for I met Miss Jones coming along with
+a truck and she told me that she was taking Mr. Gastin
+to Dr. Letheny’s—that is, Dr. Balman’s office for an
+examination.</p>
+
+<p>“He hasn’t had his supper tray yet, has he?” she
+asked anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>Meeting O’Leary in the hall I told him that Room
+18 was vacant for a few minutes; I went on downstairs
+to eat, however, and did not accompany him. But when
+I sat down to glance at the charts of the south wing
+an hour later, O’Leary stopped beside me.</p>
+
+<p>“No luck?” I said.</p>
+
+<p>“Not a thing,” he replied.</p>
+
+<p>There was a distinctly puzzled look in his face.</p>
+
+<p>“Keep your eyes open to-night, Miss Keate. If anything
+occurs like last night, ’phone to me immediately.
+Here’s my number. I’ll sleep right by the telephone.
+Thanks. Good-night.”</p>
+
+<p>But before taking five steps he whirled back to me.</p>
+
+<p>“By the way, Miss Keate,” he said in a low voice
+so that the little cluster of white-clad nurses around
+the dumbwaiter could not hear him. “By the way, it
+seems peculiar that after the inquest when the matter
+of your seeing this hypodermic needle was brought to
+light so publicly, no one tried to retrieve it. One
+wonders why. And another thing—I should like to know
+where this Jim Gainsay spent the time between your
+meeting him at the corner of the porch, and his starting
+to town in Dr. Letheny’s car. There are, according to
+your story, about fifteen minutes unaccounted
+for——Good-night, again.”</p>
+
+<p>I did not return to the south wing until midnight.
+I found only Maida there for second watch, Miss Dotty
+having arranged the schedule of nursing hours on its
+old basis, thus depriving us of our temporary increased
+help. I thought it somewhat presumptuous of Miss
+Dotty, who, after all, is only superintendent of nurses
+and has no jurisdiction over our wing. Olma Flynn had
+been placed on first watch, as formerly, and on relieving
+her she assured me that everything was going well and
+though the new patient in Eighteen was a trifle restless,
+I had expected that, so I thought nothing of it.</p>
+
+<p>Olma had locked the south door and its key hung
+peacefully on its customary nail. Under Maida’s
+understanding gaze I took the key from the nail and slipped
+it under an order pad on the chart desk; if anyone
+wanted it that night he should have to ask for it!</p>
+
+<p>I hadn’t been on the floor ten minutes when
+Eighteen’s light went on; upon answering it I found my
+patient sitting bolt upright in bed, with the small light
+over the bed glowing brightly.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t like this bed, nurse!” he said. His rumpled
+gray hair gave him a rather ferocious aspect and his
+pajama coat was all wrinkled and twisted from
+flouncing around on the bed.</p>
+
+<p>His words gave me rather a turn for, as far as that
+went, I didn’t like the bed myself. But I advanced coolly
+enough and began straightening the tossed sheets and
+blanket.</p>
+
+<p>“What is the matter with it?” I asked, in my
+professionally comfortable voice. I was not prepared for
+his reply.</p>
+
+<p>“It feels like a coffin,” he said, staring gloomily at
+his feet.</p>
+
+<p>“Like a coffin!”</p>
+
+<p>He glanced at me sharply.</p>
+
+<p>“Like a coffin,” he repeated stubbornly. “I don’t
+like it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Nonsense,” I said, recovering myself and reaching
+for a pillow. “You aren’t used to it, that’s all.”</p>
+
+<p>“What do they make them so high for?” he said
+peevishly, peering over the edge of the bed. “If I’d fall
+out I’d have a long way to go.”</p>
+
+<p>“You’re not going to fall out,” I reassured him. “And
+if they didn’t make them high we nurses would break
+our backs. That is the greatest life-saver for nurses that
+anybody ever found. You see, if they were built at the
+height of ordinary beds we would have to bend away
+over——”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, they don’t have to be so narrow,” he interrupted
+sulkily. “Every time I turn over I have to grab
+to save myself from going out.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, it isn’t that bad, is it?” I plumped the pillows
+briskly, replaced them and pulled the draw sheet
+straight. “Now, that will be better. Try to relax and lie
+quiet.”</p>
+
+<p>He subsided on the pillow, still muttering childishly.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed close in the room, so I raised the window
+higher and brought him a fresh drink of water. Of
+course, if the window had already been up I should have
+lowered it; I make it a point to fuss around the room
+a little just to make the patient think I’m doing things
+for his comfort, and nine times out of ten he will drop
+off to sleep at once.</p>
+
+<p>This was the tenth time, however, for within half
+an hour Eighteen’s light flickered on again. Maida
+answered it that time and when she came out she looked
+very peculiar.</p>
+
+<p>“What is the matter?” I asked, meeting her in the
+corridor.</p>
+
+<p>“It is Eighteen. He is very restless.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I know that he is.”</p>
+
+<p>“He——” she hesitated. “He does not seem to like
+the room.”</p>
+
+<p>Our eyes met but I tried to keep the little tremor
+of fright out of my voice as I replied: “He isn’t
+accustomed to a hospital room yet, that is all.”</p>
+
+<p>“I hope so, I’m sure,” said Maida somewhat
+morosely and went on about her errand.</p>
+
+<p>I myself am so accustomed to the hospital that is
+home to me that it is only once in a while that I see
+it as it impresses a stranger. For a singular moment
+or two that night I saw it with alien eyes, so to speak;
+the corridor was long and strange and dark with the
+vases of flowers along the walls making grotesque
+shadows against the lighted region of the chart desk
+at the extreme end of the wings; the hush that always
+surrounds a hospital, particularly at night, seemed
+unfamiliar and grim; the doors swung noiselessly; the
+little thud of our rubber-heeled shoes along the
+rubberized floor-runner seemed stealthy. Our hushed, low
+voices had a furtive note. The hospital odours of
+antiseptics and soap and medicines and sickness, with under
+it all a lurking, faint but ever-present breath of ether,
+came to my nostrils with the clearness of novelty. The
+dim red gleams of scattered signal lights, above the
+black voids that were doors, seemed strange, too, and
+weird. I caught myself staring up and down the
+corridor, puzzled and wondering and faintly frightened
+as if I were in a new and terrifying place. Then all at
+once, things resolved themselves into the old, familiar
+wing. But the feeling of uneasiness persisted.</p>
+
+<p>The patient in Eighteen finally turned off his light
+and must have gone to sleep, for we heard nothing
+of him for an hour or two. We were fairly busy, with
+little opportunity for conversation. Along about two
+o’clock I found that Sonny had managed to acquire a
+sore throat, a hot, flushed face and icy feet. I was
+hurrying for camphorated oil and a hot-water bottle
+when Eighteen’s light shone redly above the door. I
+hastened to answer it.</p>
+
+<p>“Nurse,” said our patient firmly, his eyes quite swollen
+from lack of sleep, and his bedclothes more tousled
+than ever. “Nurse, I do not like this room. I want
+another.”</p>
+
+<p>I sighed inwardly even as I went again about the
+business of straightening him and the bed.</p>
+
+<p>“There isn’t another on the floor, Mr. Gastin,” I
+said quietly. “And anyway we can’t move you in the
+middle of the night.”</p>
+
+<p>“But I insist upon being moved,” he said, with an
+odd mixture of childish pettishness and adult command.
+What would be the result if the world at large knew
+these important business men as we know them! Big
+babies, they are, most of them!</p>
+
+<p>“This room is exactly like any other room,” I said.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t like it!” he reiterated. “There’s—there’s
+noises.” His eyes roved about the room uneasily.
+“There’s noises! Sounds like whispering.”</p>
+
+<p>I’ll not deny that these extraordinary words stirred
+my hair at its roots.</p>
+
+<p>“Non—sense!” I brought out jerkily. “Nonsense!
+You are nervous.”</p>
+
+<p>He was regarding me with shrewd little eyes. I stared
+back at him, trying to appear steady and at ease, but
+it was no use. He raised his hand to point a square
+forefinger at me, shaking it emphatically in my face.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll bet you ten dollars—I’ll bet you a hundred
+dollars, right there in my pants pocket, that this is <em>the
+room!</em>”</p>
+
+<p>Fascinated, I kept my eyes on the square finger. He
+did not need to say what room, for I knew well what he
+meant. I moistened my lips.</p>
+
+<p>“How about it?” he went on more briskly. “How
+about it? Do I win?”</p>
+
+<p>And at my continued silence he chuckled, lying back
+again on the pillow.</p>
+
+<p>“I can see that I win,” he said. He pulled the sheet up
+over his shoulders, and stuffed the pillow more comfortably
+under his head. “Now that I know what the trouble
+is, I can go to sleep all right,” said this amazing man.
+He laughed softly. “I’m no nervous woman,” he went
+on with a touch of swagger. “Turn out the light, will
+you?”</p>
+
+<p>He closed his eyes with the utmost unconcern.</p>
+
+<p>“The whispers won’t bother me now that I know
+what they are,” he said casually as I moved toward
+the door.</p>
+
+<p>Still feeling shaken, I walked slowly along the
+corridor. What could the man mean?</p>
+
+<p>Resolving at length to take a lesson from my patient’s
+sang-froid, I tried to shrug the matter away as a fancy
+on his part, and proceeded to take care of Sonny’s needs,
+applying the hot-water bottle to his throat and the
+camphorated oil to his feet in the coolest fashion until
+Sonny remonstrated with a hoarse giggle.</p>
+
+<p>By three o’clock things had quieted down all over
+the wing. The patients were either asleep or resting and
+the windows dark with the blackest hour of the night.
+Maida was sitting at the chart desk, her white-capped
+head bent over Eleven’s chart, and I had gone into
+Sonny’s room to make sure he was all right. The whole
+place was as quiet and hushed as a city of the dead.</p>
+
+<p>I took my thermometer and shook it vigorously. And
+in the very act of placing it between Sonny’s lips, I
+lost hold on it, dropped it and whirled facing the door.
+For without any warning at all a scream was rising from
+somewhere in the wing.</p>
+
+<p>It rose and swelled to the very old roofs, choked
+horribly at its height and ceased.</p>
+
+<p>It was a scream of stark terror!</p>
+
+<p>A woman’s scream!</p>
+
+<p>Somehow I got into the corridor. Maida was there,
+too, running toward Room 18, and I followed her.</p>
+
+<p>It was Maida who reached for the light. It revealed
+our patient half out of bed, staring with blinking eyes
+at something on the other side of the bed.</p>
+
+<p>We followed his gaze. Huddled there on the floor
+was a woman. We saw a dark cloak, a brown hand
+outflung and metallic waves of hair. We both leaned
+closer.</p>
+
+<p>“It’s Corole!” cried Maida sharply.</p>
+
+<p>We turned her on her back. For a horrible moment I
+though that Eighteen had added another victim to its
+list. But all at once Corole opened her eyes, sat up
+dazedly, saw Mr. Gastin still sitting on the edge of the
+bed, and at the sight her mouth opened, her eyes glared,
+and she pressed her hand tight across her mouth as
+if to prevent an outcry.</p>
+
+<p>The relief of seeing that she was alive was so great
+that Maida sank limply to a chair and I turned in
+natural reaction to anger.</p>
+
+<p>“What on earth are you doing here, Corole?” I asked
+warmly. “What happened to you? Are you hurt?”</p>
+
+<p>She ignored my questions.</p>
+
+<p>“Who is that?” she whispered hoarsely, pointing to
+the bed. There was such urgency in her tone and
+gesture that I replied.</p>
+
+<p>“That is a new patient.”</p>
+
+<p>“A new patient? <em>Here?</em>”</p>
+
+<p>“Certainly. Why not?”</p>
+
+<p>She looked at me; her eyes were green and shone.</p>
+
+<p>“When did he come?”</p>
+
+<p>“Late this afternoon. Why? What is the matter?
+Tell me what happened!”</p>
+
+<p>She groped for the cloak, pulled it absently around
+her and rose to her feet in one long, sinuous motion.</p>
+
+<p>“He frightened me,” she said. “I thought—— I saw
+him lying there on the bed—— I didn’t know you had
+a patient here. I thought it was—I thought——” With
+a visible effort she controlled herself, passed a hand
+across her pallid face. She looked terrible—grim,
+hag-ridden; her lips were blue, her face ashen and her eyes
+like a frantic cat’s.</p>
+
+<p>And at the moment we heard hurrying footsteps in
+the corridor and Dr. Hajek, clutching a bathrobe around
+his pajamas, followed by Dr. Balman, burst into the
+room. Dr. Hajek had a revolver in one hand, and at
+sight of us he paused abruptly, his eyes met Corole’s
+for a long moment, and I experienced the strangest
+feeling that they were corresponding, without words
+or motions, there in front of my eyes. It was the briefest
+of impressions, gone before the thought had more than
+come to me, and I saw Dr. Hajek slowly dropping the
+revolver into his bathrobe pocket.</p>
+
+<p>“What is it?” inquired Dr. Balman. In a few words
+I explained the situation, as far as I could. Dr.
+Balman surveyed us all for a space during which I could
+hear my own heart thudding, then he walked to the
+bed, drew the patient gently back and pulled the covers
+over him. Mr. Gastin submitted without a word, his
+gaze still on Corole.</p>
+
+<p>“I was frightened,” said Corole, her voice harsh.
+“I thought—— Never mind what I thought. I——”
+She tried to smile and the grimace she made was dreadful.
+“I must have fainted. I’m sorry. Sorry to disturb
+you.”</p>
+
+<p>This apology was not like Corole. I started to speak,
+stopped myself, started again. No one seemed to hear
+me.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Hajek cleared his throat.</p>
+
+<p>“Was there—anything wrong?” he asked in what
+struck me as rather belated inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>“I——” began Corole again. Her face was looking
+a little less hideous, and by the time she had finished
+she seemed more like herself. “I did not know that
+there was a patient in the room. I saw his figure in
+bed, there. It frightened me. I screamed. And fell. I
+suppose I roused the whole hospital. Really, Miss Keate,
+I do not think you should have put a patient in this
+room.”</p>
+
+<p>It was like the hussy to try to blame me, and indignation
+almost choked me. While I was stuttering for a
+suitable reply Maida spoke. At the first word I glanced
+at her in amazement and saw Dr. Balman and Dr.
+Hajek follow my gaze.</p>
+
+<p>“And what were <em>you</em> doing in this room?” asked
+Maida. Her eyes were like twin swords, her straight
+black brows stern. “You had no honest business in this
+room, Corole Letheny! Why did you come here?”</p>
+
+<p>Corole’s head jerked toward Maida with a flash of
+green light from those crafty eyes.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the two women surveyed each other,
+neither faltering in her steadily inimical regard. I
+moved uneasily and in the hush I heard one or two
+signal lights clicking. At the sound I pulled myself
+together; we should have another panic on our hands if
+we did not take care.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, Corole,” I said decisively. “Why did you come
+here? And how did you get into the room?”</p>
+
+<p>“I think your presence demands an explanation,”
+added Dr. Balman quietly.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at me, she swept Dr. Balman’s mild
+brown eyes, she flickered a green glance at Dr. Hajek,
+she drew her silk wrap more closely about her, she
+moved her brown hands uneasily up and down its
+collar, and she finally replied.</p>
+
+<p>“I couldn’t sleep,” she said. “I got to thinking of
+Louis and somehow—got the idea that if I came over
+here I might be able to—to——” Her excuse died
+away from very lack of body, she took a long breath,
+and raised her eyelids insolently. “I felt I must see
+Room 18. So I came. I got in at the window. If you
+have nothing more to say—Good-night.” Her strange
+eyes swept us and actually they harboured a gleam of
+amusement. Then she drew the cloak tightly about
+her, walked to the window, put one hand on the sill,
+and with a long, graceful movement swung herself over
+the sill and through the window. It was done with the
+nonchalance and ease of an animal and she did not
+even glance back at us. For an instant her gold hair
+shone beyond the window, then the screen came down
+upon a black void and she was definitely gone.</p>
+
+<p>No one left in the room spoke. Dr. Hajek made a
+motion as if he thought to accompany her but thought
+better of it. Dr. Balman reached for Mr. Gastin’s pulse.
+Maida crossed the room swiftly and went into the
+corridor. As her starched skirts rustled past the bed
+Mr. Gastin took his eyes from the window.</p>
+
+<p>“I think,” he said feebly. “I think I should like to
+have an upstairs room.”</p>
+
+<p>“We’ll see in the morning,” I said absently.</p>
+
+<p>“<em>In the morning!</em>” observed Mr. Gastin with feeling.
+“Do you think I’m going to stay in this haunted room
+for the rest of the night!”</p>
+
+<p>And believe it or not, we had to give up and bundle
+him on a truck and take him to a temporary bed in
+the charity ward! This was the first time in all my years
+of nursing that I was so influenced by a patient and this
+was not accomplished without resistance on my part
+and extremely sulphuric language on his. In fact, he
+proved to be versatile in the latter respect, attaining
+heights that made my hair stand on end. Dr. Balman
+was quite scarlet at the end of one climactic triumph
+and sent Dr. Hajek hurriedly for the truck.</p>
+
+<p>So, all in all, it was not until I was back in the wing,
+and our patients had been assured by the story of a
+mouse that Maida in a burst of unexpected mendacity
+brought forth, and things were quiet and peaceful
+again, that I began to wonder what had been the
+purpose of Corole’s visit.</p>
+
+<p>And it was clear to me, all at once, that she was
+looking for something.</p>
+
+<p>What could that something be—the radium? Could
+Corole believe that the radium was still in Room 18?
+And if so, what reason had she for her belief?</p>
+
+<p>And at the same time I recalled my promise to
+O’Leary to telephone to him if the night brought
+any disturbance. It was with some trepidation that I
+convinced myself that he could do nothing till morning
+anyway, and it was as well that I had forgotten my
+promise.</p>
+
+<p>I did not for a moment believe Corole’s faltering
+attempt at an explanation. But at the same time it
+occurred to me that had she been of a mind to lie she
+could likely have invented a much more plausible and
+convincing tale than the one she told.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch11">
+
+<h2>11. By the Light of a Match</h2>
+
+<p>It was near morning by that time, and Maida and I
+had to work rapidly to get our patients washed and
+tooth-brushed and ready for the breakfast trays. To my
+satisfaction no one from the other wings appeared to
+have heard Corole’s scream, or to know that there had
+been any disturbance in the south wing.</p>
+
+<p>The morning passed quietly. I took a long-needed
+rest and did not see O’Leary until I came downstairs
+about the middle of the afternoon. Somewhat to my
+disappointment, for I had anticipated telling him
+myself, he knew all about Corole’s visit. Dr. Balman had
+told him of it. O’Leary said briefly that he had talked
+to Corole; I gathered that she stuck to her story of
+the previous night, even to the extent of embroidering
+rather elaborately on her cousinly affection for Dr.
+Letheny and her anxiety to know the cause of his death.
+O’Leary seemed somewhat perturbed, a result that
+would have delighted Corole had she known it.</p>
+
+<p>“We have got bolts on the window,” said O’Leary.
+“Dr. Balman suggested it; at least there’ll be no more
+such visitors as last night.”</p>
+
+<p>He did not linger. An hour or so later I slipped out
+the south door for a breath of fresh air. I glanced in
+at Room 18 as I passed. Sure enough there were shiny
+new bolts on the window. Mr. Gastin had evidently
+preferred the charity ward to Room 18, for he had not
+returned, though the pot of lobelias still stood on the
+table looking more jaundiced than ever.</p>
+
+<p>If cold and damp, still the air was refreshing and I
+walked at a brisk pace along the path toward the bridge.
+I did not see that Higgins was following me until I
+paused to lean on the railing and stare at the muddy,
+swollen little stream below my feet. There the shrubbery
+grows so close to the bridge that it hangs over it
+and the water, and I was amusing myself by pulling
+dead leaves from a willow, bending near and tossing
+them into the little, swirling eddies of water when
+Higgins spoke suddenly at my elbow.</p>
+
+<p>It startled me and I whirled to face him.</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Keate,” he began again. “I—— Could
+you—— There is something I want to tell you.” He
+spoke in a hesitating, reluctant manner as if he were
+not sure he wanted to tell me, after all.</p>
+
+<p>“What is it?” I inquired crisply.</p>
+
+<p>He swallowed audibly and cleared his throat.</p>
+
+<p>“I—I’ve been wondering—— It is this way, Miss
+Keate. I want to know what you think I had better do.”</p>
+
+<p>I squared around for a better look at him. He was
+rather pale and played nervously with his
+furnace-stained cap.</p>
+
+<p>“What about, Higgins?” I said kindly.</p>
+
+<p>He made a motion to speak, checked it and peered
+furtively up and down the path. Owing to its twisting
+he could not see very far either way, so he leaned over
+toward me and spoke in a half-whisper.</p>
+
+<p>“It is about the night of June seventh,” he said
+mysteriously.</p>
+
+<p>The words focussed my attention sharply.</p>
+
+<p>“June seventh!” I exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>“Sh—sh——” he made a quick gesture for silence,
+and peered again all about in the semi-twilight made
+by the still dour, cloudy sky and mist and dripping,
+close-growing shrubbery. “Yes. The night of June
+seventh. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know what
+my duty is. I don’t want to get nobody into trouble.
+But I can’t go on no longer without telling somebody.
+I thought you, Miss Keate, would know what to do.”</p>
+
+<p>“What is it?” I asked quickly.</p>
+
+<p>He did not reply at once. Instead he looked uneasily
+all about us, examining the surroundings with an
+intensity that impressed upon me the need for caution as
+to the matter he was about to relate. Unconsciously
+I drew nearer him.</p>
+
+<p>“Go on,” I said.</p>
+
+<p>He surveyed me doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>“I wish I knew whether I was doing right or not,”
+he mused with a worried air. “You see—I don’t want
+to get into trouble myself, either.”</p>
+
+<p>Poor Higgins!</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll see that you do not,” I promised rashly, little
+knowing how impossible it would prove to be to keep
+my word.</p>
+
+<p>He cleared his throat, glanced toward the path again.</p>
+
+<p>“You see, I saw it,” he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>“Saw what?”</p>
+
+<p>“Saw who killed the patient in Room 18!”</p>
+
+<p>For a breathless second I wondered if the man had
+taken leave of his senses. His gray face, his evident
+fright, the way his eyes shifted about, first peering in
+one direction and then another, convinced me of his
+sincerity. He must be speaking the truth. It was evident,
+too, and I did not wonder at it, that he was in a mortal
+terror of his knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>“How was it? What did you see?” I whispered too.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, it was this way,” he began so slowly as to
+nearly drive me frantic with impatience. “It was this
+way: I had a bad toothache that night. It wouldn’t let
+me sleep and the hot night seemed to make it worse.
+I finally got up and came upstairs to get Dr. Hajek
+to give me something for it. I knocked and knocked
+at his door but I couldn’t wake him, so——”</p>
+
+<p>“What time was that?” I asked.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know exactly. I think about one o’clock.
+Anyway I went back to the basement and still couldn’t
+get any peace from the tooth. It ached and ached and
+I got up and tried to rouse Dr. Hajek again. I couldn’t
+wake him—you see, he wasn’t there at all. So I let
+myself out of the main door and walked around the
+corner of the hospital. Sometimes Dr. Letheny would
+sit up late and I thought that if there was a light in his
+study, I could get something for my tooth from him.
+It was the darkest night I have ever seen.”</p>
+
+<p>He paused to shake his head dolefully.</p>
+
+<p>“Anyway, pretty soon I saw a sort of green light
+up there on the hill, and knew that Dr. Letheny was
+reading late. Well, I started toward the path and it
+was so dark I could hardly find my way. When I got
+to the end of the south wing, I could see that the south
+door was open, and could see the light over the chart
+desk. The wing looked almost as dark as it did outside.”
+He stopped, drew out a blue bandanna handkerchief
+and wiped his forehead, though it was chilly out there
+on the bridge.</p>
+
+<p>“Then—I heard something, a sort of sound like a
+footstep—I don’t know exactly what it was. But it
+seemed to come from there near the door of the wing.
+It flashed through my mind that someone was prowling
+about St. Ann’s and, all at once, I remembered about
+the radium being used, though I didn’t actually think
+that anyone was stealing it. Anyway, I felt my way
+through the dark, past the porch of the wing. I went
+very cautiously and stopped when I heard, just on the
+other side of that big elderberry bush, two parties
+talking.” He stopped and used the bandanna again, and
+inwardly I cursed that ambiguous word of his class:
+“party.”</p>
+
+<p>“Go on,” I said impatiently. “Who were they?”</p>
+
+<p>“I heard a little of what they said,” he continued,
+impervious to my eagerness. “I’ll tell you about that
+later. I must have made some sort of sound, for all
+at once they stopped talking and went away. I followed
+them but lost them in the darkness, and thinking
+from their talk that they would be coming back to
+the hospital, I felt my way back again, too. I was just
+in time to see a little light through the window of
+Eighteen. It was the light of a match and by it I saw
+the face of the party that”—he was whispering—“that
+killed Jackson. I saw the radium being hid. Yes, miss,
+and I know where the radium is right now.”</p>
+
+<p>I think I seized him by the arm and shook it, for I
+remember he drew back.</p>
+
+<p>“Tell me, quick, Higgins. Hurry. Who was it?”</p>
+
+<p>“Not so fast, now, Miss Keate. I’ve got to tell my
+story in my own way. Miss Keate, there was three in
+Room 18 that night. Yes, ma’am, three.”</p>
+
+<p>“Three? Who were they, Higgins? Didn’t the same
+man kill both Jackson and the doctor?”</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head slowly and with the most
+exasperating stupidity.</p>
+
+<p>“No, Miss Keate. No, that couldn’t hardly be.”</p>
+
+<p>“Could hardly be! What on earth do you mean?
+Who was about that night? Whom did you see? Who
+was in Room 18? Speak up, man!”</p>
+
+<p>I suppose I succeeded in confusing him.</p>
+
+<p>“Wait, miss, till I finish my story. I was standing
+in the shadow, staring with all my eyes at that dark
+window waiting for the party I had seen to come
+out—when I just knew that someone was near me. I didn’t
+hear a footstep nor a breath but all at once somebody
+was just there. And I was holding my breath to listen
+when there was a sort of a scramble at the window and
+I sneaked up closer to the wall. I stumbled over a coat
+or something right at the window and just as I caught
+myself I heard a crash from inside Room 18. That
+scared me, Miss Keate.” The man paused again to
+scrutinize the dripping, green curtains about us, and I
+caught my breath.</p>
+
+<p>“That scared me, so I stayed right there where I
+was, listening. I heard a kind of a scraping sound, then
+it was all quiet for a minute or two, and I thought
+I’d better get out of the way. I sneaked over to the
+corner and stood just around it. It was so black that
+I couldn’t see my hand in front of my face, but I’ve got
+good hearing, ma’am, and I heard <em>only one party</em> slip
+out that window and close the screen and go away,
+walking light like a cat through the orchard. And it
+was just then the wind came up with a bang and things
+began to whiz around and I thought I’d better get back
+to my room. I knowed there was some skulduggery
+going on, ma’am, and I didn’t want to be in on it.” He
+blew his nose vigorously. I realized that my mouth was
+hanging open and closed it with a snap.</p>
+
+<p>“Who was about, Higgins? Tell me at once.” I spoke
+very sternly, trying at the same time to keep my teeth
+from chattering. The recital had recalled all too
+forcibly to me the events of that black night.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, there was Dr. Letheny—of course. Then
+there was that Gainsay fellow, the one that is staying
+up there at Letheny’s. Then there was Corole Letheny
+and there was Dr. Hajek——”</p>
+
+<p>“Did you recognize all these people, Higgins?” I
+cried incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>He regarded me with scorn.</p>
+
+<p>“Say, didn’t I tell you I got good ears?”</p>
+
+<p>“But you could hardly recognize Mr. Gainsay, for
+instance, with your ears.”</p>
+
+<p>“I didn’t,” said Higgins. “I saw his face in the light
+of a match.”</p>
+
+<p>“Go on,” I urged. “Who else? Who was it you saw
+in Eighteen? Where is the radium?”</p>
+
+<p>Unfortunately I placed an impatient hand on his
+arm; he glanced down and saw my wrist watch.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve got to hurry,” he cried. “It’s nearly six and the
+fires not——”</p>
+
+<p>“Wait!” I seized his coat sleeve. “Tell me. Who
+did it?”</p>
+
+<p>He jerked away. “It’s late! I must hurry. I’ll see
+you to-night.” Eluding my grasp he scurried away and
+out of sight, around the little bend!</p>
+
+<p>Slowly my hands dropped to my sides. For some time
+I simply stared in the direction he had taken and let
+my thoughts whirl.</p>
+
+<p>What had he seen? What had he heard? Who . . .?</p>
+
+<p>It was curious how slowly I became aware that the
+green curtain within an arm’s reach was wavering. The
+slender leaves of willow were trembling, shivering,
+dancing. The elderberry swayed gently.</p>
+
+<p>There was no wind.</p>
+
+<p>I blinked—frowned—realized its oddity—and in
+sudden, quick suspicion I took a step forward, thrust
+the bushes aside with my arms, brushed back the
+willows, took a few steps along the water’s edge and saw
+Jim Gainsay vanishing into a little thicket of
+evergreens.</p>
+
+<p>He did not look back. He seemed to have no idea
+that he had been seen. He wore no cap. I saw him
+clearly and unmistakably.</p>
+
+<p>So Jim Gainsay had been behind that willow curtain!
+Jim Gainsay had heard Higgins’s faltering, reluctant
+revelations. And after brazenly listening to the
+whole thing, Jim Gainsay had furtively and stealthily
+slipped away, without intending that I should even be
+aware of his presence.</p>
+
+<p>Concerned almost as much with this evidence of
+Jim Gainsay’s duplicity as with Higgins’s tale, I stood
+stock-still there in that thicket, with wet branches and
+leaves pressing against me on all sides. Aware finally
+of a specially rude one scratching my neck I roused
+myself, pushed out into the path, and took my way
+back to St. Ann’s.</p>
+
+<p>The thing to do, I realized, was to let O’Leary know
+at once of Higgins’s story; if anyone could worm the
+whole tale from the janitor it would be Lance O’Leary.
+But I shall have to confess that baffled curiosity
+overcame me, and I resolved to get hold of Higgins
+immediately and try to make him tell me, at least, whom he
+saw there in Room 18.</p>
+
+<p>The supper bell was ringing when I entered the south
+wing. I am not one to slight meals as a rule, but that
+was one time when I ignored the summons. However,
+Higgins was not about and upon inquiry someone said
+she thought he had gone into town. Reluctantly, then,
+I went to supper.</p>
+
+<p>At the door of the dining room I met several
+training girls. Melvina Smith was among them and they
+were talking excitedly in low voices which they hushed
+as soon as they saw me, and one and all looked guilty.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, what is it?” I said briskly.</p>
+
+<p>Melvina Smith fastened hollow eyes upon me and
+said in a sepulchral voice:</p>
+
+<p>“Accident has died.”</p>
+
+<p>“Accident!” Having for the moment forgotten the
+christening party I was at a loss to understand her
+cryptic utterance, and wondered if she was quite right.</p>
+
+<p>“Accident,” confirmed Melvina. “The third tragedy
+is on its way.”</p>
+
+<p>“I must say I don’t in the least know what you are
+talking about,” I remarked acidly. Melvina is very
+trying and carries an element of conviction in her tones
+that makes one feel as if she is well informed.</p>
+
+<p>“Accident. The kitten, you know. The black kitten,”
+volunteered one of the girls hurriedly. “It died and
+Melvina says—” her eyes got larger and she lowered
+her voice—“Melvina says—it is a <em>sign!</em>”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, the kitten! What nonsense!”</p>
+
+<p>“He was not sick,” said Melvina in a measured and
+undisturbed way. “He was not sick at all. He was, in
+fact, the healthiest of the whole batch. But—he died.”</p>
+
+<p>And would you believe it I felt gooseflesh coming out
+on my arms? Melvina was never intended for as
+matter-of-fact a profession as that of a nurse; her talents
+are wasted.</p>
+
+<p>“Nonsense,” I said again, and repeated it.
+“Nonsense.”</p>
+
+<p>“It is a sign,” remarked Melvina in that quietly positive
+way. She reached quite casually into her capacious
+pocket and drew out before our very eyes the kitten.
+It was, to be sure, dead and quite stiff and stark. All
+of us shrank back at the sight of the poor little black
+body with its stiff claws outstretched and its mouth open
+and grinning, but Melvina regarded it familiarly. “It
+was a perfectly healthy kitten,” she went on, in the
+manner of the scientist who weighs facts impartially.
+“It died. All at once. Just died. No reasons for it. But
+it died. <em>It is a sign.</em>”</p>
+
+<p>A little gasp went over the group and I found
+my tongue.</p>
+
+<p>“Melvina Smith,” I said, “take that kitten out into
+the orchard and bury it. Then change your uniform and
+scrub your hands with antiseptic soap. How long have
+you been carrying that thing around? Not that it
+matters,” I went on hastily as Melvina opened her
+too-gifted mouth to reply. “Don’t ever let me catch you
+doing such a thing again. Moreover, if I hear of you
+saying such foolish and—yes, wicked things again I
+shall have Miss Dotty give you fifty demerits and that
+means no Sundays off for the rest of the summer.”</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Dotty already knows about it,” said one of
+the other girls. “Melvina had it on the table showing
+it to us at theory class and Miss Dotty didn’t see it
+and put her hand on it.”</p>
+
+<p>“She was sick,” added another girl solemnly. “She
+was real sick, all at once. We wanted to practice ‘What
+to Do for Nausea’ on her but she didn’t give us time.”</p>
+
+<p>“She is in her room now,” concluded the first girl
+with a passionate devotion to detail. “She is in her
+room with a hot-water bottle and an ice bag and a bottle
+of camphor.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well,” I said abruptly, feeling very much as if I
+were going to imitate Miss Dotty, “take
+that—er—kitten outdoors at once, Melvina.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, Miss Keate,” said Melvina dutifully. “Do you
+have second watch in the south wing to-night, Miss
+Keate?”</p>
+
+<p>“Certainly.”</p>
+
+<p>“My‑y‑y!” Melvina sucked in her breath. “Something
+will be sure to happen. May I help you, Miss
+Keate?”</p>
+
+<p>“Good gracious, Melvina!” I cried, revolted. “Do
+you mean to say you would want to be there if
+anything <em>did</em> happen?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh—no,” she said reluctantly, eyeing the kitten
+fondly. “But something <em>will</em> happen. Soon. It is a sign.”</p>
+
+<p>“Melvina!” I must have spoken firmly for Melvina
+wasted no time in going about her burying and the rest
+of the girls hastened on down to supper.</p>
+
+<p>It was just after supper that I was called to the
+telephone.</p>
+
+<p>It was O’Leary, and his voice seemed very far away.</p>
+
+<p>“Is there anyone else in the office?” he asked.</p>
+
+<p>“No.”</p>
+
+<p>“Is this line private? Is there a way for anyone
+to listen in?”</p>
+
+<p>“No.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then listen, Miss Keate. I can’t get out to the
+hospital right now and there is something I want to know.
+Has anything—any article of furniture—any—er—bed
+linen—blankets—pillows—anything of the sort,
+been taken out of the room we are interested in?”</p>
+
+<p>“Only the soiled linens,” I replied.</p>
+
+<p>There was a long silence, so long that I repeated my
+answer.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I heard you,” he said hastily. “Are you
+positive about that? Think hard, Miss Keate.”</p>
+
+<p>“Not another thing—oh, yes, last night I exchanged
+the loud speaker in that room for another.”</p>
+
+<p>“You did!” His voice was eager. “When? Before
+or after I was in the room?”</p>
+
+<p>“Before!”</p>
+
+<p>“Sure?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. The patient complained that it wasn’t
+working very well.”</p>
+
+<p>“What did you do—where is it now?”</p>
+
+<p>“In Sonny’s—that is, in the room where I put it, I
+suppose.”</p>
+
+<p>“Lord, I’m a dumbbell,” said O’Leary heartily.
+“Miss Keate, listen carefully, please. Take that loud
+speaker, <em>just as it is</em>, to some safe place and don’t let
+anyone have it until I come. Understand?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” I said slowly. “But I—do you think—could
+it possibly be——”</p>
+
+<p>“That’s all, Miss Keate,” he interrupted. “Thank
+you very much.” And before I could tell him of Higgins
+he had hung up the receiver and I was left shouting
+“Mr. O’Leary,” into the mouthpiece.</p>
+
+<p>Feeling somewhat put out I telephoned immediately
+to the number he had given me. A man-servant answered
+and told me rather superciliously that Mr. O’Leary was
+out. On my saying the message was urgent he brightened
+up, however, and took my number and name with
+alacrity, promising to have Mr. O’Leary telephone
+me as soon as he came home. It seemed evident to me
+that O’Leary believed the radium to be in the loud
+speaker, and though at first I was disinclined to agree
+with him, for it seemed to me that that was altogether
+too prominent a hiding place, by the time I had reached
+the south wing, I had had time to recall the “purloined
+letter,” lying there in plain sight, and was beginning
+to feel considerably excited and eager to get my hands
+on the loud speaker. Those loud speakers that we have
+at St. Ann’s are, as Dr. Letheny had complained,
+specially made at the advice of a board member who deals
+in radios; they are built a good deal like a small round
+hat box on a standard. You’ve seen them. The parallel
+sides, or what would be the top and bottom of the
+hat box, are made of some sort of fancifully decorated
+parchment paper. They are quite attractive and have
+a clear, soft tone, very nice for a hospital. The more
+I thought of it the more clearly I realized that here
+would be a place to hide the radium. There would be
+plenty of room, the speaker was inconspicuously
+prominent, if I may indulge in the paradox, and while
+appearing to be so permanently constructed, nevertheless
+one of the sides could doubtless be removed and replaced
+with little evidence of tampering.</p>
+
+<p>It could not have been more than a minute or two
+later that I entered Sonny’s room and got the loud
+speaker. I suddenly remembered that it was out of
+order and had not been fixed, but fortunately Sonny
+had not asked to have the radio turned on since I had
+transferred it from Room 18. Or at least if he had,
+I hadn’t heard of it. As I left the room the corridors
+were deserted. I met Maida just outside my own room
+and she saw what I carried but said nothing. I went
+on into my room and closed the door.</p>
+
+<p>I had fully intended to remove one of the sides of
+the loud speaker at once, but in the very act of doing
+so I checked myself. So far as I knew I might thus
+destroy some important clue. Lance O’Leary had said
+nothing about examining it; he had said only to place
+it in safe-keeping. It was with some disappointment
+that, after staring at the thing for some time and shaking
+it tentatively at my ear, I placed it face downward
+on the lower shelf of the chifferette and locked the door.</p>
+
+<p>Now to find Higgins!</p>
+
+<p>Higgins was not easy to find, however. I hunted all
+through the basement, the ambulance rooms, the kitchens,
+even went out in the twilight to the garage, but
+Higgins was not to be found. It was dark by that time
+so I took my way back to the hospital. Not willing to
+give up I made another rapid search through the basement,
+but the only living beings I saw were Morgue and
+the cook who was just going to bed with a stack of
+forbidden newspapers under his arm.</p>
+
+<p>The cook, however, had seen Higgins.</p>
+
+<p>“Not twenty minutes ago,” he said positively.</p>
+
+<p>“Where?”</p>
+
+<p>“Let me see now—seems to me he was walking down
+toward the apple orchard. That tall fellow, the one
+that is visiting up at Letheny’s, was with him.”</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. Gainsay was with him!”</p>
+
+<p>“Sure.” The cook was immediately interested. “Sure.
+Walking down toward the apple orchard, they was. Do
+you want to see Higgins, Miss Keate?”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, it was of no importance,” I said, and somewhat
+disconsolately departed.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch12">
+
+<h2>12. Room 18 Again</h2>
+
+<p>Still feeling that I must get hold of Higgins, it was
+hard to compose myself to rest and I didn’t sleep a
+wink. About eleven o’clock I got up and made my way
+again to the basement. It was dark and spooky and very
+empty down there and after knocking at Higgins’s door
+a few times and feeling, while I waited for the reply
+that did not come, as if all the ghosts in Christendom
+were prowling in the furnace room and thereabouts,
+I retreated precipitously to my own room. I was sure
+that Higgins was in his room, for where else would
+he be at that hour? But the surroundings were not those
+to encourage persistence on my part. The unused
+corridors are very desolate at that hour and those of the
+sick-room wings little less so.</p>
+
+<p>I was still wide awake when the twelve o’clock gong
+sounded.</p>
+
+<p>By that time I was convinced that Higgins was
+deliberately keeping out of my way and that in itself made
+me the more anxious to get in touch with O’Leary. I
+stopped at the general office as I passed it on my way
+to the south wing, and telephoned again.</p>
+
+<p>The same servant answered my ring, sleepily at
+first, but he awoke in a hurry when I told him that it
+was Miss Keate at St. Ann’s and that I must speak to
+Mr. O’Leary at once.</p>
+
+<p>“You might try the police station,” he said guardedly.
+“I think he was investigating some telegraph
+messages that just came in.”</p>
+
+<p>So I looked up the number in the telephone book and
+tried it. But though I tried and tried, the line was busy
+and kept busy and I had to give up in order to be on
+time at the south wing.</p>
+
+<p>Olma Flynn was waiting for me and Maida already
+busy about twelve-o’clock temperatures.</p>
+
+<p>“Eleven is doing pretty well to-night,” said Olma
+as we bent over the charts. “Three has a degree or so
+of fever but has been fairly quiet. Oh, by the way, have
+you the key to the south door?”</p>
+
+<p>“No.”</p>
+
+<p>She frowned.</p>
+
+<p>“I couldn’t find it. I had to leave the south door
+unlocked.”</p>
+
+<p>“Couldn’t find it!”</p>
+
+<p>“No. It wasn’t anywhere about the desk.”</p>
+
+<p>“Did you look in the lock?”</p>
+
+<p>“Of course, Miss Keate. And I asked the other girls.
+No one has seen it since morning.”</p>
+
+<p>In view of the existing circumstances, I suppose it
+was natural that I should feel immediately alarmed.
+After Olma had gone wearily away to bed I gave the
+chart desk and its vicinity a thorough search.</p>
+
+<p>“What on earth are you doing?” asked Maida, coming
+along just as I had taken all the charts out of the
+rack and was feeling about with my fingers in the
+recesses left empty.</p>
+
+<p>“Looking for the key to the south door,” I replied.
+“Have you seen it?”</p>
+
+<p>“No. I have not seen it since last night.”</p>
+
+<p>She waited for a moment, watching me rearrange the
+charts.</p>
+
+<p>“I wish this trouble were all cleared up,” she said,
+her voice sombre.</p>
+
+<p>“So do I.” I replaced the last chart and turned to
+face her. The greenish light from above the desk made
+her face worn and colourless and cast a sickly green
+glow over our white dresses.</p>
+
+<p>“If we don’t find it to-morrow I shall have to have
+a new key made. I suppose we can leave the south door
+unlocked to-night,” I decided irresolutely. “I don’t like
+to; I have had enough of people prowling through our
+wing.”</p>
+
+<p>Maida’s shadowed eyes met mine and she shivered
+slightly; she attempted to smile but her lips pulled
+tautly.</p>
+
+<p>“It is getting to disturb me more and more,” she
+admitted. “Think of this, Sarah: it has been only four
+days since that dinner party of Corole’s. Is it possible!
+So much has happened. It seems like months.”</p>
+
+<p>“This is Tuesday,” I calculated, “That was last
+Thursday night—no, Maida, five days.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, five days then,” she assented lifelessly. “What
+a five days! If it would only turn warm and summery
+and sunshiny again, I do believe things would be better
+off. I’m sure I should be at least!”</p>
+
+<p>“I dislike this constant drizzle,” I agreed, without
+much spirit. “There is something honest and
+whole-hearted about real rain, but weather like this is
+wretched.”</p>
+
+<p>“Everything I touch is clammy like—like a dead
+man.” She whispered the last words and I think they
+came as a surprise to her, for she looked frightened
+and a little shocked.</p>
+
+<p>A small red light shone down the corridor above
+a door and I started to answer it.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t forget to—er——”</p>
+
+<p>“Keep my eyes on the south door?” finished Maida
+with a bleak smile.</p>
+
+<p>“Exactly.” I tried to smile, too. I remember thinking,
+as I walked briskly toward the signal, that our
+words were not unlike those of soldiers going into
+battle—in spirit, at least. I saw something of that in 1918;
+I was in a hospital that was once, mistakenly I hope,
+shelled. In a choice between the shelled hospital on
+that lurid front and the dreary, clammy nights of
+second watch at St. Ann’s, where every stir made your
+breath catch, and every whispering noise made your
+skin crawl, I’d much prefer the shelled hospital. There
+the terror was expected; its source was known. Here,
+every doorway was a silent menace; every room and
+every turn and every alcove might harbour death. The
+hospital seemed too roomy, too large, too dark. Our
+very skirts seemed to whisper and hiss with fear along
+those blank corridors and empty walls and half-lights
+and shadows.</p>
+
+<p>I had left the door of the general office open and
+while going about my work listened for the telephone.
+Dr. Hajek is supposed to answer it at night, having
+his room off the office for that purpose, but I hoped
+that if I heard the ring when O’Leary first called, I
+would be able to get to the telephone by the time Fred
+Hajek, who is a heavy sleeper, was aroused.</p>
+
+<p>And when I finally heard the subdued buzz I happened
+to be at the chart desk and simply dropped pen
+and all and ran through the corridor that connects us
+with the main portion of the hospital.</p>
+
+<p>I took the receiver off the hook and was panting so
+heavily that I had to wait for a second to catch my
+breath before answering. The door to Dr. Hajek’s
+room remained closed and Dr. Balman, in the inner
+office, had not been aroused either, so I must have made
+the distance in nothing flat—whatever that is—I picked
+up the term from a patient who was interested in sports
+and believe it to mean a very rapid pace.</p>
+
+<p>It was O’Leary, of course.</p>
+
+<p>“This is Miss Keate,” I said in a low voice, hoping
+that the sound of it would not carry past those closed
+doors. “I am very anxious to see you.”</p>
+
+<p>He must have caught the urgency in my voice.</p>
+
+<p>“Shall I come right out?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. At once.”</p>
+
+<p>“Very well. In fifteen minutes.”</p>
+
+<p>The receiver clicked, I hung up my own softly,
+straightened my cap and walked back to the south
+wing. Maida was not to be seen. I sat down at the desk
+and found that in my haste to get to the telephone
+I had upset the red ink I was in the act of using. It
+was meandering gayly across the desk, reddening
+everything it touched, and I seized some trash out of the
+waste basket for a blotter. It was while I was mopping
+up the ink that all at once, without even a warning
+flicker, the light above the desk went out, leaving me
+in total darkness. It was so unexpected that I gasped
+and cried out.</p>
+
+<p>Then I turned as if to look down the corridor, but
+nothing but a close black curtain met my eyes. There
+was not a gleam of light. Every signal light was gone;
+there was not even a glimmer of light from under the
+doors of kitchen or drug room or linen closet. I was
+suspended in a breathless black void.</p>
+
+<p>And down that black emptiness, only five nights ago,
+two men had been violently done to death!</p>
+
+<p>My breath began to come in painful, rasping gasps.
+I must do something. I must find Maida. I must get a
+lamp. Must make my way to the basement switch-box
+and replace a burned-out fuse—or find what had caused
+the trouble.</p>
+
+<p>Or was it an accident? Had a fuse actually gone?
+Could it be that the lights had purposely been
+disconnected?</p>
+
+<p>The terrifying question had not more than entered
+my head when from somewhere down the corridor
+a cold current of air struck me.</p>
+
+<p>I shivered. Some door or window had been opened.
+Some door—the south door! Was it the south door?</p>
+
+<p>I was standing, gripping the chair back, loath to
+leave that firm, stationary thing and venture forth into
+the surrounding blackness that was alive, now, with
+foreboding and the menace of unspeakable things. Was
+something moving? Did I hear a stealthy footstep?
+Was it the thudding of my own heart?</p>
+
+<p>I strove to move, to force my horror-drugged muscles
+to advance that length of grisly blackness
+toward—toward Room 18.</p>
+
+<p>I tried to call out: “Maida—Maida—” I kept saying
+and finally realized that my stiff lips were only
+shaping the words.</p>
+
+<p>What was happening down there? Was Room 18
+claiming another—— Was—— I took a step into the
+darkness, tore my reluctant hands from the chair, and
+groped for the wall to guide me past the yawning
+emptiness of those intervening doors.</p>
+
+<p>With outstretched, shaking hands, I was feeling
+for some stable thing to guide me, when, in that dead
+silence, there was a shattering crash of sound.</p>
+
+<p>It was a revolver shot! The crash reverberated
+through the halls, echoing and reëchoing in those
+empty spaces and about those blank doors.</p>
+
+<p>Then gradually the frightful echoes died away. The
+blackness pressed in upon me, more suffocating than
+before, and again dead silence reigned.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment I must have been numb with shock.
+Then there were footsteps running, a cry, the clicking
+of signal lights that did not light, and I was running,
+stumbling, gasping, bumping into doors, trying to reach
+the end of the corridor. And Room 18.</p>
+
+<p>Along the way I collided with something, something
+moving that twisted away from me and cried out. It
+was Maida and at my voice she answered.</p>
+
+<p>“What is it! What has happened! Was it Room 18?”</p>
+
+<p>“Room 18! What can we——”</p>
+
+<p>“We must have a light. In the kitchen—there’s a
+candle——” I heard the swift, soft thud of her feet
+as they moved away and I kept on, feeling along the
+cold, dank wall, groping my way past open doors. It
+seemed an eternity before I reached the end of the
+corridor and felt the small panes of glass in the south
+door under my fingers. I turned sharply to the left.
+Beyond that black void stretched Room 18. I paused
+at its threshold but something drove me on, into the
+room.</p>
+
+<p>Here was the wall. Here was the electric light button.
+Here the bedside table. I bent, feeling along the rough
+weave of the counterpane on the bed, took a few steps
+further, trod on something hideously soft and yielding,
+and sprang backward in stark terror.</p>
+
+<p>Afraid to move, afraid to breathe, my heart clamouring
+in my throat choking me, my hands pressed against
+my teeth, I could not even scream.</p>
+
+<p>What lay there? What was in that room?</p>
+
+<p>Then I realized dimly that Maida was coming, that
+a small circle of light was at the door, that a hand was
+holding a lamp unsteadily and the wavering flame was
+casting grotesque shadows on Maida’s chin and mouth.
+Above them her eyes were wide and black and mirrored
+my terror.</p>
+
+<p>I saw her hand advance, pointing at my feet. It
+shook. Her mouth opened in a voiceless cry and I forced
+myself to look downward.</p>
+
+<p>It was Higgins, sprawled there at the foot of the
+bed. He had been shot!</p>
+
+<p>Neither of us spoke. Neither of us moved.</p>
+
+<p>At last Maida withdrew her hand.</p>
+
+<p>“Set the lamp down,” I heard someone saying—it
+must have been I. “Set the lamp down before you
+drop it.”</p>
+
+<p>We did not hear O’Leary enter the south door. All
+at once he was there with us, staring at the thing there
+on the floor, holding his electric torch to illumine it.</p>
+
+<p>“When did it happen? How? Come into the hall.
+Tell me. Was I too late?”</p>
+
+<p>Somehow we were out in the corridor; the lamp was
+left on the table in Room 18. The light from its small
+flame trembled and cast eery, creeping shadows.</p>
+
+<p>“Quick,” said O’Leary. “Take that lamp to the
+basement, Miss Day. The light switch has been pulled
+out. You know where the switch-box is——”</p>
+
+<p>I saw Maida flinch but she took the lamp, averting
+her eyes from the floor.</p>
+
+<p>“Hurry! No, Miss Keate, stay here, please, at the
+door. If anyone tries to get in, stop him! Scream! I’ll
+not be far away.”</p>
+
+<p>In a flash he was gone, out the south door. I was
+still standing as if petrified, there in front of the south
+door, when the green light over the chart desk at the
+opposite end of the corridor flashed up and the little
+red signal lights gleamed suddenly all up and down
+the hall. I breathed a sigh of relief; Maida was all right,
+then. And in another moment or two her white uniform
+came into view at the chart desk.</p>
+
+<p>“All right, thank you, Miss Keate,” came a voice at
+my elbow. It was O’Leary, his hat gone, his hair
+ruffled, his eyes shining like phosphorescent flashes on
+a deep-lying sea. “Come with me, please,” he said.</p>
+
+<p>“Was the fuse burned out?” asked O’Leary as we
+met Maida, who was hurrying to answer the signals.</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head. Her eyes were hollow and dark
+and her face as white as her cap.</p>
+
+<p>“The main switch had been pulled out.”</p>
+
+<p>“What I expected,” muttered O’Leary, as we sped
+along the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>Lights were gleaming from the north wing, and
+the night-duty nurses from that wing were clustered
+in a frightened group in the main hall. As they saw
+us they ran forward.</p>
+
+<p>“What was it, Miss Keate—we heard a shot—what
+has happened?” And down the stairs tumbled several
+nurses in uniforms and kimonos and Miss Dotty with
+her hair in paper curlers and her eyes distracted.</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary paid no attention to them. I followed him
+into the general office. He rapped sharply, first at Dr.
+Hajek’s door, then at the door of the inner office. Then
+he put his hand on the latch of the door to the inner
+office and pushed. It was not locked and opened readily;
+the light from the office streamed through the door.</p>
+
+<p>“O’Leary! What has happened? What is it?” Dr.
+Balman, his eyes blinking anxiously in the light, was
+tossing back the covers and springing from his bed.</p>
+
+<p>“There has been another murder in Room 18,” said
+O’Leary.</p>
+
+<p>“Another—what! Who?”</p>
+
+<p>“The janitor—Higgins.” And at that second the
+door to Dr. Hajek’s room opened and Dr. Hajek, his
+bathrobe hugged about him, ran toward us.</p>
+
+<p>“What was that? What did you say? Higgins?
+Dead?”</p>
+
+<p>In a few, terse words O’Leary explained and by that
+time we were all hurrying back to the south wing, Dr.
+Balman’s white pajamas leading the way. I did not
+enter Room 18 again with them.</p>
+
+<p>There was plenty of work waiting for me in the
+wing. As if to make bad matters worse the nurses from
+all over the hospital were crowding into the south-wing
+corridor, their pallid faces and wild questions adding
+to the confusion. The excitement was becoming tumultuous
+when Dr. Balman came into the corridor, a strange
+figure in his pajamas and bare feet, his thin hair
+rumpled and his eyes worried.</p>
+
+<p>“There has been an accident,” he said. His voice
+carried though it was very low. “Please return
+immediately to duty. Do not be alarmed.” And it was curious
+to see the nurses scattering hastily like frightened
+children caught in mischief.</p>
+
+<p>For a while I had not time or eyes for anything but
+work. It was difficult enough to calm and soothe the
+patients of our wing and I paid no attention to the
+closed door of Eighteen, the flying trips through the
+corridor made by the two doctors, or O’Leary’s gray
+suit and thoughtful countenance and shining eyes here
+and there about the wing.</p>
+
+<p>When the police began to arrive, entering the wing
+by the south door so as not to be seen by those from
+other wings, it was a great deal like the repetition of a
+bad dream. It continued so until along about four
+o’clock when an ambulance, gleaming oddly white and
+distinct in the cold gray dawn, was drawn up at the
+south door. I did not see them leave.</p>
+
+<p>I was trying to control my still shaking hands in
+order to get the neglected charts written up before
+turning things over to the day nurses, when O’Leary
+paused beside me and sat down in the vacant chair.</p>
+
+<p>“What is that on your hands?” he asked suddenly
+as I wrote.</p>
+
+<p>I glanced at my hands and jumped.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh!” I remembered. “It is only red ink. I was
+cleaning up some that I had spilled when—when the
+lights went out.”</p>
+
+<p>“When the lights were turned out,” he corrected.
+“How soon will you finish that thing?”</p>
+
+<p>“I am through now.” I verified the chart hastily and
+thrust it in its place in the rack. “Have you—found
+anything?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.” He spoke coolly. “I have—found a good
+deal. First, though, why did you telephone for me?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, it was Higgins! It was Higgins and now it
+is too late!”</p>
+
+<p>His gray eyes studied me.</p>
+
+<p>“What do you mean?”</p>
+
+<p>My heart began to thump as speculation aroused
+within me.</p>
+
+<p>“Higgins,” I said, dropping my voice to a whisper.
+“Higgins saw the face of the man that killed Mr.
+Jackson.”</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment of silence so profound that
+the very walls seemed to whisper and echo my words;
+someone in the kitchen nearby dropped a spoon and
+at the metallic little rattle O’Leary stirred.</p>
+
+<p>“Higgins—saw the face of the man who killed
+Jackson,” he repeated slowly. “How do you know, Miss
+Keate?”</p>
+
+<p>As rapidly as possible I repeated to him the whole
+of my amazing conversation with Higgins. Then, more
+reluctantly, I told him of Jim Gainsay’s presence back
+of the willows where he could overhear every word we
+had spoken. I told him also of what the cook had said.</p>
+
+<p>His inscrutable eyes studying me shrewdly, O’Leary
+said nothing until I had finished.</p>
+
+<p>“Then Jim Gainsay heard Higgins not only admit
+his dangerous knowledge but promise to tell you
+to-night the name of that man. <em>To-night.</em>”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.” Then as I caught the emphasis, I went on
+hurriedly: “But Jim Gainsay had nothing to do with
+his death. I saw nothing of Jim Gainsay to-night.
+I—I am sure . . .” My voice trailed breathlessly away
+under O’Leary’s sharp regard.</p>
+
+<p>“And as far as we know now Jim Gainsay was the
+last person to see Higgins alive?” He continued quite
+as if I had not rushed to Jim Gainsay’s defence.</p>
+
+<p>“As far as we know <em>now</em>,” I pointed out. “We may
+find that someone talked to him after he was seen with
+Jim Gainsay.”</p>
+
+<p>“Gainsay overheard your conversation. The man
+whose face Higgins saw had everything to lose at such
+evidence. No one but Gainsay and you, Miss Keate,
+knew of its existence. I’m sorry; Gainsay seems to be
+a decent enough young fellow.” He paused, fumbled
+in his pocket, drew out the shabby stub of a pencil and
+began turning it over and over in his slender, well-kept
+fingers.</p>
+
+<p>The light above my head was paling in the slow,
+gray light of early morning which was struggling in
+through the windows and making the whole place more
+desolate and more grim and forbidding than it had
+been in the dark of night.</p>
+
+<p>“It is a difficult situation,” he said presently.</p>
+
+<p>I pushed my cap farther back on my head and rubbed
+my hand across my eyes—eyes that were tired and
+weary with what they had seen that night.</p>
+
+<p>“I dread the effect of this night’s doing; it will almost
+demoralize our staff, to say nothing of its effect upon
+outsiders. We are looking to you to straighten out
+this hideous tangle. And it must be soon.”</p>
+
+<p>His face was very sober.</p>
+
+<p>“I hope to do so,” he said gravely. “I think I am
+not saying too much when I tell you that I have good
+reason to hope for success.”</p>
+
+<p>There was a restrained little throb of exhilaration
+in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>“Do you mean——” I began sharply. He
+interrupted me.</p>
+
+<p>“I mean only that I am beginning to arrive at some
+conclusions.” And without giving me a chance to ask
+what those conclusions were he continued at once: “Are
+you sure Higgins said it was a <em>man’s</em> face that he saw?”</p>
+
+<p>I went back in my memory, over that brief and
+baffling conversation, now never to be finished. Poor
+Higgins!</p>
+
+<p>“No,” I said thoughtfully. “He did not definitely say
+it was a man. I—I’m afraid I just assumed it to be
+a man.”</p>
+
+<p>“Assuming is dangerous,” said O’Leary quietly. “But
+he did say that he saw three people?”</p>
+
+<p>“He said he knew that there were three people in
+Room 18 that night.”</p>
+
+<p>“And that there were four people—Corole Letheny
+and Dr. Hajek and Jim Gainsay and—Dr. Letheny in
+and about St. Ann’s that dark midnight?”</p>
+
+<p>I nodded confirmatively.</p>
+
+<p>“He said, too, that he saw Jim Gainsay’s face by
+the light of a match. And that he saw the face of the
+man—or person—who killed Jackson by the light of
+the match.”</p>
+
+<p>“But that doesn’t prove——” I began hotly.</p>
+
+<p>“No—no, of course not,” he said absently. “You
+say he was of the opinion that the man——”</p>
+
+<p>“He kept saying the ‘party’,” I interpolated.</p>
+
+<p>“Who killed Jackson and the—the party——” with
+a rather grim tightening of his lips, O’Leary adopted
+Higgins’s terms—“Who killed Dr. Letheny was not
+the same person.”</p>
+
+<p>“He said ‘no, that couldn’t hardly be.’ ” Strange how
+vividly I recalled his hesitating confession.</p>
+
+<p>“It is apparent, of course, that the man in Room 18
+must have had some sort of light, if only for a second,
+in order to conceal the radium. Higgins knew where
+it was all the time. He swore to me that he had slept
+through the whole night. Well——” O’Leary’s
+shoulders lifted a little.</p>
+
+<p>“We will never know now what Higgins saw,” I
+commented, my thoughts sombre.</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary raised his eyes from the pencil for a
+moment.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t be too sure of that, Miss Keate. Did you
+get the speaker for me?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“Put it in a <em>safe</em> place?”</p>
+
+<p>I nodded. “I longed to look inside it but did not.”</p>
+
+<p>He smiled.</p>
+
+<p>“Suppose we look now.”</p>
+
+<p>The rustle of my starched skirts echoed against the
+empty gray-white walls. The general office was
+deserted, likewise the stairs and corridors. Once in my
+room I unlocked the door of the chifferette, withdrew
+the speaker, and holding it carefully, hastened back to
+the south wing. O’Leary was still sitting beside the chart
+desk, his gray gaze on Maida, who was bent over an
+entry she was making on Three’s chart. If she wondered
+what I was doing with the loud speaker she did
+not say so but returned immediately to Three.</p>
+
+<p>I set the speaker down on the shining glass top of
+the chart desk. My hands were shaking a little and I
+held my breath while O’Leary removed one of the sides
+of the speaker. We both peered into it. Then O’Leary
+put his hand inside and groped around.</p>
+
+<p>We stared at the compact arrangement of wires and
+tiny coils and screws, then met each other’s gaze.</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing!” I said.</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing!” confirmed O’Leary. He studied the thing
+thoughtfully for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>“Did anyone see you take this to your room?”</p>
+
+<p>“No one. That is, no one but—but Maida. I met
+her at the door just as I was carrying it to my room.”</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Day—h’mm.” And after another pause: “Are
+you sure that this is the same speaker that was in
+Room 18?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes. No. That is—” I hastened to explain
+as he cast a decidedly irritated glance at me—“that is,
+I mean that this is the speaker that was in Sonny’s room
+and I just assumed it to be the one that I had left there.”</p>
+
+<p>“Assuming again,” remarked O’Leary with dry
+disapproval. “It might have been one from another room,
+then?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. It might have been. But I think——”</p>
+
+<p>“Did you know that the speaker at present in Room
+18 has been torn open, probably during the night?”</p>
+
+<p>“What!”</p>
+
+<p>“Evidently the—er—visitor in Room 18 to-night
+thought what we thought and did not know that the
+original speaker in Room 18 had been removed. Or
+else——” He left his sentence uncompleted, turned
+abruptly and strode down the hall to Sonny’s room.</p>
+
+<p>I followed him to the door. Sonny was awake.</p>
+
+<p>“Good-morning,” said O’Leary kindly. “It is rather
+early in the morning for young fellows like you to be
+awake. Look here, Sonny, the other night Miss Keate
+brought in a loud-speaker for the radio attachment,
+just like this one in my hand. She left it here and took
+away the one that you already had on your table. Then
+last night, she came in and took away the speaker she
+had left with you. I want to know whether the loud
+speaker she took away last night was the very same
+speaker she brought in here.”</p>
+
+<p>Sonny looked bewildered and O’Leary repeated his
+question patiently and clearly.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, no,” said Sonny finally. “That speaker she
+brought in wouldn’t work.”</p>
+
+<p>“What happened to it, then?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why”—Sonny frowned—“Miss Day was in to see
+me and I told her the speaker wasn’t working so she
+took it away and brought me another. The one she
+brought in worked fine. But Miss Keate came and got
+it last night.” He looked reproachfully at me.</p>
+
+<p>“Thank you, Sonny,” said O’Leary briefly.</p>
+
+<p>I have never seen O’Leary showing any feeling or
+excitement, but there were eighteen rooms in that wing
+and I don’t think it took him eighteen minutes to
+examine all the loud speakers in the whole wing. He did
+not omit one save, of course, that already rifled speaker
+in Room 18.</p>
+
+<p>When he had finished, still without any results that
+I could see, he went to Maida.</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Day,” he began, “you took a loud speaker
+exactly like this one”—he still carried under his arm
+the instrument that I had so futilely treasured—“from
+Sonny’s room last night. What did you do with it?”</p>
+
+<p>Maida put back a wisp of black hair that had strayed
+from under her immaculate cap; her blue eyes regarded
+us steadily from the weary, dark circles about them.</p>
+
+<p>“I put it on the table in Room 18,” she replied at
+once. “It was out of order somehow, and I thought
+likely Room 18 would be unoccupied. So I simply
+exchanged the speakers.”</p>
+
+<p>“Thank you, Miss Day. You did not—er—examine
+it closely to see what was wrong with it?”</p>
+
+<p>“No,” she said. “I know nothing of such things; I
+couldn’t possibly have repaired it.”</p>
+
+<p>She went on about her errand.</p>
+
+<p>“A strange case,” mused O’Leary, his clear, gray eyes
+following the slim, white-clad figure moving away from
+us. “The speaker in Room 18 was the right one, after
+all. The question is, was the radium in it and if so who
+took it? Who has it now? When we know that answer
+we will know who shot poor old Higgins.” He went
+to the window over the chart desk, flung it up to the
+sash, and took a deep breath of the fog-laden air. His
+intent young face, his curiously lucid gray eyes, showed
+no hint of a night without sleep.</p>
+
+<p>“A strange case,” he repeated absently. He turned
+from the dripping gray orchard beyond the window,
+fingered idly the bronzed surface of the loud speaker
+there on the desk.</p>
+
+<p>“Another thing, Miss Keate—did you notice that
+when Dr. Hajek came from his room to-night, presumably
+from his bed, he wore trousers under that bathrobe
+that he held so tightly to him? And that those
+trousers had fresh, wet mud stains about the cuffs?”</p>
+
+<p>I murmured something, I don’t know what, and
+O’Leary met my shocked gaze quietly.</p>
+
+<p>“And furthermore,” he said softly, “I found fresh
+mud stains on the window sill of his room. Really, Miss
+Keate, this hospital of yours should have been built
+with its first floor higher from the ground. Entrances
+and exits are too easy.”</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch13">
+
+<h2>13. The Radium Appears</h2>
+
+<p>How true it is that time, in retrospect, is measured by
+the events occurring therein. By which I mean, of course,
+that while the whole sequence of mysterious and shocking
+events that so deeply troubled us there at St. Ann’s
+really occurred during a period of only a few days,
+when I look back at the affair it seems to have extended
+over weeks. It was true, too, that every day seemed to
+bring its problems and those before yesterday’s
+problems were solved. In fact these problems so crowded
+each other that the only way in which I can recall their
+exact sequence is by referring to the days on which
+they took place. For instance, I see that in my account
+book where I have an orderly habit of noting certain
+things such as birthdays of relatives, dates when my
+insurance falls due, and such matters, I have noted
+several items under Wednesday, June 13th:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+  <p>Higgins killed in Eighteen during second watch, last night. No
+  clue so far as I know. Wish J.G. would go on about his bridge
+  building. Whole hospital much upset; several nurses threatening
+  to leave. Police underfoot everywhere and suppose it means the
+  whole thing over again. Sent laundry this A.M. Am getting nervous
+  about second watch. Twelve pearl buttons. Wish this affair were
+  safely over.</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>The “twelve pearl buttons” entry, of course, referred
+to the fact that I had forgotten to take them out of
+one of my uniforms before it went to the laundry and
+must remember to telephone the laundry about them.
+It was owing to these buttons, however, that one of
+the most singular and troublesome facts of the whole
+week came to my attention.</p>
+
+<p>If the second watch of the previous night had seemed
+like a repetition of a bad dream, then that day, Wednesday,
+was its continuation. The directors, irate and fussy
+and hysterically horrified, descended upon St. Ann’s.
+There were the police, O’Leary, and newspaper men
+just as it had been before. The only difference was that
+this last development seemed more terrible than that
+other—if that were possible. There was a rather grisly
+fear stalking through the hushed hospital corridors:
+Who would be the next victim?</p>
+
+<p>The inquest was held at once, that very morning.
+It was a brief and formal affair, held in the main office
+with only a few present. Nothing was proved beyond
+the immediate fact of Higgins’s death and nothing was
+mentioned that I did not already know. It was evident
+that O’Leary regarded Higgins’s death as another
+piece in the puzzle that confronted him and not as an
+isolated crime.</p>
+
+<p>Shortly after lunch Lance O’Leary called me into
+the office.</p>
+
+<p>“Why did you not tell me that the key to the south
+door disappeared last night?” he began abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>“I forgot it. I ordered a new key to be made for
+that lock and will have it before night. But of course
+I had to leave the south door unlocked last night.”</p>
+
+<p>“It seems to me you forget rather important things.”
+He spoke sharply.</p>
+
+<p>“I have certain duties to think of,” I responded as
+sharply. “And anyway you didn’t ask me.”</p>
+
+<p>The tightness around his eyes relaxed somewhat but
+he did not smile. He rose, went to the door, and after
+a dissatisfied glance into the main hall he beckoned me
+into the inner office, shut the door and sat down at the
+desk. For a moment he sat there silently, his face in
+his hands.</p>
+
+<p>“Sit down, Miss Keate,” he said presently, motioning
+toward Dr. Balman’s cot, and as I did so he swung
+around in the swivel chair to face me. “Hope nobody
+wants to use this room for a few moments,” he said
+wearily. “I’ve got to think. Look here, was that key
+gone when you came on duty last night at twelve
+o’clock?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Olma Flynn, who has first watch, could not
+find it. She told me of its disappearance as soon as I
+came on duty.”</p>
+
+<p>He nodded slowly.</p>
+
+<p>“Thus providing an easy way into St. Ann’s. . . .
+Into the south wing——” he murmured, and broke off,
+staring into space, his eyes clouded and far away.</p>
+
+<p>Then all at once he began to talk, leaned back in the
+chair, and linked his hands together.</p>
+
+<p>“In the first place,” he began, “I am convinced that
+the three crimes are all linked together and that the
+possession of the radium is the guiding motive. Other
+motives, such as protection or fear, may enter into the
+affair but the radium is the main thing. If the radium
+was actually placed in that loud speaker, it is now in
+the hands of the person who killed Higgins. To secure
+the radium was the reason for his entrance into the
+south wing and into Room 18 last night. We can’t know
+why Higgins was there—unless—unless—— You say
+that he knew where the radium was hidden; he may
+have tried to take it himself into his own hands.”</p>
+
+<p>He paused as if to consider that possibility; it did
+not appear to convince him, for he made an impatient
+gesture.</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Hajek,” he resumed, “has flatly denied that
+he was out last night; the mud has been brushed off
+his trousers and off the window sill and it is my word
+against his. Why is he lying? Then, too, there was
+someone from the Letheny cottage about the grounds
+last night. Huldah says that someone left the house
+about midnight; she heard footsteps on the stairs, and
+the front door squeaks. She did not know whether it
+was Gainsay or Miss Letheny, but she is certain that
+someone went out of that house about midnight and
+returned probably an hour later.”</p>
+
+<p>“Huldah tells the truth always——” I began, but
+checked myself. If he was willing to talk I was more
+than willing to listen.</p>
+
+<p>However, I had interrupted him; he looked at me
+directly and began to speak more briskly and less as if
+he were thinking aloud.</p>
+
+<p>“You see, Miss Keate, it is all simmering down to
+the same group, the same circle of those in and about
+St. Ann’s. No one else could have stolen the key to the
+south door. And as I say, I am inclined to believe that
+all three crimes had the same motive, if not the same
+motivating force.”</p>
+
+<p>“What do you mean?”</p>
+
+<p>“I mean that in the first two crimes we find several
+means of death. This leads me to believe that there
+was a definite plan to steal the radium, possibly on the
+part of more than one person. In fact, I am quite sure
+that more than one person had determined to get hold
+of that radium. But the radium was left in the room.
+Hidden, but still in Room 18. Why? There is only one
+possible reason. The thief was interrupted, was forced
+to hide it there in order to return for it later. But why
+did the radium remain for so long in the speaker?
+Why did not the thief return for it earlier in the game?
+It all points to there being several people interested
+in that radium, which means, of course, that we may be
+trying to discover three murderers instead of only one.”</p>
+
+<p>“<em>Three!</em>”</p>
+
+<p>“There were three murders,” he said, laconically cool
+in the face of my horror. “And Higgins’s statement
+seems to make it sure that the first two murders were
+not committed by the same man.”</p>
+
+<p>“I am positive that the radium was concealed in
+the loud speaker,” he continued after a short pause.
+“There was no place else for it to be and it must have
+been in Room 18, for otherwise we would not have
+had such a series of disturbances in and about that room.
+Yes, it is evident that several people were convinced
+that the radium was still in the room and were searching
+for it. The thing that bothers me is the failure of
+the—er—original thief to return and remove the
+radium before anyone else found it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps it was he last night,” I suggested.</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary did not appear to hear me.</p>
+
+<p>“There is only one reason and that—if true—is
+amazing.” He reached absently for the shabby little
+stub of pencil and began twisting it in his fingers, which
+convinced me that he was on his feet again, so to speak.</p>
+
+<p>Whatever the “amazing” speculation was that had
+occurred to him, he said nothing more of it.</p>
+
+<p>“I have eliminated certain factors. The first thing
+to do, you know is to narrow the field of investigation.
+I find that Mr. Jackson’s relatives, who might be
+supposed to have an interest in his death, have iron-clad
+alibis.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh.” I spoke none too brightly as I had never given
+a thought to Mr. Jackson’s relatives.</p>
+
+<p>“Likewise I am gradually eliminating the unknown
+factor—I mean by that the possibility of an outsider,
+a hobo, perhaps, or professional thief acting on the
+spur of the moment, or following out a planned course
+of action. It seems more and more certain that those
+guilty of these crimes are people who are in and about
+St. Ann’s. But since that phase of the matter is so
+distasteful to you. . . .” His voice trailed away into
+nothing, he dropped the pencil, adjusted his tie, looked
+at his watch, ran a hand through his hair and reached
+for the pencil again.</p>
+
+<p>“There are a few matters of which I’ve been wanting
+to talk with you, Miss Keate. This—” he lowered
+his voice—“this Hajek. Somehow I have got the
+impression that he and Miss Letheny see a good deal of
+each other. Different people have mentioned seeing
+them together. Huldah says he is a frequent caller.
+What do you think?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes—now that I think of it, it does seem to
+me that they have a sort of——” At loss for a word
+I stopped. O’Leary completed the sentence.</p>
+
+<p>“Understanding?”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, yes. And yet I have seen nothing definite. It
+is just a feeling that I have. And of course, the fact
+that he has been up at the Letheny cottage a great deal.
+I’ve seen him there often.”</p>
+
+<p>He twisted the pencil up and down; I wondered that
+there was any shred of paint remaining on the shabby
+thing.</p>
+
+<p>“Another thing,” he began rather hesitantly. “They
+say—don’t ask me who says, for it is a sort of drifting
+gossip that we detectives have to encourage—they say
+that Dr. Letheny admired the pretty nurse.”</p>
+
+<p>“The pretty nurse. Who?”</p>
+
+<p>“I thought you’d guess,” he said quietly. “I mean
+Miss Day.”</p>
+
+<p>“If he did admire her, I never knew it,” I said with
+vigour.</p>
+
+<p>“You never even surmised it?” he persisted gently.</p>
+
+<p>“No,” I said bluntly. “Certainly not.” And then
+recalled certain things. That last dinner—Dr. Letheny’s
+smouldering eyes on Maida—the gesture with which he
+took her wrap—those burning, restless eyes seeking her
+in the corridor of the south wing before he turned away
+through the door and I caught my last glimpse of Dr.
+Letheny alive. “That is—perhaps—yes,” I amended
+in a smaller voice.</p>
+
+<p>“Did Miss Day return his—interest?”</p>
+
+<p>“No. I’m sure that she did not. Quite the contrary.”</p>
+
+<p>“Quite the contrary?”</p>
+
+<p>“I mean that I believe she disliked him particularly.
+I do not know why.”</p>
+
+<p>He lifted his eyes from the pencil. They were clear
+now and very gray.</p>
+
+<p>“You would likely know,” he said casually. “You
+possess the strangest aura of—integrity. One feels you
+are a respecter of confidences. I presume you are the
+repository of many secrets.”</p>
+
+<p>“I’m sure I don’t know any secrets,” I replied
+hastily. The man needn’t think he could worm things out
+of me. “I wish,” I added, “I wish that you had talked
+to Higgins.”</p>
+
+<p>His expression became serious at once.</p>
+
+<p>“I wish so too,” he said soberly. “Though as far as
+that goes I did talk to Higgins, but couldn’t get a thing
+out of him. He must have been desperately afraid of
+getting into trouble.” He eyed the stub of pencil
+solicitously. “. . . getting into trouble,” he repeated
+musingly.</p>
+
+<p>“If I had only known the danger he was in,” I said
+regretfully. “But somehow we never know until it is
+too late.”</p>
+
+<p>“About this matter of the lights going out last
+night. It seems to coincide too strangely with the affair
+of Thursday night. The lights being out at that time
+was, of course, an accident, but one is inclined to think
+that someone profited by that accident to such an
+extent that he decided to repeat the fortuitous
+circumstances. But it was actually no accident this time; the
+switch plug had been purposely pulled out. Now then,
+the switch box is in the basement, on the wall next to
+the grade door that leads out just below the main
+entrance.”</p>
+
+<p>I nodded as his keen, serious eyes rose to mine.</p>
+
+<p>“That grade door was locked and the key inside the
+lock as it should be. Was there time, Miss Keate,
+between the lights going out and the sound of the shot
+for someone to come from that grade door around the
+corner of the hospital, enter the south door in the
+darkness, go into Eighteen, which is right next to the south
+door, take the radium from the loud speaker and—and
+that is as far as we know. We can only surmise, now,
+how Higgins came into it.”</p>
+
+<p>“The intruder might have been Higgins, himself.”
+I was suddenly struck by the thought. “He would have
+access to the basement, could have stolen the key from
+the chart desk that would open the south door if it
+were locked. Perhaps he was taking the radium out of
+the speaker; he told me, you know, that he knew where
+it was hidden.”</p>
+
+<p>“All the circumstances point to what we call an inside
+job,” admitted O’Leary slowly. “But someone
+besides Higgins was in Room 18.”</p>
+
+<p>“The window?” I suggested.</p>
+
+<p>“No. He could not have come through the window
+for it was still bolted. How about it, Miss Keate?”
+He returned to his inquiry. “How long a time elapsed
+between the lights going out and the sound of the shot?”</p>
+
+<p>“It seemed a long time,” I said hesitantly. “You
+see, it was so still and dark and I was a little frightened.
+I waited for a few moments, thinking that the lights
+would come on again. Yes, I think there was time enough
+for—for all that you think took place. While I waited
+I felt a current of air on my shoulders.”</p>
+
+<p>He looked up quickly.</p>
+
+<p>“That was the door opening, then. You are sure
+about the length of time? You see it is rather important
+that we settle that point definitely for if there was not
+time for all that to go on, it would indicate that there
+were two people, <em>besides Higgins</em>, who were interested
+in getting into Room 18 last night. And that one of them
+managed the business of turning off the lights and the
+other came into Room 18 with the results of which
+we know. Confound it!” He broke off suddenly. “I
+wish I needn’t have to figure on more than one or two
+ways of getting in and out of this old hospital. Don’t
+you <em>ever</em> have thieves in a hospital! Don’t you ever
+have to safeguard yourselves!”</p>
+
+<p>“Only the third and fourth floor windows,” I said
+absently.</p>
+
+<p>He snorted.</p>
+
+<p>“The third and fourth floor windows! That does me
+a lot of good!”</p>
+
+<p>“On account of delirious patients,” I said rebukingly.
+“And as for there being two people trying to
+get the radium, I think there must be at least that many.
+I don’t believe that one person, alone and unaided, could
+make so much trouble.”</p>
+
+<p>He grinned faintly at that, and then frowned.</p>
+
+<p>“The chief of police wants to arrest the whole outfit
+at once. He is convinced that you are all in a conspiracy
+and that Gainsay is the leader. Of course, I don’t want
+to make such a wholesale cleaning. Especially since
+I—I believe that I’m getting warm. But I don’t want any
+arrests yet. I don’t want to put anybody on guard.”</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. O’Leary,” I said eagerly, emboldened by his
+half-confidence. “I have heard things of you, of
+course—what wonderful success you have and all that. What
+methods do you use?”</p>
+
+<p>He thrust his hands into his pockets, leaned back in
+the chair and sighed.</p>
+
+<p>“Methods? I don’t have any methods. And as to
+success—wait a few days.”</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t have any methods?”</p>
+
+<p>“The moment when I’m feeling most useless and most
+like a failure is not the moment to ask me to tell of
+my successes. Or my methods. I don’t have methods.
+I take what the Lord sends and am thankful. Sometimes
+it is a matter of luck. Mostly it is a matter of drudgery
+and hard work. Always it is a matter of thinking, thinking,
+thinking. Of eating, living, sleeping with problems
+for days and nights. Usually, just about the time you
+have decided that none of the pieces of the puzzle
+can possibly fit, all at once something happens and—Click!
+Things clarify. There is a reason for everything.
+Nothing just happens. Nothing is an isolated fact. If
+you have a fact, you know that certain circumstances
+had to combine to bring it about. It is just logic, reason,
+the physical, material quality of cause and effect. There
+isn’t anything mysterious about it. It is just the—the
+arithmetic of analysis. I don’t mean that I am infallible.
+I have to reconsider and revise and correct mistakes,
+just like anybody else. I’m human—and young.
+But when you <em>know</em> that there is a solution, to the most
+puzzling problem, all there is to do is worry it out.
+I suppose the subconscious mind helps.”</p>
+
+<p>“That is rather abstract,” I said slowly.</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose it sounds that way. Well—here is one
+definite and concrete trick. As a rule, given enough
+rope a man can hang himself. Often I find that there
+will be one little circumstance that only the guilty man
+knows. Sooner or later he lets it out. Sometimes I have
+to trap the man I suspect into such an admission.”</p>
+
+<p>I’m sure my eyes were popping out.</p>
+
+<p>“Then that is why you made that extraordinary request
+of me at the first inquest!” I exclaimed. “I could
+not understand it. The thing you mentioned seemed so
+insignificant.”</p>
+
+<p>It was remarkable that his eyes could be so clear
+and so unfathomable at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>“I trust you are discreet,” he said evenly.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I shan’t tell, if that is what you mean,” I promised
+hastily. “I am as interested in solving this mystery
+as you are. Indeed, I think I may say that I am far
+more deeply interested.”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, keep your eyes and ears open,” he said, smiling
+and rising to open the door for me, and I found
+myself out in the main hall before I knew it.</p>
+
+<p>It was only a few moments later that I saw him
+leave; I remember standing at the window beside the
+main entrance, and watching his long gray roadster
+swoop silently and swiftly around the curve of the main
+driveway and into the road. He was seated at the
+wheel, a slight gray figure, intent only on the muddy
+highway ahead of him. There was a suggestion of
+power, of invincibility, in the very repose and economy
+of motion with which he controlled the long-nosed
+roadster.</p>
+
+<p>As I turned away I met Maida.</p>
+
+<p>“Such a day!” she murmured with a sigh. “Have
+you been able to sleep?”</p>
+
+<p>“I haven’t tried,” I said. “I knew it would be no
+use.”</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Dotty is still upset,” went on Maida. “And
+the training nurses are following their own devices, and
+everybody is afraid of her own shadow. I wish this
+business was all settled and forgotten about.”</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t wish it any more than I do,” I agreed
+fervently. “But I do think that O’Leary is doing
+everything within his power.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose so,” said Maida, without much conviction.
+She was looking pale and rather ill. “Wasn’t that
+Mr. O’Leary driving away a moment ago?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“I didn’t know that he was here at St. Ann’s. He
+hasn’t seen fit to question me yet”—she smiled rather
+ruefully—“as to poor Higgins. Except, of course, as
+he did at the inquest and that was so little. I felt he
+was reserving his inquiry, didn’t you? But I thought
+Mr. O’Leary had gone back to town long ago.”</p>
+
+<p>“No. He just left.” I paused to yawn. “I’m going
+to try to get some sleep. Better do likewise.” But she
+shook her head, murmuring something about work,
+and I went to my room.</p>
+
+<p>Luckily I managed to fall into an uneasy sleep. It
+was when I had awakened that I found I possessed but
+one remaining clean uniform and it was of a style that
+demanded the buttons I had sent to the laundry. Recalling
+the fact that Maida had an extra set, I went to her
+room to borrow. She was not there but I went boldly
+into the room.</p>
+
+<p>And I found the radium!</p>
+
+<p>It was in the pin-cushion, a pretty trifle of mauve
+taffeta ruffles that I picked up idly to examine more
+closely. When I felt the shape under the taffeta, when
+my fingers outlined it, I could not have resisted tearing
+it apart. The cotton stuffing had been removed and
+the small box that held the radium was there instead.</p>
+
+<p>I don’t know how long I stood as if frozen to the
+spot. I remember noting that the neat sewing had been
+torn out as if hastily, and that wide hurried stitches
+held the seam together. And I remember hearing the
+voices of several girls passing in the hall outside and
+thinking that Maida would be coming to her room.</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary had said: “The person who has the radium
+is the one that killed Higgins.”</p>
+
+<p>I could not face Maida with this thing in my hand.</p>
+
+<p>And I could not leave the radium where it was.</p>
+
+<p>In another moment I found myself back in my room,
+the radium, pin-cushion and all, locked away, the key
+securely hidden and my mind made up. Painful though
+it was I should have to tell O’Leary immediately of
+this thing. I do not hold friendship lightly and the
+shock of finding the stolen radium in Maida’s
+possession almost unnerved me.</p>
+
+<p>I had forgotten about the buttons and it was something
+of an anti-climax to catch myself starting down
+to dinner in a black silk kimono. I had to go to the bottom
+of my trunk for an old uniform that I had cast aside
+as being too tight. It was still too tight and very
+uncomfortable, being made with a Bishop collar which
+is high and stiff and scratched the lobes of my ears.</p>
+
+<p>There was no need to telephone to O’Leary, for as
+I neared the general office I caught a glimpse of his
+smooth brown head bent over some papers on the long
+table. I entered.</p>
+
+<p>“I have found the radium,” I said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>He looked up, jumped to his feet. I did not need to
+repeat my words.</p>
+
+<p>“Where is it?”</p>
+
+<p>“In my room. Shall I bring it to you?”</p>
+
+<p>He hesitated, his eyes travelling around the office
+with its several doors and windows.</p>
+
+<p>“This is too public. Someone would be sure to see
+it. Where did you find it?”</p>
+
+<p>I swallowed.</p>
+
+<p>“In—Miss Day’s room.”</p>
+
+<p>His gaze narrowed thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>“You must tell me about it later. First I must have
+the radium.”</p>
+
+<p>Our voices had dropped to whispers and my heart
+was pounding.</p>
+
+<p>“Shall we put it in the safe?” I motioned toward
+the inner office which holds a great steel safe, in a
+prepared compartment of which the radium is usually
+kept.</p>
+
+<p>“No.” O’Leary shook his head decisively. “No. I
+must put it in the hands of the chief of police at once.
+Look here, Miss Keate; in three minutes I shall walk
+slowly across the main hall with this bundle of
+newspapers under my arm. At the foot of the stairway I
+shall pass you just descending. It is rather dark there
+by the stairs. Hand me the box and keep right on going.
+Don’t stop. Later I shall see you and hear how you
+found it.”</p>
+
+<p>I followed his bidding. As I came slowly down the
+last flight of stairs he walked carelessly across the hall.
+There was no one about and I was sure that the transfer
+was effected without anyone’s knowledge.</p>
+
+<p>With a casual nod I went on around the turn and
+followed the basement stairs down to the dining room.
+I ate what was set before me and kept my eyes from
+Maida.</p>
+
+<p>It must have been about twenty minutes later that
+I ascended the stairs again and paused in the main hall.
+There was a light in the general office, excited voices,
+and Dr. Hajek and Dr. Balman were bending over
+something that lay on the long table.</p>
+
+<p>I entered.</p>
+
+<p>Lance O’Leary was stretched on the table, his face
+lead-gray, his eyes closed. Dr. Balman had out his
+stethoscope and was listening intently and Dr. Hajek
+was forcing aromatic ammonia through O’Leary’s pale
+lips.</p>
+
+<p>There was a rapidly swelling lump back of O’Leary’s
+right ear and the small box that was so precious was
+not to be seen.</p>
+
+<p>At a glance I understood.</p>
+
+<p>“Is he—alive, Dr. Balman?”</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Balman nodded, detaching the stethoscope with
+long hands that shook.</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Hajek and I were starting down to dinner,”
+he explained. His voice sounded hoarse and his anxious
+eyes were fixed upon O’Leary. “We found him like
+this. All huddled on the floor there near the stairway.”</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch14">
+
+<h2>14. A Matter of Evidence</h2>
+
+<p>I must say that I was considerably relieved to see
+O’Leary’s eyelids flutter, the colour return to his face,
+and to note that his breath began to come more
+naturally. In a few moments he was sitting upright on the
+edge of the table, supported by Dr. Balman’s arm.</p>
+
+<p>“What on earth happened to you?” inquired Dr.
+Balman, looking relieved also.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know,” replied O’Leary rather dazedly.
+“All I remember is something coming down on my
+head. When did you find me?”</p>
+
+<p>“About fifteen minutes ago. Dr. Hajek and I were
+just going downstairs. It was not very light in the
+hallway and you were in the shadow there by the stairs.
+It—gave us a nasty shock. Do you know why you
+were attacked?”</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary flicked a warning glance at me and shook
+his head.</p>
+
+<p>“Haven’t the least idea,” he said flatly.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Hajek, who had been standing silently by, stirred
+at this.</p>
+
+<p>“Then you were not on the point of making
+a—er—disclosure?” he asked with an air of disappointment.
+His ruddy face was as unmoved and stolid as ever,
+but it seemed to me that those dark, knowing eyes
+were restrained and secretive and did not meet
+O’Leary’s gaze squarely.</p>
+
+<p>“No such luck! By the way, were you men coming
+up from downstairs when you found me?”</p>
+
+<p>“No,” replied Dr. Balman. “No. I had been O.K.-ing
+some orders in the inner office; Dr. Hajek came out
+of his room into the general office just as I, too, entered
+it and we walked together out into the hall and toward
+the basement stairs.”</p>
+
+<p>“You saw nothing unusual?”</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing. We were talking of advertising for a new
+janitor. It was—” Dr. Balman’s kind, distressed eyes
+roved over O’Leary anxiously as if to be quite sure
+he was not hurt—“it was, as I said, a shock. For a
+moment we feared the worst.” He drew out a handkerchief
+and wiped his pale lips nervously, his fingers
+lingering to pull at his thin beard. “Mr. O’Leary,
+I know that you are working hard and I don’t mean
+to criticize but really—I——” he hesitated as if put
+to it to find words. “You see for yourself to what terrible
+straits this thing has brought us. We don’t know what
+to expect next. Can nothing be done to stop it?”</p>
+
+<p>It was just at this interesting point, of course, that
+Miss Dotty had to interrupt and summon me away,
+and it was something after midnight before I saw
+O’Leary again.</p>
+
+<p>I was on duty at the time, Maida assisting me as
+usual, and our force augmented again, according to
+another whim of Miss Dotty’s, by two training nurses,
+both obviously unnerved at their contact with the south
+wing of such ill repute. Their blue-and-white striped
+skirts rattled nervously as they trotted here and there
+about the wing. While I did not feel unduly alarmed
+myself, still it seemed all too clear that the guilty
+one was still about, an unknown menace and hence more
+terrible, and I don’t mind admitting that my ears were
+alert to any alien sounds.</p>
+
+<p>I was sitting at the chart desk when I heard O’Leary’s
+quick, light steps coming along the corridor from
+the general office. I turned to watch him approach,
+his gray suit and grave, keen face gradually emerging
+into the green circle of light that surrounded me.</p>
+
+<p>“Have you found the radium?” I asked at once.</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>“Nor who took it from you?”</p>
+
+<p>“Nor who took it—naturally.” He dropped into a
+chair beside me. “Now, Miss Keate, tell me exactly
+how you came upon it.”</p>
+
+<p>Feeling that it was no time to mince matters I
+complied, much as I disliked the implications the story
+involved. He listened thoughtfully, drawing a red pencil
+from his pocket and actually using it to scribble some
+notes in a small, shabby notebook he brought forth.
+He did not comment when I had finished, save to ask
+if Miss Day was on duty. And at the moment Maida
+herself entered the corridor from some sick room,
+O’Leary rose and intercepted her at once and the two
+disappeared into the drug room.</p>
+
+<p>I was left to wait, always a difficult task for one of
+my temperament and particularly unpleasant that night.
+It seemed hours but was actually not more than twenty
+minutes by my watch, before they emerged. Maida’s
+chin was in the air, her cheeks quite scarlet, and her
+eyes flashing blue fire, but O’Leary was imperturbable.
+He stopped for a word with me and I suppose noted
+the anxiety which I was at no pains to hide. He smiled
+into my gaze a bit ruefully.</p>
+
+<p>“She has a reason for everything,” he said quietly.
+“If I could only be sure that she is telling the truth!”</p>
+
+<p>“She always tells the truth!” I cried indignantly.</p>
+
+<p>“I hope so——” he hesitated. “It is difficult to
+explain, but all through her story I had the strangest
+impression that she had—rehearsed the whole thing.”</p>
+
+<p>“What did she say of the radium?”</p>
+
+<p>“Says she found it in a pot of lobelia that was in
+the hall outside Room 18. She noted that the flowers
+were withered and needed water, took it to the kitchen
+to water, noted that it had been disturbed and—found
+the radium hidden below the plant! She took the radium
+to her own room until she could get in touch with me.
+She says she did not know that I was in the hospital
+after the inquest until she saw me leaving.”</p>
+
+<p>“That is true,” I said quickly. “And I remember
+the pot of lobelia, too. Only——” I wrinkled my forehead
+thoughtfully. “Why, the last I saw it, the thing
+was still in Room 18! Not in the corridor, at all!”</p>
+
+<p>“When did you see it last?” he asked quickly.</p>
+
+<p>“Last night—about dusk.”</p>
+
+<p>He looked at me soberly.</p>
+
+<p>“Then the man in Room 18 last night—if it was
+a man—must have hidden the radium for fear he would
+be caught with the incriminating box. He must have
+thrust it hurriedly into the flower pot and left plant
+and all in the corridor in the hope of being able to
+get hold of the radium more easily than if it were left
+again in Room 18. That is, if we are to believe Miss
+Day’s statement. Positively that lobelia <em>was not in
+Room 18</em> when I examined the room almost immediately
+after Higgins’s death. I did not miss a square
+inch!”</p>
+
+<p>I was still thinking of Maida.</p>
+
+<p>“Did you ask her about the hypodermic syringe?”</p>
+
+<p>He nodded.</p>
+
+<p>“She says that she found her own needle had disappeared,
+naturally disliked calling anyone’s attention to
+the fact, in view of the existing circumstances, and simply
+substituted your tool for the lost one. She says she
+acted hastily and only from a dislike of being even
+remotely connected with the tragedies. My own opinion
+is that someone advised her to do so. Especially since
+there was a cut-and-dried air about everything she
+said.”</p>
+
+<p>“How did the hypodermic syringe get out there in
+the shrubbery?”</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Day insists that she knows nothing of that.
+And I’m more than half inclined to believe her, there.”</p>
+
+<p>“The cuff link?” I persisted anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>His clear eyes narrowed.</p>
+
+<p>“The cuff link is the reason that I doubt her whole
+story. She still declared that she lost the cuff link and
+that Dr. Letheny must have picked it up. If she would
+only tell me the truth about that!” He pulled a yellow
+slip of paper from his notebook. I recognized it
+immediately. It was the note Jim Gainsay had written and
+asked me to take to Maida.</p>
+
+<p>“Read it,” said O’Leary.</p>
+
+<p>Thinking it more discreet to say nothing of my own
+connection with the note, I did as he requested. It was
+headed: “Friday afternoon” and read thus:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+  <p>Must see you at once. Important. C. knows about last night.
+  Say nothing and let me advise you. Will wait at the bridge. Very
+  anxious since news of this afternoon. Be warned. Cannot urge too
+  emphatically. Please meet me at bridge.</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>It was signed with a vigorously scrawled “J.G.”</p>
+
+<p>I read the thing, read it again and raised my eyes to
+O’Leary’s.</p>
+
+<p>“It was found in Miss Day’s room,” he explained.
+“In a pocket of a uniform, in fact; when I asked her
+to explain it she said at first that it was a message of
+a personal nature and that she would not explain it.
+I was forced to urge and she finally admitted exactly
+three things. First, that the note was written by Jim
+Gainsay. Second, that ‘C’ referred to Corole Letheny.
+And third——” He paused as if to give the coming
+words more emphasis.</p>
+
+<p>“And third—simply this: That Jim Gainsay was
+strolling in the orchard about one o’clock on the night
+Dr. Letheny was killed. He passed the open window
+of the diet kitchen, saw her within, and stopped for
+a word or two through the window. Corole Letheny
+was also in the orchard, heard their conversation,
+and threatened to start a scandal, knowing that it
+would not sound well for a nurse to be seen visiting
+thus when she was on duty and at such an hour. For
+some reason Corole Letheny has developed a violent
+dislike for Jim Gainsay. According to Miss Day, then,
+he wrote to warn her against Corole.” O’Leary’s clear
+gray eyes searched my face. “Somehow the reasons Miss
+Day gave do not seem to warrant the extreme urgency
+expressed in this note. Do you think so, Miss Keate?”</p>
+
+<p>“I hardly know,” I said thoughtfully. “Of course,
+it takes less than that to start a scandal, particularly
+if the starter is determined and malicious. And Corole
+is both. She is naturally rather—feline, you know.”</p>
+
+<p>He took the note from my hand.</p>
+
+<p>“ ‘Since news of this afternoon’ can only refer to
+Dr. Letheny’s death. No, Miss Keate. What would a
+little breath of evil comment such as Miss Letheny
+could start have to do with Dr. Letheny’s death?
+No—there is a deeper reason. I wish I could persuade
+Miss Day to be frank with me. Well, now to see if
+Gainsay tells the same story. Probably he will, but we
+will see.” He paused to regard me soberly. “Is there
+any room here in the wing where Gainsay and I could
+be undisturbed for a time? This is a case where the
+very leaves of the shrubbery seem to have ears and
+I don’t want Miss Corole to overhear us—or
+anyone else.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, yes,” I said slowly. “There is the drug room.”</p>
+
+<p>The red light above Six gleamed. No other nurse
+was about, so I interrupted myself to answer and bring
+Sonny a fresh drink.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve been wishing you would come in to see me,”
+said Sonny cheerfully. “I’ve been alone ever since a
+man named Gainsay stopped to see me just at supper
+time. He wanted to know where everyone was and
+I told him it was just the time when you were all eating.
+Say, do you know him? I like him. He is a friend of
+Dr. Letheny’s. Say, why doesn’t Dr. Letheny come
+in to see me?”</p>
+
+<p>“Sonny, did you say that Mr. Gainsay was here in
+St. Ann’s? Here in your room at dinner time?”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, sure, he was here! Just about six o’clock.”</p>
+
+<p>“Where did he go when he left your room?”</p>
+
+<p>“I think he went on up the corridor toward the general
+office. I can’t be sure, though, for I was working
+a new cross-word puzzle and didn’t listen for his steps.
+Say, Miss Keate, want to see my new puzzle?”</p>
+
+<p>I forestalled the thin hand groping on the bedside
+table.</p>
+
+<p>“Another time, Sonny. You must go to sleep now.”</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary’s fingers sought the red pencil stub as I
+told him.</p>
+
+<p>“So,” he pondered, “Jim Gainsay was here in St.
+Ann’s.”</p>
+
+<p>“Where he had no business to be,” I interpolated
+grimly.</p>
+
+<p>“And he was here at about the time I was knocked
+out and the radium stolen. This increases my interest
+in Mr. Gainsay.” He thrust his stub of a pencil into
+his pocket, ran a hand over his already smooth hair,
+and glanced at his watch. “I think we’ll have to
+disturb Jim Gainsay’s rest to-night—if he is asleep. You
+are sure the drug room will not be in use, Miss Keate?”</p>
+
+<p>“If we need anything I’ll get it myself,” I promised
+hastily. There was a sort of repressed smile on his
+face as he turned away, though I’m sure I don’t
+know why.</p>
+
+<p>Jim Gainsay must not have been asleep, for within
+five minutes the two men were coming along the corridor
+from the main entrance. One of the student nurses
+saw me lead them into the drug room and her eyes
+would likely have popped out had I not spoken sharply
+to her. On the theory that every cloud has a silver
+lining I considered it fortunate that Eleven chose that
+very time for a rather cataclysmic upheaval which kept
+Maida thoroughly engrossed for an hour or so, and I
+don’t think she ever knew of the interview that took
+place there in our wing.</p>
+
+<p>She came very near it once, when she hurried for
+some soothing drops, but I forestalled her by offering
+to get the medicine myself. If she thought my hasty
+offer curious, she said nothing and went back to her
+patient.</p>
+
+<p>Opening the drug-room door I walked into an electric
+atmosphere. Jim Gainsay, lounging tall and bronzed
+against the window sill, was clearly furious; his eyes
+were narrow and wary, his lean jaw was set, his lips
+tight and guarded.</p>
+
+<p>I caught the words . . . “entirely a personal
+matter” in no very pleasant voice from Jim Gainsay.</p>
+
+<p>“I must insist upon an answer, however,” said
+O’Leary. His voice had the keenness of a slender, shining
+steel blade.</p>
+
+<p>Then both men became aware of my presence, and
+though I was rather deliberate in measuring the drops,
+they said nothing further until I left, when the murmur
+of their voices began again.</p>
+
+<p>The interview prolonged itself and it was a good
+half hour before I had a chance—that is, needed to go
+into the drug room again, and it was only for an
+ice bag.</p>
+
+<p>“And yet you remain a welcome guest in Corole
+Letheny’s house?” said O’Leary.</p>
+
+<p>“Not so darned welcome,” replied Jim Gainsay, and
+I caught the flicker of a smile on O’Leary’s face as I
+closed the door.</p>
+
+<p>In a few moments, however, O’Leary opened the
+door, peered down the corridor, saw me and beckoned.</p>
+
+<p>His eyes were shining with that peculiarly lucent
+look as he motioned for me to precede him into the
+drug room.</p>
+
+<p>“I want you to hear this, Miss Keate,” said O’Leary,
+his voice very quiet but with a tense, alert overtone
+that caught my ears. “Now, Gainsay, will you repeat
+that about Higgins?”</p>
+
+<p>Jim Gainsay glanced at me rather sheepishly.</p>
+
+<p>“I was telling O’Leary how it happened that I
+overheard most of your talk with Higgins the afternoon
+before his death. It struck me as foolish to let such
+a mine of information get away, and later in the
+evening I got hold of Higgins and wormed some more
+of the story out of him. For the most part he just
+repeated what he had already told you, Miss Keate.
+But he did tell me the scrap of conversation that he
+promised to tell you—remember?”</p>
+
+<p>I nodded.</p>
+
+<p>“It seems that he heard it when he stopped there
+near the south entrance on his way to see Dr. Letheny.
+I suppose it was this conversation as much as anything
+that made him suspicious of what was going on in Room
+18. It seems that he knew at once who was on the
+other side of the bush; it was Corole and Dr. Hajek.
+Corole said—according to Higgins—‘To follow would
+be easy, now,’ and Hajek said ‘Wait till he comes out.’
+Then Corole said something about it not being difficult
+and Hajek said ‘Leave it to me.’ Then Higgins thought
+he must have made some noise among the leaves, for
+Corole whispered ‘Hush’ and he heard them slipping
+away. Higgins followed but soon lost them in the dark
+and himself returned to the interesting vicinity of
+Room 18.” He paused.</p>
+
+<p>“Go on,” said O’Leary grimly.</p>
+
+<p>“Higgins told you how he came back to the porch
+and stumbled over a coat. I got him to tell me
+something about the coat. He said it must have been ‘one
+of them slickers,’ for it felt cold and oily. And at the
+same time he told me a peculiar thing.” Again he paused
+as if what he was about to say was distasteful to him.
+I glanced at O’Leary; his eyes still wore that strangely
+luminous expression. Even the glass doors of the
+cupboards all around us and the shining white tiles seemed
+to wait expectantly.</p>
+
+<p>“Go on,” said O’Leary sharply, his words breaking
+into the crystal silence.</p>
+
+<p>Jim Gainsay cleared his throat, felt in his pocket
+for a cigarette, remembered that he was in a hospital
+and replaced it.</p>
+
+<p>“He said the coat smelled of—ether!”</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment of silence. Then I turned to
+O’Leary.</p>
+
+<p>“Ether! It was the same slicker! The one that I
+wore Friday afternoon!”</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary nodded thoughtfully.</p>
+
+<p>“It might be. At any rate we know that no
+slicker was found on the porch or about the grounds,
+so it is likely that the murderer of Dr. Letheny carried
+it away with him. We had a strict guard on St. Ann’s
+the day following the murders. It is barely possible
+that we can yet trace the coat that you wore, Miss
+Keate.”</p>
+
+<p>“Poor Higgins,” said Jim Gainsay gravely. “I had
+a hard time getting him to tell me that much. He
+refused to the last to tell me whose face he saw there
+in Room 18.”</p>
+
+<p>“But he failed to raise an alarm even though he
+had reason to think that the radium was being
+removed,” murmured O’Leary. “Well, that’s all now,
+thank you, Gainsay.”</p>
+
+<p>Jim Gainsay paused for a moment outside the door
+and I saw him look carefully up and down the dim
+corridor. No white uniform was in sight, however.
+Thinking to facilitate his departure I took the key
+to the south door from its hiding place and let him
+out that way. When I returned O’Leary was standing
+under the green light, studying his small notebook. He
+slipped it into his pocket as I approached.</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing, Miss Keate, but what you heard,” he
+said rather wearily. “His explanation of the note to
+Miss Day and his activities during the night of the
+murders are identical with what Miss Day tells us. He
+sticks to the story of his telegram to his business
+associates that he told at the inquest. He says he took
+Dr. Letheny’s car and left the grounds of St. Ann’s
+very soon after you met him in the dark. And that
+he was at a ‘corner about half a mile from St. Ann’s’
+when the storm broke—which does not coincide with
+what we know. That is, if the lights you saw were the
+lights of the car he was driving, and it seems reasonable
+to believe that they were.”</p>
+
+<p>“How about his presence here in St. Ann’s to-night
+at the time the radium was taken from you?”</p>
+
+<p>“That got a rise out of him,” said O’Leary with
+an unexpected flash of whimsical satisfaction. “He was
+angry in a second. Every time Miss Day’s name came
+up he turned savage. If the radium had not disappeared
+I should be inclined to think that he came to St. Ann’s
+in the hope of seeing Miss Day, but with the radium
+gone again——” he stopped abruptly, his face
+becoming grave again and dubious.</p>
+
+<p>The green light cast crawling shadows; the black
+window pane stared impenetrably at us; far down the
+corridor a light went on with a subdued click, a glass
+clinked thinly against something metal, and I heard
+the soft pad-pad of a nurse’s rubber heels.</p>
+
+<p>Presently O’Leary stirred. His eyes, still shining with
+that very lucent look, met mine intently.</p>
+
+<p>“Corole Letheny is next. Do you want to go to see
+her with me? Very well, then, suppose we say at eight
+in the morning. You might just happen into the Letheny
+cottage and I’ll come. I may be a little delayed.”</p>
+
+<p>The remaining hours of second watch dragged a
+little but passed quietly, and promptly at eight o’clock
+I wrapped myself in my blue, scarlet-lined cape,
+adjusted the wrinkled folds of the detestable Bishop
+collar, and let myself out the south door. The path
+was still wet, the trees and shrubbery were veiled in
+heavy mist, and the whole world very sombre and
+desolate.</p>
+
+<p>At the bridge I came upon Jim Gainsay. He was sitting
+disconsolately on a log a little aside from the
+path, staring at a toad hopping across his feet and
+apparently lost in his own morose thoughts. I don’t
+think he had slept for he looked haggard and cold
+and must have been smoking steadily for hours, for
+there was a little white circle of cigarette ends around
+him.</p>
+
+<p>“Young man,” I said with some acerbity, “don’t
+you know that cigarettes are coffin nails and you are
+making yourself subject to indigestion, nervous
+disorders, tuberculosis and asthma?”</p>
+
+<p>He rose grudgingly and surveyed me without
+enthusiasm.</p>
+
+<p>“To say nothing of measles and hay fever,” he
+said dourly. “Say, Miss Keate, is there any chance
+of seeing—her?”</p>
+
+<p>I did not ask whom.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know. Have you not seen her lately?”</p>
+
+<p>He glanced at me suspiciously, then motioned to a
+seat on the log and I found myself seated none too
+comfortably, with the moisture of a tree dripping down
+and completing the demoralization of my collar, and
+beside me a man whom I suspected of theft and—theft,
+to say the least.</p>
+
+<p>“That was why I was in the hospital last night
+about dinner time,” he said companionably. “I haven’t
+seen her for days and days. She is too damn’ devoted
+to duty.”</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Day is a nice girl,” I said uncertainly.</p>
+
+<p>“Nice!” He glared at me. “Nice! Is that all you
+can say for her? Lord! She can have me! The minute
+I saw her, I thought, ‘There she is! There’s my girl!’
+Say!” he drew a long breath—“and after I talked to
+her alone, there at that kitchen window last Thursday
+night, I knew Jim Gainsay’s time had come! I drove
+straight into town and wired the company that I should
+be delayed. And here I stay until she goes with me.”
+He paused and added ruefully: “It may take quite a
+while to convince her that she wants to go.”</p>
+
+<p>“So that was what your message meant?”</p>
+
+<p>He looked at me quickly. No matter what O’Leary
+said later I do not believe that Gainsay’s explanation
+was anything but spontaneous.</p>
+
+<p>“Why didn’t you explain before?” I asked tartly,
+thinking of the trouble he had caused us.</p>
+
+<p>“Explain!” cried Jim Gainsay in high derision. “The
+woman says ‘Explain’! Explain that I’ve gone straight
+off my head about a girl! Please, kind gentlemen,
+excuse me for hanging around just when murders are
+being perpetrated and no strangers wanted on the
+premises. But really, you know, I’ve just fallen in
+love. Explain! Hell!”</p>
+
+<p>In some dignity I rose; even justifiable ill-nature can
+go too far.</p>
+
+<p>“Good-morning, Mr. Gainsay,” I said coldly. But
+as I turned the bend in the path, I looked backward.
+“I’ll ask her to take a walk this afternoon,” I promised,
+being a fool of an old maid. He brightened up at that
+and the last I saw of him he was casting pebbles at
+the frog with the liveliest interest on the part of each.</p>
+
+<p>The porch of the Letheny cottage was still unswept
+and desolate, and though I rang and rang apparently
+no one heard me. Finally I opened the heavy door and
+walked into the hall. No one seemed to be about. The
+door to the study was closed, and thinking to find
+Corole there if anywhere I approached it. But with
+my hand actually on the brass knob, I paused, for the
+door itself swung gently a few inches toward me, I
+heard a low murmur of voices and realized that someone
+was on the other side of the door and in the very
+act of emerging from it.</p>
+
+<p>“You are sure it is safe there?” said someone clearly.</p>
+
+<p>It was Dr. Hajek’s voice.</p>
+
+<p>“Quite,” said Corole, whose accents were
+unmistakable.</p>
+
+<p>“Then to-day is as good as any.”</p>
+
+<p>“I—suppose so.” Corole seemed reluctant.</p>
+
+<p>“Are you backing down?” I had not believed that
+Fred Hajek’s voice could be so ugly.</p>
+
+<p>“No,” said Corole. “No.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then why not to-day?” The door closed sharply
+on the last syllable as if propelled by a vigorous motion
+on the part of the speaker.</p>
+
+<p>In some perplexity I waited. I could still hear the
+sounds of voices, but the words were unintelligible. All
+at once, however, the man’s voice rose as if in anger,
+and without pausing to consider my action I simply
+grasped that brass knob and flung the door open.</p>
+
+<p>I interrupted a strange tableau.</p>
+
+<p>Corole was leaning backward against the table,
+her lips drawn back in a snarl and her eyes gleaming
+green fire. Dr. Hajek was no less moved; his face was
+dark red, his fists clinched, his dark eyes glittering
+unpleasantly between slitted lids. He was speaking
+when I opened the door and I caught his last words.
+They were thick with fury.</p>
+
+<p>“. . . and now you refuse. After all I have
+done—<em>for you!</em>”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I don’t refuse,” cried Corole.</p>
+
+<p>Then they both saw me.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Hajek’s dark face flushed a still deeper, painful
+red. By an effort, apparently of will, he relaxed his
+hands, reached for a cap that lay on the table,
+muttered something under his breath, and wheeled toward
+the door. Corole recovered her self-possession more
+easily; she raised her eyebrows and shrugged as if in
+amusement. She wore an amazing Chinese coat, stiffly
+embroidered in gold and green, dancing pumps with
+rhinestone heels and shabby toes, and <em>no stockings</em>!</p>
+
+<p>“Good-morning,” she said with shameless calm.</p>
+
+<p>I think O’Leary must have met Dr. Hajek in the
+hall, for I heard his voice before he entered the study.
+At the door he stopped.</p>
+
+<p>“You, too,” said Corole, losing her amused smile.</p>
+
+<p>“May I come in, Miss Letheny?” O’Leary asked.
+He looked as fresh and well groomed as if he had had
+a long night’s sleep. “I rang the bell but no one
+answered.”</p>
+
+<p>Corole pulled her bizarre coat tighter about her.</p>
+
+<p>“Huldah decided she no longer liked it here,” she
+said. “She left last night—rather abruptly. Yes, do
+come in, Mr. O’Leary.”</p>
+
+<p>There followed an hour I shall not soon forget. I
+had never seen Lance O’Leary so mercilessly intent.
+I was both fascinated and awed to note the way he
+cut through Corole’s pretences and poses, her feline
+evasions and her suave smiles, and by sheer strength
+of will forced her to give to his inquiries answers that
+were direct if they were not entirely truthful.</p>
+
+<p>He began with the revolver, but she repeated the
+denial of all knowledge regarding its presence in Room
+18 she had given at the inquest. Also, to further
+questions as to her visit to Room 18 on the night it had
+sheltered that irascible patient, Mr. Gastin, she
+repeated the lame explanation she had given at the time.
+She admitted coolly enough that she understood the
+use of a hypodermic outfit, and as coolly, though with
+an evil glance at me, that she had made a trip through
+the orchard immediately after hearing of Dr. Letheny’s
+death; she had wished to see Dr. Hajek, she said
+brazenly, to discuss with him the news of the tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>It was then that O’Leary held before her eyes the
+small gold sequin.</p>
+
+<p>“Enough of this, Miss Letheny,” he said coldly. “It
+would be better for you to give me your fullest
+confidence. Why were you at the window of Room 18 last
+Thursday night? This ornament was found on the
+window sill. How did it get there?”</p>
+
+<p>Corole stared blankly from the gold sequin to
+O’Leary, but back of those queer topaz eyes I felt that
+she was thinking desperately.</p>
+
+<p>“Well,” she said finally, “I <em>was</em> near Room 18. In
+fact, I went as far as the window sill. You see, I was
+walking in the orchard. I was near the porch of the
+south wing when I heard something—a sort of noise,
+there at the window of the corner room.” She stopped
+and ran a quick, catlike tongue over her lips. “Room
+18, that is. I was rather curious so I crept up nearer
+the window. A man was opening the screen and crawling
+into Room 18. He left the screen up and I slipped
+quietly up to the window. I am rather tall, you know,
+and as I leaned for a moment on the sill I suppose
+the sequin got detached from my gown.”</p>
+
+<p>“It was very dark that night. Did you see all this?”</p>
+
+<p>She moistened her lips again; they were taking on
+a bluish tinge.</p>
+
+<p>“I—I see in the dark better than most people.”
+(Which I, for one, did not doubt.) “And anyway I
+could hear, you know.”</p>
+
+<p>“What could you hear? Why should you think that
+the noise you heard was made by a man crawling in
+the window of Room 18? That is just a little
+far-fetched, Miss Letheny.”</p>
+
+<p>“It is true, anyhow,” she said sulkily. “I heard the
+screen catch as he pulled it up and the sort of—scrambling
+sound he made, and I could see the patch of light
+that was his shirt front.”</p>
+
+<p>“If all that is true, why did you not rouse St. Ann’s
+at once?”</p>
+
+<p>“Because I knew who the man was.”</p>
+
+<p>There was a brief, electric silence.</p>
+
+<p>“Who was the man?” said O’Leary very quietly.</p>
+
+<p>“My cousin, Louis Letheny.” She brought the name
+out with a suggestion of triumph. I do not know whether
+it was a surprise to O’Leary or not; however, he said
+nothing for a full moment. His clear gray eyes were
+studying Corole’s face.</p>
+
+<p>“Naturally,” went on Corole with a degree of malicious
+satisfaction, “naturally I could not arouse the
+hospital to advertise the fact that the head of the
+institution had just crawled through a window. Who was
+I to know Dr. Letheny’s purpose?”</p>
+
+<p>“You are lying,” said O’Leary. “I warned you not
+to lie. The man you saw crawling through the window
+of Room 18 was not Dr. Letheny. You and Dr. Hajek
+were together in the orchard that night and you
+actually did lean at the window sill, intending to enter
+Room 18, but Dr. Letheny was already in Room 18.
+You and Dr. Hajek discussed whether it would be
+better to wait until Dr. Letheny came out of Room
+18, or for Dr. Hajek to follow him into that room.”</p>
+
+<p>In the twinkling of an eye Corole had become saffron
+yellow, the dabs of orange rouge on her cheeks
+stood out, emphasizing her high cheek-bones with
+grisly clearness; her eyes were flat and gleaming and
+her lips had drawn back a little from her teeth and
+the garish Chinese coat accentuated her ugly pallor.</p>
+
+<p>“Who told you that?” she whispered through those
+hideous lips.</p>
+
+<p>“Higgins told me,” replied O’Leary very distinctly.</p>
+
+<p>“Higgins!” cried Corole hoarsely, flinging up one
+brown, jewelled hand toward her throat. “Higgins!
+But he is dead!”</p>
+
+<p>“Higgins told me,” repeated O’Leary. “Now then,
+tell me. What did you and Dr. Hajek do?”</p>
+
+<p>“We—we met at the bridge. We walked together
+through the orchard.” Corole’s desperate effort to
+regain her self-control was not nice to witness.</p>
+
+<p>“Go on.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then—as I said—we heard a man in Room 18.
+And wanted to know what he was doing there. That
+was natural, I think.” She paused.</p>
+
+<p>“Possibly,” said O’Leary. “Why did you not wait
+until this—this man—came out from Eighteen?”</p>
+
+<p>“We did not wait for him. Someone came along.
+We never knew just who it was, though I thought that
+it was Jim Gainsay. He was in the orchard that night,
+too.”</p>
+
+<p>“Seems to have been a popular rendezvous,” commented
+O’Leary grimly. “So this approaching person
+frightened you away?”</p>
+
+<p>“Not at all,” denied Corole with a flash of her
+normal ease. “We just—left.”</p>
+
+<p>“Where did you go?”</p>
+
+<p>“Through the apple orchard.”</p>
+
+<p>“And having eluded this—er—unknown person, you
+returned to the intriguing vicinity of Room 18?”</p>
+
+<p>“No,” said Corole flatly. “I came immediately
+home.”</p>
+
+<p>“And Dr. Hajek?”</p>
+
+<p>“Returned to his room at St. Ann’s.”</p>
+
+<p>“Are you sure?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“How do you know?”</p>
+
+<p>Corole hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>“He told me so, later,” she said lamely.</p>
+
+<p>“Why were you intending to intercept Dr.
+Letheny—or rather, the man whom you thought to be Dr.
+Letheny?”</p>
+
+<p>Corole leaned forward.</p>
+
+<p>“Look here, I <em>know</em> that Louis Letheny was in Room
+18 that night!”</p>
+
+<p>“I know that, too,” agreed O’Leary quietly.</p>
+
+<p>She leaned back on the cushions, her eyes puzzled
+and her swinging rhinestone heels catching red and
+green lights.</p>
+
+<p>“Why did you intend to intercept him?” repeated
+O’Leary.</p>
+
+<p>“Because—Dr. Hajek felt he should know the reason
+for Louis’s strange actions.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Hajek being an interne and Dr. Letheny the
+head doctor,” commented O’Leary skeptically.</p>
+
+<p>Corole’s eyes shot a vicious, sidelong look at the
+detective but she said nothing.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch15">
+
+<h2>15. Corole Is Moved to Candour</h2>
+
+<p>A silence fell in the room. O’Leary walked to the
+window, pulled the heavy, mulberry-coloured drapes
+aside, and stood there for a moment. The world
+outside was sodden and cold; the dense green shrubbery
+strange and unfamiliar with its fallen leaves rotting
+and its heavy branches dripping. The piano in the
+alcove opposite me was shrouded with a great black
+velvet cover, but it seemed to me that ghostly fingers
+took up the first haunting strains of the C Sharp Minor
+Prelude. I stirred impatiently and O’Leary turned to
+face Corole, who sat sullenly still in the davenport,
+her fingernails digging into an orange pillow.</p>
+
+<p>“Come, Miss Letheny. Give up the radium and tell
+me the whole truth.”</p>
+
+<p>“I have not got the radium. If you don’t believe me
+you can search the house.”</p>
+
+<p>“The house has already been searched. Your maid
+was ordered not to tell you. It was done yesterday
+while you were—out.”</p>
+
+<p>“While I was out yesterday—— Tell me, Mr.
+O’Leary, is anyone else honoured with a—guard? The
+man from the police department followed me all day
+yesterday and I suppose is out there now, sitting on
+the porch railing or somewhere.”</p>
+
+<p>“O’Brien, his name is,” said O’Leary amiably. “No,
+you are not the only person thus watched.”</p>
+
+<p>“I thought not.” Her eyes glinted with malicious
+satisfaction. “I thought not. What about Jim Gainsay?
+And Maida Day?”</p>
+
+<p>“Well, what about them?”</p>
+
+<p>“What about them!” To do Corole justice she did
+hesitate for the barest fraction of a second before
+she went on: “Is it possible that you do not know
+that Maida Day was the last person to talk to Louis?”</p>
+
+<p>There was a pause, during which Corole looked in
+vain for any change of expression in O’Leary’s face.</p>
+
+<p>“Are you not surprised!” she cried impatiently.
+“Goody-goody Maida with her fastidious, touch-me-not
+ways was in the orchard with Louis after midnight
+last Thursday night.”</p>
+
+<p>“No,” said O’Leary. “No. I am not surprised.”</p>
+
+<p>“I heard the whole conversation,” continued Corole,
+as if bent on getting some sort of more spirited reaction
+out of the detective. “I was there in the shadows and
+heard the whole thing. Louis was wild about Maida—I’m
+sure I don’t know why. Anyway, she did not hesitate
+to tell him that she didn’t return his love.” Corole
+smiled a very cruel little smile. “Poor Louis! They
+talked for some time. Louis was one of these
+cold-natured men, as a rule. I was surprised to hear him.
+It was better than a play.”</p>
+
+<p>“Could you see them?” inquired O’Leary drily.</p>
+
+<p>“It was black as tar. But I knew their voices. And
+anyway I can see in the dark like a cat, so I could
+tell about where they were—could see the outline of
+Maida’s uniform and Louis’s shirt front.”</p>
+
+<p>“They could see each other, of course?” asked
+O’Leary nonchalantly.</p>
+
+<p>“No, I shouldn’t think so. I thought I told you that
+I can see in the dark better than most people. I’m sure
+they couldn’t see each other for I remember that when
+they met and began to talk, Maida sort of gasped and
+said ‘Who is it?’ and Louis answered her.”</p>
+
+<p>“How long did they talk?”</p>
+
+<p>“Not long. Perhaps ten or fifteen minutes.”</p>
+
+<p>“That was about what time?”</p>
+
+<p>Corole paused before replying, I suppose to be sure
+that she was admitting nothing as to her own activities
+on that dark night.</p>
+
+<p>“It must have been just before one o’clock. I think
+it was just after Louis had gone to Room 18 with Sarah
+to visit his patient there.”</p>
+
+<p>“Did Miss Day return at once to the hospital?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I think so. She was in a rage. I think poor
+Louis managed to kiss her and Maida is deplorably
+high-spirited. She struck him at the last; I was sure
+of that. They parted on very unfriendly terms.” Her
+eyes slanted maliciously at O’Leary, but he was
+engrossed in studying the soft figures on the rug at his
+feet.</p>
+
+<p>“Why do you tell me all this, Miss Letheny?” he
+asked quietly.</p>
+
+<p>She raised her thin, plucked eyebrows at this,
+delicately.</p>
+
+<p>“Didn’t you ask me to tell you anything that could
+help you? I should think that it would be of value
+to know that the last person known to have been with
+Louis was quarrelling violently with him.”</p>
+
+<p>“As a matter of fact, you have done Miss Day a
+favour,” remarked Lance O’Leary. “You have very
+kindly explained the presence of Miss Day’s lapis
+cuff link in the pocket of Dr. Letheny’s dinner jacket.”</p>
+
+<p>Corole’s eyes flickered.</p>
+
+<p>“I thought you said you were not surprised to hear
+this—as if you already knew it.”</p>
+
+<p>“I suspected some such affair. Miss Day made a
+point of saying that the last time she <em>saw</em> Dr. Letheny
+was when she left your house Thursday night, and it
+was perfectly true. She did not <em>see</em> him when she
+talked to him later. But, of course, I knew that she
+must have had some sort of meeting with him. Indeed,”
+he went on quietly, “I can quite understand Miss Day’s
+reluctance to tell of the matter. Any young woman would
+shrink from the headlines—can’t you see them:
+‘Beautiful young nurse—Love quarrel with Doctor’—all
+that sort of thing? Doubtless the cuff link got detached
+from the cuff and into Dr. Letheny’s hand and he thrust
+it into his pocket thinking to return it—not knowing
+what was to happen. Thank you for telling me this, Miss
+Letheny.” He walked to the door and paused with
+his hand on the knob. His face was very stern as he
+glanced back at Corole. “You are only making things
+worse for yourself when you refuse to tell the whole
+truth. Good-morning, Miss Letheny.”</p>
+
+<p>Once again on that damp path we said little.</p>
+
+<p>“It was Miss Day’s meeting with Dr. Letheny that
+Corole overheard, then, and threatened to tell of;
+that is what Gainsay’s note to Miss Day meant,” said
+O’Leary musingly as we approached the south door.
+“Well, that meeting does throw a new light on
+things—doesn’t it? By the way, Miss Keate, I expect to stay
+in St. Ann’s for a night or two. I want no one but you
+to know of it.”</p>
+
+<p>“But where—in what room will you be?”</p>
+
+<p>“Room 18.”</p>
+
+<p>I could feel the colour draining from my face.</p>
+
+<p>“That—room is not safe!”</p>
+
+<p>“Nonsense.”</p>
+
+<p>“But, Mr. O’Leary—I have not told you what I
+heard this morning!”</p>
+
+<p>“What’s that!”</p>
+
+<p>“Corole—Corole and Dr. Hajek——” He waited
+in silence while I told him of the singular dialogue that
+I had interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>“Thank you, Miss Keate,” he said quietly when I
+had finished.</p>
+
+<p>“But—aren’t you going to arrest them at once?
+Before they do—whatever it is they are planning? We
+don’t want another murder in St. Ann’s!”</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t think it will come to that. And anyway, you
+know—give a man rope enough——” He did not
+complete his sentence.</p>
+
+<p>I tightened my lips disapprovingly; it seemed to me
+that handcuffs would be far more efficacious.</p>
+
+<p>“Can you keep a secret, Miss Keate?” said Lance
+O’Leary suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>I nodded.</p>
+
+<p>“Then, if all goes well, another twenty-four hours
+will see the end of this affair.” And with that he was
+gone, leaving me to stand as if frozen on the step and
+watch that slight gray figure till it vanished around
+the corner of the hospital.</p>
+
+<p>Another twenty-four hours!</p>
+
+<p>I was still on the step, staring absently into the
+surrounding greens, when a movement through a lane
+of trees caught my eyes. There, strolling through the
+wet orchard, was Jim Gainsay. At his side was Maida,
+her white cap distinct against that green curtain, her
+soft black hair waving gently about her lovely face.
+The navy-blue cape she wore was thrown back so that
+its scarlet lining gleamed against a fold of her white
+dress and the scarlet seemed to match her cheeks and
+lips. As I watched, the two suddenly faced each other.
+Jim caught at Maida’s hands and held them against
+his face and slowly drew her toward him. She yielded
+for a moment, then glanced toward St. Ann’s windows
+and pulled away. He relinquished her hands and laughed
+and after a second she laughed, too. Then they
+resumed their slow pace, and the white cap and scarlet
+fold of cape and brown Stetson hat disappeared among
+the dense green thickets.</p>
+
+<p>He had succeeded in seeing her, then, and I did not
+need to fulfil my promise.</p>
+
+<p>The rest of the day passed quietly but none too
+pleasantly, for the hospital was gloomy and dark and
+very hushed, the nurses uneasy and nervous, and there
+was a sort of subdued terror that lurked in the very
+walls of the great, old place.</p>
+
+<p>I could not sleep, as was my custom, during first
+watch, and it was fortunate, as it happened, that I
+could not for I went down to the south wing a little early
+and thus, I believe, prevented another panic. I am sure
+that any other nurse seeing Corole as I saw her would
+have gone completely to pieces.</p>
+
+<p>This is the way it happened.</p>
+
+<p>I found myself in the south wing a good half hour
+before midnight and strolled casually along the
+corridor. The south door was locked as it should be, the
+new key having duly arrived and hanging, very bright
+and new, on the nail above the chart desk. I remember
+that I had just decided to find a new and less well-known
+place for it, and having selected a spot at the
+right of the door in question was endeavouring to push
+in a nail with a glass paper weight, and not having
+much success, when a sort of scratching outside the
+door caught my ears. I paused to peer through the
+small squares of glass.</p>
+
+<p>The wind had risen again and the low branches
+of the trees outside were tossing and moaning. The
+corridor was not sufficiently light to enable me to see
+beyond the black panes of glass and they glittered
+emptily, so that I felt as if eyes were looking in at me.
+Then, all at once, a face pressed up against the glass.
+It was a face so haggard, so wild, so fraught with
+terror that I did not recognize it at once to be Corole’s.</p>
+
+<p>As I stared she made an imperative gesture and
+moved her pale lips in words that I could not hear.
+The key was in my hand and I unlocked the door.
+Corole slipped stealthily inside and I closed the door
+hastily on the wind and rain, locking it before I turned
+to her.</p>
+
+<p>She was panting, her hair was flying in wet strings
+about her face and her eyes had great, fiery, black
+pupils that caught and reflected the light. She was
+wrapped in a dark silk cloak trimmed with monkey
+fur that was wet and hung about her neck in long,
+dank wisps that added to her wild aspect. One hand
+clutched the cloak across her breast and the other
+carried a square, leather-covered jewel-case.</p>
+
+<p>I found my voice.</p>
+
+<p>“What are you doing here?” I whispered.</p>
+
+<p>She cast a furtive glance toward the south door.</p>
+
+<p>“Did you lock the door? Come, is there some place
+where we can talk? Here——” With a swift motion
+she pushed open the door of Room 18, and pulled
+me inside.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t turn on the light,” she warned me in a tense
+whisper. And indeed, I had no intention of so doing,
+for as she spoke I recalled O’Leary’s presence in the
+room. I looked sharply toward the bed and chair but
+could not tell if either were occupied.</p>
+
+<p>Corole took several deep, shaking breaths before
+she spoke.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve been running,” she whispered presently. “I
+had to get rid of O’Leary’s watchdogs.” Actually there
+was an undercurrent of mirth in her whispered accents,
+though I was sure that she had recently had a bad
+fright of some kind.</p>
+
+<p>“Did someone follow you?” I asked.</p>
+
+<p>She held her breath for a second; then she released
+it.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” she said. “I don’t know who it was. Sarah,
+I had to come here. I—I am afraid to stay in the
+cottage alone all night. Huldah is gone, you know. I—am
+afraid. Can’t I stay here?”</p>
+
+<p>“Certainly not. Don’t be foolish, Corole. St. Ann’s
+is not a hotel.”</p>
+
+<p>She gripped my arm and her hand was trembling.</p>
+
+<p>“I tell you I am afraid. Sarah, you must let me stay
+here. I’ll sleep anywhere. I’ll sleep right here in this
+room.”</p>
+
+<p>“No. No. You can’t do that!”</p>
+
+<p>“I must stay in St. Ann’s. You can’t put me out
+bodily. I’ve got to stay.” I felt her shiver violently.
+“I cannot go through that terrible orchard again. I
+cannot sleep in Louis Letheny’s house to-night. There
+are ghosts, Sarah, ghosts—oh, you don’t know!”</p>
+
+<p>“Ghosts! There are nothing of the kind.” I felt
+my scalp prickle as I spoke.</p>
+
+<p>“Maybe not. Anyway, I must stay here.”</p>
+
+<p>“No,” I repeated but she must have felt me weakening
+for she renewed her pleas, even promising to make
+herself eligible to a room in the hospital by having
+tonsillitis, if I insisted. She said she felt it coming on
+owing to her getting so wet and being bareheaded.
+Which was not only silly, as I assured her, but was
+not even to be believed, Corole being as sleek and
+healthy as a young jaguar, and about as even-tempered.</p>
+
+<p>“But you can stay,” I relented, “if you will do as
+I say and keep quiet about it.”</p>
+
+<p>“Heavens, yes!” agreed Corole fervently. “All I
+want to do is keep quiet about it. Shall I just stay
+right here in Eighteen? I am not afraid.” She moved
+toward the bed.</p>
+
+<p>I grasped her cloak and jerked her back.</p>
+
+<p>“No,” I said hastily. “No. You cannot stay in this
+room.” There may have been a note of consternation
+in my voice and I am quite sure I heard a sort of
+subdued snicker from the direction of the bed.</p>
+
+<p>Corole heard it, too.</p>
+
+<p>“What was that?” she whispered sharply, starting
+back against me. I shuddered aside from contact with
+that dripping monkey fur.</p>
+
+<p>“Probably a cat,” I said at random.</p>
+
+<p>“A cat!” I could feel her pull her short skirt tighter
+around her. “I hate cats. They remind me of—— I
+hate cats.”</p>
+
+<p>“Corole, stay right here for a moment or two. <em>Don’t
+move from the door!</em> I shall come back and open the
+door, and you go as fast as you can through the corridor
+and as far as the general office door. Don’t let anyone
+see you if you can help it and wait there for me.”</p>
+
+<p>She murmured something in assent and in less time
+than it takes to tell, I had manufactured errands to get
+the nurses into the diet kitchen and drug room, had watched
+Corole move with the lithe swiftness of an animal
+through the long shadowy corridor and myself had
+followed her. My own room was, of course, the only
+place where I could let her sleep. I even loaned her
+a night garment; she looked at its long sleeves and
+high neck dubiously but accepted it.</p>
+
+<p>I gave myself the satisfaction of locking the door
+and carrying the key away; I did not know whether
+Corole heard the click of the key or not but I did not
+intend that Corole Letheny should be allowed to prowl
+at large through the dark corridors of St. Ann’s.</p>
+
+<p>It was a little after twelve when I found myself in
+the south wing again. Maida was already there and
+Olma Flynn and the same little, blue-striped student
+nurse.</p>
+
+<p>I don’t mind admitting that I slipped into the diet
+kitchen at my first opportunity and brewed myself a
+cup of very strong, black coffee. Corole’s advent had
+shaken my nerves a bit and I did not like the way the
+wind was murmuring around the corners of the great
+old building, stirring up forgotten drafts and rattling
+windows and slapping rain against them.</p>
+
+<p>Second watch, however, passed quite as usual, save
+for the little air of uncertainty and uneasiness that
+made itself manifest in our fondness for each other’s
+company, our frequent glances into the shadows, and
+one or two broken thermometers owing to the sudden
+crashes of the wind. The light flickered once as if about
+to go out but mercifully did not do so. I might add that
+the prevalence of broken thermometers was one of the
+minor troubles of that week; a thermometer is an easy
+thing to slip from one’s fingers, especially when shaking
+it, and it is not surprising that Dr. Balman had had
+to order new thermometers for every wing in St. Ann’s.</p>
+
+<p>The hours seemed very long, particularly when it
+occurred to me that if Corole and Dr. Hajek expected
+to carry out their scheme that “day” there were only
+a few hours left in which to do so. Of course, I had
+Corole safely locked up and if her coming to St. Ann’s
+in well-simulated terror to beg a refuge was actually,
+as I half suspected, only a part of their plan, why then
+I had stopped any further activity on her part. But I
+could not wholly believe that Corole’s coming had
+been prearranged; her panic had been too genuine.</p>
+
+<p>We were not very busy, so I had plenty of time to
+think. More than once I caught myself eyeing Maida
+as she went quietly about her business.</p>
+
+<p>Once, when we were both at the desk, engaged in
+a desultory and half-hearted conversation, footsteps
+padding softly along the corridor back of us caught
+our attention and I turned simultaneously with Maida.
+I noted that her eyes flared black as she whirled and her
+lips were a quick, set line, and wondered if my own
+face showed such immediate alarm. However, it was
+only Olma Flynn, advancing to tell me through chattering
+teeth that she was sure there was <em>Something</em> in Room
+18. I was startled for a flash, though at once I realized
+that it was O’Leary, and Maida went white though
+she held her shoulders straighter than ever.</p>
+
+<p>I managed to calm Olma, though she clung to her
+point with a firmness that in my heart I labelled plain
+mule stubbornness.</p>
+
+<p>“If we are all murdered before morning, Miss Keate,
+it will be your fault,” she said at last.</p>
+
+<p>“Nonsense! If it is a ghost, as you seem to believe,
+you need not be alarmed. Ghosts can’t do anything but
+moan around the corners.” It was unfortunate that just
+then the wind swept through the draughty old corridor
+with a most realistic moan, upon which Olma turned
+green and vanished into the diet kitchen. It was this,
+I think, that gave rise to a swiftly travelling tale that
+Room 18 was haunted, a tale that the south wing has
+never yet been able to live down.</p>
+
+<p>Thinking to warn O’Leary that he must be more
+circumspect in his behaviour if he wished his presence
+in that ill-omened room to remain a secret, I watched
+my chance to slip unobserved into Eighteen. Dawn was
+creeping into the room by that time and the furniture
+loomed up dark and black in the cold half-light. The
+room was quite empty of human presence, though to
+my tired nerves it seemed that there might be other
+presences. I shrugged aside the unwelcome thought. A
+glance at the window showed me that the bolts had
+been slipped and the screen opened. I had no doubt that
+O’Leary was making use of that low window as others
+had done. I resisted a childish impulse to fasten the
+bolts against his return and returned to the corridor.</p>
+
+<hr>
+
+<p>With the tinny sound of the breakfast bell away
+down in the basement, the straggling through the
+corridors of the day nurses, freshly uniformed if a trifle
+gray about the eyes, the fragrant smell of coffee floating
+through the halls, my vigilance relaxed a bit. The night
+was past and so far as I knew nothing out of the way
+had occurred. Knowing Corole to be a late sleeper
+I did not go immediately to my room to release her.
+Instead I followed Maida and Olma and the student
+nurse downstairs to the dining room. It was a sorry
+meal with buckwheat cakes which I despise and which,
+besides, give me hives, and Miss Dotty relating a very
+lurid dream and dissolving into tears under Melvina’s
+interpretation. The tears dripped dismally down Miss
+Dotty’s inefficient nose, Melvina enlarged upon the
+meaning of dreams, and I found that I had sugared
+my coffee twice. I was glad when the meal was over.</p>
+
+<p>In the intervals of Melvina’s sinister monologue I
+had come to the conclusion that Corole Letheny under
+lock and key was not a situation to be lightly
+relinquished. I sought O’Leary at once, surreptitiously
+avoiding the day nurses. He was not in Room 18, so
+I straightened the wrinkled counterpane on the bed
+and left. As I passed through the corridor of the second
+charity ward I took a breakfast tray off the
+dumbwaiter standing there unguarded; the disappearance
+of the tray caused considerable excitement in the ward,
+I found later, which was augmented by its reappearance
+later in the morning in the second-floor linen closet
+where I had thoughtfully left it, with only the coffee
+splashed a little, for Corole did not even see that
+breakfast tray.</p>
+
+<p>When I unlocked the door to my room it required
+only a glance to see that my bird had flown, so to speak.
+I set the tray on the dresser and advanced into the
+room. The bed was tossed and had been slept in, though
+the night garment I had loaned her was still decorously
+folded on a chair. The window was open, letting in
+gusts of rain on my flowered voile curtains which were
+running in pink and green streaks and later had to be
+replaced. I crossed to close it and in doing so found
+the mode of her exit. St. Ann’s, as I have said, was
+an old building with numerous turrets and towers and
+roof irregularities which included various ledges and
+wide window casings. From the window beyond mine
+dropped an old-fashioned, iron fire escape fastened to
+the old red bricks with rusted bolts. And from my window
+to the next ran a sort of ledge, narrow, to be sure,
+and slippery, but there was the ivy to cling to and
+shrubbery below to break a fall. For a woman of
+Corole’s build and propensities it was not a difficult
+climb and once on the fire escape the rest was easy.
+I leaned out the window. Had I still been unconvinced,
+there was proof of her passage, for caught on an ivy
+strand there hung a dejected, wet, black wisp of monkey
+fur.</p>
+
+<p>So Corole was gone! I felt guilty for letting her
+slip through my fingers but reflected that O’Leary had
+known of her presence in St. Ann’s, and moreover, a
+woman cannot go far in a drenched coat and no hat.</p>
+
+<p>This comfortable reflection lasted until I went to
+the wardrobe and found that my best hat was gone.
+The hat was a very beautiful thing with quantities of
+artificial violets on it and three yards of looped purple
+ribbon, and had cost me twenty-five dollars owing to
+my having it made to order to fit my bobless head.
+And Corole had brazenly worn it out in the rain, which
+did not increase my affection for Corole.</p>
+
+<p>I set forth again to find O’Leary, feeling that he
+should know at once of Corole’s flight, pausing only
+to leave the tray in the second-floor linen closet.</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary turned up at last in the vast old stable, now
+converted into a garage, that is out back of St. Ann’s.
+He was apparently engaged in sniffing at something
+that I did not see and that he thrust hurriedly into his
+pocket at the sound of my approach.</p>
+
+<p>In as few words as possible I told him of Corole’s
+departure.</p>
+
+<p>His face became very sober.</p>
+
+<p>“That’s bad,” he said. “That’s bad. I figured she was
+safe in your hands. So she got away across that ledge.”
+The place was visible from where we stood, and he
+surveyed it thoughtfully through the gray streaks of
+rain.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, it can’t be helped now. You say she wore
+your hat?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“She would not be apt to return to the Letheny
+cottage,” he mused. “Let me see; it is barely seven
+o’clock—the stores will not be open for another hour.
+There is plenty of time.”</p>
+
+<p>“The stores?”</p>
+
+<p>“She will go straight to buy a hat,” he explained
+with remarkable lack of tact. “Corole Letheny is not
+going far in a hat that——” He noted my unsympathetic
+countenance. “A hat that—er—does not suit her.
+I mean that she did not choose herself,” he amended
+hastily.</p>
+
+<p>Without saying a word I turned toward the gravelled
+path that leads back to St. Ann’s.</p>
+
+<p>“Wait a minute, Miss Keate,” begged O’Leary
+contritely, seeing perhaps that he had offended me in a
+matter that no woman can freely forgive. “Please, wait.
+If you’ll forgive me I’ll tell you something of interest.”</p>
+
+<p>Being exceedingly curious I went back. He drew me
+into the shadow of a big gray ambulance.</p>
+
+<p>“I want you to keep an eye on Miss Day,” he said
+in a low voice and with an odd glance into the shadows
+of the place.</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Day!”</p>
+
+<p>“Especially if you see this fellow, Gainsay, hanging
+around.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why, what do you mean? Is Jim Gainsay——”</p>
+
+<p>“Jim Gainsay is the man who was following Corole
+last night. O’Brien was stationed up at the cottage last
+night and saw him. It seems that Corole slipped out a
+side door. She came out so unexpectedly that she was into
+the orchard before O’Brien was after her. He was going
+full tilt when he found that someone else was ahead
+of him, both of them after Corole, who was having
+the devil’s own luck, according to O’Brien, in
+avoiding tree trunks and shrubbery. O’Brien says she
+can see in the dark. At the bridge O’Brien caught up
+with the man and can swear it was Gainsay, but just
+then a low-hanging branch knocked O’Brien down and
+senseless for a moment and when he got to his feet
+Corole and Gainsay were both gone. O’Brien wandered
+about the orchard hunting them for half the
+night and I ran into him about five o’clock, soaked to
+the skin and his face a welt of scratches and his
+disposition permanently warped.”</p>
+
+<p>“So it was Jim Gainsay who gave Corole such a
+fright,” I murmured. “I wonder what he wanted.”</p>
+
+<p>“It looks bad for Gainsay,” said O’Leary thoughtfully.
+“Whether he killed Dr. Letheny in a mistaken
+effort to defend Miss Day, or whether he killed Jackson
+for the sake of the radium, or whether, thinking that
+the radium is still at large he is determined to secure
+it for his own use, in any case it looks bad. I hope your
+little friend, Miss Day, is not going to be too much
+hurt.”</p>
+
+<p>“You mean if she cares for Gainsay? Maida is not
+one to wear her heart on her sleeve. If we could only
+find that radium,” I concluded hopelessly.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I have the radium,” said O’Leary simply.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch16">
+
+<h2>16. The Red Light Above the Door</h2>
+
+<p>“<em>You have the radium!</em>”</p>
+
+<p>He nodded. My mouth open I waited for him to
+tell me more. In the little silence I heard a sort of rustle
+and I looked about me in some alarm. O’Leary heard
+the rustle, too, but his face wore the most peculiar
+expression of mingled satisfaction and anxiety. He made
+the barest perceptible gesture against comment, and
+just at the moment Morgue dropped casually down
+from an opening above what was formerly a hay loft.
+I jumped a little at his—I mean, <em>her</em> unexpected advent
+and O’Leary spoke unconcernedly.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I have the radium. Or rather it is in Room
+18 which is, I believe, the safest place in the world for
+it, inasmuch as there is not a soul in St. Ann’s who would
+willingly enter that room—save perhaps your intrepid
+self.”</p>
+
+<p>“How did you find it?”</p>
+
+<p>“Corole brought it to Room 18 last night.” O’Leary’s
+voice had lifted to a normal pitch and I recall thinking
+that he should speak lower. “Corole brought it in her
+jewel case. The jewel case is there, too; she must have
+doubted your—er—hospitality.”</p>
+
+<p>“Do you mean to say that she had that box of
+radium in her jewel case!” I cried. “And that she
+left the whole thing there, in Eighteen?”</p>
+
+<p>“Possibly she agreed with me that it was the safest
+place in which to leave it. No one would suspect its
+being back in Room 18. No one would voluntarily enter
+that room. Oh, she took the precaution to cross to that
+closet and place the jewel case away back on the shelf.
+She did that while you were clearing the way for her
+passage through the halls to your room. She came very
+near sitting down on the bed to wait,” went on O’Leary
+drily. “And I was endeavouring to give an imitation
+of a mattress when you opportunely returned.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh,” I said brilliantly. “Oh.”</p>
+
+<p>“It was the same closet that hid Dr. Letheny’s body,”
+added O’Leary meditatively. “I will leave the radium
+in Room 18 until to-night; it will be under close guard
+all day, Miss Keate, but I think it safer to wait till
+to-night, during second watch, when the guards are
+gone and the wing is quiet, to remove it. I’m not going
+to run the risk of Gainsay’s knocking me senseless again.
+Of course, we shall have to locate Corole and keep her
+out when she returns, as she will, for the radium. Then
+I’ll get the stuff away while the hospital is asleep.”</p>
+
+<p>“Do you think that is wise?” I asked hesitantly.
+“Do you think that will be——”</p>
+
+<p>“Ready to go back to the hospital?” interrupted
+O’Leary, and as we walked along the clean white gravel
+path he conversed so fluently and determinedly about
+the effect of the continued moisture upon the crops that
+I could not get a word in edgewise. At the grade door
+we paused and O’Leary said a peculiar thing.</p>
+
+<p>“See you later in the day, Miss Keate. Twelve of
+the twenty-four hours I gave myself are gone, you
+know. And by the way, you couldn’t have done better
+if you had rehearsed.” And with that he was gone,
+leaving me entirely in the dark as to his meaning and
+feeling rather irritated. Morgue, who had followed
+us along the path, brushed against my skirts. She had
+already lost her air of pride and was taking on a
+certain harassed appearance besides being very thin. But
+her yellow eyes raised to mine were still complacent
+and knowing and so like Corole’s that I thrust her
+impatiently aside with my foot and closed the door sharply.</p>
+
+<p>The rain continued, steadily increasing in fervour
+as the dreary day passed. All morning I remained in
+my room, the door locked securely, a chair in front
+of the window lest Corole should take a notion to
+return the way she had gone, and myself trying to
+sleep and succeeding for the most part in staring at
+the ceiling or at the rain-smeared window.</p>
+
+<p>At noon I rose, dashed ice water on my tired eyes,
+dressed and started downstairs. The dark day made
+the vast old place gloomier than ever and lights had
+had to be turned on all over the building which,
+however, failed to dispel the lurking shadows. Apparently
+the nurses were doing their duty as well as might be
+expected, though I noted that they gathered in groups
+and that there was a noticeable lack of smothered talk
+and laughter.</p>
+
+<p>In the north wing of the second floor I caught a
+glimpse, as I rounded the stairs, of Dr. Hajek, clad
+in fresh, white duck trousers and coat and certainly
+not much resembling a thief and a murderer, making
+his morning rounds, and at the door of the maternity
+ward I met Dr. Balman, an attendant nurse at his
+elbow.</p>
+
+<p>It was strange to see the everyday routine going
+on almost as usual, almost as if we were not held in
+the cold grip of horror. No, not quite as usual, for
+there was somehow about the place, emanating from
+the very, white and expectant walls, an air of suspense,
+of breathless waiting.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Balman had noted it, too.</p>
+
+<p>“Even the patients are upset and restless to-day,”
+he said wearily, as I stopped to ask him about Sonny,
+whose cast did not satisfy me. He rubbed his hand over
+his high, benevolent forehead, drew it gently over the
+bruise that still looked red and angry, and sighed.</p>
+
+<p>“It is the weather,” I suggested, though it was
+nothing of the kind.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. Yes, it must be the weather. A constant
+succession of cloudy, rainy days such as we have been
+having is bad for the nerves. I hope this rain sees the
+end of it.” His anxious eyes went past me toward the
+window at the end of the corridor.</p>
+
+<p>“One wonders where it is all coming from,” I commented.
+“I think, too, that the patients feel the—er—atmosphere
+of the hospital. The nurses are uneasy and
+nervous, jump at every sound, and there is a distinct
+feeling of suspense and—breathlessness in the air.”</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Balman nodded; his eyes looked tired and sad
+under his thin eyebrows.</p>
+
+<p>“I understand what you mean. There is a psychic
+undercurrent of unrest and alarm that is bound to
+communicate itself to the sick.”</p>
+
+<p>“You aren’t looking well, Dr. Balman,” I said. “You
+should have that bruise attended to.” And I thought,
+though I did not say it, that he would profit by some
+liver pills.</p>
+
+<p>“I haven’t had time——” he began; a nurse rattling
+up to us in her crisp skirts interrupted him with
+a question and I went on downstairs.</p>
+
+<p>A letter was waiting for me on the rack in the hall.
+I did not recognize the handwriting, which was square
+and distinct and very painstaking; the signature,
+however, caught my attention and I ran through the note
+hastily, read it again more carefully, and with an
+involuntary glance about me I withdrew into a secluded
+corner of the hall and read it once more. It was short
+and to the point.</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+  <p class="salutation">Dear Miss:</p>
+
+  <p>I think it is my dooty to tell you somthing I heerd. It is about
+  Mr. Gansie I liked him but he is croked. He thinks Miss C whuz
+  name I will not menshun has the radeyum, she said you know
+  more than you will tell about those murders too and he said well
+  what if I do what I want is the radeyum. Then she said youd better
+  get out of here before you land in jail and he said speak for
+  yourself. Then the kitchen door blew shut. You can tell that little man
+  with the gray eyes if you want to.</p>
+
+  <p>That Gansie is a bad man he has a revolver in his pocket.</p>
+
+  <p>I have left Miss C for good.</p>
+
+  <p class="valediction">Yours respectfully,</p>
+  <p class="signature">Huldah Hansinge.</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>Aside from reading “croked” to be “croaked” and
+thinking for a wild second that she was announcing
+Gainsay’s death, I had no difficulty in understanding
+Huldah’s amazing epistle. It sounded exactly like her,
+and Huldah is honest, so I did not even have the dubious
+satisfaction of doubting her word. It was my duty, too,
+to turn the thing over to O’Leary, and I should have
+done so at once had I been able to find him. But he
+was not to be found and I finally went down to lunch
+with a heavier heart.</p>
+
+<p>The afternoon passed as slowly as the morning.
+O’Leary stayed out of sight, I heard no news about
+Corole or the radium, and the note from Huldah was
+simply burning a hole in my pocket. I tried telephoning
+to O’Leary but could not even get an answer from
+his servant. It was while I was in the general office
+that someone telephoned for Dr. Hajek. Miss Jones
+was at the telephone and asked me to call him, saying
+he was in the south wing.</p>
+
+<p>“It’s a woman,” she said, winking at me. “She
+wouldn’t give her name or number.”</p>
+
+<p>I found Dr. Hajek in Room 17 changing a dressing.
+He dropped his forceps and pulled off his rubber gloves
+so hastily that they split across one palm.</p>
+
+<p>“Pick up those forceps and sterilize them,” he directed
+the attendant nurse. “I’ll be back in a moment.”</p>
+
+<p>I suppose he noted the disapproval in my face, for
+as we left he murmured something about having expected
+an important call and Seventeen being all right
+until he returned. In the corridor, tipped back against
+the door of Eighteen, lounged a policeman. Dr. Hajek
+regarded him speculatively but said nothing concerning
+his presence, which was, to my mind, an extraordinarily
+stupid arrangement. It seemed far better, to me,
+to remove the radium under guard to a place of
+safe-keeping, but O’Leary’s business was O’Leary’s.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed a singular thing that this man Hajek was
+at liberty to go about the hospital, his opinions
+deferred to by the nurses, his duty to administer to the
+sick, and at the same time he was most certainly
+involved somehow in the ugly, sordid tragedy that had
+befallen us. I followed his white coat through the
+intervening corridors and, recalling a record I had
+meant to look into, also into the general office. But
+as I bent over the filing cabinet, though every word
+of his brief conversation was audible to me, I could
+make nothing of it. It consisted of three “Yes’s,” one
+“No,” and finished with “All right.” Upon which he
+hung up the receiver and departed briskly toward the
+south wing and Seventeen. Miss Jones was no wiser
+than I, for his eyes had been on her as he talked and
+she had not dared listen in.</p>
+
+<p>“There’s one thing I know, Miss Keate,” she said
+as I was about to leave. “That voice at the other end
+sounded for all the world like Miss Letheny’s.”</p>
+
+<p>And some twenty minutes later I was quite sure
+that I saw Dr. Hajek going unostentatiously out the
+grade door toward the garage, though when the bell
+rang for dinner he was sitting in the general office
+smoking a forbidden cigar and reading the evening
+papers with the utmost composure.</p>
+
+<p>I spent most of the intervening time wandering
+about the halls; I was very restless and could not
+settle down to anything, and altogether the afternoon
+was a total loss so far as anything interesting was
+concerned, so I was not in the best of humours at dinner.</p>
+
+<p>Once I caught a fragment of conversation from a
+little group of nurses down at the end of the table.</p>
+
+<p>“. . . and I said, ‘What on earth is that man doing
+out in the elderberry bushes in all this rain?’ and she
+said, ‘He is watching Room 18.’ ”</p>
+
+<p>“Why are they watching Room 18?” asked Miss
+Ferguson, wide-eyed.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t ask me!” The first girl shrugged her shoulders.
+“But there have been a couple of men, besides that
+policeman in the south wing, hanging around all day;
+I don’t think they are police because they don’t wear
+uniforms, but they didn’t have their eyes off the
+windows of Room 18 all day long.”</p>
+
+<p>“What do you suppose is the reason?” whispered
+someone in a tense, shrill whisper that carried.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know!”</p>
+
+<p>“Mercy, I’m glad I’m not on duty in the south wing,”
+said someone else, and all the eyes at the table
+immediately focussed on me.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, whatever it is, I wish it would be settled,”
+announced Miss Ferguson vigorously. “I’m getting so
+nervous I drop everything I touch. And my neck is stiff
+from twisting it to look back over my shoulder.”</p>
+
+<p>Melvina Smith cleared her throat and I left the table
+at once. I have nothing against Melvina, but if she
+had been in the south wing during the past week she
+would have got her fill of horrors.</p>
+
+<p>With the gathering darkness the feeling of impending
+catastrophe that had hung over us all day intensified
+itself. By midnight I was as jumpy as a race horse,
+my heart leaping to my throat at every sound and my
+hands shaking so that I could scarcely turn off my alarm
+clock and adjust my cap.</p>
+
+<p>The storm had grown steadily worse and by twelve
+o’clock was blowing a gale with thunder and lightning
+making the night hideous. The old building seemed to
+tremble at each onslaught, and every window casing
+rattled and every curtain flapped and the whole place
+seemed to quiver and shudder as if it were alive.</p>
+
+<p>On the way down to the south wing, I don’t mind
+saying that I suffered from something very near to
+stage fright, at least there was a rock in the pit of
+my stomach and the backs of my knees felt shaky and
+not to be depended upon. I very nearly shrieked when
+I heard footsteps back of me on the stairs, but it was
+only Maida, going down to duty, and together we
+walked through those deserted, creaking halls.</p>
+
+<p>I had not been on duty more than twenty minutes
+when I found a note pinned to the order blank and
+addressed “Miss Keate”! It was sealed, and across
+the paper was a single sentence splashed hurriedly:</p>
+
+<blockquote>
+
+  <p>When the red light shines above 18 answer it.</p>
+
+</blockquote>
+
+<p>I wheeled to stare down the length of corridor toward
+that closed, inscrutable door at its far end. The corridor
+lost itself in the shadows and the door was itself
+indistinguishable, but it seemed to me that the
+faraway panes of glass in the south door caught green
+glints of light from the shade above my head.</p>
+
+<p>“When the red light shines above 18 answer it.”</p>
+
+<p>What was going on in the dark room? What did it
+mean?</p>
+
+<p>It was fortunate that I had plenty of assistance,
+for I could not possibly have gone about my duty with
+this amazing thing in my mind. In fact, I paid very
+little attention to the demands of the wing and
+alternated my gaze between my wrist watch and that
+shadowy end of the south wing corridor.</p>
+
+<p>When the red light shines above 18!</p>
+
+<p>When would it shine—what would I see upon
+opening that heavy gumwood door?</p>
+
+<p>When the red light shines . . . After what seemed
+eons of time I strolled casually and with attempted
+calm in that direction. My heart began to pound
+violently as I approached that mysterious door. I paused
+at the south end of the corridor, pretending to
+scrutinize a thermometer that hung on the wall and
+listening with all my ears toward that dully gleaming panel
+of gumwood. Not a sound came from it, and though
+I lingered for some time in the vicinity, still I heard
+nothing.</p>
+
+<p>On the way back Olma Flynn stopped me.</p>
+
+<p>“Eleven says he will not take his medicine, Miss
+Keate. What shall I do?”</p>
+
+<p>I must have answered her rather vaguely and, in
+fact, barely heard her question. At any rate, she gave
+me a strange look, whirled to follow my gaze down
+the corridor south and, seeing nothing, faced me again.</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes were very wide and her mouth hung open.</p>
+
+<p>“What—what did you say, Miss Keate?”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll see about it in the morning,” I replied, quite
+at random. She retreated, eyeing me with trepidation,
+and later I saw her whispering with the student nurse
+in the drug room and both of them regarding me
+distrustfully.</p>
+
+<p>Somehow the seconds dragged along. I took up my
+post at the chart desk, turning the chair so that it
+faced the long length of empty, dark corridor, and
+the dark space above Eighteen was visible to me.</p>
+
+<p>Maida stopped at the desk now and then, and once
+paused to survey me curiously.</p>
+
+<p>“What on earth is the matter with you, Sarah?”
+she asked.</p>
+
+<p>“Nothing,” I replied, looking for the thousandth
+time at my watch. It was then a quarter of two.</p>
+
+<p>She studied me oddly for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>“What a night! The wind and rain is getting awfully
+on my nerves.” She unpinned her thermometer, took
+off the cap and held it closer to her eyes. “I was taking
+a temperature a moment ago when that loud crack of
+thunder came and it startled me so that I dropped
+the thermometer. I don’t think”—she paused to squint
+interestedly along the small glass tube—“I don’t think
+I broke it. For heaven’s sake, Sarah!” she broke off
+in sudden irritation. “Stop staring down the corridor.
+You make me edgy. What are you looking for? What
+do you——”</p>
+
+<p>I did not hear the rest of the sentence. I sprang to
+my feet, peering through the semi-darkness to be sure
+my eyes had not mistaken me.</p>
+
+<p>They had not!</p>
+
+<p>Gleaming above the door of Eighteen was a single,
+small red light!</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch17">
+
+<h2>17. O’Leary Tells a Story</h2>
+
+<p>The next thing I remember is finding myself at the door
+of Room 18, my fingers on the door knob, my breath
+coming in gasps and my heart literally in my throat.</p>
+
+<p>What would the opening of that door disclose?</p>
+
+<p>I took a long, shuddering breath, pushed open the
+door and took a few steps forward.</p>
+
+<p>Intense blackness met my eyes, but through it I heard
+scraping sounds and heavy breathing and the impact
+of flesh against flesh, and the indescribable sounds of
+two bodies struggling together. Instinctively I stepped
+inside the room, closed the door behind me, and felt
+along the wall for the electric button.</p>
+
+<p>And at that instant a vivid flash of lightning lit
+up the room and I caught a glimpse of two men
+interlocked and swaying and I heard O’Leary’s hoarse
+whisper.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t—turn on—the lights! Don’t——” the rest
+was lost.</p>
+
+<p>I stood there as if frozen to the spot, longing to
+take a hand in things and not daring to do so. Then all
+at once someone said breathlessly:</p>
+
+<p>“O’Leary!”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“Hell.”</p>
+
+<p>The men seemed to fall apart.</p>
+
+<p>“All right, then! Here it is!” The words were whispered
+in a panting voice that I did not recognize.</p>
+
+<p>Then I felt rather than saw that the slighter of the
+two figures tiptoed to the window next to the bed, peered
+through the dashing of rain outside for a moment, and
+then tiptoed as cautiously back.</p>
+
+<p>“Into that corner! There, back of the screen! Miss
+Keate?”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes.”</p>
+
+<p>“Over here, quick!”</p>
+
+<p>I stumbled a little as I passed the foot of the bed,
+found a hand outstretched in the darkness to guide
+me, and in a flash was in the darkest corner of the room,
+behind the burlap screen.</p>
+
+<p>“Be quiet!” warned O’Leary sternly.</p>
+
+<p>Beside me, breathing quickly, was that other man;
+as I shrank back a little I came in contact with
+something cold, touched it tentatively with my fingers and
+drew back, chilled. It was square and hard and pressing
+into the coat of the man at my side. It must be held
+in O’Leary’s hand.</p>
+
+<p>And I was standing within an inch of the thing. I
+must have made a sudden movement for O’Leary
+whispered sharply again: “<em>Hush!</em>”</p>
+
+<p>As if petrified, the three of us stood behind that
+burlap screen. There was not a sound in the room.
+As my eyes became adjusted to the darkness I found
+that the window near the bed was faintly visible through
+the crack in the screen and I glued my gaze to that crack.</p>
+
+<p>Once the man at my side stirred a little and then
+quieted abruptly, and I had no doubt that that
+menacing revolver was thrust closer into his ribs.</p>
+
+<p>Just as I felt that my lungs were bursting I became
+aware that there was a shadow, deeper than the
+surrounding shadows, there at the window. I blinked and
+peered closer. Yes, I was sure. Silently, with amazing
+lack of sound it crept from the window sill into the
+room, paused for a second and then, so silently that
+it did not seem to be anything human, it glided across
+the room and out of my little angle of vision.</p>
+
+<p>Then I was aware that O’Leary was gone and
+simultaneously I heard a sound like the creaking of a bed
+spring and O’Leary’s voice, cold and hard as that vicious
+revolver.</p>
+
+<p>“Stand where you are! Hands up! Turn on the light,
+Miss Keate. Hands up! I’ve got you!”</p>
+
+<p>Turn on the light!</p>
+
+<p>Cross that room to the door? No, here was the
+light above the bed! Where was the cord! Ah! My
+fingers grasped it, pulled convulsively and light flooded
+the room.</p>
+
+<p>There was a muffled exclamation from the closet
+door. A man standing there flung his hands over his
+head. O’Leary was standing on the high, narrow bed,
+his revolver covering the room. The man behind the
+screen was still motionless.</p>
+
+<p>“All right, O’Brien,” said O’Leary very quietly,
+without moving his head.</p>
+
+<p>“All right,” echoed a voice at the window. There
+was O’Brien’s head at the window and along the sill
+gleamed the barrel of another revolver, and then another
+as a stalwart policeman loomed up beside O’Brien.</p>
+
+<p>My head cleared and my eyes stopped blinking in
+the sudden light.</p>
+
+<p>The man at the closet door was Dr. Fred Hajek.
+His face was putty-coloured. His small eyes gleamed
+like a frightened animal’s. His raincoat dripped
+moisture in a little puddle on the floor.</p>
+
+<p>“Got him covered, O’Brien?” said O’Leary
+cheerfully.</p>
+
+<p>“Right!” said O’Brien.</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary leaped lightly from the bed, strode over
+to the burlap screen, and pulled it back.</p>
+
+<p>Jim Gainsay stood there, his cap pulled low over
+his eyes, his lean jaw set. One hand was thrust into
+the pocket of his coat, and the other grasped a small,
+square box. At the sight of the box I gasped something
+and pointed.</p>
+
+<p>“The—the radium!”</p>
+
+<p>“It’s you, is it?” said O’Leary in a strange voice.</p>
+
+<p>Hajek made a sudden movement; O’Leary whirled.</p>
+
+<p>“Stop that!” his voice cracked like a whip. Hajek,
+with a furious glance at the men in the window,
+subsided.</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary turned again, walked to the middle of the
+room and paused, looking from one man to the other
+with a curious expression in his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>“Well,” he said. “I’ve got you both.”</p>
+
+<p>Gainsay started to speak and stopped as the nose
+of one of the revolvers shifted restlessly.</p>
+
+<p>“Put down your hands if you want to, Hajek,” said
+O’Leary easily. “Or—wait a moment.”</p>
+
+<p>He crossed to him, ran his hands quickly over Hajek’s
+pockets, unheeding the fury in those little eyes, extracted
+a small revolver and tossed it on the bed and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>“There you are, Doctor,” he said politely. “You
+may lower your hands, now.”</p>
+
+<p>There was a slight commotion at the window.</p>
+
+<p>“Here’s somebody, Mr. O’Leary,” said someone.
+“He was in the shrubbery and you said not to let
+anybody get away.”</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary peered into the little group at the window,
+then his eyes lightened.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, it’s you, Dr. Balman. You came at just the right
+time. I think we have bagged our birds. Can you come
+through the window, Doctor?”</p>
+
+<p>It was Dr. Balman, sure enough, water running off
+his shoulders and shining in the light as he crawled
+through the window assisted by the policeman.</p>
+
+<p>Once inside the room Dr. Balman looked slowly
+about him.</p>
+
+<p>“What is this? What have you found, O’Leary?”
+His puzzled gaze found the box in Gainsay’s hand. He
+started. “Why—why is that the radium?”</p>
+
+<p>“It may interest you to know, Dr. Balman, that we
+have caught the murderer and thief.”</p>
+
+<p>“What!” cried Dr. Balman. His eyes travelled slowly
+around the room and his voice broke a little as he cried:
+“Not—not Fred Hajek?”</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary’s keenly exultant eyes softened a little.</p>
+
+<p>“Wait,” he said. “There is another in the room.”</p>
+
+<p>Taking a key from his pocket, he crossed lightly to
+the closed door of the further closet, unlocked it and
+swung it open. I took a step forward and cried out
+involuntarily. Instantly I recognized my own purple
+hat, sodden and drenched, and then, cramped in that
+small space, a woman’s huddled figure. It was Corole!</p>
+
+<p>As we stared she glared back at us for a moment.
+Then she rose slowly, struggling with cramped muscles.
+Her eyes, narrow with hate, were fixed on Lance
+O’Leary.</p>
+
+<p>“I’ve been there for hours,” she said in a strange
+voice that was hoarse and strained with fury. She
+stamped her feet to start circulation and flexed her arms
+slowly. Then she pulled my hat from her head, tossed
+it contemptuously out of the way and ran her brown
+hands through her tossed, yellow hair. “You are going
+to suffer for this,” she said. “How dare you force me
+into that closet, lock the door and leave me!” She
+took a tigerish step or two toward O’Leary, her nails
+gleaming suggestively.</p>
+
+<p>“Not so fast, my lady,” interposed O’Brien, who
+had slipped silently through the window. Corole
+shifted her malignant gaze, regarded O’Brien for a
+moment, then slowly and malevolently swept the room.</p>
+
+<p>“So you are here, too?” she said to me. “And Dr.
+Balman. And Jim. Quite a family party.”</p>
+
+<p>“You are right,” agreed O’Leary smoothly. “Quite
+a family party. In fact, we need only one more to make
+our circle complete. Miss Keate, will you please
+summon Miss Day?”</p>
+
+<p>My heart leaped again as I heard the name, and I
+heard Jim Gainsay mutter something that was quickly
+silenced. I opened the door and slid into the corridor;
+there was no need to call Maida, for there she was,
+standing opposite the dark door above which still
+gleamed that ominous red light. She was very white
+but said nothing as I beckoned her inside the room.</p>
+
+<p>At our entrance O’Leary became active. He motioned
+to the available chairs.</p>
+
+<p>“Sit down, Miss Day—Miss Keate. Dr. Balman,
+there is a place on the bed. We may as well make
+ourselves comfortable for I have a story to tell.”</p>
+
+<p>I suppose my eyes went in some anxiety to the precious
+box in Jim Gainsay’s hand that was the cause of
+it all, for O’Leary smiled a bit grimly.</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t be alarmed, Miss Keate. The radium is not
+in that box; I took it immediately to—a safe place.
+The box over there was only a bait.”</p>
+
+<p>With a disgusted exclamation Jim Gainsay dropped
+the box and folded his arms. His eyes sought Maida’s
+but she did not return his gaze.</p>
+
+<p>“Well, Dr. Hajek,” said O’Leary. “It is too bad
+it has turned out this way. I thought better of you.”</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Hajek lifted his lip in something very like a
+snarl but said nothing. Corole made a sudden
+movement which she checked under O’Leary’s regard.</p>
+
+<p>“Are you sure it was Dr. Hajek? Tell me about it,
+O’Leary.” The ring of authority was manifest in Dr.
+Balman’s weary tones.</p>
+
+<p>“In my own way,” promised O’Leary with an apologetic
+glance toward Dr. Balman. “In the first place,
+the superstition which so unpleasantly impressed you,
+Miss Keate, has been fulfilled again.” He paused
+dramatically, and from somewhere in the room came
+a sharp sigh of suspense. “The murderer of Jackson
+<em>was</em> near by when you saw blood flowing from that
+small wound. But he was in—that closet.” He pointed.
+The silence breathed a question that none of us dared
+speak.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” said O’Leary, answering the unspoken
+inquiry. “Yes. It was Dr. Letheny.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Letheny!” cried Jim Gainsay.</p>
+
+<p>“Not—not Dr. Letheny,” faltered Dr. Balman.</p>
+
+<p>“It was Dr. Letheny,” repeated O’Leary quietly.</p>
+
+<p>“I knew it!” cried Corole. “I knew it!”</p>
+
+<p>No one looked at her. Our eyes were without
+exception fastened upon O’Leary’s face.</p>
+
+<p>“How do you know?” I said at last.</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary glanced about the room in indecision, then
+he shrugged.</p>
+
+<p>“As well here as anywhere,” he said. “How did I
+know that it was Letheny? Why did not Higgins rouse
+the place? Because he saw the head doctor in this room.
+Why was there need to hunt for the radium? Because
+that man who hid the stuff was dead; Dr. Letheny,
+disturbed about the ugly business, afraid of being caught
+with it in his possession, hid the thing in the loud
+speaker, thinking no one saw him. And only Higgins
+knew where it was, and Higgins, terrified at what he
+had seen, was afraid to tell for he knew that
+someone—<em>someone</em> had come upon Letheny and killed him and
+Higgins hoped to escape the same fate. And since there
+were—others desiring the radium, a hunt was made
+for it. A search that was finally successful.” His clear
+gray eyes went from Corole to Hajek.</p>
+
+<p>“But just as Dr. Letheny was about to leave the
+room another man came upon the scene, determined
+to take the radium for himself. Then—I don’t know
+exactly what happened but the two men struggled and
+in the struggle Dr. Letheny’s head struck with such
+force that it killed him—<em>this</em>”—he crossed the room
+to the massive, square-cornered lavatory. “I am sure
+of that,” went on O’Leary, “for I examined it before
+a thing in the room had been touched. The other man,
+frightened perhaps, knowing that he was in desperate
+danger of being charged with murder, dragged Dr.
+Letheny’s body into that closet, locked the door and
+got rid of the key, hoping to postpone the discovery
+of Dr. Letheny’s death for as long as possible and thus
+cover his own tracks. But first he found that the radium
+was not to be found and knew that Letheny must have
+hidden it somewhere in the room. He did not dare search
+for it then, he would have to return. He retreated by
+the way he had come, through the window, there,
+and—and crawled through the window of his own room
+in the hospital in time to answer Miss Keate who, by
+that time, was pounding on the door.”</p>
+
+<p>His eyes went to Dr. Hajek, whose face was quite
+ghastly.</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary forestalled the words on Dr. Hajek’s lips.</p>
+
+<p>“Not now,” he said sternly. “You will have plenty
+of time to talk—later.”</p>
+
+<p>“Then—then you feel sure it was Dr. Letheny who
+killed Jackson?” asked Dr. Balman incredulously.</p>
+
+<p>“Positive,” said O’Leary. “As further proof, the
+revolver that belongs to Miss Letheny bears Dr.
+Letheny’s finger prints. Why should he bring a revolver
+to a hospital if his errand was entirely peaceful? He
+wanted the radium, he needed the money—I honestly
+believe that the man wanted the money for research.”
+There was a shade of pity in O’Leary’s voice. “And
+as to the mechanics of the situation, Dr. Letheny must
+have made up his mind quite suddenly to secure the
+radium for his own use; he came to St. Ann’s—I wonder
+what his feelings were when he examined the patient
+whom he was soon to rob, I do not think the murder
+was intentional—then, presumably he left. Outside the
+hospital he accidentally came upon Miss Day and
+detained her for some time—er—seizing her sleeve as
+she attempted to return to the wing, and in so doing
+detached her cuff-link. Is that right, Miss Day?”</p>
+
+<p>Without a word Maida nodded assent but her deep,
+blue eyes shot a glance of gratitude toward the young
+detective.</p>
+
+<p>“Then, determining to carry out his hastily formed
+plan for stealing the radium, he watched his chance
+and while Miss Day was busy in the kitchen and Miss
+Keate was detained for some fifteen minutes
+in—Room 11?”</p>
+
+<p>“Room 11,” I said.</p>
+
+<p>“—he must have slipped along the corridor into
+the drug room and helped himself to morphine tablets
+and hypodermic needle and hurried back, unseen, to
+Room 18. Jackson very likely never knew what happened,
+but Dr. Letheny was safe because, in the first
+place, Jackson was not surprised at the presence of
+his doctor and would have had no occasion to object
+to a hypodermic injection, and furthermore, on waking
+from a drugged sleep, impressions immediately
+preceding that sleep are vague and confused and could
+scarcely be given as evidence. I do not believe that Dr.
+Letheny intended to make the dose fatal; I believe he
+only intended that Jackson should know nothing of the
+radium being removed, but in his natural excitement
+Dr. Letheny either misjudged the dose he was giving
+or the resistive powers of his patient, with the result
+that we know. Dr. Letheny tossed the needle through
+the open window, where it was later found. In the main,
+I believe I am right; there may be slight discrepancies.
+One can’t be absolutely sure when
+both—er—participants are dead.”</p>
+
+<p>There was a moment of tense silence. Then Corole
+spoke.</p>
+
+<p>“So it was Louis,” she said in a tone of ugly
+satisfaction. “I knew it. I knew it all along for I
+watched——” She checked herself.</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary turned sharply.</p>
+
+<p>“Just a moment,” he said coldly. “Your skirts are
+not entirely clear. There is Higgins’s death yet to
+explain, and the theft of the radium.”</p>
+
+<p>“I knew nothing about Higgins’s death,” cried
+Corole.</p>
+
+<p>“Go on, Mr. O’Leary,” begged Dr. Balman. Under
+the light his face looked drawn and aged.</p>
+
+<p>“From that night on the struggle has been for the
+discovery and possession of the radium. It was thought,
+by those who knew of Dr. Letheny’s participation in the
+affair, to be still in Room 18. Hajek was determined
+to find it, even going so far as to steal the key to the
+south door in order to effect an entrance at any time.”</p>
+
+<p>Again Dr. Hajek made an inarticulate murmur which
+O’Leary silenced.</p>
+
+<p>“Becoming impatient at his continued failure to
+locate the radium, Miss Letheny herself, who was
+in—er—in cahoots with Hajek, took a hand in the
+matter. Knowing what had happened in the room and
+being by nature extremely superstitious, she was
+intensely frightened when upon entering Room 18 in the
+middle of the night in order to make a search for the
+radium herself, she saw a sheeted figure on the bed.
+She, too, failed to find the radium.”</p>
+
+<p>“You are perfectly right about that,” said Corole
+brazenly. “But you are wrong about——”</p>
+
+<p>“Then one night Hajek grew desperate; he wanted
+the radium and Corole—that is, Miss Letheny—was
+reproaching him for his continued failure to find the
+radium. He recalled the circumstance of the electric-light
+connection having been damaged by lightning on
+the night of June seventh, decided that that condition
+was a valuable help and, repeated, would aid him in
+making a thorough and prolonged search in Room 18.
+So he went to the basement, disconnected the electric
+current, let himself out the grade door, ran around
+the corner of the hospital, entered the south wing by
+the unlocked south door, for the windows were bolted,
+and was into Room 18 in about a minute and a half
+after he pulled the light switch. Either from reflection
+or because he had exhausted all the other available
+hiding places, he went at once to the loud speaker, which
+by an odd circumstance was the original speaker that
+was in Room 18 the night of the seventh. But Higgins,
+in the basement, saw him and followed him. Higgins
+came upon him in Room 18. As I say, Hajek had at
+last found the radium and at the knowledge of someone
+witnessing his theft he shot wildly in the dark, the
+bullet killing Higgins instantly. Likely Higgins had
+said something, indicated in some way that he knew
+what Hajek was about and what he had taken from
+that loud speaker. I don’t know how it happened that
+Higgins got up courage enough to follow and threaten
+Hajek with exposure, but he evidently did. Hajek,
+frightened at the consequence of his deed, simply acted
+from primitive impulse; if he were caught on his way
+from the hospital the possession of the radium would
+be a distinctly incriminating fact, no matter how he
+tried to explain it away. He had only a few seconds
+in which to act, and he followed Dr. Letheny’s example,
+hiding the radium in the first place that came to hand
+which was—a flower pot. He scooped out the dirt,
+thrust the box into the aperture and the soil in his pocket
+and hurried from the wing, around the hospital, in the
+basement door and to his room—where we found him
+later. He had barely time to get to his room
+unobserved.”</p>
+
+<p>“I didn’t! You are lying! I didn’t!” cried Dr. Hajek,
+his face livid and those glaring eyes going from one to
+the other of us. “I tell you I didn’t!”</p>
+
+<p>At a motion from O’Leary, O’Brien stepped closer
+to Hajek, thrusting the revolver he held close to
+Hajek’s ribs.</p>
+
+<p>“But—but the mud on the window casing,” I began,
+bewildered. “If he used the grade door and came up
+by the basement——”</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary interrupted me.</p>
+
+<p>“Miss Day happened on the radium in the pot of
+lobelias; it was in the corridor where Hajek had placed
+it in his hurry, knowing that Room 18 would be
+thoroughly searched. Miss Keate in the meantime—I think
+we need not go into that. Anyway it came thus to my
+hands for a moment or two before Hajek knocked me
+senseless and took the radium. He had managed, from
+his room off the general office, to hear Miss Keate’s
+announcement and must have watched until she gave
+it to me——”</p>
+
+<p>“I’ll admit to that,” cried Dr. Hajek. “But not to
+that oth——”</p>
+
+<p>“There, there!” O’Brien poked him suggestively and
+Hajek stopped talking.</p>
+
+<p>“But,” began Dr. Balman uncertainly, “I never
+dreamed it was Dr. Hajek. Why he was right there
+with me when we found you, O’Leary, there by the
+stairs. He seemed as astonished as I was.” Dr. Balman
+reached unsteadily for his handkerchief and passed it
+over his forehead. “This is terrible, O’Leary, terrible.”
+His voice shook. “Do you realize that you are accusing
+a doctor of St. Ann’s of unspeakable crimes? That you
+are——”</p>
+
+<p>“Truth is truth.” There was a queer, icy look in
+O’Leary’s gray eyes. “If a doctor of St. Ann’s is guilty,
+he is as guilty as any other man would be.”</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, yes. Yes, I suppose so,” agreed Dr. Balman,
+reluctantly. “But it is no less—terrible.” He shuddered
+visibly.</p>
+
+<p>I found my tongue.</p>
+
+<p>“Then what part has Mr. Gainsay in all this?”</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary eyed me curiously before replying. Then
+he turned to Jim Gainsay.</p>
+
+<p>“Gainsay,” he said slowly, “is a young man who is
+going to get into serious trouble sometime through
+not minding his own business. He is incurably inquisitive
+and has been quite sure that he and he alone could
+solve this mystery.” There was a gleam of mirth back
+of those clear, gray eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Jim straightened up, felt absently in his pocket and
+drew out a pipe, which he held without lighting, the
+policeman at the window watching him with an
+impassive countenance.</p>
+
+<p>Jim sighed.</p>
+
+<p>“I <em>am</em> a fool,” he admitted abruptly. “But, Lord, it
+didn’t seem to me that you were getting anywhere.
+I had to take a hand in it. I thought the first thing to
+do was to find the radium.”</p>
+
+<p>Corole’s slitted eyes flashed green fire.</p>
+
+<p>“You nearly got it, too,” she said viciously. “But I
+got away from you.”</p>
+
+<p>“Where did you hide it when Hajek turned it over
+to you immediately after stealing it from me?” asked
+O’Leary mildly.</p>
+
+<p>Corole’s face was sullen but she replied, taking, I
+think, a certain pleasure in being the centre of the stage
+for a moment.</p>
+
+<p>“I dug a hole under one of the trees out there,” she
+motioned with a long, brown hand, on which the topaz
+shone, toward the orchard. “I left it there all day
+yesterday—I mean, day before yesterday.” She glanced
+at the window, which was beginning to show a dim, gray
+light. “And then that night I got away from you,”
+she looked at O’Brien—“and you”—at Jim, this time—“and
+got it out and brought it here in my jewel case.
+I thought it would be safe in this room and Sarah was
+so excited”—she cast a malicious glance toward
+me—“she never noticed that I came out without my jewel
+case when she so thoughtfully took me to her room and
+<em>locked me in!</em> How did you find it?”</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary did not reply.</p>
+
+<p>“When Miss Letheny returned for the radium about
+eleven o’clock to-night I—er—detained her.” O’Leary
+glanced toward the closet from which she had emerged.
+“I am interested to hear that you admit to having the
+radium in your possession.”</p>
+
+<p>“What can you do about it?” flashed Corole
+insolently. “And you are all wrong about Dr. Hajek. I
+know that he did not shoot Higgins and I know that
+he did not kill Louis for he was with me both times——”</p>
+
+<p>“That will do, Miss Letheny. Or rather, Mrs.
+Hajek.”</p>
+
+<p>Corole started. Her brown hands clutched at the wall
+back of her.</p>
+
+<p>“How did you know that?”</p>
+
+<p>O’Brien cleared his throat self-consciously and at the
+sound Corole whirled to face him.</p>
+
+<p>“I suppose you were following us this afternoon,”
+she said vindictively.</p>
+
+<p>“They were married this afternoon,” said O’Leary.
+“Owing to a conversation overheard by one of
+us”—I daresay it was my turn to look self-conscious—“we
+have reason to think that possibly the bride was
+a bit reluctant, but however that was, they were
+actually married at the courthouse with Mr. O’Brien—near
+at hand. Your own desire to perjure yourself,
+Mrs. Hajek, will not be of any help in the matter, for
+your husband cannot be cleared.”</p>
+
+<p>A strange silence fell; the torrents of rain seemed
+to be lessening slightly and I heard a roll of thunder
+away off in the distance.</p>
+
+<p>I was engaged in going over and over to myself
+O’Leary’s explanations; it did not seem to me that he
+had covered everything, and I was about to inquire
+into certain matters when O’Leary spoke again.</p>
+
+<p>“Is everything clear to you, Dr. Balman?” he asked
+deferentially.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Balman hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>“I don’t know,” he said with a puzzled and worried
+air. “I really don’t know. This is”—he paused to pass
+his hand across his eyes, rubbing the bruise on his
+cheekbone a little as if it itched—“this is a terrible
+responsibility, Mr. O’Leary.”</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary nodded.</p>
+
+<p>“But you are head of St. Ann’s,” said O’Leary. “And
+while the case belongs to the state to prosecute, still
+I should like to feel that you, as head of the institution
+of St. Ann’s—are satisfied with our findings.”</p>
+
+<p>“It doesn’t seem—it doesn’t seem possible,” said Dr.
+Balman.</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary looked obviously irritated, but said with
+restrained impatience:</p>
+
+<p>“Is there anything that I have overlooked, Dr.
+Balman?”</p>
+
+<p>“No. No, I suppose not,” Dr. Balman replied
+uncertainly.</p>
+
+<p>“Perhaps I have not made myself perfectly clear,”
+said O’Leary, still patiently. “Let’s begin at the
+beginning again, Dr. Balman, and piece things out in their
+logical order. I want to be sure that it is all clear
+to you.”</p>
+
+<p>“No, no! That will not be necessary.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” insisted O’Leary. “You being head of St.
+Ann’s, Doctor, should be given every scrap of
+information in my power to give.”</p>
+
+<p>“No, no!” said Dr. Balman. “It is very painful to
+me. And anyway, I think I understand. Dr. Hajek got
+into Room 18, just after Dr. Letheny had hidden the
+radium. Isn’t that it?”</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary nodded and there was a quickly subdued
+growl of dissent from Dr. Hajek.</p>
+
+<p>“The two men struggled then, and Dr. Letheny was
+killed in the struggle?”</p>
+
+<p>Again O’Leary nodded.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes, I think I understand. Still it doesn’t seem
+possible.” Dr. Balman regarded Dr. Hajek doubtfully.</p>
+
+<p>“No,” said Lance O’Leary slowly. “It does seem
+strange that Miss Keate should hear nothing of it.”</p>
+
+<p>“I believe she did hear something of it,” said Dr.
+Balman, his distressed countenance turning to me. I
+made some gesture of assent.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” said O’Leary. “For don’t you remember that
+she came down to the end of the corridor——” He left
+his sentence hanging in the air, and as he spoke he moved
+his hand slightly and I was faintly surprised to see little
+beads of sweat glistening on the back of it, though the
+night was cool. His face was quiet and composed as usual.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, yes,” said Dr. Balman. “I remember now.
+Strange she saw or heard nothing of all this when she
+opened the door of Room 18 and stood there for a
+moment.”</p>
+
+<p>Queer how silent the room was. No one seemed to
+breathe.</p>
+
+<p>Then Lance O’Leary’s voice broke the silence; it
+was tight and strange and shook a little.</p>
+
+<p>“<em>Only the murderer could know that!</em>” He shot a
+glance at O’Brien. “Quick!” The last word was like
+the sharp lash of a whip.</p>
+
+<p>I was never sure just what happened then. There
+was a scream as Corole flung herself upon Dr. Hajek.
+There was another struggle going on somewhere else.
+Figures blurred in rapid motion—there were outcries—I
+found myself clutching at Maida—Jim Gainsay’s
+tall figure flashed before our eyes.</p>
+
+<p>Then O’Leary’s tense voice commanded the
+situation.</p>
+
+<p>“Right, O’Brien!” he said sharply.</p>
+
+<p>Then the room seemed to clear; things resumed their
+normal dimensions.</p>
+
+<p>I stared and rubbed my eyes and stared again.</p>
+
+<p>Then my knees weakened under me and I think I
+screamed.</p>
+
+<p>The handcuffs glittered coldly on Dr. Balman’s
+wrists.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="chapter" id="ch18">
+
+<h2>18. O’Leary Revises His Story</h2>
+
+<p>It was fitting that the thing should end as it had begun,
+in Room 18.</p>
+
+<p>I have only a dazed and chaotic memory of them
+taking Dr. Balman away. Of Corole and Fred Hajek
+going under guard. Of myself sitting numbly in Room
+18, with Maida beside me gripping my hand, until
+O’Leary returned. Jim accompanied him.</p>
+
+<p>I think it was seeing Jim sit down on the white bed
+with his coat still wet with rain, and noting the marks
+of muddy shoes and wet coats on the once white
+counterpane, that aroused me to a sense of reality.</p>
+
+<p>It was dawn by that time. The electric light was
+paling and growing sickly under the gray streaks of
+daybreak at the windows, and I recall a vague little
+feeling of amazement when the thin rays of washed-out
+sunlight began to find their way into the room.
+Sunlight after a week of rain!</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary, entering the room, had closed the door and
+crossed to the radiator and sunk wearily down upon
+it. He appeared worn and enormously tired, with no
+shred of the jubilance I should have expected.</p>
+
+<p>“Well,” my voice quavered a little as I spoke.
+“Well—you have succeeded.”</p>
+
+<p>“Yes. I’ve got my man.”</p>
+
+<p>“You don’t seem to be rejoicing about it.”</p>
+
+<p>“I am not,” said Lance O’Leary flatly. “That is,
+don’t misunderstand me—I am glad that I have done
+my duty. But I am sorry to see a man, a brilliant
+scientist, a scholar, a useful surgeon—go wrong. Dr.
+Balman has actually given his life—mistakenly of course,
+for his science. He wanted the radium, he needed the
+money it would bring. For the rest he was, as much as
+anything, a victim of circumstance. It is a sad
+thing—yet just.”</p>
+
+<p>“Dr. Balman was a wicked man,” I said. Odd how
+we were speaking of him in the past tense.</p>
+
+<p>“Yes,” agreed O’Leary. “But Dr. Letheny was
+equally culpable. Strange how a man can devote his life
+to a woman or—a career. Well,” he broke off, shrugging,
+“there’s no use philosophizing. Don’t mind my
+low spirits. I should feel much lower if I had failed.”</p>
+
+<p>“I didn’t know what you were doing until Dr. Balman
+said: ‘When she opened the door.’ Then I began
+to have a premonition, for I recalled the request you
+made at the first inquest.”</p>
+
+<p>“What was that?” asked Jim.</p>
+
+<p>“I asked Miss Keate not to mention the fact that
+when she came down the corridor after hearing the
+sound that she thought was a door closing and was
+actually——”</p>
+
+<p>“Don’t!” I interrupted with a shudder.</p>
+
+<p>“—was actually something else, she came to the door
+of Eighteen and opened it and stood there for a few
+seconds listening.”</p>
+
+<p>“Why? Did she hear something? Or see anything?”</p>
+
+<p>“No. But I reasoned that the guilty man must have
+still been in Room 18. It had not been a moment since
+the sound of the blow that—the blow that killed Dr.
+Letheny, and I knew that the man who did it could
+not have dragged Dr. Letheny’s body to the closet,
+locked the door, and made his escape before Miss Keate
+got to the door of Eighteen. Hence I knew that only
+the guilty man <em>knew what she had done</em>.”</p>
+
+<p>“Did you plan that far ahead? Did you know you
+could work him to admit that knowledge?” cried Jim
+in honest amazement.</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary shook his head, smiling ruefully.</p>
+
+<p>“No. I am but human. But I plan to take every
+chance. Hoard every possible bit of evidence. That was
+small but conclusive.”</p>
+
+<p>“Is that the only proof you have against Dr.
+Balman?” asked Jim.</p>
+
+<p>“No. I have others. But I wasn’t quite satisfied. You
+see, I let Balman know that the radium was in this
+room and would be guarded all day but not at night
+because I intended to remove it then. Miss Keate helped
+me there. Dr. Balman was on the other side of the door
+in the garage this morning—or rather yesterday
+morning,” explained O’Leary to me. “Of course, I had
+actually removed the radium at once and substituted a
+dummy box. I expected Balman would try to secure
+it in the dark of night and hoped to catch him
+red-handed. But instead—you, Gainsay, nearly spoiled the
+works for me. You have been a good deal of trouble,
+one way and another,” he interpolated, with a glance
+that held nothing humorous. “However, I know the
+reason for your—er—meddling.” O’Leary smiled
+openly at Maida; it was that extraordinary winning
+smile that he reserved for certain occasions and Maida
+smiled, too. “I can’t say that I blame you for that.
+Though if you had advised her to tell of the cuff link
+business in the first place——”</p>
+
+<p>“That cuff link!” murmured Maida with contrition.
+“I am sorry. I should have explained it immediately.
+But it—would have meant such publicity. It was so
+disagreeable.” She flushed pinkly and Jim’s heart was
+in his steady eyes fastened upon her.</p>
+
+<p>“But what else do you have against Dr. Balman?”
+I inquired hastily, for once uninterested in matters of
+the tender sentiment.</p>
+
+<p>“The story that I told here to-night is, in the main
+part, true if you simply change the name of Hajek to
+Balman. For the points against Balman——” he
+checked off the items on his fingers. “First, finger prints
+on that revolver of Corole’s. Dr. Letheny’s and those
+of Dr. Balman were very clear. It was some time before
+I could get a good print of Balman’s, though I had
+those of everyone else connected with the case. Then
+there was the fact that he <em>asked</em> to have this low
+window bolted and the request came simultaneously with
+the disappearance of the key to the south door; having
+provided himself with a mode of entrance he was
+anxious to keep others out of the room that held the
+radium. Then there was the matter of the ether that
+you smelled, Miss Keate, the ether that Higgins said
+was somewhere about the coat that was left there just
+outside the window of Eighteen, and that you found
+on a handkerchief in the pocket of that yellow slicker.
+I found on investigation that the only person seen to
+leave St. Ann’s that Friday evening just at dinner time
+was Dr. Balman and that he wore a yellow slicker.
+That was not conclusive, for he might have borrowed
+it as Miss Keate did. But yesterday morning I found
+in the side pocket of his car a small empty bottle and
+a sponge that still had a lingering trace of that very
+clinging odour.”</p>
+
+<p>“But why ether?” said Jim.</p>
+
+<p>“He had evidently intended to anesthetize Mr. Jackson,
+steal the radium while the patient was unconscious
+and get away. But when after waiting about the grounds
+for some time until he thought the coast was clear he
+finally got into Room 18, he found another man in
+the room, the radium gone and his patient dead. The
+next thing for me to do was to break what appeared
+to be an alibi. I did so when I found that there was
+a freight elevator at the back of the apartment house
+in which Balman lived. He knew how to operate it
+and must have taken precautions to leave by way of
+the freight elevator and the basement so that the night
+man in the front of the house never dreamed that
+Balman had gone out again. He returned the same way
+and must have got there just in time to answer the
+telephone. It was his car that left along the lower road
+just as the storm broke, Miss Keate.”</p>
+
+<p>“He must have driven like mad,” I speculated.</p>
+
+<p>“Think what he left behind him,” said O’Leary
+grimly. “He knew, too, that at any moment the alarm
+might come and his presence would be needed at the
+hospital. He must be in his rooms when the call came.”</p>
+
+<p>“All put together those things are almost—positive
+proof,” said Jim.</p>
+
+<p>“Almost,” agreed O’Leary. “But I wanted to trap
+him into a final admission. To catch him in the act of
+making off with the radium. And there I failed. When
+you turned on the light here to-night, Miss Keate, and
+I saw only Hajek and Gainsay, I was sure that I had
+failed. But when Dr. Balman came on the scene I began
+to see my way clear. I caused Hajek considerable
+anguish of soul but he deserved it. What on earth did
+you come blundering around for, Gainsay?”</p>
+
+<p>Jim looked uncomfortable.</p>
+
+<p>“Why, you see, O’Leary, I saw Corole come into the
+south door of St. Ann’s last night and watched through
+the pane of glass. I had nearly caught her and I was
+convinced that she had the radium in her jewel case.
+I could barely see in the hospital corridor through that
+door, but I saw that she left the jewel case in Room 18.
+So I figured that she likely thought Room 18 a safe
+place in which to leave the stuff. Thinking it over during
+the day, I came to the conclusion that it would be a fine
+thing to recover the radium myself.” He laughed rather
+shamefacedly. “I—didn’t think much of you, O’Leary.
+And I was worried about Miss Day, too. And
+well—I just made an ass of myself generally.”</p>
+
+<p>“You did,” said O’Leary. “You did. You had better
+stick to bridges after this, Mr. Gainsay.”</p>
+
+<p>“You are right,” said Jim heartily. “But I can’t say
+that I regret having been here. And I still hope that
+I have not failed—at one thing I have undertaken.”
+His eyes were on Maida and she turned entirely
+crimson and O’Leary laughed boyishly.</p>
+
+<p>I sighed; time enough for romance when this thing
+was all clear to me.</p>
+
+<p>“Mr. O’Leary,” I said, “can you prove all this?”</p>
+
+<p>He sobered instantly.</p>
+
+<p>“The only thing that is supposition—or rather based
+solely upon reason, is Dr. Letheny’s part in the
+business, and even there, we know that only certain events
+could have taken place. As for the rest of it, change
+Hajek’s name to Balman’s and—there it is.”</p>
+
+<p>And I may as well say here and now that Dr. Balman
+confessed to the whole thing, and the only point
+on which O’Leary was mistaken was this: it was Dr.
+Hajek who took the key from its place above the chart
+desk on that Sunday night when Maida and I were so
+frightened. He had slipped out his window with the
+key, but when he heard us coming he fled from Room
+18, around St. Ann’s to his room, through the window
+again, through the corridor from the main part of the
+hospital to the south wing, tossed the key on the desk
+and hurried back to his own room.</p>
+
+<p>“Then that arraignment of Hajek was entirely
+fictitious?” asked Jim.</p>
+
+<p>“Not entirely. He was actually out of the hospital
+and in the orchard the night Higgins was shot and at
+the sound of the commotion he hurried back to his
+room. But he had gone to meet Corole; they were, of
+course, determined to get the radium and were
+conspiring together at every opportunity. And on the
+night of the seventh he and Corole were in the
+orchard. Their story of seeing a man crawl through
+the window of Eighteen and waiting to catch him when
+he emerged is not true, for only Higgins knew of
+Balman’s entrance and he did not know who the man was.
+But Corole and Hajek knew enough of Dr. Letheny’s
+entrance into St. Ann’s to make them sure that, when
+he was found dead, the radium must still be in the room.
+For they had listened at the window of Room 18—don’t
+forget the gold sequin. Oh, yes. Hajek and Corole
+were determined to get that radium and it <em>was</em> Hajek
+who knocked me senseless there in the hall. That much
+of my story was true. I saw that the only way to get
+Balman was to put him off his guard. I was not sure
+that I could—pull it off; I was afraid my very voice
+would betray me, that I’d be too eager, too insistent,
+clumsy, blundering. The least thing would have warned
+Dr. Balman. I had to get him to talking of it, and he,
+not yet having descended so low as to want to send
+someone else to prison for his deed, was willing to
+temporize, ask questions, attempt to think of something
+that would clear Dr. Hajek, without at the same time
+incriminating himself. He was trying to think fast of
+such possibilities.” O’Leary smoothed back his hair and
+straightened his impeccable tie. “Those few moments
+were a strain.”</p>
+
+<p>“Suppose he had just kept silent, had said nothing
+at all?” I suggested curiously.</p>
+
+<p>“Oh, I knew he would talk. He had a guilty
+conscience, you know. It wouldn’t have been human to
+refuse to talk. He knew his own guilt and hence would
+try to appear innocent. He was bewildered, too, and
+was never a practical, quick-thinking man. It was a
+chance but not a risk.”</p>
+
+<p>There was a long silence. Away down the hall I
+heard the faint, muffled sound of the breakfast bell.
+With that I roused myself and thought for the first
+time of the wing. I rose, picked up my ruined hat, and
+at the door stopped to look back on that room.</p>
+
+<p>Room 18! What it had held! What it had witnessed!</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary followed me from the room, Maida and
+Jim, too. Once in the corridor I found that the small,
+red signal light was still gleaming dully. I returned to
+Room 18, pulled the light cord, mechanically
+straightened the bed, and closed the window.</p>
+
+<p>Maida and Jim had disappeared when I returned
+to the corridor. O’Leary was standing at the south
+door, looking through the glass with an amused twinkle
+in his clear gray eyes. Following his glance I saw
+Maida’s white uniform and Jim’s tweed coat vanishing
+along the once more sunny orchard path.</p>
+
+<p>“Young idiots,” I murmured. “And before
+breakfast, too.”</p>
+
+<p>The path recalled to me the Letheny cottage at its
+other end.</p>
+
+<p>“What about Corole and Hajek?” I asked.</p>
+
+<p>“They were after the radium,” said O’Leary hesitantly.
+“But after all, I think the best thing to do is
+to get rid of Hajek and let them leave.”</p>
+
+<p>“This means reorganization, new doctors, new
+methods—everything.”</p>
+
+<p>O’Leary nodded.</p>
+
+<p>“How true it is,” he said thoughtfully, “that even
+in one of the noblest professions there are scoundrels.”</p>
+
+<p>“But the proportion is much smaller,” I said loyally.
+“You’ll find a hundred defaulting bankers for one
+doctor who is untrue to his trust.”</p>
+
+<p>He smiled at the warmth of my defence.</p>
+
+<p>“You are recovering yourself, Miss Keate. That
+last remark was quite in your normal manner.”</p>
+
+<p>And at that Olma Flynn tugged my sleeve.</p>
+
+<p>“Will you O. K. the charts, Miss Keate?” Her eyes
+were round with curiosity and she cast a speculative
+glance toward Room 18.</p>
+
+<p>Well, that is about all.</p>
+
+<p>The staff doctors met that morning, and the board
+of directors, and were most generous in their
+assistance. It was not long before we were fully equipped
+with resident doctors and reorganized.</p>
+
+<p>Our new head doctor has a wife of Anglo-Saxon
+ancestry who has filled the cottage with chintz-covered
+furniture and muslin curtains and likes to head
+committees. She has a nosy disposition and we don’t get
+along well. We have two new internes, too;
+fresh-cheeked boys whom Miss Dotty pets something
+scandalous.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Balman developed an infection in the bruise on
+his cheek and lived only a short while. Corole and
+Hajek disappeared and have not been heard of since,
+though lately a report came to me that a woman much
+resembling Corole and dressed very beautifully had
+been seen at a European pleasure resort where she
+made large sums of money gambling. I judged that
+Corole was falling into soft spots as usual,
+unhampered by a conscience.</p>
+
+<p>Maida and Jim left for Russia very soon after the
+events that I have herein recorded took place. I hear
+from them every so often, long letters full of news and
+snapshots.</p>
+
+<p>I see Lance O’Leary once in a while, too, and indeed,
+have given him some slight help on a case or two.</p>
+
+<p>But for the most part I am still at St. Ann’s, going
+about my business as usual, save that I miss a pair of
+steel-blue eyes.</p>
+
+<p>And I avoid the closed, mysterious door of Room 18.</p>
+
+<p class="finis">The End</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<hr class="x-ebookmaker-drop">
+
+<div class="section" id="transcriber">
+
+<h2>Transcriber’s Notes</h2>
+
+<p>This transcription follows the text of the US Doubleday edition
+published in 1929. However, the following alterations have been made
+to correct what are believed to be unambiguous errors in the text:</p>
+
+<ul>
+  <li>“breathlessnes” has been corrected to “breathlessness” (Chapter 1);</li>
+  <li>“unpholstered” has been corrected to “upholstered” (Chapter 6);</li>
+  <li>“yould” has been corrected to “would” (Chapter 11);</li>
+  <li>“ummoved” has been corrected to “unmoved” (Chapter 14);</li>
+  <li>“into diet kitchen” has been corrected to “into the diet kitchen”
+      (Chapter 15);</li>
+  <li>A sentence missing a closing parenthesis has been repaired.</li>
+</ul>
+
+<p>New original cover art included with this eBook is granted to the
+public domain.</p>
+
+</div>
+
+<div style='text-align:center'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 75384 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #75384 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75384)