"No, and----"
"Wait! She wept all the way down in the elevator; I saw her myself! She wept so violently when she reached the street that an officer approached her--and she fled from him and disappeared."
It was high time to say something and to say it well. Dignity had always served Anthony, and while it was an effort he eyed Hobart Hitchin coldly.
"Hitchin," said he, "it would be quite possible, believe me, to soothe your feverish mind by telling you the perfectly simple errand on which that girl came, but I"m d.a.m.ned if I"ll do it! Some things are too ridiculous, and you"re one of them. If there are any further questions you wish to ask about my personal affairs, will you please leave them unasked? And if there are other things over which you wish to rave, don"t let me detain you here."
He fastened his best majestic gaze on Hobart Hitchin, yet Hitchin only laughed his low, sinister laugh.
"You"re a curious customer, Fry," he said, leaning back comfortably. "I had hoped before this that your nerve would have broken and--however, listen to this little theory of mine. The boy knew something, I can"t say what, about _you_, something which had to be suppressed at any cost.
You brought him here, I can"t say on what pretext, but the boy fancied that all was well. Perhaps you promised him money; I"m inclined to believe that, for the girl came, evidently by appointment, ready to travel. Doesn"t take much deduction to guess that they were going to be married with the money you gave him, does it? She came and she saw what happened, and then----"
"Well, what had happened?" Anthony almost shouted.
"That"s what I"m waiting for you to tell me, so that I can give you a helping hand," said the crime student. "And while I"m waiting, and while you"re still plainly convinced that I know nothing at all, let me ask you one question again: did the Prentiss boy leave here with the clothes he wore when he entered?"
"Yes!" Anthony said wearily.
With a sudden startling slap, the fat brief-case was placed upon the table and its straps undone. And there was another slap and Hobart Hitchin cried:
"Then explain these, Fry! Explain _these_!"
There can be no denying that Anthony"s mouth opened and that his eyes grew rounder. Before him, spread upon the table, lay David"s trousers!
"Well, those--those----" he stammered. "Where did you get them?"
"From the dumbwaiter, where you placed them so very quietly, so very cautiously, so very early this morning!" said Hobart Hitchin, with his devilish laugh. "You even went so far as to run the thing down, so that it would be emptied at once, didn"t you? But you _didn"t_ happen to look down! You didn"t see me take the whole suit from the dumbwaiter as it pa.s.sed my door."
He leaned back triumphantly and puffed his pipe and for a little there was a thick tangible silence in Anthony"s living-room.
More than once, like most of us, Johnson Boller had wondered just what he would do if accused of a murder of which he was entirely innocent. In a fond and confident way he had pictured himself sneering at the captain of police, impressing him despite himself as Johnson Boller not only established his alibi in a few crisp sentences, but also directed the stupid detective force toward the true criminal.
At present, however, he discovered that he was downright scared. Unless one of them rose up and told about Mary and then called her in to verify the truth, it seemed that Hobart Hitchin, idiot though he might be, had established something of a case. And instead of sneering, Johnson Boller grew redder and redder, until Hitchin said:
"Ah, you know all about it, eh? I had wondered!"
"Well, cut out your wondering!" Johnson Boller said roughly.
"Because----"
"I wouldn"t talk now, if I were you," said Hitchin, kindly enough. "I"m devoting myself to Fry. Well, Fry?"
As yet Anthony had not found the proper line of speech.
"The boy, a stranger, comes here at midnight," Hitchin purred relentlessly. "There is a heavy fall at two. There is weeping before seven, the weeping of a strange woman. There are the boy"s clothes--the rest of them are downstairs. So, once more--_where is David Prentiss_?"
He waited, and Anthony Fry drew a long breath. All his life he had been painfully addicted to the truth; it was part of his cherished and spotless reputation. All his life he had shunned fiction, and was therefore ignorant of plot technique. So he did fairly well in smiling sourly and saying, calmly enough:
"So far as I know, David is about starting for his work, Hitchin. The thing had slipped my mind altogether, but I remember now that the boy took a suit--a blue suit--for himself and changed into it while here.
That outfit was decidedly shabby. After that he left, and as to the French girl, you may theorize and be hanged, for she happens to be none of your infernal business, and she has no connection with David."
"None, eh?"
"None whatever!"
Mr. Hitchin grinned without humor and examined the trousers in silence, thinking, and later humming to himself. He smoothed them out and then folded them carefully, finally replacing them in his brief case. After that he looked at Anthony.
"If I were you, Fry, I should tell the truth, and let me help you. You know, and I know, that the boy never left this apartment. Well?"
"Well?" snapped Anthony.
"And you know and I know that what remains of him is still here, and----"
"Are you accusing me of murder?" Anthony demanded savagely.
"I have been doing that for some time."
"Hitchin, you"re the most utter a.s.s that ever breathed! You----"
"Doubtless, but at the same time murder is murder, and murder will out, Fry!" the extraordinary crime student said steadily, as he arose, "Now hear me quietly. I shall do nothing--you understand, _nothing_--until afternoon, unless circ.u.mstances render action imperative. You know where we stand; I know where we stand. I want to help you, to come to the unfortunate end quietly if nothing else. I shall be in my apartment all morning. Think it over. Talk it over with Boller. Then, when you have decided that you need help, come and see me." He took up his case and faced Anthony squarely. "At least I can see that you obtain a privilege or two in the local prison," he concluded. "Good-by."
"Good Lord!" breathed Anthony Fry.
"And in going," said Hobart Hitchin, "let me leave just one caution behind me, Fry. Have nothing shipped from this apartment until we have talked again!"
Then Mr. Hitchin, courageously turning his back upon the pair, moved out of the flat, leaving Johnson Boller and his oldest friend in a state of partial paralysis. Anthony recovered in perhaps three seconds.
"That--that infernal idiot!" said Anthony. "Why, the lunatic asylums have saner people in strait-jackets!"
"Maybe they have," Johnson Boller said hoa.r.s.ely, "but all the same, many a good man has sat in the electric chair on the strength of circ.u.mstantial evidence not nearly so good as he made out!"
"Well, are you afraid of sitting there?" Anthony snapped.
Johnson Boller mopped his brow.
"Maybe not," he said. "But with the things he"s pieced together he can go to the police and have "em around here in ten minutes! That son-of-a-gun can have you and me locked up without bail, and--_that"d_ be nice, huh?"
"He can do nothing of the sort!"
"He can unless you show him a David Prentiss!" Mr. Boller urged. "He can unless we have the girl out and tell him the truth and have her corroborate it! Are you going to do that?"
Anthony Fry hugged his head for an instant; it was really aching now.
"No!" he said.
"It"s better than being jugged, Anthony," suggested Johnson Boller. "You know, I"ve got some reputation as well as you, and--say, what did you mean by introducing her as my wife?"
"Was there anything else to do?"
"Why not as your sister?"