Part + 

III + 

Quesada + 

XIII + 

The Cliff Road + 

Eric Collinson wired me from Quesada: + 

Come immediately stop need you stop trouble danger stop meet me at Sunset Hotel stop do not communicate stop Gabrielle must not know stop hurry + 

The telegram came to the agency on Friday morning. + 

I wasnтАЩt in San Francisco that morning. I was up in Martinez dickering with a divorced wife of Phil Leach, alias a lot of names. We wanted him for spreading reams of orphan paper through the Northwest, and we wanted him badly. This ex-wifeтБатАФa sweet-looking little blonde telephone operatorтБатАФhad a fairly recent photograph of Phil, and was willing to sell it. + 

тАЬHe never thought enough of me to risk passing any bum checks so I could have things,тАЭ she complained. тАЬI had to bring in my own share of the nut. So why shouldnтАЩt I make something out of him now, when I guess some trampтАЩs getting plenty? Now how much will you give for it?тАЭ + 

She had an exaggerated idea of how much the photograph was worth to us, of course, but I finally made the deal with her. But it was after six when I returned to the city, too late for a train that would put me in Quesada that night. I packed a bag, got my car from the garage, and drove down. + 

Quesada was a one-hotel town pasted on the rocky side of a young mountain that sloped into the Pacific Ocean some eighty miles from San Francisco. QuesadaтАЩs beach was too abrupt and hard and jagged for bathing, so Quesada had never got much summer-resort money. For a while it had been a hustling rum-running port, but that racket was dead now: bootleggers had learned there was more profit and less worry in handling domestic hooch than imported. Quesada had gone back to sleep. + 

I got there at eleven-something that night, garaged my car, and crossed the street to the Sunset Hotel. It was a low, sprawled-out, yellow building. The night clerk was alone in the lobby, a small effeminate man well past sixty who went to a lot of trouble to show me that his fingernails were rosy and shiny. + 

When he had read my name on the register he gave me a sealed envelopeтБатАФhotel stationeryтБатАФaddressed to me in Eric CollinsonтАЩs handwriting. I tore it open and read: + 

Do not leave the hotel until I have seen you. + 

тАЬHow long has this been here?тАЭ I asked. + 

тАЬSince about eight oтАЩclock. Mr.┬аCarter waited for you for more than an hour, until after the last stage came in from the railroad.тАЭ + 

тАЬHe isnтАЩt staying here?тАЭ + 

тАЬOh, dear, no. He and his bride have got the Tooker place, down in the cove.тАЭ + 

Collinson wasnтАЩt the sort of person to whose instructions IтАЩd pay a whole lot of attention. I asked: + 

тАЬHow do you get there?тАЭ + 

тАЬYouтАЩd never be able to find it at night,тАЭ the clerk assured me, тАЬunless you went all the way around by the East road, and not then, IтАЩm sure, unless you knew the country.тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah? How do you get there in the daytime?тАЭ + 

тАЬYou go down this street to the end, take the fork of the road on the ocean side, and follow that up along the cliff. It isnтАЩt really a road, more of a path. ItтАЩs about three miles to the house, a brown house, shingled all over, on a little hill. ItтАЩs easily enough found in the daytime if you remember to keep to the right, to the ocean side, all the way down. But youтАЩd never, never in the world, be able to findтБатАФтАЭ + 

тАЬThanks,тАЭ I said, not wanting to hear the story all over again. + 

He led me up to a room, promised to call me at five, and I was asleep by midnight. + 

The morning was dull, ugly, foggy, and cold when I climbed out of bed to say, тАЬAll right, thanks,тАЭ into the phone. It hadnтАЩt improved much by the time I had got dressed and gone downstairs. The clerk said there was not a chance in the world of getting anything to eat in Quesada before seven oтАЩclock. + 

I went out of the hotel, down the street until it became a dirt road, kept to the dirt road until it forked, and turned into the branch that bent toward the ocean. This branch was never really a road from its beginning, and soon was nothing but a rocky path climbing along the side of a rocky ledge that kept pushing closer to the waterтАЩs edge. The side of the ledge became steeper and steeper, until the path was simply an irregular shelf on the face of a cliffтБатАФa shelf eight or ten feet wide in places, no more than four or five in others. Above and behind the path, the cliff rose sixty or seventy feet; below and in front, it slanted down a hundred or more to ravel out in the ocean. A breeze from the general direction of China was pushing fog over the top of the cliff, making noisy lather of seawater at its bottom. + 

Rounding a corner where the cliff was steepestтБатАФwas, in fact, for a hundred yards or so, straight up and downтБатАФI stopped to look at a small ragged hole in the pathтАЩs outer rim. The hole was perhaps six inches across, with fresh loose earth piled in a little semicircular mound on one side, scattered on the other. It wasnтАЩt exciting to look at, but it said plainly to even such a city man as I was: here a bush was uprooted not so long ago. + 

There was no uprooted bush in sight. I chucked my cigarette away and got down on hands and knees, putting my head out over the pathтАЩs rim, looking down. I saw the bush twenty feet below. It was perched on the top of a stunted tree that grew almost parallel to the cliff, fresh brown earth sticking to the bushтАЩs roots. The next thing that caught my eye was also brownтБатАФa soft hat lying upside down between two pointed gray rocks, halfway down to the water. I looked at the bottom of the cliff and saw the feet and legs. + 

They were a manтАЩs feet and legs, in black shoes and dark trousers. The feet lay on the top of a water-smoothed boulder, lay on their sides, six inches apart, both pointing to the left. From the feet, dark-trousered legs slanted down into the water, disappearing beneath the surface a few inches above the knees. That was all I could see from the cliff road. + 

I went down the cliff, though not at that point. It was a lot too steep there to be tackled by a middle-aged fat man. A couple of hundred yards back, the path had crossed a crooked ravine that creased the cliff diagonally from top to bottom. I returned to the ravine and went down it, stumbling, sliding, sweating and swearing, but reaching the bottom all in one piece, with nothing more serious the matter with me than torn fingers, dirty clothes, and ruined shoes. + 

The fringe of rock that lay between cliff and ocean wasnтАЩt meant to be walked on, but I managed to travel over it most of the way, having to wade only once or twice, and then not up to my knees. But when I came to the spot where the feet and legs were I had to go waist-deep into the Pacific to lift the body, which rested on its back on the worn slanting side of a mostly submerged boulder, covered from thighs up by frothing water. I got my hands under the armpits, found solid ground for my feet, and lifted. + 

It was Eric CollinsonтАЩs body. Bones showed through flesh and clothing on his shattered back. The back of his headтБатАФthat half of itтБатАФwas crushed. I dragged him out of the water and put him down on dry rocks. His dripping pockets contained a hundred and fifty-four dollars and eighty-two cents, a watch, a knife, a gold pen and pencil, papers, a couple of letters, and a memoranda book. I spread out the papers, letters, and book; and read them; and learned nothing except that what was written in them hadnтАЩt anything to do with his death. I couldnтАЩt find anything elseтБатАФon him or near himтБатАФto tell me more about his death than the uprooted bush, the hat caught between rocks, and the position of his body had told me. + 

I left him there and went back to the ravine, panting and heaving myself up it to the cliff path, returning to where the bush had grown. I didnтАЩt find anything there in the way of significant marks, footprints, or the like. The path was chiefly hard rock. I went on along it. Presently the cliff began to bend away from the ocean, lowering the path along its side. After another half-mile there was no cliff at all, merely a bush-grown ridge at whose foot the path ran. There was no sun yet. My pants stuck disagreeably to my chilly legs. Water squinched in my torn shoes. I hadnтАЩt had any breakfast. My cigarettes had got wet. My left knee ached from a twist it had got sliding down the ravine. I cursed the detective business and slopped on along the path. + 

The path took me away from the sea for a while, across the neck of a wooded point that pushed the ocean back, down into a small valley, up the side of a low hill; and then I saw the house the night clerk had described. + 

It was a rather large two-story building, roof and walls brown-shingled, set on a hump in the ground close to where the ocean came in to take a quarter-mile u-shaped bite out of the coast. The house faced the water. I was behind it. There was nobody in sight. The ground-floor windows were closed, with drawn blinds. The second-story windows were open. Off to one side were some smaller farm buildings. + 

I went around to the front of the house. Wicker chairs and a table were on the screened front porch. The screened porch-door was hooked on the inside. I rattled it noisily. I rattled it off and on for at least five minutes, and got no response. I went around to the rear again, and knocked on the back door. My knocking knuckles pushed the door open half a foot. Inside was a dark kitchen and silence. I opened the door wider, knocking on it again, loudly. More silence. + 

I called: тАЬMrs.┬аCollinson.тАЭ + 

When no answer came I went through the kitchen and a darker dining-room, found a flight of stairs, climbed them, and began poking my head into rooms. + 

There was nobody in the house. + 

In one bedroom, a .38 automatic pistol lay in the center of the floor. There was an empty shell close to it, another under a chair across the room, and a faint odor of burnt gunpowder in the air. In one corner of the ceiling was a hole that a .38 bullet could have made, and, under it on the floor, a few crumbs of plaster. The bedclothes were smooth and undisturbed. Clothes in the closet, things on and in table and bureau, told me this was Eric CollinsonтАЩs bedroom. + 

Next to it, according to the same sort of evidence, was GabrielleтАЩs bedroom. Her bed had not been slept in, or had been made since being slept in. On the floor of her closet I found a black satin dress, a once-white handkerchief, and a pair of black suede slippers, all wet and muddyтБатАФthe handkerchief also wet with blood. In her bathroomтБатАФin the tubтБатАФwere a bath-towel and a face-towel, both stained with mud and blood, and still damp. On her dressing-table was a small piece of thick white paper that had been folded. White powder clung to one crease. I touched it with the end of my tongueтБатАФmorphine. + 

I went back to Quesada, changed my shoes and socks, got breakfast and a supply of dry cigarettes, and asked the clerkтБатАФa dapper boy, this oneтБатАФwho was responsible for law and order there. + 

тАЬThe marshalтАЩs Dick Cotton,тАЭ he told me; тАЬbut he went up to the city last night. Ben RollyтАЩs deputy sheriff. You can likely find him over at his old manтАЩs office.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhereтАЩs that?тАЭ + 

тАЬNext door to the garage.тАЭ + 

I found it, a one-story red brick building with wide glass windows labeled тАЬJ. King Rolly, Real Estate, Mortgages, Loans, Stocks and Bonds, Insurance, Notes, Employment Agency, Notary Public, Moving and Storage,тАЭ and a lot more that IтАЩve forgotten. + 

Two men were inside, sitting with their feet on a battered desk behind a battered counter. One was a man of fifty-and, with hair, eyes, and skin of indefinite, washed-out tan shadesтБатАФan amiable, aimless-looking man in shabby clothes. The other was twenty years younger and in twenty years would look just like him. + 

тАЬIтАЩm hunting,тАЭ I said, тАЬfor the deputy sheriff.тАЭ + 

тАЬMe,тАЭ the younger man said, easing his feet from desk to floor. He didnтАЩt get up. Instead, he put a foot out, hooked a chair by its rounds, pulled it from the wall, and returned his feet to the desktop. тАЬSet down. This is Pa,тАЭ wiggling a thumb at the other man. тАЬYou donтАЩt have to mind him.тАЭ + 

тАЬKnow Eric Carter?тАЭ I asked. + 

тАЬThe fellow honeymooning down to the Tooker place? I didnтАЩt know his front name was Eric.тАЭ + 

тАЬEric Carter,тАЭ the elder Rolly said; тАЬthatтАЩs the way I made out the rent receipt for him.тАЭ + 

тАЬHeтАЩs dead,тАЭ I told them. тАЬHe fell off the cliff road last night or this morning. It could have been an accident.тАЭ + 

The father looked at the son with round tan eyes. The son looked at me with questioning tan eyes and said: тАЬTch, tch, tch.тАЭ + 

I gave him a card. He read it carefully, turning it over to see that there was nothing on its back, and passed it to his father. + 

тАЬGo down and take a look at him?тАЭ I suggested. + 

тАЬI guess I ought to,тАЭ the deputy sheriff agreed, getting up from his chair. He was a larger man than I had supposedтБатАФas big as the dead Collinson boyтБатАФand, in spite of his slouchiness, he had a nicely muscled body. + 

I followed him out to a dusty car in front of the office. Rolly senior didnтАЩt go with us. + 

тАЬSomebody told you about it?тАЭ the deputy sheriff asked when we were riding. + 

тАЬI stumbled on him. Know who the Carters are?тАЭ + 

тАЬSomebody special?тАЭ + 

тАЬYou heard about the Riese murder in the San Francisco temple?тАЭ + 

тАЬUh-huh, I read the papers.тАЭ + 

тАЬMrs.┬аCarter was the Gabrielle Leggett mixed up in that, and Carter was the Eric Collinson.тАЭ + 

тАЬTch, tch, tch,тАЭ he said. + 

тАЬAnd her father and stepmother were killed a couple of weeks before that.тАЭ + 

тАЬTch, tch, tch,тАЭ he said. тАЬWhatтАЩs the matter with them?тАЭ + 

тАЬA family curse.тАЭ + 

тАЬSure enough?тАЭ + 

I didnтАЩt know how seriously he meant that question, though he seemed serious enough. I hadnтАЩt got him sized up yet. However, clown or not, he was the deputy sheriff stationed at Quesada, and this was his party. He was entitled to the facts. I gave them to him as we bounced over the lumpy road, gave him all I had, from Paris in 1913 to the cliff road a couple of hours ago. + 

тАЬWhen they came back from being married in Reno, Collinson dropped in to see me. They had to stick around for the Haldorn bunchтАЩs trial, and he wanted a quiet place to take the girl: she was still in a daze. You know Owen Fitzstephan?тАЭ + 

тАЬThe writer fellow that was down here a while last year? Uh-huh.тАЭ + 

тАЬWell, he suggested this place.тАЭ + 

тАЬI know. The old man mentioned it. But whatтАЩd they take them aliases for?тАЭ + 

тАЬTo dodge publicity, and, partly, to try to dodge something like this.тАЭ + 

He frowned vaguely and asked: + 

тАЬYou mean they expected something like this?тАЭ + 

тАЬWell, itтАЩs easy to say, тАШI told you so,тАЩ after things happen, but IтАЩve never thought we had the answer to either of the two mix-ups sheтАЩs been in. And not having the answerтБатАФhow could you tell what to expect? I didnтАЩt think so much of their going off into seclusion like this while whatever was hanging over herтБатАФif anything wasтБатАФwas still hanging over her, but Collinson was all for it. I made him promise to wire me if he saw anything funny. Well, he did.тАЭ + 

Rolly nodded three or four times, then asked: + 

тАЬWhat makes you think he didnтАЩt fall off the cliff?тАЭ + 

тАЬHe sent for me. Something was wrong. Outside of that, too many things have happened around his wife for me to believe in accidents.тАЭ + 

тАЬThereтАЩs the curse, though,тАЭ he said. + 

тАЬYeah,тАЭ I agreed, studying his indefinite face, still trying to figure him out. тАЬBut the trouble with it is itтАЩs worked out too well, too regularly. ItтАЩs the first one I ever ran across that did.тАЭ + 

He frowned over my opinion for a couple of minutes, and then stopped the car. тАЬWeтАЩll have to get out here: the road ainтАЩt so good the rest of the way.тАЭ None of it had been. тАЬStill and all, you do hear of them working out. ThereтАЩs things that happen that makes a fellow think thereтАЩs things in the worldтБатАФin lifeтБатАФthat he donтАЩt know much about.тАЭ He frowned again as we set off afoot, and found a word he liked. тАЬItтАЩs inscrutable,тАЭ he wound up. + 

I let that go at that. + 

He went ahead up the cliff path, stopping of his own accord where the bush had been torn up, a detail I hadnтАЩt mentioned. I didnтАЩt say anything while he stared down at CollinsonтАЩs body, looked searchingly up and down the face of the cliff, and then went up and down the path, bent far over, his tan eyes intent on the ground. + 

He wandered around for ten minutes or more, then straightened up and said: тАЬThereтАЩs nothing here that I can find. LetтАЩs go down.тАЭ + 

I started back toward the ravine, but he said there was a better way ahead. There was. We went down it to the dead man. + 

Rolly looked from the corpse to the edge of the path high above us, and complained: тАЬI donтАЩt hardly see how he could have landed just that-away.тАЭ + 

тАЬHe didnтАЩt. I pulled him out of the water,тАЭ I said, showing the deputy exactly where I had found the body. + 

тАЬThat would be more like it,тАЭ he decided. + 

I sat on a rock and smoked a cigarette while he went around examining, touching, moving rocks, pebbles, and sand. He didnтАЩt seem to have any luck. + 

XIV + 

The Crumpled Chrysler + 

We climbed to the path again and went on to the CollinsonsтАЩ house. I showed Rolly the stained towels, handkerchief, dress, and slippers; the paper that had held morphine; the gun on CollinsonтАЩs floor, the hole in the ceiling, and the empty shells on the floor. + 

тАЬThat shell under the chair is where it was,тАЭ I said; тАЬbut the otherтБатАФthe one in the cornerтБатАФwas here, close to the gun, when I saw it before.тАЭ + 

тАЬYou mean itтАЩs been moved since you were here?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah.тАЭ + 

тАЬBut what good would that do anybody?тАЭ he objected. + 

тАЬNone that I know of, but itтАЩs been moved.тАЭ + 

He had lost interest. He was looking at the ceiling. He said: + 

тАЬTwo shots and one hole. I wonder. Maybe the other went out the window.тАЭ + 

He went back to Gabrielle CollinsonтАЩs bedroom and examined the black velvet gown. There were some torn places in itтБатАФdown near the bottomтБатАФbut no bullet-holes. He put the dress down and picked up the morphine paper from the dressing-table. + 

тАЬWhat do you suppose this is doing here?тАЭ he asked. + 

тАЬShe uses it. ItтАЩs one of the things her stepmother taught her.тАЭ + 

тАЬTch, tch, tch. Kind of looks like she might have done it.тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah?тАЭ + 

тАЬYou know it does. SheтАЩs a dope fiend, ainтАЩt she? They had had trouble, and he sent for you, andтБатАФтАЭ He broke off, pursed his lips, then asked: тАЬWhat time do you reckon he was killed?тАЭ + 

тАЬI donтАЩt know. Maybe last night, on his way home from waiting for me.тАЭ + 

тАЬYou were in the hotel all night?тАЭ + 

тАЬFrom eleven-something till five this morning. Of course I could have sneaked out for long enough to pull a murder between those hours.тАЭ + 

тАЬI didnтАЩt mean nothing like that,тАЭ he said. тАЬI was just wondering. What kind of looking woman is this Mrs.┬аCollinson-Carter? I never saw her.тАЭ + 

тАЬSheтАЩs about twenty; five feet four or five; looks thinner than she really is; light brown hair, short and curly; big eyes that are sometimes brown and sometimes green; white skin; hardly any forehead; small mouth and teeth; pointed chin; no lobes on her ears, and theyтАЩre pointed on top; been sick for a couple of months and looks it.тАЭ + 

тАЬOughtnтАЩt be hard to pick her up,тАЭ he said, and began poking into drawers, closets, trunks, and so on. I had poked into them on my first visit, and hadnтАЩt found anything interesting either. + 

тАЬDonтАЩt look like she did any packing or took much of anything with her,тАЭ he decided when he came back to where I was sitting by the dressing-table. He pointed a thick finger at the monogrammed silver toilet-set on the table. тАЬWhatтАЩs the G. D. L. for?тАЭ + 

тАЬHer name was Gabrielle Something Leggett before she was married.тАЭ + 

тАЬOh, yes. She went away in the car, I reckon. Huh?тАЭ + 

тАЬDid they have one down here?тАЭ I asked. + 

тАЬHe used to come to town in a Chrysler roadster when he didnтАЩt walk. She could only have took it out by the East road. WeтАЩll go out that-away and see.тАЭ + 

Outside, I waited while he made circles around the house, finding nothing. In front of a shed where a car obviously had been kept he pointed at some tracks, and said, тАЬDrove out this morning.тАЭ I took his word for it. + 

We walked along a dirt road to a gravel one, and along that perhaps a mile to a gray house that stood in a group of red farm buildings. A small-boned, high-shouldered man who limped slightly was oiling a pump behind the house. Rolly called him Debro. + 

тАЬSure, Ben,тАЭ he replied to RollyтАЩs question. тАЬShe went by here about seven this morning, going like a bat out of hell. There wasnтАЩt anybody else in the car.тАЭ + 

тАЬHow was she dressed?тАЭ I asked. + 

тАЬShe didnтАЩt have on any hat and a tan coat.тАЭ + 

I asked him what he knew about the Carters: he was their nearest neighbor. He didnтАЩt know anything about them. He had talked to Carter two or three times, and thought him an agreeable enough young fellow. Once he had taken the missus over to call on Mrs.┬аCarter, but Carter told them she was lying down, not feeling well. None of the Debros had ever seen her except at a distance, walking or riding with her husband. + 

тАЬI donтАЩt guess thereтАЩs anybody around here thatтАЩs talked to her,тАЭ he wound up, тАЬexcept of course Mary Nunez.тАЭ + 

тАЬMary working for them?тАЭ the deputy asked. + 

тАЬYes. WhatтАЩs the matter, Ben? Something the matter over there?тАЭ + 

тАЬHe fell off the cliff last night, and sheтАЩs gone away without saying anything to anybody.тАЭ + 

Debro whistled. + 

Rolly went into the house to use DebroтАЩs phone, reporting to the sheriff. I stayed outside with Debro, trying to get moreтБатАФif only his opinionsтБатАФout of him. All I got were expressions of amazement. + 

тАЬWeтАЩll go over and see Mary,тАЭ the deputy said when he came from the phone; and then, when we had left Debro, had crossed the road, and were walking through a field towards a cluster of trees: тАЬFunny she wasnтАЩt there.тАЭ + 

тАЬWho is she?тАЭ + 

тАЬA Mex. Lives down in the hollow with the rest of them. Her man, Pedro Nunez, is doing a life-stretch in Folsom for killing a bootlegger named Dunne in a hijacking twoтБатАУthree years back.тАЭ + 

тАЬLocal killing?тАЭ + 

тАЬUh-huh. It happened down in the cove in front of the Tooker place.тАЭ + 

We went through the trees and down a slope to where half a dozen shacksтБатАФshaped, sized, and red-leaded to resemble boxcarsтБатАФlined the side of a stream, with vegetable gardens spread out behind them. In front of one of the shacks a shapeless Mexican woman in a pink-checkered dress sat on an empty canned-soup box smoking a corncob pipe and nursing a brown baby. Ragged and dirty children played between the buildings, with ragged and dirty mongrels helping them make noise. In one of the gardens a brown man in overalls that had once been blue was barely moving a hoe. + 

The children stopped playing to watch Rolly and me cross the stream on conveniently placed stones. The dogs came yapping to meet us, snarling and snapping around us until one of the boys chased them. We stopped in front of the woman with the baby. The deputy grinned down at the baby and said: + 

тАЬWell, well, ainтАЩt he getting to be a husky son-of-a-gun!тАЭ + 

The woman took the pipe from her mouth long enough to complain stolidly: + 

тАЬColic all the time.тАЭ + 

тАЬTch, tch, tch. WhereтАЩs Mary Nunez?тАЭ + 

The pipe-stem pointed at the next shack. + 

тАЬI thought she was working for them people at the Tooker place,тАЭ he said. + 

тАЬSometimes,тАЭ the woman replied indifferently. + 

We went to the next shack. An old woman in a gray wrapper had come to the door, watching us while stirring something in a yellow bowl. + 

тАЬWhereтАЩs Mary?тАЭ the deputy asked. + 

She spoke over her shoulder into the shackтАЩs interior, and moved aside to let another woman take her place in the doorway. This other woman was short and solidly built, somewhere in her early thirties, with intelligent dark eyes in a wide, flat face. She held a dark blanket together at her throat. The blanket hung to the floor all around her. + 

тАЬHowdy, Mary,тАЭ Rolly greeted her. тАЬWhy ainтАЩt you over to the CartersтАЩ?тАЭ + 

тАЬIтАЩm sick, Mr.┬аRolly.тАЭ She spoke without accent. тАЬChillsтБатАФso I just stayed home today.тАЭ + 

тАЬTch, tch, tch. ThatтАЩs too bad. Have you had the doc?тАЭ + 

She said she hadnтАЩt. Rolly said she ought to. She said she didnтАЩt need him: she had chills often. Rolly said that might be so, but that was all the more reason for having him: it was best to play safe and have things like that looked after. She said yes but doctors took so much money, and it was bad enough being sick without having to pay for it. He said in the long run it was likely to cost folks more not having a doctor than having him. I had begun to think they were going to keep it up all day when Rolly finally brought the talk around to the Carters again, asking the woman about her work there. + 

She told us she had been hired two weeks ago, when they took the house. She went there each morning at nineтБатАФthey never got up before tenтБатАФcooked their meals, did the housework, and left after washing the dinner dishes in the eveningтБатАФusually somewhere around seven-thirty. She seemed surprised at the news that CollinsonтБатАФCarter to herтБатАФhad been killed and his wife had gone away. She told us that Collinson had gone out by himself, for a walk, he said, right after dinner the previous night. That was at about half-past six, dinner having been, for no especial reason, a little early. When she left for home, at a few minutes past seven, Mrs.┬аCarter had been reading a book in the front second-story room. + 

Mary Nunez couldnтАЩt, or wouldnтАЩt, tell us anything on which I could base a reasonable guess at CollinsonтАЩs reason for sending for me. She knew, she insisted, nothing about them except that Mrs.┬аCarter didnтАЩt seem happyтБатАФwasnтАЩt happy. SheтБатАФMary NunezтБатАФhad figured it all out to her own satisfaction: Mrs.┬аCarter loved someone else, but her parents had made her marry Carter; and so, of course, Carter had been killed by the other man, with whom Mrs.┬аCarter had now run away. I couldnтАЩt get her to say that she had any grounds for this belief other than her womanтАЩs intuition, so I asked her about the CartersтАЩ visitors. + 

She said she had never seen any. + 

Rolly asked her if the Carters ever quarreled. She started to say, тАЬNo,тАЭ and then, rapidly, said they did, often, and were never on good terms. Mrs.┬аCarter didnтАЩt like to have her husband near her, and several times had told him, in MaryтАЩs hearing, that if he didnтАЩt go away from her and stay away she would kill him. I tried to pin Mary down to details, asking what had led up to these threats, how they had been worded, but she wouldnтАЩt be pinned down. All she remembered positively, she told us, was that Mrs.┬аCarter had threatened to kill Mr.┬аCarter if he didnтАЩt go away from her. + 

тАЬThat pretty well settles that,тАЭ Rolly said contentedly when we had crossed the stream again and were climbing the slope toward DebroтАЩs. + 

тАЬWhat settles what?тАЭ + 

тАЬThat his wife killed him.тАЭ + 

тАЬThink she did?тАЭ + 

тАЬSo do you.тАЭ + 

I said: тАЬNo.тАЭ + 

Rolly stopped walking and looked at me with vague worried eyes. + 

тАЬNow how can you say that?тАЭ he remonstrated. тАЬAinтАЩt she a dope fiend? And cracked in the bargain, according to your own way of telling it? DidnтАЩt she run away? WasnтАЩt them things she left behind torn and dirty and bloody? DidnтАЩt she threaten to kill him so much that he got scared and sent for you?тАЭ + 

тАЬMary didnтАЩt hear threats,тАЭ I said. тАЬThey were warningsтБатАФabout the curse. Gabrielle Collinson really believed in it, and thought enough of him to try to save him from it. IтАЩve been through that before with her. ThatтАЩs why she wouldnтАЩt have married him if he hadnтАЩt carried her off while she was too rattled to know what she was doing. And she was afraid on that account afterwards.тАЭ + 

тАЬBut whoтАЩs going to believeтБатАФ?тАЭ + 

тАЬIтАЩm not asking anybody to believe anything,тАЭ I growled, walking on again. тАЬIтАЩm telling you what I believe. And while IтАЩm at it IтАЩll tell you I believe Mary Nunez is lying when she says she didnтАЩt go to the house this morning. Maybe she didnтАЩt have anything to do with CollinsonтАЩs death. Maybe she simply went there, found the Collinsons gone, saw the bloody things and the gunтБатАФkicking that shell across the floor without knowing itтБатАФand then beat it back to her shack, fixing up that chills story to keep herself out of it; having had enough of that sort of trouble when her husband was sent over. Maybe not. Anyway, that would be how nine out of ten women of her sort in her place would have played it; and I want more proof before I believe her chills just happened to hit her this morning.тАЭ + 

тАЬWell,тАЭ the deputy sheriff asked; тАЬif she didnтАЩt have nothing to do with it, what difference does all that make anyway?тАЭ + 

The answers I thought up to that were profane and insulting. I kept them to myself. + 

At DebroтАЩs again, we borrowed a loose-jointed touring car of at least three different makes, and drove down the East road, trying to trace the girl in the Chrysler. Our first stop was at the house of a man named Claude Baker. He was a lanky sallow person with an angular face three or four days behind the razor. His wife was probably younger than he, but looked olderтБатАФa tired and faded thin woman who might have been pretty at one time. The oldest of their six children was a bowlegged, freckled girl of ten; the youngest was a fat and noisy infant in its first year. Some of the in-betweens were boys and some girls, but they all had colds in their heads. The whole Baker family came out on the porch to receive us. They hadnтАЩt seen her, they said: they were never up as early as seven oтАЩclock. They knew the Carters by sight, but knew nothing about them. They asked more questions than Rolly and I did. + 

Shortly beyond the Baker house the road changed from gravel to asphalt. What we could see of the ChryslerтАЩs tracks seemed to show that it had been the last car over the road. Two miles from BakerтАЩs we stopped in front of a small bright green house surrounded by rose bushes. Rolly bawled: + 

тАЬHarve! Hey, Harve!тАЭ + 

A big-boned man of thirty-five or so came to the door, said, тАЬHullo, Ben,тАЭ and walked between the rose bushes to our car. His features, like his voice, were heavy, and he moved and spoke deliberately. His last name was Whidden. Rolly asked him if he had seen the Chrysler. + 

тАЬYes, Ben, I saw them,тАЭ he said. тАЬThey went past around a quarter after seven this morning, hitting it up.тАЭ + 

тАЬThey?тАЭ I asked, while Rolly asked: тАЬThem?тАЭ + 

тАЬThere was a man and a womanтБатАФor a girlтБатАФin it. I didnтАЩt get a good look at themтБатАФjust saw them whizz past. She was driving, a kind of small woman she looked like from here, with brown hair.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhat did the man look like?тАЭ + 

тАЬOh, he was maybe forty, and didnтАЩt look like he was very big either. A pinkish face, he had, and gray coat and hat.тАЭ + 

тАЬEver see Mrs.┬аCarter?тАЭ I asked. + 

тАЬThe bride living down the cove? No. I seen him, but not her. Was that her?тАЭ + 

I said we thought it was. + 

тАЬThe man wasnтАЩt him,тАЭ he said. тАЬHe was somebody I never seen before.тАЭ + 

тАЬKnow him again if you saw him?тАЭ + 

тАЬI reckon I wouldтБатАФif I saw him going past like that.тАЭ + 

Four miles beyond WhiddenтАЩs we found the Chrysler. It was a foot or two off the road, on the left-hand side, standing on all fours with its radiator jammed into a eucalyptus tree. All its glass was shattered, and the front third of its metal was pretty well crumpled. It was empty. There was no blood in it. The deputy sheriff and I seemed to be the only people in the vicinity. + 

We ran around in circles, straining our eyes at the ground, and when we got through we knew what we had known at the beginningтБатАФthe Chrysler had run into a eucalyptus tree. There were tire-marks on the road, and marks that could have been footprints on the ground by the car; but it was possible to find the same sort of marks in a hundred places along that, or any other, road. We got into our borrowed car again and drove on, asking questions wherever we found someone to question; and all the answers were: No, we didnтАЩt see her or them. + 

тАЬWhat about this fellow Baker?тАЭ I asked Rolly as we turned around to go back. тАЬDebro saw her alone. There was a man with her when she passed WhiddenтАЩs. The Bakers saw nothing, and it was in their territory that the man must have joined her.тАЭ + 

тАЬWell,тАЭ he said, argumentatively; тАЬit could of happened that way, couldnтАЩt it?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah, but it might be a good idea to do some more talking to them.тАЭ + 

тАЬIf you want to,тАЭ he consented without enthusiasm. тАЬBut donтАЩt go dragging me into any arguments with them. HeтАЩs my wifeтАЩs brother.тАЭ + 

That made a difference. I asked: + 

тАЬWhat sort of man is he?тАЭ + 

тАЬClaudeтАЩs kind of shiftless, all right. Like the old man says, he donтАЩt manage to raise nothing much but kids on that farm of his, but I never heard tell that he did anybody any harm.тАЭ + 

тАЬIf you say heтАЩs all right, thatтАЩs enough for me,тАЭ I lied. тАЬWe wonтАЩt bother him.тАЭ + 

XV + 

IтАЩve Killed Him + 

Sheriff Feeney, fat, florid, and with a lot of brown mustache, and district attorney Vernon, sharp-featured, aggressive, and hungry for fame, came over from the county seat. They listened to our stories, looked the ground over, and agreed with Rolly that Gabrielle Collinson had killed her husband. When Marshal Dick CottonтБатАФa pompous, unintelligent man in his fortiesтБатАФreturned from San Francisco, he added his vote to the others. The coroner and his jury came to the same opinion, though officially they limited themselves to the usual тАЬperson or persons unknown,тАЭ with recommendations involving the girl. + 

The time of CollinsonтАЩs death was placed between eight and nine oтАЩclock Friday night. No marks not apparently caused by his fall had been found on him. The pistol found in his room had been identified as his. No fingerprints were on it. I had an idea that some of the county officials half suspected me of having seen to that, though nobody said anything of that sort. Mary Nunez stuck to her story of being kept home by chills. She had a flock of Mexican witnesses to back it up. I couldnтАЩt find any to knock holes in it. We found no further trace of the man Whidden had seen. I tried the Bakers again, by myself, with no luck. The marshalтАЩs wife, a frail youngish woman with a weak pretty face and nice shy manners, who worked in the telegraph office, said Collinson had sent off his wire to me early Friday morning. He was pale and shaky, she said, with dark-rimmed, bloodshot eyes. She had supposed he was drunk, though she hadnтАЩt smelled alcohol on his breath. + 

CollinsonтАЩs father and brother came down from San Francisco. Hubert Collinson, the father, was a big calm man who looked capable of taking as many more millions out of Pacific Coast lumber as he wanted. Laurence Collinson was a year or two older than his dead brother, and much like him in appearance. Both Collinsons were careful to say nothing that could be interpreted as suggesting they thought Gabrielle had been responsible for EricтАЩs death, but there was little doubt that they did think so. + 

Hubert Collinson said quietly to me, тАЬGo ahead; get to the bottom of it;тАЭ and thus became the fourth client for whom the agency had been concerned with GabrielleтАЩs affairs. + 

Madison Andrews came down from San Francisco. He and I talked in my hotel room. He sat on a chair by the window, cut a cube of tobacco from a yellowish plug, put it in his mouth, and decided that Collinson had committed suicide. + 

I sat on the side of the bed, set fire to a Fatima, and contradicted him: + 

тАЬHe wouldnтАЩt have torn up the bush if heтАЩd gone over willingly.тАЭ + 

тАЬThen it was an accident. That was a dangerous road to be walked in the dark.тАЭ + 

тАЬIтАЩve stopped believing in accidents,тАЭ I said. тАЬAnd he had sent me an SOS. And there was the gun that had been fired in his room.тАЭ + 

He leaned forward in his chair. His eyes were hard and watchful. He was a lawyer cross-examining a witness. + 

тАЬYou think Gabrielle was responsible?тАЭ + 

I wouldnтАЩt go that far. I said: + 

тАЬHe was murdered. He was murdered byтБатАФI told you two weeks ago that we werenтАЩt through with that damned curse, and that the only way to get through with it was to have the Temple business sifted to the bottom.тАЭ + 

тАЬYes, I remember,тАЭ he said without quite sneering. тАЬYou advanced the theory that there was some connecting link between her parentsтАЩ deaths and the trouble she had at the HaldornsтАЩ; but, as I recall it, you had no idea what the link might be. DonтАЩt you think that deficiency has a tendency to make your theory a littleтБатАФsayтБатАФvaporous?тАЭ + 

тАЬDoes it? Her father, stepmother, physician, and husband have been killed, one after the other, in less than two months; and her maid jailed for murder. All the people closest to her. DoesnтАЩt that look like a program? AndтАЭтБатАФI grinned at himтБатАФтАЬare you sure itтАЩs not going further? And if it does, arenтАЩt you the next closest person to her?тАЭ + 

тАЬPreposterous!тАЭ He was very much annoyed now. тАЬWe know about her parentsтАЩ deaths, and about RieseтАЩs, and that there was no link between them. We know that those responsible for RieseтАЩs murder are now either dead or in prison. ThereтАЩs no getting around that. ItтАЩs simply preposterous to say there are links between one and another of these crimes when we know thereтАЩs none.тАЭ + 

тАЬWe donтАЩt know anything of the kind,тАЭ I insisted. тАЬAll we know is that we havenтАЩt found the links. Who profitsтБатАФor could hope to profitтБатАФby what has happened?тАЭ + 

тАЬNot a single person so far as I know.тАЭ + 

тАЬSuppose she died? WhoтАЩd get the estate?тАЭ + 

тАЬI donтАЩt know. There are distant relations in England or France, I dare say.тАЭ + 

тАЬThat doesnтАЩt get us very far,тАЭ I growled. тАЬAnyway, nobodyтАЩs tried to kill her. ItтАЩs her friends who get the knockoff.тАЭ + 

The lawyer reminded me sourly that we couldnтАЩt say that nobody had tried to kill herтБатАФor had succeededтБатАФuntil we found her. I couldnтАЩt argue with him about that. Her trail still ended where the eucalyptus tree had stopped the Chrysler. + 

I gave him a piece of advice before he left: + 

тАЬWhatever you believe, thereтАЩs no sense in your taking unnecessary chances: remember that there might be a program, and you might be next on it. It wonтАЩt hurt to be careful.тАЭ + 

He didnтАЩt thank me. He suggested, unpleasantly, that doubtless I thought he should hire private detectives to guard him. + 

Madison Andrews had offered a thousand-dollar reward for information leading to discovery of the girlтАЩs whereabouts. Hubert Collinson had offered another thousand, with an additional twenty-five hundred for the arrest and conviction of his sonтАЩs murderer. Half the population of the county had turned bloodhound. Anywhere you went you found men walking, or even crawling, around, searching fields, paths, hills, and valleys for clues, and in the woods you were likely to find more amateur gumshoes than trees. + 

Her photographs had been distributed and published widely. The newspapers, from San Diego to Vancouver, gave us a tremendous play, whooping it up in all the colored ink they had. All the San Francisco and Los Angeles Continental operatives who could be pulled off other jobs were checking QuesadaтАЩs exits, hunting, questioning, finding nothing. Radio broadcasters helped. The police everywhere, all the agencyтАЩs branches, were stirred up. + 

And by Monday all this hubbub had brought us exactly nothing. + 

Monday afternoon I went back to San Francisco and told all my troubles to the Old Man. He listened politely, as if to some moderately interesting story that didnтАЩt concern him personally, smiled his meaningless smile, and, instead of any assistance, gave me his pleasantly expressed opinion that IтАЩd eventually succeed in working it all out to a satisfactory conclusion. + 

Then he told me that Fitzstephan had phoned, trying to get in touch with me. тАЬIt may be important. He would have gone down to Quesada to find you if I hadnтАЩt told him I expected you.тАЭ + 

I called FitzstephanтАЩs number. + 

тАЬCome up,тАЭ he said. тАЬIтАЩve got something. I donтАЩt know whether itтАЩs a fresh puzzle, or the key to a puzzle; but itтАЩs something.тАЭ + 

I rode up Nob Hill on a cable car and was in his apartment within fifteen minutes. + 

тАЬAll right, spring it,тАЭ I said as we sat down in his paper-, magazine-, and book-littered living room. + 

тАЬAny trace of Gabrielle yet?тАЭ he asked. + 

тАЬNo. But spring the puzzle. DonтАЩt be literary with me, building up to climaxes and the like. IтАЩm too crude for thatтБатАФitтАЩd only give me a bellyache. Just spread it out for me.тАЭ + 

тАЬYouтАЩll always be what you are,тАЭ he said, trying to seem disappointed and disgusted, but not succeeding because he wasтБатАФinwardlyтБатАФtoo excited over something. тАЬSomebodyтБатАФa manтБатАФcalled me up early Saturday morningтБатАФhalf-past oneтБатАФon the phone. He asked: тАШIs this Fitzstephan?тАЩ I said: тАШYes;тАЩ and then the voice said: тАШWell, IтАЩve killed him.тАЩ He said it just like that. IтАЩm sure of those exact words, though they werenтАЩt very clear. There was a lot of noise on the line, and the voice seemed distant. + 

тАЬI didnтАЩt know who it wasтБатАФwhat he was talking about. I asked: тАШKilled who? Who is this?тАЩ I couldnтАЩt understand any of his answer except the word тАШmoney.тАЩ He said something about money, repeating it several times, but I could understand only that one word. There were some people hereтБатАФthe Marquards, Laura Joines with some man sheтАЩd brought, Ted and Sue Van SlackтБатАФand we had been in the middle of a literary free-for-all. I had a wisecrack on my tongueтБатАФsomething about Cabell being a romanticist in the same sense that the wooden horse was TrojanтБатАФand didnтАЩt want to be robbed of my opportunity to deliver it by this drunken joker, or whoever he was, on the phone. I couldnтАЩt make heads or tails of what he was saying, so I hung up and went back to my guests. + 

тАЬIt never occurred to me that the phone conversation could have had any meaning until yesterday morning, when I read about CollinsonтАЩs death. I was at the ColemansтАЩ, up in Ross. I went up there Saturday morning, for the weekend, having finally run Ralph to earth.тАЭ He grinned. тАЬAnd I made him glad enough to see me leave this morning.тАЭ He became serious again. тАЬEven after hearing of CollinsonтАЩs death, I wasnтАЩt convinced that my phone call was of any importance, had any meaning. It was such a silly sort of thing. But of course I meant to tell you about it. But lookтБатАФthis was in my mail when I got home this morning.тАЭ + 

He took an envelope from his pocket and tossed it over to me. It was a cheap and shiny white envelope of the kind you can buy anywhere. Its corners were dark and curled, as if it had been carried in a pocket for some time. FitzstephanтАЩs name and address had been printed on it, with a hard pencil, by someone who was a rotten printer, or who wanted to be thought so. It was postmarked San Francisco, nine oтАЩclock Saturday morning. Inside was a soiled and crookedly torn piece of brown wrapping paper, with one sentenceтБатАФas poorly printed with pencil as the addressтБатАФon it: + 

Anybody that wants Mrs.┬аCarter can have same by paying $10,000тБатАУтБа + 

There was no date, no salutation, no signature. + 

тАЬShe was seen driving away alone as late as seven Saturday morning,тАЭ I said. тАЬThis was mailed here, eighty miles away, in time to be postmarked at nineтБатАФtaken from the box in the first morning collection, say. ThatтАЩs one to get wrinkles over. But even thatтАЩs not as funny as its coming to you instead of to Andrews, whoтАЩs in charge of her affairs, or her father-in-law, whoтАЩs got the most money.тАЭ + 

тАЬIt is funny and it isnтАЩt,тАЭ Fitzstephan replied. His lean face was eager. тАЬThere may be a point of light there. You know I recommended Quesada to Collinson, having spent a couple of months there last spring finishing The Wall of Ashdod, and gave him a card to a real estate dealer named RollyтБатАФthe deputy sheriffтАЩs fatherтБатАФthere, introducing him as Eric Carter. A native of Quesada might not know she was Gabrielle Collinson, n├йe Leggett. In that case he wouldnтАЩt know how to reach her people except through me, who had sent her and her husband there. So the letter is sent to me, but starts off тАШAnybody that,тАЩ to be passed on to the interested persons.тАЭ + 

тАЬA native might have done that,тАЭ I said slowly; тАЬor a kidnapper who wanted us to think he was a native, didnтАЩt want us to think he knew the Collinsons.тАЭ + 

тАЬExactly. And as far as I know none of the natives knew my address here.тАЭ + 

тАЬHow about Rolly?тАЭ + 

тАЬNot unless Collinson gave it to him. I simply scribbled the introduction on the back of a card.тАЭ + 

тАЬSaid anything to anybody else about the phone call and this letter?тАЭ I asked. + 

тАЬI mentioned the call to the people who were here Friday nightтБатАФwhen I thought it was a joke or a mistake. I havenтАЩt shown this to anybody else. In fact,тАЭ he said, тАЬI was a little doubtful about showing it at allтБатАФand still am. Is it going to make trouble for me?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah, it will. But you oughtnтАЩt mind that. I thought you liked firsthand views of trouble. Better give me the names and addresses of your guests. If they and Coleman account for your whereabouts Friday night and over the weekend, nothing serious will happen to you; though youтАЩll have to go down to Quesada and let the county officials third-degree you.тАЭ + 

тАЬShall we go now?тАЭ + 

тАЬIтАЩm going back tonight. Meet me at the Sunset Hotel there in the morning. ThatтАЩll give me time to work on the officialsтБатАФso they wonтАЩt throw you in the dungeon on sight.тАЭ + 

I went back to the agency and put in a Quesada call. I couldnтАЩt get hold of Vernon or the sheriff, but Cotton was reachable. I gave him the information I had got from Fitzstephan, promising to produce the novelist for questioning the next morning. + 

The marshal said the search for the girl was still going on without results. Reports had come in that she had been seenтБатАФpractically simultaneouslyтБатАФin Los Angeles, Eureka, Carson City, Denver, Portland, Tijuana, Ogden, San Jose, Vancouver, Porterville, and Hawaii. All except the most ridiculous reports were being run out. + 

The telephone company could tell me that Owen FitzstephanтАЩs Saturday morning phone-call had not been a long-distance call, and that nobody in Quesada had called a San Francisco number either Friday night or Saturday morning. + 

Before I left the agency I visited the Old Man again, asking him if he would try to persuade the district attorney to turn Aaronia Haldorn and Tom Fink loose on bail. + 

тАЬTheyтАЩre not doing us any good in jail,тАЭ I explained, тАЬand, loose, they might lead us somewhere if we shadowed them. He oughtnтАЩt to mind: he knows he hasnтАЩt a chance in the world of hanging murder-raps on them as things now stack up.тАЭ + 

The Old Man promised to do his best, and to put an operative behind each of our suspects if they were sprung. + 

I went over to Madison AndrewsтАЩ office. When I had told him about FitzstephanтАЩs messages, and had given him our explanation of them, the lawyer nodded his bony white-thatched head and said: + 

тАЬAnd whether thatтАЩs the true explanation or not, the county authorities will now have to give up their absurd theory that Gabrielle killed her husband.тАЭ + 

I shook my head sidewise. + 

тАЬWhat?тАЭ he asked explosively. + 

тАЬTheyтАЩre going to think the messages were cooked up to clear her,тАЭ I predicted. + 

тАЬIs that what you think?тАЭ His jaws got lumpy in front of his ears, and his tangled eyebrows came down over his eyes. + 

тАЬI hope they werenтАЩt,тАЭ I said; тАЬbecause if itтАЩs a trick itтАЩs a damned childish one.тАЭ + 

тАЬHow could it be?тАЭ he demanded loudly. тАЬDonтАЩt talk nonsense. None of us knew anything then. The body hadnтАЩt been found whenтБатАФтАЭ + 

тАЬYeah,тАЭ I agreed; тАЬand thatтАЩs why, if it turns out to have been a stunt, itтАЩll hang Gabrielle.тАЭ + 

тАЬI donтАЩt understand you,тАЭ he said disagreeably. тАЬOne minute youтАЩre talking about somebody persecuting the girl, and the next minute youтАЩre talking as if you thought she was the murderer. Just what do you think?тАЭ + 

тАЬBoth can be true,тАЭ I replied, no less disagreeably. тАЬAnd what difference does it make what I think? ItтАЩll be up to the jury when sheтАЩs found. The question now is: what are you going to do about the ten-thousand-dollar demandтБатАФif itтАЩs on the level?тАЭ + 

тАЬWhat IтАЩm going to do is increase the reward for her recovery, with an additional reward for the arrest of her abductor.тАЭ + 

тАЬThatтАЩs the wrong play,тАЭ I said. тАЬEnough reward money has been posted. The only way to handle a kidnapping is to come across. I donтАЩt like it any more than you do, but itтАЩs the only way. Uncertainty, nervousness, fear, disappointment, can turn even a mild kidnapper into a maniac. Buy the girl free, and then do your fighting. Pay whatтАЩs asked when itтАЩs asked.тАЭ + 

He tugged at his ragged mustache, his jaw set obstinately, his eyes worried. But the jaw won out. + 

тАЬIтАЩm damned if IтАЩll knuckle down,тАЭ he said. + 

тАЬThatтАЩs your business.тАЭ I got up and reached for my hat. тАЬMineтАЩs finding CollinsonтАЩs murderer, and having her killed is more likely to help me than not.тАЭ + 

He didnтАЩt say anything. + 

I went down to Hubert CollinsonтАЩs office. He wasnтАЩt in, but I told Laurence Collinson my story, winding up: + 

тАЬWill you urge your father to put up the money? And to have it ready to pass over as soon as the kidnapperтАЩs instructions come?тАЭ + 

тАЬIt wonтАЩt be necessary to urge him,тАЭ he said immediately. тАЬOf course we shall pay whatever is required to ensure her safety.тАЭ + 

XVI + 

The Night Hunt + 

I caught the 5:25 train south. It put me in Poston, a dusty town twice QuesadaтАЩs size, at 7:30; and a rattle-trap stage, in which I was the only passenger, got me to my destination half an hour later. Rain was beginning to fall as I was leaving the stage across the street from the hotel. + 

Jack Santos, a San Francisco reporter, came out of the telegraph office and said: тАЬHello. Anything new?тАЭ + 

тАЬMaybe, but IтАЩll have to give it to Vernon first.тАЭ + 

тАЬHeтАЩs in his room in the hotel, or was ten minutes ago. You mean the ransom letter that somebody got?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah. HeтАЩs already given it out?тАЭ + 

тАЬCotton started to, but Vernon headed him off, told us to let it alone.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhy?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo reason at all except that it was Cotton giving it to us.тАЭ Santos pulled the corners of his thin lips down. тАЬItтАЩs been turned into a contest between Vernon, Feeney, and Cotton to see which can get his name and picture printed most.тАЭ + 

тАЬThey been doing anything except that?тАЭ + 

тАЬHow can they?тАЭ he asked disgustedly. тАЬThey spend ten hours a day trying to make the front page, ten more trying to keep the others from making it, and theyтАЩve got to sleep some time.тАЭ + 

In the hotel I gave тАЬnothing newтАЭ to some more reporters, registered again, left my bag in my room, and went down the hall to 204. Vernon opened the door when I had knocked. He was alone, and apparently had been reading the newspapers that made a pink, green, and white pile on the bed. The room was blue-gray with cigar smoke. + 

This district attorney was a thirty-year-old dark-eyed man who carried his chin up and out so that it was more prominent than nature had intended, bared all his teeth when he talked, and was very conscious of being a go-getter. He shook my hand briskly and said: + 

тАЬIтАЩm glad youтАЩre back. Come in. Sit down. Are there any new developments?тАЭ + 

тАЬCotton pass you the dope I gave him?тАЭ + 

тАЬYes.тАЭ Vernon posed in front of me, hands in pockets, feet far apart. тАЬWhat importance do you attach to it?тАЭ + 

тАЬI advised Andrews to get the money ready. He wonтАЩt. The Collinsons will.тАЭ + 

тАЬThey will,тАЭ he said, as if confirming a guess I had made. тАЬAnd?тАЭ He held his lips back so that his teeth remained exposed. + 

тАЬHereтАЩs the letter.тАЭ I gave it to him. тАЬFitzstephan will be down in the morning.тАЭ + 

He nodded emphatically, carried the letter closer to the light, and examined it and its envelope minutely. When he had finished he tossed it contemptuously to the table. + 

тАЬObviously a fraud,тАЭ he said. тАЬNow what, exactly, is this FitzstephanтАЩsтБатАФis that the name?тБатАФstory?тАЭ + 

I told him, word for word. When that was done, he clicked his teeth together, turned to the telephone, and told someone to tell Feeney that heтБатАФMr.┬аVernon, district attorneyтБатАФwished to see him immediately. Ten minutes later the sheriff came in wiping rain off his big brown mustache. + 

Vernon jerked a thumb at me and ordered: тАЬTell him.тАЭ + 

I repeated what Fitzstephan had told me. The sheriff listened with an attentiveness that turned his florid face purple and had him panting. As the last word left my mouth, the district attorney snapped his fingers and said: + 

тАЬVery well. He claims there were people in his apartment when the phone call came. Make a note of their names. He claims to have been in Ross over the weekend, with theтБатАФwho were they? Ralph Coleman? Very well. Sheriff, see that those things are checked up. WeтАЩll learn how much truth there is to it.тАЭ + 

I gave the sheriff the names and addresses Fitzstephan had given me. Feeney wrote them on the back of a laundry list and puffed out to get the countyтАЩs crime-detecting machinery going on them. + 

Vernon hadnтАЩt anything to tell me. I left him to his newspapers and went downstairs. The effeminate night clerk beckoned me over to the desk and said: + 

тАЬMr.┬аSantos asked me to tell you that services are being held in his room tonight.тАЭ + 

I thanked the clerk and went up to SantosтАЩ room. He, three other newshounds, and a photographer were there. The game was stud. I was sixteen dollars ahead at twelve-thirty, when I was called to the phone to listen to the district attorneyтАЩs aggressive voice: + 

тАЬWill you come to my room immediately?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah.тАЭ I gathered up my hat and coat, telling Santos: тАЬCash me in. Important call. I always have one when I get a little ahead of the game.тАЭ + 

тАЬVernon?тАЭ he asked as he counted my chips. + 

тАЬYeah.тАЭ + 

тАЬIt canтАЩt be much,тАЭ he sneered, тАЬor heтАЩdтАЩve sent for Red too,тАЭ nodding at the photographer, тАЬso tomorrowтАЩs readers could see him holding it in his hand.тАЭ + 

Cotton, Feeney, and Rolly were with the district attorney. CottonтБатАФa medium-sized man with a round dull face dimpled in the chinтБатАФwas dressed in black rubber boots, slicker, and hat that were wet and muddy. He stood in the middle of the room, his round eyes looking quite proud of their owner. Feeney, straddling a chair, was playing with his mustache; and his florid face was sulky. Rolly, standing beside him, rolling a cigarette, looked vaguely amiable as usual. + 

Vernon closed the door behind me and said irritably: + 

тАЬCotton thinks heтАЩs discovered something. He thinksтБатАФтАЭ + 

Cotton came forward, chest first, interrupting: + 

тАЬI donтАЩt think nothing. I know durned wellтБатАФтАЭ + 

Vernon snapped his fingers between the marshal and me, saying, just as snappishly: + 

тАЬNever mind that. WeтАЩll go out there and see.тАЭ + 

I stopped at my room for raincoat, gun, and flashlight. We went downstairs and climbed into a muddy car. Cotton drove. Vernon sat beside him. The rest of us sat in back. Rain beat on top and curtains, trickling in through cracks. + 

тАЬA hell of a night to be chasing pipe dreams,тАЭ the sheriff grumbled, trying to dodge a leak. + 

тАЬDickтАЩd do a sight better minding his own business,тАЭ Rolly agreed. тАЬWhatтАЩs he got to do with what donтАЩt happen in Quesada?тАЭ + 

тАЬIf heтАЩd take more care of what does happen there, he wouldnтАЩt have to worry about whatтАЩs down the shore,тАЭ Feeney said, and he and his deputy sniggered together. + 

Whatever point there was to this conversation was over my head. I asked: + 

тАЬWhatтАЩs he up to?тАЭ + 

тАЬNothing,тАЭ the sheriff told me. тАЬYouтАЩll see that itтАЩs nothing, and, by God! IтАЩm going to give him a piece of my mind. I donтАЩt know whatтАЩs the matter with Vernon, paying any attention to him at all.тАЭ + 

That didnтАЩt mean anything to me. I peeped out between curtains. Rain and darkness shut out the scenery, but I had an idea that we were headed for some point on the East road. It was a rotten rideтБатАФwet, noisy, and bumpy. It ended in as dark, wet, and muddy a spot as any we had gone through. + 

Cotton switched off the lights and got out, the rest of us following, slipping and slopping in wet clay up to our ankles. + 

тАЬThis is too damned much,тАЭ the sheriff complained. + 

Vernon started to say something, but the marshal was walking away, down the road. We plodded after him, keeping together more by the sound of our feet squashing in the mud than by sight. It was black. + 

Presently we left the road, struggled over a high wire fence, and went on with less mud under our feet, but slippery grass. We climbed a hill. Wind blew rain down it into our faces. The sheriff was panting. I was sweating. We reached the top of the hill and went down its other side, with the rustle of seawater on rocks ahead of us. Boulders began crowding grass out of our path as the descent got steeper. Once Cotton slipped to his knees, tripping Vernon, who saved himself by grabbing me. The sheriffтАЩs panting sounded like groaning now. We turned to the left, going along in single file, the surf close beside us. We turned to the left again, climbed a slope, and halted under a low shed without wallsтБатАФa wooden roof propped on a dozen posts. Ahead of us a larger building made a black blot against the almost black sky. + 

Cotton whispered: тАЬWait till I see if his carтАЩs here.тАЭ + 

He went away. The sheriff blew out his breath and grunted: тАЬDamn such a expedition!тАЭ Rolly sighed. + 

The marshal returned jubilant. + 

тАЬIt ainтАЩt there, so he ainтАЩt here,тАЭ he said. тАЬCome on, itтАЩll get us out of the wet anyways.тАЭ + 

We followed him up a muddy path between bushes to the black house, up on its back porch. We stood there while he got a window open, climbed through, and unlocked the door. Our flashlights, used for the first time now, showed us a small neat kitchen. We went in, muddying the floor. + 

Cotton was the only member of the party who showed any enthusiasm. His face, from hat-brim to dimpled chin, was the face of a master of ceremonies who is about to spring what he is sure will be a delightful surprise. Vernon regarded him skeptically, Feeney disgustedly, Rolly indifferently, and IтБатАФwho didnтАЩt know what we were there forтБатАФno doubt curiously. + 

It developed that we were there to search the house. We did it, or at least Cotton did it while the rest of us pretended to help him. It was a small house. There was only one room on the ground-floor besides the kitchen, and only oneтБатАФan unfinished bedroomтБатАФabove. A grocerтАЩs bill and a tax-receipt in a table-drawer told me whose house it wasтБатАФHarvey WhiddenтАЩs. He was the big-boned deliberate man who had seen the stranger in the Chrysler with Gabrielle Collinson. + 

We finished the ground-floor with a blank score, and went upstairs. There, after ten minutes of poking around, we found something. Rolly pulled it out from between bed-slats and mattress. It was a small flat bundle wrapped in a white linen towel. + 

Cotton dropped the mattress, which he had been holding up for the deputy to look under, and joined us as we crowded around RollyтАЩs package. Vernon took it from the deputy sheriff and unrolled it on the bed. Inside the towel were a package of hairpins, a lace-edged white handkerchief, a silver hairbrush and comb engraved G. D. L., and a pair of black kid gloves, small and feminine. + 

I was more surprised than anyone else could have been. + 

тАЬG. D. L.,тАЭ I said, to be saying something, тАЬcould be Gabrielle Something LeggettтБатАФMrs.┬аCollinsonтАЩs name before she was married.тАЭ + 

Cotton said triumphantly: тАЬYouтАЩre durned right it could.тАЭ + 

A heavy voice said from the doorway: + 

тАЬHave you got a search-warrant? What the hell are you doing here if you havenтАЩt? ItтАЩs burglary, and you know it.тАЭ + 

Harvey Whidden was there. His big body, in a yellow slicker, filled the doorway. His heavy-featured face was dark and angry. + 

Vernon began: тАЬWhidden, IтБатАФтАЭ + 

The marshal screamed, тАЬItтАЩs him!тАЭ and pulled a gun from under his coat. + 

I pushed his arm as he fired at the man in the doorway. The bullet hit the wall. + 

WhiddenтАЩs face was now more astonished than angry. He jumped back through the doorway and ran downstairs. Cotton, upset by my push, straightened himself up, cursed me, and ran out after Whidden. Vernon, Feeney, and Rolly stood staring after them. + 

I said: тАЬThis is good clean sport, but it makes no sense to me. WhatтАЩs it all about?тАЭ + 

Nobody told me. I said: тАЬThis comb and brush were on Mrs.┬аCollinsonтАЩs table when we searched the house, Rolly.тАЭ + 

The deputy sheriff nodded uncertainly, still staring at the door. No noise came through it now. I asked: + 

тАЬWould there be any special reason for Cotton framing Whidden?тАЭ + 

The sheriff said: тАЬThey ainтАЩt good friends.тАЭ (I had noticed that.) тАЬWhat do you think, Vern?тАЭ + 

The district attorney took his gaze from the door, rolled the things in their towel again, and stuffed the bundle in his pocket. тАЬCome on,тАЭ he snapped, and strode downstairs. + 

The front door was open. We saw nothing, heard nothing, of Cotton and Whidden. A FordтБатАФWhiddenтАЩsтБатАФstood at the front gate soaking up rain. We got into it. Vernon took the wheel, and drove to the house in the cove. We hammered at its door until it was opened by an old man in gray underwear, put there as caretaker by the sheriff. + 

The old man told us that Cotton had been there at eight oтАЩclock that night, just, he said, to look around again. He, the caretaker, didnтАЩt know no reason why the marshal had to be watched, so he hadnтАЩt bothered him, letting him do what he wanted, and, so far as he knew, the marshal hadnтАЩt taken any of the CollinsonsтАЩ property, though of course he might of. + 

Vernon and Feeney gave the old man hell, and we went back to Quesada. + 

Rolly was with me on the back seat. I asked him: + 

тАЬWho is this Whidden? Why should Cotton pick on him?тАЭ + 

тАЬWell, for one thing, HarveтАЩs got kind of a bad name, from being mixed up in the rum-running that used to go on here, and from being in trouble now and then.тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah? And for another thing?тАЭ + 

The deputy sheriff frowned, hesitating, hunting for words; and before he had found them we were stopping in front of a vine-covered cottage on a dark street corner. The district attorney led the way to its front porch and rang the bell. + 

After a little while a womanтАЩs voice sounded overhead: + 

тАЬWhoтАЩs there?тАЭ + 

We had to retreat to the steps to see herтБатАФMrs.┬аCotton at a second-story window. + 

тАЬDick got home yet?тАЭ Vernon asked. + 

тАЬNo, Mr.┬аVernon, he hasnтАЩt. I was getting worried. Wait a minute; IтАЩll come down.тАЭ + 

тАЬDonтАЩt bother,тАЭ he said. тАЬWe wonтАЩt wait. IтАЩll see him in the morning.тАЭ + 

тАЬNo. Wait,тАЭ she said urgently and vanished from the window. + 

A moment later she opened the front door. Her blue eyes were dark and excited. She had on a rose bathrobe. + 

тАЬYou neednтАЩt have bothered,тАЭ the district attorney said. тАЬThere was nothing special. We got separated from him a little while ago, and just wanted to know if heтАЩd got back yet. HeтАЩs all right.тАЭ + 

тАЬWasтБатАФ?тАЭ Her hands worked folds of her bathrobe over her thin breasts. тАЬWas he afterтБатАФafter HarveyтБатАФHarvey Whidden?тАЭ + 

Vernon didnтАЩt look at her when he said, тАЬYes;тАЭ and he said it without showing his teeth. Feeney and Rolly looked as uncomfortable as Vernon. + 

Mrs.┬аCottonтАЩs face turned pink. Her lower lip trembled, blurring her words. + 

тАЬDonтАЩt believe him, Mr.┬аVernon. DonтАЩt believe a word he tells you. Harve didnтАЩt have anything to do with those Collinsons, with neither one of them. DonтАЩt let Dick tell you he did. He didnтАЩt.тАЭ + 

Vernon looked at his feet and didnтАЩt say anything. Rolly and Feeney were looking intently out through the open doorтБатАФwe were standing just inside itтБатАФat the rain. Nobody seemed to have any intention of speaking. + 

I asked, тАЬNo?тАЭ putting more doubt in my voice than I actually felt. + 

тАЬNo, he didnтАЩt,тАЭ she cried, turning her face to me. тАЬHe couldnтАЩt. He couldnтАЩt have had anything to do with it.тАЭ The pink went out of her face, leaving it white and desperate. тАЬHeтБатАФhe was here that nightтБатАФall nightтБатАФfrom before seven until daylight.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhere was your husband?тАЭ + 

тАЬUp in the city, at his motherтАЩs.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhatтАЩs her address?тАЭ + 

She gave it to me, a Noe Street number. + 

тАЬDid anybodyтБатАФ?тАЭ + 

тАЬAw, come on,тАЭ the sheriff protested, still staring at the rain. тАЬAinтАЩt that enough?тАЭ + 

Mrs.┬аCotton turned from me to the district attorney again, taking hold of one of his arms. + 

тАЬDonтАЩt tell it on me, please, Mr.┬аVernon,тАЭ she begged. тАЬI donтАЩt know what IтАЩd do if it came out. But I had to tell you. I couldnтАЩt let him put it on Harve. Please, you wonтАЩt tell anybody else?тАЭ + 

The district attorney swore that under no circumstances would he, or any of us, repeat what she had told us to anybody; and the sheriff and his deputy agreed with vigorous red-faced nods. + 

But when we were in the Ford again, away from her, they forgot their embarrassment and became manhunters again. Within ten minutes they had decided that Cotton, instead of going to San Francisco to his motherтАЩs Friday night, had remained in Quesada, had killed Collinson, had gone to the city to phone Fitzstephan and mail the letter, and then had returned to Quesada in time to kidnap Mrs.┬аCollinson; planning from the first to plant the evidence against Whidden, with whom he had long been on bad terms, having always suspected what everybody else knewтБатАФthat Whidden was Mrs.┬аCottonтАЩs lover. + 

The sheriffтБатАФhe whose chivalry had kept me from more thoroughly questioning the woman a few minutes agoтБатАФnow laughed his belly up and down. + 

тАЬThatтАЩs rich,тАЭ he gurgled. тАЬHim out framing Harve, and Harve getting himself an alibi in his bed. DickтАЩs face ought to be a picture for Puck when we spring that on him. LetтАЩs find him tonight.тАЭ + 

тАЬBetter wait,тАЭ I advised. тАЬIt wonтАЩt hurt to check up his San Francisco trip before we put it to him. All weтАЩve got on him so far is that he tried to frame Whidden. If heтАЩs the murderer and kidnapper he seems to have gone to a lot of unnecessary foolishness.тАЭ + 

Feeney scowled at me and defended their theory: + 

тАЬMaybe he was more interested in framing Harve than anything else.тАЭ + 

тАЬMaybe,тАЭ I said; тАЬbut it wonтАЩt hurt to give him a little more rope and see what he does with it.тАЭ + 

Feeney was against that. He wanted to grab the marshal pronto; but Vernon reluctantly backed me up. We dropped Rolly at his house and returned to the hotel. + 

In my room, I put in a phone-call for the agency in San Francisco. While I was waiting for the connection knuckles tapped my door. I opened it and let in Jack Santos, pajamaed, bathrobed, and slippered. + 

тАЬHave a nice ride?тАЭ he asked, yawning. + 

тАЬSwell.тАЭ + 

тАЬAnything break?тАЭ + 

тАЬNot for publication, butтБатАФunder the hatтБатАФthe new angle is that our marshal is trying to hang the job on his wifeтАЩs boyfriendтБатАФwith homemade evidence. The other big officials think Cotton turned the trick himself.тАЭ + 

тАЬThat ought to get them all on the front page.тАЭ Santos sat on the foot of my bed and lit a cigarette. тАЬEver happen to hear that Feeney was CottonтАЩs rival for the telegraphing hand of the present Mrs.┬аCotton, until she picked the marshalтБатАФthe triumph of dimples over mustachios?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo,тАЭ I admitted. тАЬWhat of it?тАЭ + 

тАЬHow do I know? I just happened to pick it up. A fellow in the garage told me.тАЭ + 

тАЬHow long ago?тАЭ + 

тАЬThat they were rival suitors? Less than a couple of years.тАЭ + 

I got my San Francisco call, and told FieldтБатАФthe agency night-manтБатАФto have somebody check up the marshalтАЩs Noe Street visit. Santos yawned and went out while I was talking. I went to bed when I had finished. + 

XVII + 

Below Dull Point + 

The telephone bell brought me out of sleep a little before ten the following morning. Mickey Linehan, talking from San Francisco, told me Cotton had arrived at his motherтАЩs house at between seven and seven-thirty Saturday morning. The marshal had slept for five or six hoursтБатАФtelling his mother he had been up all night laying for a burglarтБатАФand had left for home at six that evening. + 

Cotton was coming in from the street when I reached the lobby. He was red-eyed and weary, but still determined. + 

тАЬCatch Whidden?тАЭ I asked. + 

тАЬNo, durn him, but I will. Say, IтАЩm glad you jiggled my arm, even if it did let him get away. IтБатАФwell, sometimes a fellowтАЩs enthusiasm gets the best of his judgment.тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah. We stopped at your house on our way back, to see how youтАЩd made out.тАЭ + 

тАЬI ainтАЩt been home yet,тАЭ he said. тАЬI put in the whole durned night hunting for that fellow. WhereтАЩs Vern and Feeney?тАЭ + 

тАЬPounding their ears. Better get some sleep yourself,тАЭ I suggested. тАЬIтАЩll ring you up if anything happens.тАЭ + 

He set off for home. I went into the caf├й for breakfast. I was half through when Vernon joined me there. He had telegrams from the San Francisco police department and the Marin County sheriffтАЩs office, confirming FitzstephanтАЩs alibis. + 

тАЬI got my report on Cotton,тАЭ I said. тАЬHe reached his motherтАЩs at seven or a little after Saturday morning, and left at six that evening.тАЭ + 

тАЬSeven or a little after?тАЭ Vernon didnтАЩt like that. If the marshal had been in San Francisco at that time he could hardly have been abducting the girl. тАЬAre you sure?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo, but thatтАЩs the best weтАЩve been able to do so far. ThereтАЩs Fitzstephan now.тАЭ Looking through the caf├й door, I had seen the novelistтАЩs lanky back at the hotel desk. тАЬExcuse me a moment.тАЭ + 

I went over and got Fitzstephan, bringing him back to the table with me, and introducing him to Vernon. The district attorney stood up to shake hands with him, but was too busy with thoughts of Cotton to bother now with anything else. Fitzstephan said he had had breakfast before leaving the city, and ordered a cup of coffee. Just then I was called to the phone. + 

CottonтАЩs voice, but excited almost beyond recognition: + 

тАЬFor GodтАЩs sake get Vernon and Feeney and come up here.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhatтАЩs the matter?тАЭ I asked. + 

тАЬHurry! Something awfulтАЩs happened. Hurry!тАЭ he cried, and hung up. + 

I went back to the table and told Vernon about it. He jumped up, upsetting FitzstephanтАЩs coffee. Fitzstephan got up too, but hesitated, looking at me. + 

тАЬCome on,тАЭ I invited him. тАЬMaybe thisтАЩll be one of the things you like.тАЭ + 

FitzstephanтАЩs car was in front of the hotel. The marshalтАЩs house was only seven blocks away. Its front door was open. Vernon knocked on the frame as we went in, but we didnтАЩt wait for an answer. + 

Cotton met us in the hall. His eyes were round and bloodshot in a face as hard-white as marble. He tried to say something, but couldnтАЩt get the words past his tight-set teeth. He gestured towards the door behind him with a fist that was clenched on a piece of brown paper. + 

Through the doorway we saw Mrs.┬аCotton. She was lying on the blue-carpeted floor. She had on a pale blue dress. Her throat was covered with dark bruises. Her lips and tongueтБатАФthe tongue, swollen, hung outтБатАФwere darker than the bruises. Her eyes were wide open, bulging, upturned, and dead. Her hand, when I touched it, was still warm. + 

Cotton, following us into the room, held out the brown paper in his hand. It was an irregularly torn piece of wrapping paper, covered on both sides with writingтБатАФnervously, unevenly, hastily scribbled in pencil. A softer pencil had been used than on FitzstephanтАЩs message, and the paper was a darker brown. + 

I was closest to Cotton. I took the paper, and read it aloud hurriedly, skipping unnecessary words: + 

тАЬWhidden came last nightтБатАКтБатАж said husband after himтБатАКтБатАж frame him for Collinson troubleтБатАКтБатАж I hid him in garretтБатАКтБатАж he said only way to save him was to say he was here Friday nightтБатАКтБатАж said if I didnтАЩt theyтАЩd hang himтБатАКтБатАж when Mr.┬аVernon came Harve said heтАЩd kill me if I didnтАЩtтБатАКтБатАж so I said itтБатАКтБатАж but he wasnтАЩt here that nightтБатАКтБатАж I didnтАЩt know he was guilty thenтБатАКтБатАж told me afterwardsтБатАКтБатАж tried to kidnap her Thursday nightтБатАКтБатАж husband nearly caught himтБатАКтБатАж came in office after Collinson sent telegram and saw itтБатАКтБатАж followed him and killed himтБатАКтБатАж went to San Francisco, drinking whiskeyтБатАКтБатАж decided to go through with kidnapping anywayтБатАКтБатАж phoned man who knew her to try to learn who he could get money fromтБатАКтБатАж too drunk to talk goodтБатАКтБатАж wrote letter and came backтБатАКтБатАж met her on roadтБатАКтБатАж took her to old bootleggersтАЩ hiding place somewhere below Dull PointтБатАКтБатАж goes in boatтБатАКтБатАж afraid heтАЩll kill meтБатАКтБатАж locked in garretтБатАКтБатАж writing while heтАЩs down getting foodтБатАКтБатАж murdererтБатАКтБатАж I wonтАЩt help himтБатАКтБатАж Daisy Cotton.тАЭ + 

The sheriff and Rolly had arrived while I was reading it. FeeneyтАЩs face was as white and set as CottonтАЩs. + 

Vernon bared his teeth at the marshal, snarling: + 

тАЬYou wrote that.тАЭ + 

Feeney grabbed it from my hands, looked at it, shook his head, and said hoarsely: + 

тАЬNo, thatтАЩs her writing, all right.тАЭ + 

Cotton was babbling: + 

тАЬNo, before God, I didnтАЩt. I planted that stuff on him, IтАЩll admit that, but that was all. I come home and find her like this. I swear to God!тАЭ + 

тАЬWhere were you Friday night?тАЭ Vernon asked. + 

тАЬHere, watching the house. I thoughtтБатАФI thought he mightтБатАФBut he wasnтАЩt here that night. I watched till daybreak and then went to the city. I didnтАЩtтБатАФтАЭ + 

The sheriffтАЩs bellow drowned the rest of CottonтАЩs words. The sheriff was waving the dead womanтАЩs letter. He bellowed: + 

тАЬBelow Dull Point! What are we waiting for?тАЭ + 

He plunged out of the house, the rest of us following. Cotton and Rolly rode to the waterfront in the deputyтАЩs car. Vernon, the sheriff, and I rode with Fitzstephan. The sheriff cried throughout the short trip, tears splashing on the automatic pistol he held in his lap. + 

At the waterfront we changed from the cars to a green and white motor boat run by a pink-cheeked, towheaded youngster called Tim. Tim said he didnтАЩt know anything about any bootleggersтАЩ hiding-places below Dull Point, but if there was one there he could find it. In his hands the boat produced a lot of speed, but not enough for Feeney and Cotton. They stood together in the bow, guns in their fists, dividing their time between straining forward and yelling back for more speed. + 

Half an hour from the dock, we rounded a blunt promontory that the others called Dull Point, and Tim cut down our speed, putting the boat in closer to the rocks that jumped up high and sharp at the waterтАЩs edge. We were now all eyesтБатАФeyes that soon ached from staring under the noon sun but kept on staring. Twice we saw clefts in the rock-walled shore, pushed hopefully in to them, saw that they were blind, leading nowhere, opening into no hiding-places. + 

The third cleft was even more hopeless-looking at first sight, but, now that Dull Point was some distance behind us, we couldnтАЩt pass up anything. We slid in to the cleft, got close enough to decide that it was another blind one, gave it up, and told Tim to go on. We were washed another couple of feet nearer before the towheaded boy could bring the boat around. + 

Cotton, in the bow, bent forward from the waist and yelled: + 

тАЬHere it is.тАЭ + 

He pointed his gun at one side of the cleft. Tim let the boat drift in another foot or so. Craning our necks, we could see that what we had taken for the shoreline on that side was actually a high, thin, sawtoothed ledge of rock, separated from the cliff at this end by twenty feet of water. + 

тАЬPut her in,тАЭ Feeney ordered. + 

Tim frowned at the water, hesitated, said: тАЬShe canтАЩt make it.тАЭ + 

The boat backed him up by shuddering suddenly under our feet, with an unpleasant rasping noise. + 

тАЬThat be damned!тАЭ the sheriff bawled. тАЬPut her in.тАЭ + 

Tim took a look at the sheriffтАЩs wild face, and put her in. + 

The boat shuddered under our feet again, more violently, and now there was a tearing sound in with the rasping, but we went through the opening and turned down behind the sawtooth ledge. + 

We were in a v-shaped pocket, twenty feet wide where we had come in, say eighty feet long, high-walled, inaccessible by land, accessible by sea only as we had come. The water that floated usтБатАФand was coming in rapidly to sink usтБатАФran a third of the way down the pocket. White sand paved the other two thirds. A small boat was resting its nose on the edge of the sand. It was empty. Nobody was in sight. There didnтАЩt seem to be anywhere for anybody to hide. There were footprints, large and small, in the sand, empty tin cans, and the remains of a fire. + 

тАЬHarveтАЩs,тАЭ Rolly said, nodding at the boat. + 

Our boat grounded beside it. We jumped, splashed, ashoreтБатАФCotton ahead, the others spread out behind him. + 

As suddenly as if he had sprung out of the air, Harvey Whidden appeared in the far end of the v, standing in the sand, a rifle in his hands. Anger and utter astonishment were mixed in his heavy face, and in his voice when he yelled: + 

тАЬYou Goddamned double-crossingтБатАФтАЭ The noise his rifle made blotted out the rest of his words. + 

Cotton had thrown himself down sideways. The rifle bullet missed him by inches, sang between Fitzstephan and me, nicking his hat-brim, and splattered on the rocks behind. Four of our guns went off together, some more than once. + 

Whidden went over backwards, his feet flying in the air. He was dead when we got to himтБатАФthree bullets in his chest, one in his head. + 

We found Gabrielle Collinson cowering back in the corner of a narrow-mouthed hole in the rock wallтБатАФa long triangular cave whose mouth had been hidden from our view by the slant at which it was set. There were blankets in there, spread over a pile of dried seaweed, some canned goods, a lantern, and another rifle. + 

The girlтАЩs small face was flushed and feverish, and her voice was hoarse: she had a cold in her chest. She was too frightened at first to tell us anything coherent, and apparently recognized neither Fitzstephan nor me. + 

The boat we had come in was out of commission. WhiddenтАЩs boat couldnтАЩt be trusted to carry more than three with safety through the surf. Tim and Rolly set off for Quesada in it, to get us a larger vessel. It was an hour-and-a-halfтАЩs round trip. While they were gone we worked on the girl, soothing her, assuring her that she was among friends, that there was nothing to be afraid of now. Her eyes gradually became less scary, her breathing easier, and her nails less tightly pressed into her palms. At the end of an hour she was answering our questions. + 

She said she knew nothing of WhiddenтАЩs attempt to kidnap her Thursday night, nothing of the telegram Eric had sent me. She sat up all Friday night waiting for him to return from his walk, and at daylight, frantic at his failure to return, had gone to look for him. She found himтБатАФas I had. Then she went back to the house and tried to commit suicideтБатАФto put an end to the curse by shooting herself. + 

тАЬI tried twice,тАЭ she whispered; тАЬbut I couldnтАЩt. I couldnтАЩt. I was too much a coward. I couldnтАЩt keep the pistol pointing at myself while I did it. I tried the first time to shoot myself in the temple, and then in the breast; but I hadnтАЩt the courage. Each time I jerked it away just before I fired. And after the second time I couldnтАЩt even get courage to try again.тАЭ + 

She changed her clothes thenтБатАФevening clothes, now muddy and torn from her searchтБатАФand drove away from the house. She didnтАЩt say where she had intended going. She didnтАЩt seem to know. Probably she hadnтАЩt had any destinationтБатАФwas simply going away from the place where the curse had settled on her husband. + 

She hadnтАЩt driven far when she had seen a machine coming towards her, driven by the man who had brought her here. He had turned his car across the road in front of her, blocking the road. Trying to avoid hitting his car, she had run into a treeтБатАФand hadnтАЩt known anything else until she had awakened in the cave. She had been here since then. The man had left her here alone most of the time. She had neither strength nor courage to escape by swimming, and there was no other way out. + 

The man had told her nothing, had asked her nothing, had addressed no words to her except to say, тАЬHereтАЩs some food,тАЭ or, тАЬTill I bring you some water, youтАЩll have to get along on canned tomatoes when youтАЩre thirsty,тАЭ or other things of that sort. She never remembered having seen him before. She didnтАЩt know his name. He was the only man she had seen since her husbandтАЩs death. + 

тАЬWhat did he call you?тАЭ I asked. тАЬMrs.┬аCarter? Or Mrs.┬аCollinson?тАЭ + 

She frowned thoughtfully, then shook her head, saying: + 

тАЬI donтАЩt think he ever called me by name. He never spoke unless he had to, and he wasnтАЩt here very much. I was usually alone.тАЭ + 

тАЬHow long had he been here this time?тАЭ + 

тАЬSince before daylight. The noise of his boat woke me up.тАЭ + 

тАЬSure? This is important. Are you sure heтАЩs been here since daylight?тАЭ + 

тАЬYes.тАЭ + 

I was sitting on my heels in front of her. Cotton was standing on my left, beside the sheriff. I looked up at the marshal and said: + 

тАЬThat puts it up to you, Cotton. Your wife was still warm when we saw herтБатАФafter eleven.тАЭ + 

He goggled at me, stammering: тАЬWh-whatтАЩs that you say?тАЭ + 

On the other side of me I heard VernonтАЩs teeth click together sharply. + 

I said: + 

тАЬYour wife was afraid Whidden would kill her, and wrote that statement. But he didnтАЩt kill her. HeтАЩs been here since daylight. You found the statement, learned from it that they had been too friendly. Well, what did you do then?тАЭ + 

тАЬThatтАЩs a lie,тАЭ he cried. тАЬThere ainтАЩt a word of truth in it. She was dead there when I found her. I neverтБатАФтАЭ + 

тАЬYou killed her,тАЭ Vernon barked at him over my head. тАЬYou choked her, counting on that statement to throw suspicion on Whidden.тАЭ + 

тАЬThatтАЩs a lie,тАЭ the marshal cried again, and made the mistake of trying to get his gun out. + 

Feeney slugged him, dropping him, and had handcuffs on his wrists before he could get up again. + 

XVIII + 

The Pineapple + 

тАЬIt doesnтАЩt make sense,тАЭ I said. тАЬItтАЩs dizzy. When we grab our manтБатАФor womanтБатАФweтАЩre going to find itтАЩs a goof, and Napa will get it instead of the gallows.тАЭ + 

тАЬThat,тАЭ Owen Fitzstephan said, тАЬis characteristic of you. YouтАЩre stumped, bewildered, flabbergasted. Do you admit youтАЩve met your master, have run into a criminal too wily for you? Not you. HeтАЩs outwitted you: therefore heтАЩs an idiot or a lunatic. Now really. Of course thereтАЩs a certain unexpected modesty to that attitude.тАЭ + 

тАЬBut heтАЩs got to be goofy,тАЭ I insisted. тАЬLook: Mayenne marriesтБатАФтАЭ + 

тАЬAre you,тАЭ he asked disgustedly, тАЬgoing to recite that catalogue again?тАЭ + 

тАЬYouтАЩve got a flighty mind. ThatтАЩs no good in this business. You donтАЩt catch murderers by amusing yourself with interesting thoughts. YouтАЩve got to sit down to all the facts you can get and turn them over and over till they click.тАЭ + 

тАЬIf thatтАЩs your technic, youтАЩll have to put up with it,тАЭ he said; тАЬbut IтАЩm damned if I see why I should suffer. You recited the Mayenne-Leggett-Collinson history step by step last night at least half a dozen times. YouтАЩve done nothing else since breakfast this morning. IтАЩm getting enough of it. NobodyтАЩs mysteries ought to be as tiresome as youтАЩre making this one.тАЭ + 

тАЬHell,тАЭ I said; тАЬI sat up half the night after you went to bed and recited it to myself. You got to turn them over and over, my boy, till they click.тАЭ + 

тАЬI like the Nick Carter school better. ArenтАЩt you even threatened with any of the conclusions that this turning-them-over-and-over is supposed to lead to?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah, IтАЩve got one. ItтАЩs that Vernon and Feeney are wrong in thinking that Cotton was working with Whidden on the kidnapping, and double-crossed him. According to them, Cotton thought up the plan and persuaded Whidden to do the rough stuff while the marshal used his official position to cover him up. Collinson stumbled on the plan and was killed. Then Cotton made his wife write that statementтБатАФitтАЩs phony, right enough, was dictated to herтБатАФkilled her, and led us to Whidden. Cotton was the first man ashore when we got to the hiding-placeтБатАФto make sure Whidden was killed resisting arrest before he could talk.тАЭ + 

Fitzstephan ran long fingers through his sorrel hair and asked: + 

тАЬDonтАЩt you think jealousy would have given Cotton motive enough?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah. But whereтАЩs WhiddenтАЩs motive for putting himself in CottonтАЩs hands? Besides, where does that layout fit in with the Temple racket?тАЭ + 

тАЬAre you sure,тАЭ Fitzstephan asked, тАЬthat youтАЩre right in thinking there must be a connection?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah. GabrielleтАЩs father, stepmother, physician, and husband have been slaughtered in less than a handful of weeksтБатАФall the people closest to her. ThatтАЩs enough to tie it all together for me. If you want more links, I can point them out to you. Upton and Ruppert were the apparent instigators of the first trouble, and got killed. Haldorn of the second, and got killed. Whidden of the third, and got killed. Mrs.┬аLeggett killed her husband; Cotton apparently killed his wife; and Haldorn would have killed his if I hadnтАЩt blocked him. Gabrielle, as a child, was made to kill her mother; GabrielleтАЩs maid was made to kill Riese, and nearly me. Leggett left behind him a statement explainingтБатАФnot altogether satisfactorilyтБатАФeverything, and was killed. So did and was Mrs.┬аCotton. Call any of these pairs coincidences. Call any couple of pairs coincidences. YouтАЩll still have enough left to point at somebody whoтАЩs got a system he likes, and sticks to it.тАЭ + 

Fitzstephan squinted thoughtfully at me, agreeing: + 

тАЬThere may be something in that. It does, as you put it, look like the work of one mind.тАЭ + 

тАЬAnd a goofy one.тАЭ + 

тАЬBe obstinate about it,тАЭ he said. тАЬBut even your goof must have a motive.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhy?тАЭ + 

тАЬDamn your sort of mind,тАЭ he said with good-natured impatience. тАЬIf he had no motive connected with Gabrielle, why should his crimes be connected with her?тАЭ + 

тАЬWe donтАЩt know that all of them are,тАЭ I pointed out. тАЬWe only know of the ones that are.тАЭ + 

He grinned and said: + 

тАЬYouтАЩll go any distance to disagree, wonтАЩt you?тАЭ + 

I said: + 

тАЬThen again, maybe the goofтАЩs crimes are connected with Gabrielle because he is.тАЭ + 

Fitzstephan let his gray eyes go sleepy over that, pursing his mouth, looking at the door closed between my room and GabrielleтАЩs. + 

тАЬAll right,тАЭ he said, looking at me again. тАЬWhoтАЩs your maniac close to Gabrielle?тАЭ + 

тАЬThe closest and goofiest person to Gabrielle is Gabrielle herself.тАЭ + 

Fitzstephan got up and crossed the hotel roomтБатАФI was sitting on the edge of the bedтБатАФto shake my hand with solemn enthusiasm. + 

тАЬYouтАЩre wonderful,тАЭ he said. тАЬYou amaze me. Ever have night sweats? Put out your tongue and say, тАШAh.тАЩтАКтАЭ + 

тАЬSuppose,тАЭ I began, but was interrupted by a feeble tapping on the corridor door. + 

I went to the door and opened it. A thin man of my own age and height in wrinkled black clothes stood in the corridor. He was breathing heavily through a red-veined nose, and his small brown eyes were timid. + 

тАЬYou know me,тАЭ he said apologetically. + 

тАЬYeah. Come in.тАЭ I introduced him to Fitzstephan: тАЬThis is the Tom Fink who was one of HaldornтАЩs helpers in the Temple of the Holy Grail.тАЭ + 

Fink looked reproachfully at me, then dragged his crumpled hat from his head and crossed the room to shake FitzstephanтАЩs hand. That done, he returned to me and said, almost whispering: + 

тАЬI come down to tell you something.тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah?тАЭ + 

He fidgeted, turning his hat around and around in his hands. I winked at Fitzstephan and went out with Fink. In the corridor, I closed the door and stopped, saying: тАЬLetтАЩs have it.тАЭ + 

Fink rubbed his lips with his tongue and then with the back of one scrawny hand. He said, in his half-whisper: + 

тАЬI come down to tell you something I thought you ought to know.тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah?тАЭ + 

тАЬItтАЩs about this fellow Whidden that was killed.тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah?тАЭ + 

тАЬHe wasтБатАФтАЭ + 

The door to my room split open. Floors, walls, and ceiling wriggled under, around, and over us. There was too much noise to be heardтБатАФa roar that was felt bodily. Tom Fink was carried away from me, backward. I had sense enough to throw myself down as I was blown in the opposite direction, and got nothing worse out of it than a bruised shoulder when I hit the wall. A doorframe stopped Fink, wickedly, its edge catching the back of his head. He came forward again, folding over to lie face-down on the floor, still except for blood running from his head. + 

I got up and made for my room. Fitzstephan was a mangled pile of flesh and clothing in the center of the floor. My bed was burning. There was neither glass nor wire netting left in the window. I saw these things mechanically as I staggered toward GabrielleтАЩs room. The connecting door was openтБатАФperhaps blown open. + 

She was crouching on all fours in bed, facing the foot, her feet on the pillows. Her nightdress was torn at one shoulder. Her green-brown eyesтБатАФglittering under brown curls that had tumbled down to hide her foreheadтБатАФwere the eyes of an animal gone trap-crazy. Saliva glistened on her pointed chin. There was nobody else in the room. + 

тАЬWhereтАЩs the nurse?тАЭ My voice was choked. + 

The girl said nothing. Her eyes kept their crazy terror focused on me. + 

тАЬGet under the covers,тАЭ I ordered. тАЬWant to get pneumonia?тАЭ + 

She didnтАЩt move. I walked around to the side of the bed, lifting an end of the covers with one hand, reaching out the other to help her, saying: + 

тАЬCome on, get inside.тАЭ + 

She made a queer noise deep in her chest, dropped her head, and put her sharp teeth into the back of my hand. It hurt. I put her under the covers, returned to my room, and was pushing my burning mattress through the window when people began to arrive. + 

тАЬGet a doctor,тАЭ I called to the first of them; тАЬand stay out of here.тАЭ + 

I had got rid of the mattress by the time Mickey Linehan pushed through the crowd that was now filling the corridor. Mickey blinked at what was left of Fitzstephan, at me, and asked: + 

тАЬWhat the hell?тАЭ + 

His big loose mouth sagged at the ends, looking like a grin turned upside down. + 

I licked burnt fingers and asked unpleasantly: + 

тАЬWhat the hell does it look like?тАЭ + 

тАЬMore trouble, sure.тАЭ The grin turned right side up on his red face. тАЬSureтБатАФyouтАЩre here.тАЭ + 

Ben Rolly came in. тАЬTch, tch, tch,тАЭ he said, looking around. тАЬWhat do you suppose happened?тАЭ + 

тАЬPineapple,тАЭ I said. + 

тАЬTch, tch, tch.тАЭ + 

Doctor George came in and knelt beside the wreck of Fitzstephan. George had been GabrielleтАЩs physician since her return from the cave the previous day. He was a short, chunky, middle-aged man with a lot of black hair everywhere except on his lips, cheeks, chin, and nose-bridge. His hairy hands moved over Fitzstephan. + 

тАЬWhatтАЩs Fink been doing?тАЭ I asked Mickey. + 

тАЬHardly any. I got on his tail when they sprung him yesterday noon. He went from the hoosegow to a hotel on Kearny Street and got himself a room. He spent most of the afternoon in the Public Library, reading the newspaper files on the girlтАЩs troubles, from beginning to date. He ate after that, and went back to the hotel. He could have back-doored me. If he didnтАЩt, he camped in his room all night. It was dark at midnight when I knocked off so I could be on the job again at six a.m. He showed at seven-something, got breakfast, and grabbed a rattler for Poston, changed to the stage for here, and came straight to the hotel, asking for you. ThatтАЩs the crop.тАЭ + 

тАЬDamn my soul!тАЭ the kneeling doctor exclaimed. тАЬThe manтАЩs not dead.тАЭ + 

I didnтАЩt believe him. FitzstephanтАЩs right arm was gone, and most of his right leg. His body was too twisted to see what was left of it, but there was only one side to his face. I said: + 

тАЬThereтАЩs another one out in the hall, with his head knocked in.тАЭ + 

тАЬOh, heтАЩs all right,тАЭ the doctor muttered without looking up. тАЬBut this oneтБатАФwell, damn my soul!тАЭ + 

He scrambled to his feet and began ordering this and that. He was excited. A couple of men came in from the corridor. The woman who had been nursing Gabrielle CollinsonтБатАФa Mrs.┬аHermanтБатАФjoined them, and another man with a blanket. They took Fitzstephan away. + 

тАЬThat fellow out in the hall Fink?тАЭ Rolly asked. + 

тАЬYeah.тАЭ I told him what Fink had told me, adding: тАЬHe hadnтАЩt finished when the blowup came.тАЭ + 

тАЬSuppose the bomb was meant for him, meant to keep him from finishing?тАЭ + 

Mickey said: тАЬNobody followed him down from the city, except me.тАЭ + 

тАЬMaybe,тАЭ I said. тАЬBetter see what theyтАЩre doing with him, Mick.тАЭ + 

Mickey went out. + 

тАЬThis window was closed,тАЭ I told Rolly. тАЬThere was no noise as of something being thrown through the glass just before the explosion; and thereтАЩs no broken window-glass inside the room. The screen was over it, too, so we can say the pineapple wasnтАЩt chucked in through the window.тАЭ + 

Rolly nodded vaguely, looking at the door to GabrielleтАЩs room. + 

тАЬFink and I were in the corridor talking,тАЭ I went on. тАЬI ran straight back through here to her room. Nobody could have got out of her room after the explosion without my seeing themтБатАФor hearing them. There wasnтАЩt finger-snapping time between my losing sight of her corridor-door from the outside, and seeing it again from the inside. The screen over her window is still OK.тАЭ + 

тАЬMrs.┬аHerman wasnтАЩt in there with her?тАЭ Rolly asked. + 

тАЬShe was supposed to be, but wasnтАЩt. WeтАЩll find out about that. ThereтАЩs no use thinking Mrs.┬аCollinson chucked the bomb. SheтАЩs been in bed since we brought her back from Dull Point yesterday. She couldnтАЩt have had the bomb planted there because she had no way of knowing that she was going to occupy the room. NobodyтАЩs been in there since except you, Feeney, Vernon, the doctor, the nurse, and me.тАЭ + 

тАЬI wasnтАЩt going to say she had anything to do with it,тАЭ the deputy sheriff mumbled. тАЬWhat does she say?тАЭ + 

тАЬNothing yet. WeтАЩll try her now, though I doubt if itтАЩll get us much.тАЭ + 

It didnтАЩt. Gabrielle lay in the middle of the bed, the covers gathered close to her chin as if she was prepared to duck down under them at the first alarm, and shook her head No to everything we asked, whether the answer fit or didnтАЩt. + 

The nurse came in, a big-breasted, red-haired woman of forty-something with a face that seemed honest because it was homely, freckled, and blue-eyed. She swore on the Gideon Bible that she had been out of the room for less than five minutes, just going downstairs for some stationery, intending to write a letter to her nephew in Vallejo while her patient was sleeping; and that was the only time she had been out of the room all day. She had met nobody in the corridor, she said. + 

тАЬYou left the door unlocked?тАЭ I asked. + 

тАЬYes, so I wouldnтАЩt be as likely to wake her when I came back.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhereтАЩs the stationery you got?тАЭ + 

тАЬI didnтАЩt get it. I heard the explosion and ran back upstairs.тАЭ Fear came into her face, turning the freckles to ghastly spots. тАЬYou donтАЩt thinkтБатАФ!тАЭ + 

тАЬBetter look after Mrs.┬аCollinson,тАЭ I said gruffly. + 

XIX + 

The Degenerate + 

Rolly and I went back to my room, closing the connecting door. He said: + 

тАЬTch, tch, tch. IтАЩd of thought Mrs.┬аHerman was the last person in the world toтБатАФтАЭ + 

тАЬYou ought toтАЩve,тАЭ I grumbled. тАЬYou recommended her. Who is she?тАЭ + 

тАЬSheтАЩs Tod HermanтАЩs wife. HeтАЩs got the garage. She used to be a trained nurse before she married Tod. I thought she was all right.тАЭ + 

тАЬShe got a nephew in Vallejo?тАЭ + 

тАЬUh-huh; that would be the Schultz kid that works at Mare Island. How do you suppose she come to get mixed up inтБатАФ?тАЭ + 

тАЬProbably didnтАЩt, or she would have had the writing paper she went after. Put somebody here to keep people out till we can borrow a San Francisco bomb-expert to look it over.тАЭ + 

The deputy called one of the men in from the corridor, and we left him looking important in the room. Mickey Linehan was in the lobby when we got there. + 

тАЬFinkтАЩs got a cracked skull. HeтАЩs on his way to the county hospital with the other wreck.тАЭ + 

тАЬFitzstephan dead yet?тАЭ I asked. + 

тАЬNope, and the doc thinks if they get him over where they got the right kind of implements they can keep him from dying. God knows what forтБатАФthe shape heтАЩs in! But thatтАЩs just the kind of stuff a croaker thinks is a lot of fun.тАЭ + 

тАЬWas Aaronia Haldorn sprung with Fink?тАЭ I asked. + 

тАЬYes. Al MasonтАЩs tailing her.тАЭ + 

тАЬCall up the Old Man and see if AlтАЩs reported anything on her. Tell the Old Man whatтАЩs happened here, and see if theyтАЩve found Andrews.тАЭ + 

тАЬAndrews?тАЭ Rolly asked as Mickey headed for the phone. тАЬWhatтАЩs the matter with him?тАЭ + 

тАЬNothing that I know of; only we havenтАЩt been able to find him to tell him Mrs.┬аCollinson has been rescued. His office hasnтАЩt seen him since yesterday morning, and nobody will say they know where he is.тАЭ + 

тАЬTch, tch, tch. Is there any special reason for wanting him?тАЭ + 

тАЬI donтАЩt want her on my hands the rest of my life,тАЭ I said. тАЬHeтАЩs in charge of her affairs, heтАЩs responsible for her, and I want to turn her over to him.тАЭ + 

Rolly nodded vaguely. + 

We went outside and asked all the people we could find all the questions we could think of. None of the answers led anywhere, except to repeated assurance that the bomb hadnтАЩt been chucked through the window. We found six people who had been in sight of that side of the hotel immediately before, and at the time of, the explosion; and none of them had seen anything that could be twisted into bearing on the bomb-throwing. + 

Mickey came away from the phone with the information that Aaronia Haldorn, when released from the city prison, had gone to the home of a family named Jeffries in San Mateo, and had been there ever since; and that Dick Foley, hunting for Andrews, had hopes of locating him in Sausalito. + 

District attorney Vernon and sheriff Feeney, with a horde of reporters and photographers close behind them, arrived from the county seat. They went through a lot of detecting motions that got them nowhere except on the front pages of all the San Francisco and Los Angeles papersтБатАФthe place they liked best. + 

I had Gabrielle Collinson moved into another room in the hotel, and posted Mickey Linehan next door, with the connecting door unlocked. Gabrielle talked now, to Vernon, Feeney, Rolly, and me. What she said didnтАЩt help us much. She had been asleep, she said; had been awakened by a terrible noise and a terrible jarring of her bed; and then I had come in. That was all she knew. + 

Late in the afternoon McCracken, a San Francisco police department bomb-expert, arrived. After examining all the fragments of this and that which he could sweep up, he gave us a preliminary verdict that the bomb had been a small one, of aluminum, charged with a low-grade nitroglycerine, and exploded by a crude friction device. + 

тАЬAmateur or professional job?тАЭ I asked. + 

McCracken spit out loose shreds of tobaccoтБатАФhe was one of the men who chew their cigarettesтБатАФand said: + 

тАЬIтАЩd say it was made by a guy that knew his stuff, but had to work with what he could get his hands on. IтАЩll tell you more when IтАЩve worked this junk over in the lab.тАЭ + 

тАЬNo timer on it?тАЭ I asked. + 

тАЬNo signs of one.тАЭ + 

Doctor George returned from the county seat with the news that what was left of Fitzstephan still breathed. The doctor was tickled pink. I had to yell at him to make him hear my questions about Fink and Gabrielle. Then he told me FinkтАЩs life wasnтАЩt in danger, and the girlтАЩs cold was enough better that she might get out of bed if she wished. I asked about her nerves, but he was in too much of a hurry to get back to Fitzstephan to pay much attention to anything else. + 

тАЬHmтАСmтАСm, yes, certainly,тАЭ he muttered, edging past me towards his car. тАЬQuiet, rest, freedom from anxiety,тАЭ and he was gone. + 

I ate dinner with Vernon and Feeney in the hotel caf├й that evening. They didnтАЩt think I had told them all I knew about the bombing, and kept me on the witness stand throughout the meal, though neither of them accused me point-blank of holding out. + 

After dinner I went up to my new room. Mickey was sprawled on the bed reading a newspaper. + 

тАЬGo feed yourself,тАЭ I said. тАЬHowтАЩs our baby?тАЭ + 

тАЬSheтАЩs up. How do you figure herтБатАФonly fifty cards to her deck?тАЭ + 

тАЬWhy?тАЭ I asked. тАЬWhatтАЩs she been doing?тАЭ + 

тАЬNothing. I was just thinking.тАЭ + 

тАЬThatтАЩs from having an empty stomach. Better go eat.тАЭ + 

тАЬAye, aye, Mr.┬аContinental,тАЭ he said and went out. + 

The next room was quiet. I listened at the door and then tapped it. Mrs.┬аHermanтАЩs voice said: тАЬCome in.тАЭ + 

She was sitting beside the bed making gaudy butterflies on a piece of yellowish cloth stretched on hoops. Gabrielle Collinson sat in a rocking chair on the other side of the room, frowning at hands clasped in her lapтБатАФclasped hard enough to whiten the knuckles and spread the finger-ends. She had on the tweed clothes in which she had been kidnapped. They were still rumpled, but had been brushed clean of mud. She didnтАЩt look up when I came in. The nurse did, pushing her freckles together in an uneasy smile. + 

тАЬGood evening,тАЭ I said, trying to make a cheerful entrance. тАЬLooks like weтАЩre running out of invalids.тАЭ + 

That brought no response from the girl, too much from the nurse. + 

тАЬYes, indeed,тАЭ Mrs.┬аHerman exclaimed with exaggerated enthusiasm. тАЬWe canтАЩt call Mrs.┬аCollinson an invalid nowтБатАФnow that sheтАЩs up and aboutтБатАФand IтАЩm almost sorry that she isтБатАФhe-he-heтБатАФbecause I certainly never did have such a nice patient in every way; but thatтАЩs what we girls used to say at the hospital when we were in training: the nicer the patient was, the shorter the time weтАЩd have him, while you take a disagreeable one and sheтАЩd liveтБатАФI mean, be thereтБатАФforever and a day, it seems like. I remember once whenтБатАФтАЭ + 

I made a face at her and wagged my head at the door. She let the rest of her words die inside her open mouth. Her face turned red, then white. She dropped her embroidery and got up, saying idiotically: тАЬYes, yes, thatтАЩs the way it always is. Well, IтАЩve got to go see about thoseтБатАФyou knowтБатАФwhat do you call them. Pardon me for a few minutes, please.тАЭ She went out quickly, sidewise, as if afraid IтАЩd sneak up behind her and kick her. + 

When the door had closed, Gabrielle looked up from her hands and said: + 

тАЬOwen is dead.тАЭ + 

She didnтАЩt ask, she said it; but there was no way of treating it except as a question. + 

тАЬNo.тАЭ I sat down in the nurseтАЩs chair and fished out cigarettes. тАЬHeтАЩs alive.тАЭ + 

тАЬWill he live?тАЭ Her voice was still husky from her cold. + 

тАЬThe doctors think so,тАЭ I exaggerated. + 

тАЬIf he lives, will heтБатАФ?тАЭ She left the question unfinished, but her husky voice seemed impersonal enough. + 

тАЬHeтАЩll be pretty badly maimed.тАЭ + 

She spoke more to herself than to me: + 

тАЬThat should be even more satisfactory.тАЭ + 

I grinned. If I was as good an actor as I thought, there was nothing in the grin but good-humored amusement. + 

тАЬLaugh,тАЭ she said gravely. тАЬI wish you could laugh it away. But you canтАЩt. ItтАЩs there. It will always be there.тАЭ She looked down at her hands and whispered: тАЬCursed.тАЭ + 

Spoken in any other tone, that last word would have been melodramatic, ridiculously stagey. But she said it automatically, without any feeling, as if saying it had become a habit. I could see her lying in bed in the dark, whispering it to herself hour after hour, whispering it to her body when she put on her clothes, to her face reflected in mirrors, day after day. + 

I squirmed in my chair and growled: + 

тАЬStop it. Just because a bad-tempered woman works off her hatred and rage in a ten-twenty-thirty speech aboutтБатАФтАЭ + 

тАЬNo, no; my stepmother merely put in words what I have always known. I hadnтАЩt known it was in the Dain blood, but I knew it was in mine. How could I help knowing? HadnтАЩt I the physical marks of degeneracy?тАЭ She crossed the room to stand in front of me, turning her head sidewise, holding back her curls with both hands. тАЬLook at my earsтБатАФwithout lobes, pointed tops. People donтАЩt have ears like that. Animals do.тАЭ She turned her face to me again, still holding back her hair. тАЬLook at my foreheadтБатАФits smallness, its shapeтБатАФanimal. My teeth.тАЭ She bared themтБатАФwhite, small, pointed. тАЬThe shape of my face.тАЭ Her hands left her hair and slid down her cheeks, coming together under her oddly pointed small chin. + 

тАЬIs that all?тАЭ I asked. тАЬHavenтАЩt you got cloven hoofs? All right. Say these things are as peculiar as you seem to think they are. What of it? Your stepmother was a Dain, and she was poison, but where were her physical marks of degeneracy? WasnтАЩt she as normal, as wholesome-looking as any woman youтАЩre likely to find?тАЭ + 

тАЬBut thatтАЩs no answer.тАЭ She shook her head impatiently. тАЬShe didnтАЩt have the physical marks perhaps. I have, and the mental ones too. IтБатАФтАЭ She sat down on the side of the bed close to me, elbows on knees, tortured white face between hands. тАЬIтАЩve not ever been able to think clearly, as other people do, even the simplest thoughts. Everything is always so confused in my mind. No matter what I try to think about, thereтАЩs a fog that gets between me and it, and other thoughts get between us, so I barely catch a glimpse of the thought I want before I lose it again, and have to hunt through the fog, and at last find it, only to have the same thing happen again and again and again. Can you understand how horrible that can become: going through life like thatтБатАФyear after yearтБатАФknowing you will always be like thatтБатАФor worse?тАЭ + 

тАЬI canтАЩt,тАЭ I said. тАЬIt sounds normal as hell to me. Nobody thinks clearly, no matter what they pretend. ThinkingтАЩs a dizzy business, a matter of catching as many of those foggy glimpses as you can and fitting them together the best you can. ThatтАЩs why people hang on so tight to their beliefs and opinions; because, compared to the haphazard way in which theyтАЩre arrived at, even the goofiest opinion seems wonderfully clear, sane, and self-evident. And if you let it get away from you, then youтАЩve got to dive back into that foggy muddle to wangle yourself out another to take its place.тАЭ + 

She took her face out of her hands and smiled shyly at me, saying: + 

тАЬItтАЩs funny I didnтАЩt like you before.тАЭ Her face became serious again. тАЬButтБатАФтАЭ + 

тАЬBut nothing,тАЭ I said. тАЬYouтАЩre old enough to know that everybody except very crazy people and very stupid people suspect themselves now and thenтБатАФor whenever they happen to think about itтБатАФof not being exactly sane. Evidence of goofiness is easily found: the more you dig into yourself, the more you turn up. NobodyтАЩs mind could stand the sort of examination youтАЩve been giving yours. Going around trying to prove yourself cuckoo! ItтАЩs a wonder you havenтАЩt driven yourself nuts.тАЭ + 

тАЬPerhaps I have.тАЭ + 

тАЬNo. Take my word for it, youтАЩre sane. Or donтАЩt take my word for it. Look. You got a hell of a start in life. You got into bad hands at the very beginning. Your stepmother was plain poison, and did her best to ruin you, and in the end succeeded in convincing you that you were smeared with a very special family curse. In the past couple of monthsтБатАФthe time IтАЩve known youтБатАФall the calamities known to man have been piled up on you, and your belief in your curse has made you hold yourself responsible for every item in the pile. All right. HowтАЩs it affected you? YouтАЩve been dazed a lot of the time, hysterical part of the time, and when your husband was killed you tried to kill yourself, but werenтАЩt unbalanced enough to face the shock of the bullet tearing through your flesh. + 

тАЬWell, good God, sister! IтАЩm only a hired man with only a hired manтАЩs interest in your troubles, and some of them have had me groggy. DidnтАЩt I try to bite a ghost back in that Temple? And IтАЩm supposed to be old and toughened to crime. This morningтБатАФafter all youтАЩd been throughтБатАФsomebody touches off a package of nitroglycerine almost beside your bed. Here you are this evening, up and dressed, arguing with me about your sanity. + 

тАЬIf you arenтАЩt normal, itтАЩs because youтАЩre tougher, saner, cooler than normal. Stop thinking about your Dain blood and think about the Mayenne blood in you. Where do you suppose you got your toughness, except from him? ItтАЩs the same toughness that carried him through DevilтАЩs Island, Central America, and Mexico, and kept him standing up till the end. YouтАЩre more like him than like the one Dain I saw. Physically, you take after your father, and if youтАЩve got any physical marks of degeneracyтБатАФwhatever that meansтБатАФyou got them from him.тАЭ + 

She seemed to like that. Her eyes were almost happy. But I had talked myself out of words for the moment, and while I was hunting for more behind a cigarette the shine went out of her eyes. + 

тАЬIтАЩm gladтБатАФIтАЩm grateful to you for what youтАЩve said, if youтАЩve meant it.тАЭ Hopelessness was in her tone again, and her face was back between her hands. тАЬBut, whatever I am, she was right. You canтАЩt say she wasnтАЩt. You canтАЩt deny that my life has been cursed, blackened, and the lives of everyone whoтАЩs touched me.тАЭ + 

тАЬIтАЩm one answer to that,тАЭ I said. тАЬIтАЩve been around you a lot recently, and IтАЩve mixed into your affairs enough, and nothingтАЩs happened to me that a nightтАЩs sleep wouldnтАЩt fix up.тАЭ + 

тАЬBut in a different way,тАЭ she protested slowly, wrinkling her forehead. тАЬThereтАЩs no personal relationship with you. ItтАЩs professional with youтБатАФyour work. That makes a difference.тАЭ + 

I laughed and said: + 

тАЬThat wonтАЩt do. ThereтАЩs Fitzstephan. He knew your family, of course, but he was here through me, on my account, and was actually, then, a step further removed from you than I. Why shouldnтАЩt I have gone down first? Maybe the bomb was meant for me? Maybe. But that brings us to a human mind behind itтБатАФone that can bungleтБатАФand not your infallible curse.тАЭ + 

тАЬYou are mistaken,тАЭ she said, staring at her knees. тАЬOwen loved me.тАЭ + 

I decided not to appear surprised. I asked: + 

тАЬHad youтБатАФ?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo, please! Please donтАЩt ask me to talk about it. Not nowтБатАФafter what happened this morning.тАЭ She jerked her shoulders up high and straight, said crisply: тАЬYou said something about an infallible curse. I donтАЩt know whether you misunderstand me, or are pretending to, to make me seem foolish. But I donтАЩt believe in an infallible curse, one coming from the devil or God, like JobтАЩs, say.тАЭ She was earnest now, no longer talking to change the conversation. тАЬBut canтАЩt there beтБатАФarenтАЩt there people who are so thoroughlyтБатАФfundamentallyтБатАФevil that they poisonтБатАФbring out the worst inтБатАФeverybody they touch? And canтАЩt thatтБатАФ?тАЭ + 

тАЬThere are people who can,тАЭ I half-agreed, тАЬwhen they want to.тАЭ + 

тАЬNo, no! Whether they want to or not. When they desperately donтАЩt want to. It is so. It is. I loved Eric because he was clean and fine. You know he was. You knew him well enough, and you know men well enough, to know he was. I loved him that way, wanted him that way. And then, when we were marriedтБатАФтАЭ + 

She shuddered and gave me both of her hands. The palms were dry and hot, the ends of her fingers cold. I had to hold them tight to keep the nails out of my flesh. I asked: + 

тАЬYou were a virgin when you married him?тАЭ + 

тАЬYes, I was. I am. IтБатАФтАЭ + 

тАЬItтАЩs nothing to get excited about,тАЭ I said. тАЬYou are, and have the usual silly notions. And you use dope, donтАЩt you?тАЭ + 

She nodded. I went on: + 

тАЬThat would cut your own interest in sex to below normal, so that a perfectly natural interest in it on somebody elseтАЩs part would seem abnormal. Eric was too young, too much in love with you, maybe too inexperienced, to keep from being clumsy. You canтАЩt make anything horrible out of that.тАЭ + 

тАЬBut it wasnтАЩt only Eric,тАЭ she explained. тАЬEvery man IтАЩve known. DonтАЩt think me conceited. I know IтАЩm not beautiful. But I donтАЩt want to be evil. I donтАЩt. Why do menтБатАФ? Why have all the men IтАЩveтБатАФ?тАЭ + 

тАЬAre you,тАЭ I asked, тАЬtalking about me?тАЭ + 

тАЬNoтБатАФyou know IтАЩm not. DonтАЩt make fun of me, please.тАЭ + 

тАЬThen there are exceptions? Any others? Madison Andrews, for instance?тАЭ + 

тАЬIf you know him at all well, or have heard much about him, you donтАЩt have to ask that.тАЭ + 

тАЬNo,тАЭ I agreed. тАЬBut you canтАЩt blame the curse with himтБатАФitтАЩs habit. Was he very bad?тАЭ + 

тАЬHe was very funny,тАЭ she said bitterly. + 

тАЬHow long ago was it?тАЭ + 

тАЬOh, possibly a year and a half. I didnтАЩt say anything to my father and stepmother. I wasтБатАФI was ashamed that men were like that to me, and thatтБатАФтАЭ + 

тАЬHow do you know,тАЭ I grumbled, тАЬthat most men arenтАЩt like that to most women? What makes you think your case is so damned unique? If your ears were sharp enough, you could listen now and hear a thousand women in San Francisco making the same complaint, andтБатАФGod knowsтБатАФmaybe half of them would be thinking themselves sincere.тАЭ + 

She took her hands away from me and sat up straight on the bed. Some pink came into her face. + 

тАЬNow you have made me feel silly,тАЭ she said. + 

тАЬNot much sillier than I do. IтАЩm supposed to be a detective. Since this job began, IтАЩve been riding around on a merry-go-round, staying the same distance behind your curse, suspecting what itтАЩd look like if I could get face to face with it, but never getting there. I will now. Can you stand another week or two?тАЭ + 

тАЬYou meanтБатАФ?тАЭ + 

тАЬIтАЩm going to show you that your curse is a lot of hooey, but itтАЩll take a few days, maybe a couple of weeks.тАЭ + 

She was round-eyed and trembling, wanting to believe me, afraid to. I said: + 

тАЬThatтАЩs settled. What are you going to do now?тАЭ + 

тАЬIтБатАФI donтАЩt know. Do you mean what youтАЩve said? That this can be ended? That IтАЩll have no moreтБатАФ? That you canтБатАФ?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah. Could you go back to the house in the cove for a while? It might help things along, and youтАЩll be safe enough there. We could take Mrs.┬аHerman with us, and maybe an op or two.тАЭ + 

тАЬIтАЩll go,тАЭ she said. + 

I looked at my watch and stood up saying: + 

тАЬBetter go back to bed. WeтАЩll move down tomorrow. Good night.тАЭ + 

She chewed her lower lip, wanting to say something, not wanting to say it, finally blurting it out: + 

тАЬIтАЩll have to have morphine down there.тАЭ + 

тАЬSure. WhatтАЩs your dayтАЩs ration?тАЭ + 

тАЬFiveтБатАФten grains.тАЭ + 

тАЬThatтАЩs mild enough,тАЭ I said, and then, casually: тАЬDo you like using the stuff?тАЭ + 

тАЬIтАЩm afraid itтАЩs too late for my liking or not liking it to matter.тАЭ + 

тАЬYouтАЩve been reading the Hearst papers,тАЭ I said. тАЬIf you want to break off, and weтАЩve a few days to spare down there, weтАЩll use them weaning you. ItтАЩs not so tough.тАЭ + 

She laughed shakily, with a queer twitching of her mouth. + 

тАЬGo away,тАЭ she cried. тАЬDonтАЩt give me any more assurances, any more of your promises, please. I canтАЩt stand any more tonight. IтАЩm drunk on them now. Please go away.тАЭ + 

тАЬAll right. Night.тАЭ + 

тАЬGood nightтБатАФand thanks.тАЭ + 

I went into my room, closing the door. Mickey was unscrewing the top of a flask. His knees were dusty. He turned his half-witтАЩs grin on me and said: + 

тАЬWhat a swell dish you are. What are you trying to do? Win yourself a home?тАЭ + 

тАЬShтАСhтАСh. Anything new?тАЭ + 

тАЬThe masterminds have gone back to the county seat. The redhead nurse was getting a load at the keyhole when I came back from feeding. I chased her.тАЭ + 

тАЬAnd took her place?тАЭ I asked, nodding at his dusty knees. + 

You couldnтАЩt embarrass Mickey. He said: + 

тАЬHell, no. She was at the other door, in the hall.тАЭ + 

XX + 

The House in the Cove + 

I got FitzstephanтАЩs car from the garage and drove Gabrielle and Mrs.┬аHerman down to the house in the cove late the following morning. The girl was in low spirits. She made a poor job of smiling when spoken to, and had nothing to say on her own account. I thought she might be depressed by the thought of returning to the house she had shared with Collinson, but when we got there she went in with no appearance of reluctance, and being there didnтАЩt seem to increase her depression. + 

After luncheonтБатАФMrs.┬аHerman turned out to be a good cookтБатАФGabrielle decided she wanted to go outdoors, so she and I walked over to the Mexican settlement to see Mary Nunez. The Mexican woman promised to come back to work the next day. She seemed fond of Gabrielle, but not of me. + 

We returned home by way of the shore, picking a path between scattered rocks. We walked slowly. The girlтАЩs forehead was puckered between her eyebrows. Neither of us said anything until we were within a quarter of a mile of the house. Then Gabrielle sat down on the rounded top of a boulder that was warm in the sun. + 

тАЬCan you remember what you told me last night?тАЭ she asked, running her words together in her hurry to get them out. She looked frightened. + 

тАЬYeah.тАЭ + 

тАЬTell me again,тАЭ she begged, moving over to one end of her boulder. тАЬSit down and tell me againтБатАФall of it.тАЭ + 

I did. According to me, it was as foolish to try to read character from the shape of ears as from the position of stars, tea-leaves, or spit in the sand; anybody who started hunting for evidence of insanity in himself would certainly find plenty, because all but stupid minds were jumbled affairs; she was, as far as I could see, too much like her father to have much Dain blood in her, or to have been softened much by what she had, even if you wanted to believe that things like that could be handed down; there was nothing to show that her influence on people was any worse than anybody elseтАЩs, it being doubtful that many people had a very good influence on those of the opposite sex, and, anyway, she was too young, inexperienced, and self-centered to judge how she varied from the normal in this respect; I would show her in a few days that there was for her difficulties a much more tangible, logical, and jailable answer than any curse; and she wouldnтАЩt have much trouble breaking away from morphine, since she was a fairly light user of the stuff and had a temperament favorable to a cure. + 

I spent three-quarters of an hour working these ideas over for her, and didnтАЩt make such a lousy job of it. The fear went out of her eyes as I talked. Toward the last she smiled to herself. When I had finished she jumped up, laughing, working her fingers together. + 

тАЬThank you. Thank you,тАЭ she babbled. тАЬPlease donтАЩt let me ever stop believing you. Make me believe you even ifтБатАФNo. It is true. Make me believe it always. Come on. LetтАЩs walk some more.тАЭ + 

She almost ran me the rest of the way to the house, chattering all the way. Mickey Linehan was on the porch. I stopped there with him while the girl went in. + 

тАЬTch, tch, tch, as Mr.┬аRolly says.тАЭ He shook his grinning face at me. тАЬI ought to tell her what happened to that poor girl up in Poisonville that got so she thought she could trust you.тАЭ + 

тАЬBring any news down from the village with you?тАЭ I asked. + 

тАЬAndrews has turned up. He was at the JeffriesтАЩ place in San Mateo, where Aaronia HaldornтАЩs staying. SheтАЩs still there. Andrews was there from Tuesday afternoon till last night. Al was watching the place and saw him go in, but didnтАЩt peg him till he came out. The Jeffries are awayтБатАФSan Diego. DickтАЩs tailing Andrews now. Al says the Haldorn broad hasnтАЩt been off the place. Rolly tells me FinkтАЩs awake, but donтАЩt know anything about the bomb. FitzstephanтАЩs still hanging on to life.тАЭ + 

тАЬI think IтАЩll run over and talk to Fink this afternoon,тАЭ I said. тАЬStick around here. AndтБатАФoh, yeahтБатАФyouтАЩll have to act respectful to me when Mrs.┬аCollinsonтАЩs around. ItтАЩs important that she keep on thinking IтАЩm hot stuff.тАЭ + 

тАЬBring back some booze,тАЭ Mickey said. тАЬI canтАЩt do it sober.тАЭ + 

Fink was propped up in bed when I got to him, looking out under bandages. He insisted that he knew nothing about the bomb, that all he had come down for was to tell me that Harvey Whidden was his stepson, the missing village-blacksmithтАЩs son by a former marriage. + 

тАЬWell, what of it?тАЭ I asked. + 

тАЬI donтАЩt know what of it, except that he was, and I thought youтАЩd want to know about it.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhy should I?тАЭ + 

тАЬThe papers said you said there was some kind of connection between what happened here and what happened up there, and that heavyset detective said you said I knew more about it than I let on. And I donтАЩt want any more trouble, so I thought IтАЩd just come down and tell you, so you couldnтАЩt say I hadnтАЩt told all I knew.тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah? Then tell me what you know about Madison Andrews.тАЭ + 

тАЬI donтАЩt know anything about him. I donтАЩt know him. HeтАЩs her guardian or something, ainтАЩt he? I read that in the newspapers. But I donтАЩt know him.тАЭ + 

тАЬAaronia Haldorn does.тАЭ + 

тАЬMaybe she does, mister, but I donтАЩt. I just worked for the Haldorns. It wasnтАЩt anything to me but a job.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhat was it to your wife?тАЭ + 

тАЬThe same thing, a job.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhere is she?тАЭ + 

тАЬI donтАЩt know.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhyтАЩd she run away from the Temple?тАЭ + 

тАЬI told you before, I donтАЩt know. DidnтАЩt want to get in trouble, IтБатАФWho wouldnтАЩt of run away if they got a chance?тАЭ + 

The nurse who had been fluttering around became a nuisance by this time, so I left the hospital for the district attorneyтАЩs office in the courthouse. Vernon pushed aside a stack of papers with a the-world-can-wait gesture, and said, тАЬGlad to see you; sit down,тАЭ nodding vigorously, showing me all his teeth. + 

I sat down and said: + 

тАЬBeen talking to Fink. I couldnтАЩt get anything out of him, but heтАЩs our meat. The bomb couldnтАЩt have got in there except by him.тАЭ + 

Vernon frowned for a moment, then shook his chin at me, and snapped: + 

тАЬWhat was his motive? And you were there. You say you were looking at him all the time he was in the room. You say you saw nothing.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhat of that?тАЭ I asked. тАЬHe could outsmart me there. He was a magicianтАЩs mechanic. HeтАЩd know how to make a bomb, and how to put it down without my seeing it. ThatтАЩs his game. We donтАЩt know what Fitzstephan saw. They tell me heтАЩll pull through. LetтАЩs hang on to Fink till he does.тАЭ + 

Vernon clicked his teeth together and said: тАЬVery well, weтАЩll hold him.тАЭ + 

I went down the corridor to the sheriffтАЩs office. Feeney wasnтАЩt in, but his chief deputyтБатАФa lanky, pockmarked man named SweetтБатАФsaid he knew from the way Feeney had spoken of me that heтБатАФFeeneyтБатАФwould want me to be given all the help I asked for. + 

тАЬThatтАЩs fine,тАЭ I said. тАЬWhat IтАЩm interested in now is picking up a couple of bottles ofтБатАФwell, gin, ScotchтБатАФwhatever happens to be best in this part of the country.тАЭ + 

Sweet scratched his AdamтАЩs apple and said: + 

тАЬI wouldnтАЩt know about that. Maybe the elevator boy. I guess his gin would be safest. Say, Dick CottonтАЩs crying his head off wanting to see you. Want to talk to him?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah, though I donтАЩt know what for.тАЭ + 

тАЬWell, come back in a couple of minutes.тАЭ + 

I went out and rang for the elevator. The boyтБатАФhe had an age-bent back and a long yellow-gray mustacheтБатАФwas alone in it. + 

тАЬSweet said maybe youтАЩd know where I could get a gallon of the white,тАЭ I said. + 

тАЬHeтАЩs crazy,тАЭ the boy grumbled, and then, when I kept quiet: тАЬYouтАЩll be going out this way?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah, in a little while.тАЭ + 

He closed the door. I went back to Sweet. He took me down an enclosed walk that connected the courthouse with the prison behind, and left me alone with Cotton in a small boilerplate cell. Two days in jail hadnтАЩt done the marshal of Quesada any good. He was gray-faced and jumpy, and the dimple in his chin kept squirming as he talked. He hadnтАЩt anything to tell me except that he was innocent. + 

All I could think of to say to him was: тАЬMaybe, but you brought it on yourself. What evidence there is is against you. I donтАЩt know whether itтАЩs enough to convict you or notтБатАФdepends on your lawyer.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhat did he want?тАЭ Sweet asked when I had gone back to him. + 

тАЬTo tell me that heтАЩs innocent.тАЭ + 

The deputy scratched his AdamтАЩs apple again and asked: + 

тАЬItтАЩs supposed to make any difference to you?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah, itтАЩs been keeping me awake at night. See you later.тАЭ + 

I went out to the elevator. The boy pushed a newspaper-wrapped gallon jug at me and said: тАЬTen bucks.тАЭ I paid him, stowed the jug in FitzstephanтАЩs car, found the local telephone office, and put in a call for Vic DallasтАЩs drugstore in San FranciscoтАЩs Mission district. + 

тАЬI want,тАЭ I told Vic, тАЬfifty grains of M. and eight of those calomel-ipecac-atropine-strychnine-cascara shots. IтАЩll have somebody from the agency pick up the package tonight or in the morning. Right?тАЭ + 

тАЬIf you say so, but if you kill anybody with it donтАЩt tell them where you got the stuff.тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah,тАЭ I said; тАЬtheyтАЩll die just because I havenтАЩt got a lousy pill-rollerтАЩs diploma.тАЭ + 

I put in another San Francisco call, for the agency, talking to the Old Man. + 

тАЬCan you spare me another op?тАЭ I asked. + 

тАЬMacMan is available, or he can relieve Drake. Whichever you prefer.тАЭ + 

тАЬMacManтАЩll do. Have him stop at DallasтАЩs drugstore for a package on the way down. He knows where it is.тАЭ + 

The Old Man said he had no new reports on Aaronia Haldorn and Andrews. + 

I drove back to the house in the cove. We had company. Three strange cars were standing empty in the driveway, and half a dozen newshounds were sitting and standing around Mickey on the porch. They turned their questions on me. + 

тАЬMrs.┬аCollinsonтАЩs here for a rest,тАЭ I said. тАЬNo interviews, no posing for pictures. Let her alone. If anything breaks here IтАЩll see that you get it, those of you who lay off her. The only thing I can tell you now is that FinkтАЩs being held for the bombing.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhat did Andrews come down for?тАЭ Jack Santos asked. + 

That wasnтАЩt a surprise to me: I had expected him to turn up now that he had come out of seclusion. + 

тАЬAsk him,тАЭ I suggested. тАЬHeтАЩs administering Mrs.┬аCollinsonтАЩs estate. You canтАЩt make a mystery out of his coming down to see her.тАЭ + 

тАЬIs it true that theyтАЩre on bad terms?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo.тАЭ + 

тАЬThen why didnтАЩt he show up before thisтБатАФyesterday, or the day before?тАЭ + 

тАЬAsk him.тАЭ + 

тАЬIs it true that heтАЩs up to his tonsils in debt, or was before the Leggett estate got into his hands?тАЭ + 

тАЬAsk him.тАЭ + 

Santos smiled with thinned lips and said: + 

тАЬWe donтАЩt have to: we asked some of his creditors. Is there anything to the report that Mrs.┬аCollinson and her husband had quarreled over her being too friendly with Whidden, a couple of days before her husband was killed?тАЭ + 

тАЬAnything but the truth,тАЭ I said. тАЬTough. You could do a lot with a story like that.тАЭ + 

тАЬMaybe we will,тАЭ Santos said. тАЬIs it true that she and her husbandтАЩs family are on the outs, that old Hubert has said heтАЩs willing to spend all heтАЩs got to see that she pays for any part she had in his sonтАЩs death?тАЭ + 

I didnтАЩt know. I said: + 

тАЬDonтАЩt be a chump. WeтАЩre working for Hubert now, taking care of her.тАЭ + 

тАЬIs it true that Mrs.┬аHaldorn and Tom Fink were released because they had threatened to tell all they knew if they were held for trial?тАЭ + 

тАЬNow youтАЩre kidding me, Jack,тАЭ I said. тАЬIs Andrews still here?тАЭ + 

тАЬYes.тАЭ + 

I went indoors and called Mickey in, asking him: тАЬSeen Dick?тАЭ + 

тАЬHe drove past a couple of minutes after Andrews came.тАЭ + 

тАЬSneak away and find him. Tell him not to let the newspaper gang make him, even if he has to risk losing Andrews for a while. TheyтАЩd go crazy all over their front pages if they learned we were shadowing him, and I donтАЩt want them to go that crazy.тАЭ + 

Mrs.┬аHerman was coming down the stairs. I asked her where Andrews was. + 

тАЬUp in the front room.тАЭ + 

I went up there. Gabrielle, in a low-cut dark silk gown, was sitting stiff and straight on the edge of a leather rocker. Her face was white and sullen. She was looking at a handkerchief stretched between her hands. She looked up at me as if glad I had come in. Andrews stood with his back to the fireplace. His white hair, eyebrows, and mustache stood out every which way from his bony pink face. He shifted his scowl from the girl to me, and didnтАЩt seem glad I had come in. + 

I said, тАЬHullo,тАЭ and found a table-corner to prop myself on. + 

He said: тАЬIтАЩve come to take Mrs.┬аCollinson back to San Francisco.тАЭ + 

She didnтАЩt say anything. I said: + 

тАЬNot to San Mateo?тАЭ + 

тАЬWhat do you mean by that?тАЭ The white tangles of his brows came down to hide all but the bottom halves of his blue eyes. + 

тАЬGod knows. Maybe my mindтАЩs been corrupted by the questions the newspapers have been asking me.тАЭ + 

He didnтАЩt quite wince. He said, slowly, deliberately: + 

тАЬMrs.┬аHaldorn sent for me professionally. I went to see her to explain how impossible it would be, in the circumstances, for me to advise or represent her.тАЭ + 

тАЬThatтАЩs all right with me,тАЭ I said. тАЬAnd if it took you thirty hours to explain that to her, itтАЩs nobodyтАЩs business.тАЭ + 

тАЬPrecisely.тАЭ + 

тАЬButтБатАФIтАЩd be careful how I told the reporters waiting downstairs that. You know how suspicious they areтБатАФfor no reason at all.тАЭ + 

He turned to Gabrielle again, speaking quietly, but with some impatience: + 

тАЬWell, Gabrielle, are you going with me?тАЭ + 

тАЬShould I?тАЭ she asked me. + 

тАЬNot unless you especially want to.тАЭ + 

тАЬIтБатАФI donтАЩt.тАЭ + 

тАЬThen thatтАЩs settled,тАЭ I said. + 

Andrews nodded and went forward to take her hand, saying: + 

тАЬIтАЩm sorry, but I must get back to the city now, my dear. You should have a phone put in, so you can reach me in case you need to.тАЭ + 

He declined her invitation to stay to dinner, said, тАЬGood evening,тАЭ not unpleasantly, to me, and went out. Through a window I could see him presently getting into his car, giving as little attention as possible to the newspaper men gathered around him. + 

Gabrielle was frowning at me when I turned away from the window. + 

тАЬWhat did you mean by what you said about San Mateo?тАЭ she asked. + 

тАЬHow friendly are he and Aaronia Haldorn?тАЭ I asked. + 

тАЬI havenтАЩt any idea. Why? Why did you talk to him as you did?тАЭ + 

тАЬDetective business. For one thing, thereтАЩs a rumor that getting control of the estate may have helped him keep his own head above water. Maybe thereтАЩs nothing in it. But it wonтАЩt hurt to give him a little scare, so heтАЩll get busy straightening things outтБатАФif he has done any jugglingтБатАФbetween now and cleanup day. No use of you losing money along with the rest of your troubles.тАЭ + 

тАЬThen heтБатАФ?тАЭ she began. + 

тАЬHeтАЩs got a weekтБатАФseveral days at leastтБатАФto unjuggle in. That ought to be enough.тАЭ + 

тАЬButтБатАФтАЭ + 

Mrs.┬аHerman, calling us to dinner, ended the conversation. + 

Gabrielle ate very little. She and I had to do most of the talking until I got Mickey started telling about a job he had been on up in Eureka, where he posed as a foreigner who knew no English. Since English was the only language he did know, and Eureka normally held at least one specimen of every nationality there is, heтАЩd had a hell of a time keeping people from finding out just what he was supposed to be. He made a long and laughable story of it. Maybe some of it was the truth: he always got a lot of fun out of acting like the other half of a half-wit. + 

After the meal he and I strolled around outside while the spring night darkened the grounds. + 

тАЬMacMan will be down in the morning,тАЭ I told him. тАЬYou and he will have to do the watchdog. Divide it between you anyway you want, but one will have to be on the job all the time.тАЭ + 

тАЬDonтАЩt give yourself any of the worst of it,тАЭ he complained. тАЬWhatтАЩs this supposed to be down hereтБатАФa trap?тАЭ + 

тАЬMaybe.тАЭ + 

тАЬMaybe. Uh-huh. You donтАЩt know what the hell youтАЩre doing. YouтАЩre stalling around waiting for the horseshoe in your pocket to work.тАЭ + 

тАЬThe outcome of successful planning always looks like luck to saps. Did Dick have any news?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo. He tailed Andrews straight here from his house.тАЭ + 

The front door opened, throwing yellow light across the porch. Gabrielle, a dark cape on her shoulders, came into the yellow light, shut the door, and came down the gravel walk. + 

тАЬTake a nap now if you want,тАЭ I told Mickey. тАЬIтАЩll call you when I turn in. YouтАЩll have to stand guard till morning.тАЭ + 

тАЬYouтАЩre a darb.тАЭ He laughed in the dark. тАЬBy God, youтАЩre a darb.тАЭ + 

тАЬThereтАЩs a gallon of gin in the car.тАЭ + 

тАЬHuh? Why didnтАЩt you say so instead of wasting my time just talking?тАЭ The lawn grass swished against his shoes as he walked away. + 

I moved towards the gravel walk, meeting the girl. + 

тАЬIsnтАЩt it a lovely night?тАЭ she said. + 

тАЬYeah. But youтАЩre not supposed to go roaming around alone in the dark, even if your troubles are practically over.тАЭ + 

тАЬI didnтАЩt intend to,тАЭ she said, taking my arm. тАЬAnd what does practically over mean?тАЭ + 

тАЬThat there are a few details to be taken care ofтБатАФthe morphine, for instance.тАЭ + 

She shivered and said: + 

тАЬIтАЩve only enough left for tonight. You promised toтБатАФтАЭ + 

тАЬFifty grains coming in the morning.тАЭ + 

She kept quiet, as if waiting for me to say something else. I didnтАЩt say anything else. Her fingers wriggled on my sleeve. + 

тАЬYou said it wouldnтАЩt be hard to cure me.тАЭ She spoke half-questioningly, as if expecting me to deny having said anything of the sort. + 

тАЬIt wouldnтАЩt.тАЭ + 

тАЬYou said, perhapsтБатАКтБатАжтАЭ letting the words fade off. + 

тАЬWeтАЩd do it while we were here?тАЭ + 

тАЬYes.тАЭ + 

тАЬWant to?тАЭ I asked. тАЬItтАЩs no go if you donтАЩt.тАЭ + 

тАЬDo I want to?тАЭ She stood still in the road, facing me. тАЬIтАЩd giveтБатАФтАЭ A sob ended that sentence. Her voice came again, high-pitched, thin: тАЬAre you being honest with me? Are you? Is what youтАЩve told meтБатАФall you told me last night and this afternoonтБатАФas true as you made it sound? Do I believe in you because youтАЩre sincere? Or because youтАЩve learned howтБатАФas a trick of your businessтБатАФto make people believe in you?тАЭ + 

She might have been crazy, but she wasnтАЩt so stupid. I gave her the answer that seemed best at the time: + 

тАЬYour belief in me is built on mine in you. If mineтАЩs unjustified, so is yours. So let me ask you a question first: were you lying when you said, тАШI donтАЩt want to be evilтАЩ?тАЭ + 

тАЬOh, I donтАЩt. I donтАЩt.тАЭ + 

тАЬWell, then,тАЭ I said with an air of finality, as if that settled it. тАЬNow if you want to get off the junk, off weтАЩll get you.тАЭ + 

тАЬHowтБатАФhow long will it take?тАЭ + 

тАЬSay a week, to be safe. Maybe less.тАЭ + 

тАЬDo you mean that? No longer than that?тАЭ + 

тАЬThatтАЩs all for the part that counts. YouтАЩll have to take care of yourself for some time after, till your systemтАЩs hitting on all eight again, but youтАЩll be off the junk.тАЭ + 

тАЬWill I sufferтБатАФmuch?тАЭ + 

тАЬA couple of bad days; but they wonтАЩt be as bad as youтАЩll think they are, and your fatherтАЩs toughness will carry you through them.тАЭ + 

тАЬIf,тАЭ she said slowly, тАЬI should find out in the middle of it that I canтАЩt go through with it, can IтБатАФ?тАЭ + 

тАЬThereтАЩll be nothing you can do about it,тАЭ I promised cheerfully. тАЬYouтАЩll stay in till you come out the other end.тАЭ + 

She shivered again and asked: + 

тАЬWhen shall we start?тАЭ + 

тАЬDay after tomorrow. Take your usual snort tomorrow, but donтАЩt try to stock up. And donтАЩt worry about it. ItтАЩll be tougher on me than on you: IтАЩll have to put up with you.тАЭ + 

тАЬAnd youтАЩll make allowancesтБатАФyouтАЩll understandтБатАФif IтАЩm not always nice while IтАЩm going through it? Even if IтАЩm nasty?тАЭ + 

тАЬI donтАЩt know.тАЭ I didnтАЩt want to encourage her to cut up on me. тАЬI donтАЩt think so much of niceness that can be turned into nastiness by a little grief.тАЭ + 

тАЬOh, butтБатАФтАЭ She stopped, wrinkled her forehead, said: тАЬCanтАЩt we send Mrs.┬аHerman away? I donтАЩt want toтБатАФI donтАЩt want her looking at me.тАЭ + 

тАЬIтАЩll get rid of her in the morning.тАЭ + 

тАЬAnd if IтАЩmтБатАФyou wonтАЩt let anybody else see meтБатАФif IтАЩm notтБатАФif IтАЩm too terrible?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo,тАЭ I promised. тАЬBut look here: youтАЩre preparing to put on a show for me. Stop thinking about that end of it. YouтАЩre going to behave. I donтАЩt want a lot of monkey-business out of you.тАЭ + 

She laughed suddenly, asking: + 

тАЬWill you beat me if IтАЩm bad?тАЭ + 

I said she might still be young enough for a spanking to do her good. + 

XXI + 

Aaronia Haldorn + 

Mary Nunez arrived at half-past seven the next morning. Mickey Linehan drove Mrs.┬аHerman to Quesada, leaving her there, returning with MacMan and a load of groceries. + 

MacMan was a square-built, stiff-backed ex-soldier. Ten years of the island had baked his tight-mouthed, solid-jawed, grim face a dark oak. He was the perfect soldier: he went where you sent him, stayed where you put him, and had no ideas of his own to keep him from doing exactly what you told him. + 

He gave me the druggistтАЩs package. I took ten grains of morphine up to Gabrielle. She was eating breakfast in bed. Her eyes were watery, her face damp and grayish. When she saw the bindles in my hand she pushed her tray aside and held her hands out eagerly, wiggling her shoulders. + 

тАЬCome back in five minutes?тАЭ she asked. + 

тАЬYou can take your jolt in front of me. I wonтАЩt blush.тАЭ + 

тАЬBut I would,тАЭ she said, and did. + 

I went out, shut the door, and leaned against it, hearing the crackle of paper and the clink of a spoon on the water-glass. Presently she called: + 

тАЬAll right.тАЭ + 

I went in again. A crumpled ball of white paper in the tray was all that remained of one bindle. The others werenтАЩt in sight. She was leaning back against her pillows, eyes half closed, as comfortable as a cat full of goldfish. She smiled lazily at me and said: + 

тАЬYouтАЩre a dear. Know what IтАЩd like to do today? Take some lunch and go out on the waterтБатАФspend the whole day floating in the sun.тАЭ + 

тАЬThat ought to be good for you. Take either Linehan or MacMan with you. YouтАЩre not to go out alone.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhat are you going to do?тАЭ + 

тАЬRide up to Quesada, over to the county seat, maybe as far as the city.тАЭ + 

тАЬMaynтАЩt I go with you?тАЭ + 

I shook my head, saying: тАЬIтАЩve got work to do, and youтАЩre supposed to be resting.тАЭ + 

She said, тАЬOh,тАЭ and reached for her coffee. I turned to the door. тАЬThe rest of the morphine.тАЭ She spoke over the edge of her cup. тАЬYouтАЩve put it in a safe place, where nobody will find it?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah,тАЭ I said, grinning at her, patting my coat-pocket. + 

In Quesada I spent half an hour talking to Rolly and reading the San Francisco papers. They were beginning to poke at Andrews with hints and questions that stopped just short of libel. That was so much to the good. The deputy sheriff hadnтАЩt anything to tell me. + 

I went over to the county seat. Vernon was in court. Twenty minutes of the sheriffтАЩs conversation didnтАЩt add anything to my education. I called up the agency and talked to the Old Man. He said Hubert Collinson, our client, had expressed some surprise at our continuing the operation, having supposed that WhiddenтАЩs death had cleared up the mystery of his sonтАЩs murder. + 

тАЬTell him it didnтАЩt,тАЭ I said. тАЬEricтАЩs murder was tied up with GabrielleтАЩs troubles, and we canтАЩt get to the bottom of one except through the other. ItтАЩll probably take another week. CollinsonтАЩs all right,тАЭ I assured the Old Man. тАЬHeтАЩll stand for it when itтАЩs explained to him.тАЭ + 

The Old Man said, тАЬI certainly hope so,тАЭ rather coldly, not enthusiastic over having five operatives at work on a job that the supposed client might not want to pay for. + 

I drove up to San Francisco, had dinner at the St.┬аGermain, stopped at my rooms to collect another suit and a bagful of clean shirts and the like, and got back to the house in the cove a little after midnight. MacMan came out of the darkness while I was tucking the carтБатАФwe were still using FitzstephanтАЩsтБатАФunder the shed. He said nothing had happened in my absence. We went into the house together. Mickey was in the kitchen, yawning and mixing himself a drink before relieving MacMan on sentry duty. + 

тАЬMrs.┬аCollinson gone to bed?тАЭ I asked. + 

тАЬHer lightтАЩs still on. SheтАЩs been in her room all day.тАЭ + 

MacMan and I had a drink with Mickey and then went upstairs. I knocked at the girlтАЩs door. + 

тАЬWho is it?тАЭ she asked. I told her. She said: тАЬYes?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo breakfast in the morning.тАЭ + 

тАЬReally?тАЭ Then, as if it were something she had almost forgotten: тАЬOh, IтАЩve decided not to put you to all the trouble of curing me.тАЭ She opened the door and stood in the opening, smiling too pleasantly at me, a finger holding her place in a book. тАЬDid you have a nice ride?тАЭ + 

тАЬAll right,тАЭ I said, taking the rest of the morphine from my pocket and holding it out to her. тАЬThereтАЩs no use of my carrying this around.тАЭ + 

She didnтАЩt take it. She laughed in my face and said: + 

тАЬYou are a brute, arenтАЩt you?тАЭ + 

тАЬWell, itтАЩs your cure, not mine.тАЭ I put the stuff back in my pocket. тАЬIf youтБатАФтАЭ I broke off to listen. A board had creaked down the hall. Now there was a soft sound, as of a bare foot dragging across the floor. + 

тАЬThatтАЩs Mary watching over me,тАЭ Gabrielle whispered gaily. тАЬShe made a bed in the attic and refused to go home. She doesnтАЩt think IтАЩm safe with you and your friends. She warned me against you, said you wereтБатАФwhat was it?тБатАФoh, yesтБатАФwolves. Are you?тАЭ + 

тАЬPractically. DonтАЩt forgetтБатАФno breakfast in the morning.тАЭ + 

The following afternoon I gave her the first dose of Vic DallasтАЩs mixture, and three more at two-hour intervals. She spent that day in her room. That was Saturday. + 

On Sunday she had ten grains of morphine and was in high spirits all day, considering herself as good as cured already. + 

On Monday she had the remainder of VicтАЩs concoction, and the day was pretty much like Saturday. Mickey Linehan returned from the county seat with the news that Fitzstephan was conscious, but too weak and too bandaged to have talked if the doctors had let him; that Andrews had been to San Mateo to see Aaronia Haldorn again; and that she had been to the hospital to see Fink, but had been refused permission by the sheriffтАЩs office. + 

Tuesday was a more exciting day. + 

Gabrielle was up and dressed when I carried her orange-juice breakfast in. She was bright-eyed, restless, talkative, and laughed easily and often until I mentionedтБатАФoffhandтБатАФthat she was to have no more morphine. + 

тАЬEver, you mean?тАЭ Her face and voice were panicky. тАЬNo, you donтАЩt mean that?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah.тАЭ + 

тАЬBut IтАЩll die.тАЭ Tears filled her eyes, ran down her small white face, and she wrung her hands. It was childishly pathetic. I had to remind myself that tears were one of the symptoms of morphine withdrawal. тАЬYou know thatтАЩs not the way. I donтАЩt expect as much as usual. I know IтАЩll get less and less each day. But you canтАЩt stop it like this. YouтАЩre joking. That would kill me.тАЭ She cried some more at the thought of being killed. + 

I made myself laugh as if I were sympathetic but amused. + 

тАЬNonsense,тАЭ I said cheerfully. тАЬThe chief trouble youтАЩre going to have is in being too alive. A couple of days of that, and youтАЩll be all set.тАЭ + 

She bit her lips, finally managed a smile, holding out both hands to me. + 

тАЬIтАЩm going to believe you,тАЭ she said. тАЬI do believe you. IтАЩm going to believe you no matter what you say.тАЭ + 

Her hands were clammy. I squeezed them and said: + 

тАЬThatтАЩll be swell. Now back to bed. IтАЩll look in every now and then, and if you want anything in between, sing out.тАЭ + 

тАЬYouтАЩre not going off today?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo,тАЭ I promised. + 

She stood the gaff pretty well all afternoon. Of course, there wasnтАЩt much heartiness in the way she laughed at herself between attacks when the sneezing and yawning hit her, but the thing was that she tried to laugh. + 

Madison Andrews came between five and half-past. Having seen him drive in, I met him on the porch. The ruddiness of his face had been washed out to a weak orange. + 

тАЬGood evening,тАЭ he said politely. тАЬI wish to see Mrs.┬аCollinson.тАЭ + 

тАЬIтАЩll deliver any message to her,тАЭ I offered. + 

He pulled his white eyebrows down and some of his normal ruddiness came back. + 

тАЬI wish to see her.тАЭ It was a command. + 

тАЬShe doesnтАЩt wish to see you. Is there any message?тАЭ + 

All of his ruddiness was back now. His eyes were hot. I was standing between him and the door. He couldnтАЩt go in while I stood there. For a moment he seemed about to push me out of the way. That didnтАЩt worry me: he was carrying a handicap of twenty pounds and twenty years. + 

He pulled his jaw into his neck and spoke in the voice of authority: + 

тАЬMrs.┬аCollinson must return to San Francisco with me. She cannot stay here. This is a preposterous arrangement.тАЭ + 

тАЬSheтАЩs not going to San Francisco,тАЭ I said. тАЬIf necessary, the district attorney can hold her here as a material witness. Try upsetting that with any of your court orders, and weтАЩll give you something else to worry about. IтАЩm telling you this so youтАЩll know how we stand. WeтАЩll prove that she might be in danger from you. How do we know you havenтАЩt played marbles with the estate? How do we know you donтАЩt mean to take advantage of her present upset condition to shield yourself from trouble over the estate? Why, man, you might even be planning to send her to an insane-asylum so the estate will stay under your control.тАЭ + 

He was sick behind his eyes, though the rest of him stood up well enough under this broadside. When he had got his breath and had swallowed, he demanded: + 

тАЬDoes Gabrielle believe this?тАЭ His face was magenta. + 

тАЬWho said anybody believed it?тАЭ I was trying to be bland. тАЬIтАЩm just telling you what weтАЩll go into court with. YouтАЩre a lawyer. You know thereтАЩs not necessarily any connection between whatтАЩs true and what you go into court withтБатАФor into the newspapers.тАЭ + 

The sickness spread from behind his eyes, pushing the color from his face, the stiffness from his bones; but he held himself tall and he found a level voice. + 

тАЬYou may tell Mrs.┬аCollinson,тАЭ he said, тАЬthat I shall return my letters testamentary to the court this week, with an accounting of the estate, and a request that I be relieved.тАЭ + 

тАЬThatтАЩll be swell,тАЭ I said, but I felt sorry for the old boy shuffling down to his car, climbing slowly into it. + 

I didnтАЩt tell Gabrielle he had been there. + 

She was whining a little now between her yawning and sneezing, and her eyes were running water. Face, body, and hands were damp with sweat. She couldnтАЩt eat. I kept her full of orange juice. Noises and odorsтБатАФno matter how faint, how pleasantтБатАФwere becoming painful to her, and she twitched and jerked continually in her bed. + 

тАЬWill it get much worse than this?тАЭ she asked. + 

тАЬNot much. ThereтАЩll be nothing you canтАЩt stand.тАЭ + 

Mickey Linehan was waiting for me when I got downstairs. + 

тАЬThe spickтАЩs got herself a chive,тАЭ he said pleasantly. + 

тАЬYeah?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah. ItтАЩs the one IтАЩve been using to shuck lemons to take the stink out of that bargain-counter gin you boughtтБатАФor did you just borrow it, the owner knowing youтАЩd return it because nobody could drink it? ItтАЩs a paring knifeтБатАФfour or five inches of stainless steel bladeтБатАФso you wonтАЩt get rustmarks on your undershirt when she sticks it in your back. I couldnтАЩt find it, and asked her about it, and she didnтАЩt look at me like I was a well-poisoner when she said she didnтАЩt know anything about it, and thatтАЩs the first time she never looked at me that way, so I knew she had it.тАЭ + 

тАЬSmart of you,тАЭ I said. тАЬWell, keep an eye on her. She donтАЩt like us much.тАЭ + 

тАЬIтАЩm to do that?тАЭ Mickey grinned. тАЬMy idea would be for everybody to look out for himself, seeing that youтАЩre the lad she dog-eyes most, and itтАЩs most likely you thatтАЩll get whittled on. WhatтАЩd you ever do to her? You havenтАЩt been dumb enough to fool with a Mex ladyтАЩs affections, have you?тАЭ + 

I didnтАЩt think he was funny, though he may have been. + 

Aaronia Haldorn arrived just before dark, in a Lincoln limousine driven by a Negro who turned the siren loose when he brought the car into the drive. I was in GabrielleтАЩs room when the thing howled. She all but jumped out of bed, utterly terrorized by what must have been an ungodly racket to her too sensitive ears. + 

тАЬWhat was it? What was it?тАЭ she kept crying between rattling teeth, her body shaking the bed. + 

тАЬShтАСhтАСh,тАЭ I soothed her. I was acquiring a pretty fair bedside manner. тАЬJust an automobile horn. Visitors. IтАЩll go down and head them off.тАЭ + 

тАЬYou wonтАЩt let anybody see me?тАЭ she begged. + 

тАЬNo. Be a good girl till I get back.тАЭ + 

Aaronia Haldorn was standing beside the limousine talking to MacMan when I came out. In the dim light, her face was a dusky oval mask between black hat and black fur coatтБатАФbut her luminous eyes were real enough. + 

тАЬHow do you do?тАЭ she said, holding out a hand. Her voice was a thing to make warm waves run up your back. тАЬIтАЩm glad for Mrs.┬аCollinsonтАЩs sake that youтАЩre here. She and I have had excellent proof of your protective ability, both owing our lives to it.тАЭ + 

That was all right, but it had been said before. I made a gesture that was supposed to indicate modest distaste for the subject, and beat her to the first tap with: + 

тАЬIтАЩm sorry she canтАЩt see you. She isnтАЩt well.тАЭ + 

тАЬOh, but I should so like to see her, if only for a moment. DonтАЩt you think it might be good for her?тАЭ + 

I said I was sorry. She seemed to accept that as final, though she said: тАЬI came all the way from the city to see her.тАЭ + 

I tried that opening with: + 

тАЬDidnтАЩt Mr.┬аAndrews tell youтБатАКтБатАжтАК?тАЭ letting it ravel out. + 

She didnтАЩt say whether he had. She turned and began walking slowly across the grass. There was nothing for me to do but walk along beside her. Full darkness was only a few minutes away. Presently, when we had gone thirty or forty feet from the car, she said: + 

тАЬMr.┬аAndrews thinks you suspect him.тАЭ + 

тАЬHeтАЩs right.тАЭ + 

тАЬOf what do you suspect him?тАЭ + 

тАЬJuggling the estate. Mind, I donтАЩt know, but I do suspect him.тАЭ + 

тАЬReally?тАЭ + 

тАЬReally,тАЭ I said; тАЬand not of anything else.тАЭ + 

тАЬOh, I should suppose that was quite enough.тАЭ + 

тАЬItтАЩs enough for me. I didnтАЩt think it was enough for you.тАЭ + 

тАЬI beg your pardon?тАЭ + 

I didnтАЩt like the ground I was on with this woman. I was afraid of her. I piled up what facts I had, put some guesses on them, and took a jump from the top of the heap into space: + 

тАЬWhen you got out of prison, you sent for Andrews, pumped him for all he knew, and then, when you learned he was playing with the girlтАЩs pennies, you saw what looked to you like a chance to confuse things by throwing suspicion on him. The old boyтАЩs woman-crazy: heтАЩd be duck-soup for a woman like you. I donтАЩt know what youтАЩre planning to do with him, but youтАЩve got him started, and have got the papers started after him. I take it you gave them the tip-off on his high financing? ItтАЩs no good, Mrs.┬аHaldorn. Chuck it. It wonтАЩt work. You can stir him up, all right, and make him do something criminal, get him into a swell jam: heтАЩs desperate enough now that heтАЩs being poked at. But whatever he does now wonтАЩt hide what somebody else did in the past. HeтАЩs promised to get the estate in order and hand it over. Let him alone. It wonтАЩt work.тАЭ + 

She didnтАЩt say anything while we took another dozen steps. A path came under our feet. I said: + 

тАЬThis is the path that runs up the cliff, the one Eric Collinson was pushed from. Did you know him?тАЭ + 

She drew in her breath sharply, with almost a sob in her throat, but her voice was steady, quiet and musical, when she replied: + 

тАЬYou know I did. Why should you ask?тАЭ + 

тАЬDetectives like questions they already know the answers to. Why did you come down here, Mrs.┬аHaldorn?тАЭ + 

тАЬIs that another whose answer you know?тАЭ + 

тАЬI know you came for one or both of two reasons.тАЭ + 

тАЬYes?тАЭ + 

тАЬFirst, to learn how close we were to our riddleтАЩs answer. Right?тАЭ + 

тАЬIтАЩve my share of curiosity, naturally,тАЭ she confessed. + 

тАЬI donтАЩt mind making that much of your trip a success. I know the answer.тАЭ + 

She stopped in the path, facing me, her eyes phosphorescent in the deep twilight. She put a hand on my shoulder: she was taller than I. The other hand was in her coat-pocket. She put her face nearer mine. She spoke very slowly, as if taking great pains to be understood: + 

тАЬTell me truthfully. DonтАЩt pretend. I donтАЩt want to do an unnecessary wrong. Wait, waitтБатАФthink before you speakтБатАФand believe me when I say this isnтАЩt the time for pretending, for lying, for bluffing. Now tell me the truth: do you know the answer?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah.тАЭ + 

She smiled faintly, taking her hand from my shoulder, saying: + 

тАЬThen thereтАЩs no use of our fencing.тАЭ + 

I jumped at her. If she had fired from her pocket she might have plugged me. But she tried to get the gun out. By then I had a hand on her wrist. The bullet went into the ground between our feet. The nails of her free hand put three red ribbons down the side of my face. I tucked my head under her chin, turned my hip to her before her knee came up, brought her body hard against mine with one arm around her, and bent her gun-hand behind her. She dropped the gun as we fell. I was on top. I stayed there until I had found the gun. I was getting up when MacMan arrived. + 

тАЬEverythingтАЩs eggs in the coffee,тАЭ I told him, having trouble with my voice. + 

тАЬHave to plug her?тАЭ he asked, looking at the woman lying still on the ground. + 

тАЬNo, sheтАЩs all right. See that the chauffeurтАЩs behaving.тАЭ + 

MacMan went away. The woman sat up, tucked her legs under her, and rubbed her wrist. I said: + 

тАЬThatтАЩs the second reason for your coming, though I thought you meant it for Mrs.┬аCollinson.тАЭ + 

She got up, not saying anything. I didnтАЩt help her up, not wanting her to know how shaky I was. I said: + 

тАЬSince weтАЩve gone this far, it wonтАЩt do any harm and it might do some good to talk.тАЭ + 

тАЬI donтАЩt think anything will do any good now.тАЭ She set her hat straight. тАЬYou say you know. Then lies are worthless, and only lies would help.тАЭ She shrugged. тАЬWell, what now?тАЭ + 

тАЬNothing now, if youтАЩll promise to remember that the time for being desperate is past. This kind of thing splits up in three partsтБатАФbeing caught, being convicted, and being punished. Admit itтАЩs too late to do anything about the first, andтБатАФwell, you know what California courts and prison boards are.тАЭ + 

She looked curiously at me and asked: тАЬWhy do you tell me this?тАЭ + 

тАЬBecause being shot atтАЩs no treat to me, and because when a jobтАЩs done I like to get it cleaned up and over with. IтАЩm not interested in trying to convict you for your part in the racket, and itтАЩs a nuisance having you horning in now, trying to muddy things up. Go home and behave.тАЭ + 

Neither of us said anything more until we had walked back to the limousine. Then she turned, put out her hand to me, and said: + 

тАЬI thinkтБатАФI donтАЩt know yetтБатАФI think I owe you even more now than before.тАЭ + 

I didnтАЩt say anything and I didnтАЩt take her hand. Perhaps it was because she was holding her hand out that she asked: + 

тАЬMay I have my pistol now?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo.тАЭ + 

тАЬWill you give my best wishes to Mrs.┬аCollinson, and tell her IтАЩm so sorry I couldnтАЩt see her?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah.тАЭ + 

She said, тАЬGoodbye,тАЭ and got into the car; I took off my hat and she rode away. + 

XXII + 

Confessional + 

Mickey Linehan opened the front door for me. He looked at my scratched face and laughed: + 

тАЬYou do have one hell of a time with your women. Why donтАЩt you ask them instead of trying to take it away from them? ItтАЩd save you a lot of skin.тАЭ He poked a thumb at the ceiling. тАЬBetter go up and negotiate with that one. SheтАЩs been raising hell.тАЭ + 

I went up to GabrielleтАЩs room. She was sitting in the middle of the wallowed-up bed. Her hands were in her hair, tugging at it. Her soggy face was thirty-five years old. She was making hurt-animal noises in her throat. + 

тАЬItтАЩs a fight, huh?тАЭ I said from the door. + 

She took her hands out of her hair. + 

тАЬI wonтАЩt die?тАЭ The question was a whimper between edge-to-edge teeth. + 

тАЬNot a chance.тАЭ + 

She sobbed and lay down. I straightened the covers over her. She complained that there was a lump in her throat, that her jaws and the hollows behind her knees ached. + 

тАЬRegular symptoms,тАЭ I assured her. тАЬThey wonтАЩt bother you much, and youтАЩll miss the cramps.тАЭ + 

Fingernails scratched the door. Gabrielle jumped up in bed, crying: + 

тАЬDonтАЩt go away again.тАЭ + 

тАЬNo farther than the door,тАЭ I promised, and went to it. + 

MacMan was there. + 

тАЬThat Mexican Mary,тАЭ he whispered, тАЬwas hiding in the bushes watching you and the woman. I spotted her when she came out, and tailed her across to the road below. She stopped the limousine and talked with the womanтБатАФfive-ten minutes. I couldnтАЩt get near enough to hear any of it.тАЭ + 

тАЬWhere is she now?тАЭ + 

тАЬIn the kitchen. She came back. The woman in the heap went on. Mickey says the Mex is packing a knife and is going to make grief for us. Reckon heтАЩs right?тАЭ + 

тАЬHe generally is,тАЭ I said. тАЬSheтАЩs strong for Mrs.┬аCollinson, and doesnтАЩt think we mean her any good. Why in hell canтАЩt she mind her own business? It adds up that she peeped and saw Mrs.┬аHaldorn wasnтАЩt for us, figured she was for Mrs.┬аCollinson, and braced her. I hope Mrs.┬аHaldorn had sense enough to tell her to behave. Anyway, thereтАЩs nothing we can do but watch her. No use giving her the gate: weтАЩve got to have a cook.тАЭ + 

When MacMan had gone Gabrielle remembered we had had a visitor, and asked me about it, and about the shot she had heard and my scratched face. + 

тАЬIt was Aaronia Haldorn,тАЭ I told her; тАЬand she lost her head. No harm done. SheтАЩs gone now.тАЭ + 

тАЬShe came here to kill me,тАЭ the girl said, not excitedly, but as if she knew certainly. + 

тАЬMaybe. She wouldnтАЩt admit anything. Why should she kill you?тАЭ + 

I didnтАЩt get an answer to that. + 

It was a long bad night. I spent most of it in the girlтАЩs room, in a leather rocker dragged in from the front room. She got perhaps an hour and a half of sleep, in three instalments. Nightmares brought her screaming out of all three. I dozed when she let me. Off and on through the night I heard stealthy sounds in the hallтБатАФMary Nunez watching over her mistress, I supposed. + 

Wednesday was a longer and worse day. By noon my jaws were as sore as GabrielleтАЩs, from going around holding my back teeth together. She was getting the works now. Light was positive, active pain to her eyes, sound to her ears, odors of any sort to her nostrils. The weight of her silk nightgown, the touch of sheets over and under her, tortured her skin. Every nerve she had yanked every muscle she had, continually. Promises that she wasnтАЩt going to die were no good now: life wasnтАЩt nice enough. + 

тАЬStop fighting it, if you want,тАЭ I said. тАЬLet yourself go. IтАЩll take care of you.тАЭ + 

She took me at my word, and I had a maniac on my hands. Once her shrieks brought Mary Nunez to the door, snarling and spitting at me in Mex-Spanish. I was holding Gabrielle down in bed by the shoulders, sweating as much as she was. + 

тАЬGet out of here,тАЭ I snarled back at the Mexican woman. + 

She put a brown hand into the bosom of her dress and came a step into the room. Mickey Linehan came up behind her, pulled her back into the hall, and shut the door. + 

Between the high spots, Gabrielle lay on her back, panting, twitching, staring at the ceiling with hopeless suffering eyes. Sometimes her eyes closed, but the jerking of her body didnтАЩt stop. + 

Rolly came down from Quesada that afternoon with word that Fitzstephan had come sufficiently alive to be questioned by Vernon. Fitzstephan had told the district attorney that he had not seen the bomb, had seen nothing to show when, where, and how it came into the room; but that he had an indistinct memory of hearing a tinkling, as of broken glass falling, and a thud on the floor close to him just after Fink and I had left the room. + 

I told Rolly to tell Vernon IтАЩd try to get over to see him the next day, and to hang on to Fink. The deputy sheriff promised to deliver the message, and left. Mickey and I were standing on the porch. We didnтАЩt have anything to say to each other, hadnтАЩt all day. I was lighting a cigarette when the girlтАЩs voice came from indoors. Mickey turned away, saying something with the name of God in it. + 

I scowled at him and asked angrily: + 

тАЬWell, am I right or wrong?тАЭ + 

He glared back at me, said, тАЬIтАЩd a damned sight rather be wrong,тАЭ and walked away. + 

I cursed him and went inside. Mary Nunez, starting up the front stairs, retreated towards the kitchen when she saw me, walking backwards, her eyes watching me crazily. I cursed her and went upstairs to where I had left MacMan at the girlтАЩs door. He wouldnтАЩt look at me, so I made it unanimous by cursing him. + 

Gabrielle spent the balance of the afternoon shrieking, begging, and crying for morphine. That evening she made a complete confession: + 

тАЬI told you I didnтАЩt want to be evil,тАЭ she said, wadding the bedclothes in feverish hands. тАЬThat was a lie. I did. IтАЩve always wanted to, always have been. I wanted to do to you what I did to the others; but now I donтАЩt want you: I want morphine. They wonтАЩt hang me: I know that. And I donтАЩt care what else they do to me, if I get morphine.тАЭ + 

She laughed viciously and went on: + 

тАЬYou were right when you said I brought out the worst in men because I wanted to. I did want to; and I didтБатАФexcept, I failed with Doctor Riese, and with Eric. I donтАЩt know what was the matter with them. But I failed with both of them, and in failing let them learn too much about me. And thatтАЩs why they were killed. Joseph drugged Doctor Riese, and I killed him myself, and then we made Minnie think she had. And I persuaded Joseph to kill Aaronia, and he would have done itтБатАФhe would have done anything I askedтБатАФif you hadnтАЩt interfered. I got Harvey to kill Eric for me. I was tied to EricтБатАФlegallyтБатАФa good man who wanted to make a good woman of me.тАЭ + 

She laughed again, licking her lips. + 

тАЬHarvey and I had to have money, and I couldnтАЩtтБатАФI was too afraid of being suspectedтБатАФget enough from Andrews; so we pretended I had been kidnapped, to get it that way. It was a shame you killed Harvey: he was a glorious beast. I had that bomb, had had it for months. I took it from fatherтАЩs laboratory, when he was making some experiments for a moving picture company. It wasnтАЩt very large, and I always carried it with meтБатАФjust in case. I meant it for you in the hotel room. There was nothing between Owen and meтБатАФthat was another lieтБатАФhe didnтАЩt love me. I meant it for you, because you wereтБатАФbecause I was afraid you were getting at the truth. I was feverish, and when I heard two men go out, leaving one in your room, I was sure the one was you. I didnтАЩt see that it was Owen till too lateтБатАФtill I had opened the door a little and thrown the bomb in. Now youтАЩve got what you want. Give me morphine. ThereтАЩs no reason for your playing with me any longer. Give me morphine. YouтАЩve succeeded. Have what IтАЩve told you written out: IтАЩll sign it. You canтАЩt pretend now IтАЩm worth curing, worth saving. Give me morphine.тАЭ + 

Now it was my turn to laugh, asking: + 

тАЬAnd arenтАЩt you going to confess to kidnapping Charlie Ross and blowing up the Maine?тАЭ + 

We had some more hellтБатАФa solid hour of itтБатАФbefore she exhausted herself again. The night dragged through. She got a little more than two hoursтАЩ sleep, a half-hour gain over the previous night. I dozed in the chair when I could. + 

Sometime before daylight I woke to the feel of a hand on my coat. Keeping my breathing regular, I pushed my eyelids far enough apart to squint through the lashes. We had a very dim light in the room, but I thought Gabrielle was in bed, though I couldnтАЩt see whether she was asleep or awake. My head was tilted back to rest on the back of the chair. I couldnтАЩt see the hand that was exploring my inside coat-pocket, nor the arm that came down over my shoulder; but they smelled of the kitchen, so I knew they were brown. + 

The Mexican woman was standing behind me. Mickey had told me she had a knife. Imagination told me she was holding it in her other hand. Good judgment told me to let her alone. I did that, closing my eyes again. Paper rustled between her fingers, and her hand left my pocket. + 

I moved my head sleepily then, and changed a footтАЩs position. When I heard the door close quietly behind me, I sat up and looked around. Gabrielle was sleeping. I counted the bindles in my pocket and found that eight of them had been taken. + 

Presently Gabrielle opened her eyes. This was the first time since the cure started that she had awakened quietly. Her face was haggard, but not wild-eyed. She looked at the window and asked: + 

тАЬIsnтАЩt day coming yet?тАЭ + 

тАЬItтАЩs getting light.тАЭ I gave her some orange juice. тАЬWeтАЩll get some solid food in you today.тАЭ + 

тАЬI donтАЩt want food. I want morphine.тАЭ + 

тАЬDonтАЩt be silly. YouтАЩll get food. You wonтАЩt get morphine. Today wonтАЩt be like yesterday. YouтАЩre over the hump, and the rest of itтАЩs downhill going, though you may hit a couple of rough spots. ItтАЩs silly to ask for morphine now. What do you want to do? Have nothing to show for the hell youтАЩve been through? YouтАЩve got it licked now: stay with it.тАЭ + 

тАЬHave IтБатАФhave I really got it licked?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah. All youтАЩve got to buck now is nervousness, and the memory of how nice it felt to have a skinful of hop.тАЭ + 

тАЬI can do it,тАЭ she said. тАЬI can do it because you say I can.тАЭ + 

She got along fine till late in the morning, when she blew up for an hour or two. But it wasnтАЩt so bad, and I got her straightened out again. When Mary brought up her luncheon I left them together and went downstairs for my own. + 

Mickey and MacMan were already at the dining-room table. Neither of them spoke a wordтБатАФto one another or to meтБатАФduring the meal. Since they kept quiet, I did. + 

When I went back upstairs, Gabrielle, in a green bathrobe, was sitting in the leather rocker that had been my bed for two nights. She had brushed her hair and powdered her face. Her eyes were mostly green, with a lift to the lower lids as if she was hiding a joke. She said with mock solemnity: + 

тАЬSit down. I want to talk seriously to you.тАЭ + 

I sat down. + 

тАЬWhy did you go through all this withтБатАФfor me?тАЭ She was really serious now. тАЬYou didnтАЩt have to, and it couldnтАЩt have been pleasant. I wasтБатАФI donтАЩt know how bad I was.тАЭ She turned red from forehead to chest. тАЬI know I was revolting, disgusting. I know how I must seem to you now. WhyтБатАФwhy did you?тАЭ + 

I said: + 

тАЬIтАЩm twice your age, sister; an old man. IтАЩm damned if IтАЩll make a chump of myself by telling you why I did it, why it was neither revolting nor disgusting, why IтАЩd do it again and be glad of the chance.тАЭ + 

She jumped out of her chair, her eyes round and dark, her mouth trembling. + 

тАЬYou meanтБатАФ?тАЭ + 

тАЬI donтАЩt mean anything that IтАЩll admit,тАЭ I said; тАЬand if youтАЩre going to parade around with that robe hanging open youтАЩre going to get yourself some bronchitis. You ex-hopheads have to be careful about catching cold.тАЭ + 

She sat down again, put her hands over her face, and began crying. I let her cry. Presently she giggled through her fingers and asked: + 

тАЬWill you go out and let me be alone all afternoon?тАЭ + 

тАЬYeah, if youтАЩll keep warm.тАЭ + 

I drove over to the county seat, went to the county hospital, and argued with people until they let me into FitzstephanтАЩs room. + 

He was ninety percent bandages, with only an eye, an ear, and one side of his mouth peeping out. The eye and the half-mouth smiled through linen at me, and a voice came through: + 

тАЬNo more of your hotel rooms for me.тАЭ It wasnтАЩt a clear voice because it had to come out sidewise, and he couldnтАЩt move his jaw; but there was plenty of vitality in it. It was the voice of a man who meant to keep on living. + 

I smiled at him and said: + 

тАЬNo hotel rooms this time, unless you think San QuentinтАЩs a hotel. Strong enough to stand up under a third-degree, or shall we wait a day or two?тАЭ + 

тАЬI ought to be at my best now,тАЭ he said. тАЬFacial expressions wonтАЩt betray me.тАЭ + 

тАЬGood. Now hereтАЩs the first point: Fink handed you that bomb when he shook hands with you. ThatтАЩs the only way it could have got in without my seeing it. His back was to me then. You didnтАЩt know what he was handing you, but you had to take it, just as you have to deny it now, or tip us off that you were tied up with the Holy Grail mob, and that Fink had reasons for killing you.тАЭ + 

Fitzstephan said: тАЬYou say the most remarkable things. IтАЩm glad he had reasons, though.тАЭ + 

тАЬYou engineered RieseтАЩs murder. The others were your accomplices. When Joseph died the blame was put all on him, the supposed madman. ThatтАЩs enough to let the others out, or ought to be. But here you are killing Collinson and planning God knows what else. Fink knows that if you keep it up youтАЩre going to let the truth out about the Temple murder, and heтАЩll swing with you. So, scared panicky, he tries to stop you.тАЭ + 

Fitzstephan said: тАЬBetter and better. So I killed Collinson?тАЭ + 

тАЬYou had him killedтБатАФhired Whidden and then didnтАЩt pay him. He kidnapped the girl then, holding her for his money, knowing she was what you wanted. It was you his bullet came closest to when we cornered him.тАЭ + 

Fitzstephan said: тАЬIтАЩm running out of exclamatory phrases. So I was after her? I wondered about my motive.тАЭ + 

тАЬYou must have been pretty rotten with her. SheтАЩd had a bad time with Andrews, and even with Eric, but she didnтАЩt mind talking about them. But when I tried to learn the details of your wooing she shuddered and shut up. I suppose she slammed you down so hard you bounced, and youтАЩre the sort of egoist to be driven to anything by that.тАЭ + 

Fitzstephan said: тАЬI suppose. You know, IтАЩve had more than half an idea at times that you were secretly nursing some exceptionally idiotic theory.тАЭ + 

тАЬWell, why shouldnтАЩt I? You were standing beside Mrs.┬аLeggett when she suddenly got that gun. WhereтАЩd she get it? Chasing her out of the laboratory and down the stairs wasnтАЩt in characterтБатАФnot for you. Your hand was on her gun when that bullet hit her neck. Was I supposed to be deaf, dumb, and blind? There was, as you agreed, one mind behind all GabrielleтАЩs troubles. YouтАЩre the one person who has that sort of a mind, whose connection with each episode can be traced, and who has the necessary motive. The motive held me up: I couldnтАЩt be sure of it till IтАЩd had my first fair chance to pump GabrielleтБатАФafter the explosion. And another thing that held me up was my not being able to tie you to the Temple crowd till Fink and Aaronia Haldorn did it for me.тАЭ + 

Fitzstephan said: тАЬAh, Aaronia helped tie me? What has she been up to?тАЭ He said it absentmindedly, and his one visible gray eye was small, as if he was busy with other thoughts behind it. + 

тАЬSheтАЩs done her best to cover you up by gumming the works, creating confusion, setting us after Andrews, even trying to shoot me. I mentioned Collinson just after sheтАЩd learned that the Andrews false-trail was no good. She gave me a half-concealed gasp and sob, just on the off-chance that itтАЩd lead me astray, overlooking no bets. I like her: sheтАЩs shifty.тАЭ + 

тАЬSheтАЩs so headstrong,тАЭ Fitzstephan said lightly, not having listened to half I had said, busy with his own thoughts. He turned his head on the pillow so that his eye looked at the ceiling, narrow and brooding. + 

I said: тАЬAnd so ends the Great Dain Curse.тАЭ + 

He laughed then, as well as he could with one eye and a fraction of a mouth, and said: + 

тАЬSuppose, my boy, I were to tell you IтАЩm a Dain?тАЭ + 

I said: тАЬHuh?тАЭ + 

He said: тАЬMy mother and GabrielleтАЩs maternal grandfather were brother and sister.тАЭ + 

I said: тАЬIтАЩll be damned.тАЭ + 

тАЬYouтАЩll have to go away and let me think,тАЭ he said. тАЬI donтАЩt know yet what I shall do. Understand, at present I admit nothing. But the chances are I shall insist on the curse, shall use it to save my dear neck. In that event, my son, youтАЩre going to see a most remarkable defense, a circus that will send the nationтАЩs newspapers into happy convulsions. I shall be a Dain, with the cursed Dain blood in me, and the crimes of Cousin Alice and Cousin Lily and Second-cousin Gabrielle and the Lord knows how many other criminal Dains shall be evidence in my behalf. The number of my own crimes will be to my advantage, on the theory that nobody but a lunatic could have committed so many. And wonтАЩt they be many? IтАЩll produce crimes and crimes, dating from the cradle. + 

тАЬEven literature shall help me. DidnтАЩt most reviewers agree that The Pale Egyptian was the work of a sub-Mongolian? And, as I remember, the consensus was that my Eighteen Inches bore all the better known indications of authorial degeneracy. Evidence, son, to save my sweet neck. And I shall wave my mangled body at themтБатАФan arm gone, a leg gone, parts of my torso and faceтБатАФa ruin whose crimes and high Heaven have surely brought sufficient punishment upon him. And perhaps the bomb shocked me into sanity again, or, at least, out of criminal insanity. Perhaps IтАЩll even have become religious. ItтАЩll be a splendid circus. It tempts me. But I must think before I commit myself.тАЭ + 

He panted through the uncovered half of his mouth, exhausted by his speech, looking at me with a gray eye that held triumphant mirth. + 

тАЬYouтАЩll probably make a go of it,тАЭ I said as I prepared to leave. тАЬAnd IтАЩm satisfied if you do. YouтАЩve taken enough of a licking. And, legally, youтАЩre entitled to beat the jump if ever anybody was.тАЭ + 

тАЬLegally entitled?тАЭ he repeated, the mirth going out of his eye. He looked away, and then at me again, uneasily. тАЬTell me the truth. Am I?тАЭ + 

I nodded. + 

тАЬBut, damn it, that spoils it,тАЭ he complained, fighting to keep the uneasiness out of his eye, fighting to retain his usual lazily amused manner, and not making such a poor job of it. тАЬItтАЩs no fun if IтАЩm really cracked.тАЭ + 

When I got back to the house in the cove, Mickey and MacMan were sitting on the front steps. MacMan said, тАЬHello,тАЭ and Mickey said: тАЬGet any fresh woman-scars while you were away? Your little playmateтАЩs been asking for you.тАЭ I supposed from thisтБатАФfrom my being readmitted to the white raceтБатАФthat Gabrielle had had a good afternoon. + 

She was sitting up in bed with pillows behind her back, her face stillтБатАФor againтБатАФpowdered, her eyes shining happily. + 

тАЬI didnтАЩt mean for you to go away forever,тАЭ she scolded. тАЬIt was nasty of you. IтАЩve got a surprise for you and IтАЩve nearly burst waiting.тАЭ + 

тАЬWell, here I am. What is it?тАЭ + 

тАЬShut your eyes.тАЭ + 

I shut them. + 

тАЬOpen your eyes.тАЭ + 

I opened them. She was holding out to me the eight bindles that Mary Nunez had picked my pocket for. + 

тАЬIтАЩve had them since noon,тАЭ she said proudly; тАЬand theyтАЩve got fingermarks and tear-marks on them, but not one of them has been opened. ItтБатАФhonestlyтБатАФit wasnтАЩt so hard not to.тАЭ + 

тАЬI knew it wouldnтАЩt be, for you,тАЭ I said. тАЬThatтАЩs why I didnтАЩt take them away from Mary.тАЭ + 

тАЬYou knew? You trusted me that muchтБатАФto go away and leave me with them?тАЭ + 

Nobody but an idiot would have confessed that for two days the folded papers had held powdered sugar instead of the original morphine. + 

тАЬYouтАЩre the nicest man in the world.тАЭ She caught one of my hands and rubbed her cheek into it, then dropped it quickly, frowned her face out of shape, and said: тАЬExcept! You sat there this noon and deliberately tried to make me think you were in love with me.тАЭ + 

тАЬWell?тАЭ I asked, trying to keep my face straight. + 

тАЬYou hypocrite. You deceiver of young girls. It would serve you right if I made you marry meтБатАФor sued you for breach of promise. I honestly believed you all afternoonтБатАФand it did help me. I believed you until you came in just now, and then I sawтБатАФтАЭ She stopped. + 

тАЬSaw what?тАЭ + 

тАЬA monster. A nice one, an especially nice one to have around when youтАЩre in trouble, but a monster just the same, without any human foolishness like love in him, andтБатАФWhatтАЩs the matter? Have I said something I shouldnтАЩt?тАЭ + 

тАЬI donтАЩt think you should have,тАЭ I said. тАЬIтАЩm not sure I wouldnтАЩt trade places with Fitzstephan nowтБатАФif that big-eyed woman with the voice was part of the bargain.тАЭ + 

тАЬOh, dear!тАЭ she said. + 

XXIII + 

The Circus + 

Owen Fitzstephan never spoke to me again. He refused to see me, and when, as a prisoner, he couldnтАЩt help himself there, he shut his mouth and kept it shut. This sudden hatred of meтБатАФfor it amounted to thatтБатАФhad grown, I supposed, out of his knowing I thought him insane. He wanted the rest of the world, or at least the dozen who would represent the world on his jury, to think he had been crazyтБатАФand did make them think soтБатАФbut he didnтАЩt want me to agree with them. As a sane man who, by pretending to be a lunatic, had done as he pleased and escaped punishment, he had a jokeтБатАФif you wanted to call it thatтБатАФon the world. But if he was a lunatic who, ignorant of his craziness, thought he was pretending to be a lunatic, then the jokeтБатАФif you wanted to call it thatтБатАФwas on him. And my having such a joke on him was more than his egotism could stomach, even though itтАЩs not likely he ever admitted to himself that he was, or might be, actually crazy. Whatever he thought, he never spoke to me after the hospital interview in which I had said he was legally entitled to escape hanging. + 

His trial, when he was well enough to appear in court some months later, was every bit of the circus he had promised, and the newspapers had their happy convulsions. He was tried in the county courthouse for Mrs.┬аCottonтАЩs murder. Two new witnesses had been found, who had seen him walking away from the rear of the Cotton house that morning, and a third who identified his car as the one that had been parked four blocks away allтБатАФor all the latter part ofтБатАФthe previous night. The city and county district attorneys agreed that this evidence made the Cotton case the strongest against him. + 

FitzstephanтАЩs plea was тАЬNot guilty by reason of insanity,тАЭ or whatever the legal wording was. Since Mrs.┬аCottonтАЩs murder had been the last of his crimes, his lawyers could, and did, introduce, as proof of his insanity, all that he had done in the others. They made a high, wide, and handsome job of it, carrying out his original idea that the best way to prove him crazy was to show he had committed more crimes than any sane man could have. Well, it was plain enough that he had. + 

He had known Alice Dain, his cousin, in New York when she and Gabrielle, then a child, were living there. Gabrielle couldnтАЩt corroborate this: we had only FitzstephanтАЩs word for it; but it may have been so. He said they concealed his relationship from the others because they did not want the girlтАЩs fatherтБатАФfor whom Alice was then searchingтБатАФto know that she was bringing with her any links with the dangerous past. Fitzstephan said Alice had been his mistress in New York: that could have been true, but didnтАЩt matter. + 

After Alice and Gabrielle left New York for San Francisco, Fitzstephan and the woman exchanged letters occasionally, but with no definite purpose. Fitzstephan then met the Haldorns. The cult was his idea: he organized it, financed it, and brought it to San Francisco, though he kept his connection with it a secret, since everyone who knew him knew his skepticism; and his interest in it would have advertised it as the fake it was. To him, he said, the cult was a combination of toy and meal-ticket: he liked influencing people, especially in obscure ways, and people didnтАЩt seem to like buying his books. + 

Aaronia Haldorn was his mistress. Joseph was a puppet, in the family as in the Temple. + 

In San Francisco Fitzstephan and Alice arranged so that he became acquainted with her husband and Gabrielle through other friends of the family. Gabrielle was now a young woman. Her physical peculiarities, which he interpreted pretty much as she had, fascinated him; and he tried his luck with her. He didnтАЩt have any. That made him doubly determined to land her: he was that way. Alice was his ally. She knew him and she hated the girlтБатАФso she wanted him to have her. Alice had told Fitzstephan the family history. The girlтАЩs father did not know at this time that she had been taught to think him her motherтАЩs murderer. He knew she had a deep aversion to him, but did not know on what it was based. He thought that what he had gone through in prison and since had marked him with a hardness naturally enough repellant to a young girl who was, in spite of their relationship, actually only a recent acquaintance. + 

He learned the truth about it when, surprising Fitzstephan in further attempts to make GabrielleтБатАФas Fitzstephan put itтБатАФlisten to reason, he had got into a three-cornered row with the pair of them. Leggett now began to understand what sort of a woman he was married to. Fitzstephan was no longer invited to the Leggett house, but kept in touch with Alice and waited his time. + 

His time came when Upton arrived with his demand for blackmail. Alice went to Fitzstephan for advice. He gave it to herтБатАФpoisonously. He urged her to handle Upton herself, concealing his demandтБатАФhis knowledge of the Leggett pastтБатАФfrom Leggett. He told her she should above all else continue to keep her knowledge of LeggettтАЩs Central American and Mexican history concealed from himтБатАФa valuable hold on him now that he hated her because of what sheтАЩd taught the girl. Giving Upton the diamonds, and faking the burglary evidence, were FitzstephanтАЩs ideas. Poor Alice didnтАЩt mean anything to him: he didnтАЩt care what happened to her so long as he could ruin Leggett and get Gabrielle. + 

He succeeded in the first of those aims: guided by him, Alice completely demolished the Leggett household, thinking, until the very last, when he pursued her after giving her the pistol in the laboratory, that he had a clever plan by which they would be saved; that is, she and he would: her husband didnтАЩt count with her any more than she with Fitzstephan. Fitzstephan had had to kill her, of course, to keep her from exposing him when she found that his clever plan was a trap for her. + 

Fitzstephan said he killed Leggett himself. When Gabrielle left the house after seeing RuppertтАЩs murder, she left a note saying she had gone for good. That broke up the arrangement as far as Leggett was concerned. He told Alice he was through, was going away, and offered of his own accord to write a statement assuming responsibility for what she had done. Fitzstephan tried to persuade Alice to kill him, but she wouldnтАЩt. He did. He wanted Gabrielle, and he didnтАЩt think a live Leggett, even though a fugitive from justice, would let him have her. + 

FitzstephanтАЩs success in getting rid of Leggett, and in escaping detection by killing Alice, encouraged him. He went blithely on with his plan to get the girl. The Haldorns had been introduced to the Leggetts some months before, and already had her nibbling at their hook. She had gone to them when she ran away from home. Now they persuaded her to come to the Temple again. The Haldorns didnтАЩt know what Fitzstephan was up to, what he had done to the Leggetts: they thought that the girl was only another of the likely prospects he fed them. But Doctor Riese, hunting for Joseph in JosephтАЩs part of the Temple the day I got there, opened a door that should have been locked, and saw Fitzstephan and the Haldorns in conference. + 

That was dangerous: Riese couldnтАЩt be kept quiet, and, once FitzstephanтАЩs connection with the Temple was known, as likely as not the truth about his part in the Leggett riot would come out. He had two easily handled toolsтБатАФJoseph and Minnie. He had Riese killed. But that woke Aaronia up to his true interest in Gabrielle. Aaronia, jealous, could and would either make him give up the girl or ruin him. He persuaded Joseph that none of them was safe from the gallows while Aaronia lived. When I saved Aaronia by killing her husband, I also saved Fitzstephan for the time: Aaronia and Fink had to keep quiet about RieseтАЩs death if they wanted to save themselves from being charged with complicity in it. + 

By this time Fitzstephan had hit his stride. He looked on Gabrielle now as his property, bought with the deaths he had caused. Each death had increased her price, her value to him. When Eric carried her off and married her, Fitzstephan hadnтАЩt hesitated. Eric was to be killed. + 

Nearly a year before, Fitzstephan had wanted a quiet place where he could go to finish a novel. Mrs.┬аFink, my village-blacksmith, had recommended Quesada. She was a native of the village, and her son by a former marriage, Harvey Whidden, was living there. Fitzstephan went to Quesada for a couple of months, and became fairly well acquainted with Whidden. Now that there was another murder to be done, Fitzstephan remembered Whidden as a man who might do it, for a price. + 

When Fitzstephan heard that Collinson wanted a quiet place where his wife could rest and recuperate while they were waiting for the HaldornsтАЩ trial, he suggested Quesada. Well, it was a quiet place, probably the quietest in California. Then Fitzstephan went to Whidden with an offer of a thousand dollars for EricтАЩs murder. Whidden refused at first, but he wasnтАЩt nimble-witted, and Fitzstephan could be persuasive enough, so the bargain had been made. + 

Whidden bungled a try at it Thursday night, frightening Collinson into wiring me, saw the wire in the telegraph office, and thought he had to go through with it then to save himself. So he fortified himself with whiskey, followed Collinson Friday night, and shoved him off the cliff. Then he took some more whiskey and came to San Francisco, considering himself by this time a hell of a desperate guy. He phoned his employer, saying: тАЬWell, I killed him easy enough and dead enough. Now I want my money.тАЭ + 

FitzstephanтАЩs phone came through the house switchboard: he didnтАЩt know who might have heard Whidden talking. He decided to play safe. He pretended he didnтАЩt know who was talking nor what he was talking about. Thinking Fitzstephan was double-crossing him, knowing what the novelist wanted, Whidden decided to take the girl and hold her for, not his original thousand dollars, but ten thousand. He had enough drunken cunning to disguise his handwriting when he wrote his note to Fitzstephan, not to sign it, and to so word it that Fitzstephan couldnтАЩt tell the police who had sent it without explaining how he knew who had sent it. + 

Fitzstephan wasnтАЩt sitting any too pretty. When he got WhiddenтАЩs note, he decided to play his hand boldly, pushing his thus-far-solid luck. He told me about the phone-call and gave me the letter. That entitled him to show himself in Quesada with an excellent reason for being there. But he came down ahead of time, the night before he joined me, and went to the marshalтАЩs house to ask Mrs.┬аCottonтБатАФwhose relation to Whidden he knewтБатАФwhere he could find the man. Whidden was there, hiding from the marshal. Whidden wasnтАЩt nimble-witted, and Fitzstephan was persuasive enough when he wanted to be: Fitzstephan explained how WhiddenтАЩs recklessness had forced him to pretend to not understand the phone-call. Fitzstephan had a scheme by which Whidden could now collect his ten thousand dollars in safety, or so he made Whidden think. + 

Whidden went back to his hiding-place. Fitzstephan remained with Mrs.┬аCotton. She, poor woman, now knew too much, and didnтАЩt like what she knew. She was doomed: killing people was the one sure and safe way of keeping them quiet: his whole recent experience proved it. His experience with Leggett told him that if he could get her to leave behind a statement in which various mysterious points were satisfactorilyтБатАФand not too truthfullyтБатАФexplained, his situation would be still further improved. She suspected his intentions, and didnтАЩt want to help him carry them out. She finally wrote the statement he dictated, but not until late in the morning. His description of how he finally got it from her wasnтАЩt pleasant; but he got it, and then strangled her, barely finishing when her husband arrived home from his all-night hunt. + 

Fitzstephan escaped by the back doorтБатАФthe witnesses who had seen him go away from the house didnтАЩt come forward until his photograph in the papers jogged their memoriesтБатАФand joined Vernon and me at the hotel. He went with us to WhiddenтАЩs hiding-place below Dull Point. He knew Whidden, knew the dull manтАЩs probable reaction to this second betrayal. He knew that neither Cotton nor Feeney would be sorry to have to shoot Whidden. Fitzstephan believed he could trust to his luck and what gamblers call the percentage of the situation. That failing, he meant to stumble when he stepped from the boat, accidentally shooting Whidden with the gun in his hand. (He remembered how neatly he had disposed of Mrs.┬аLeggett.) He might have been blamed for that, might even have been suspected, but he could hardly have been convicted of anything. + 

Once again his luck held. Whidden, seeing Fitzstephan with us, had flared up and tried to shoot him, and we had killed Whidden. + 

That was the story with which this crazy man, thinking himself sane, tried to establish his insanity, and succeeded. The other charges against him were dropped. He was sent to the state asylum at Napa. A year later he was discharged. I donтАЩt suppose the asylum officials thought him cured: they thought he was too badly crippled ever to be dangerous again. + 

Aaronia Haldorn carried him off to an island in Puget Sound, IтАЩve heard. + 

She testified at his trial, as one of his witnesses, but was not herself tried for anything. The attempt of her husband and Fitzstephan to kill her had, for all practical purposes, removed her from among the guilty. + 

We never found Mrs.┬аFink. + 

Tom Fink drew a five-to-fifteen-years jolt in San Quentin for what he had done to Fitzstephan. Neither of them seemed to blame the other now, and each tried to cover the other up on the witness stand. FinkтАЩs professed motive for the bombing was to avenge his stepsonтАЩs death, but nobody swallowed that. He had tried to check FitzstephanтАЩs activities before Fitzstephan brought the whole works down on their ears. + 

Released from prison, finding himself shadowed, Fink had seen both reason for fear and a means to safety in that shadow. He had back-doored Mickey that night, slipping out to get the material for his bomb, and then in again, working all night on the bomb. The news he had brought me was supposed to account for his presence in Quesada. The bomb wasnтАЩt largeтБатАФits outer cover was an aluminum soap container wrapped in white paperтБатАФand neither he nor Fitzstephan had had any difficulty in concealing it from me when it passed between them during their handshaking. Fitzstephan had thought it something Aaronia was sending him, something important enough to justify the risk in sending it. He couldnтАЩt have refused to take it without attracting my attention, without giving away the connection between him and Fink. He had concealed it until we had left the room, and then had opened itтБатАФto wake up in the hospital. Tom Fink had thought himself safe, with Mickey to testify that he had shadowed him from the time he had left the prison, and me to account for his behavior on the scene of the bombing. + 

Fitzstephan said that he did not think Alice LeggettтАЩs account of the killing of her sister Lily was the truth, that he thought sheтБатАФAliceтБатАФhad done the killing herself and had lied to hurt Gabrielle. Everybody took it for granted that he was rightтБатАФeverybody, including GabrielleтБатАФthough he didnтАЩt have any evidence to support what was after all only his guess. I was tempted to have the agencyтАЩs Paris correspondent see what he could dig up on that early affair, but decided not to. It was nobodyтАЩs business except GabrielleтАЩs, and she seemed happy enough with what had already been dug up. + 

She was in the CollinsonsтАЩ hands now. They had come to Quesada for her as soon as the newspapers put out their first extra accusing Fitzstephan of EricтАЩs murder. The Collinsons hadnтАЩt had to be crude about itтБатАФto admit that theyтАЩd ever suspected her of anything: when Andrews had surrendered his letters testamentary, and another administratorтБатАФWalter FieldingтБатАФhad been appointed, the Collinsons had simply seemed to pick her up, as was their right as her closest relations, where Andrews had put her down. + 

Two months in the mountains topped off her cure, and she came back to the city looking like nothing that she had been. The difference was not only in appearance. + 

тАЬI canтАЩt really make myself believe that all that actually happened to me,тАЭ she told me one noon when she, Laurence Collinson, and I were lunching together between morning and afternoon court-sessions. тАЬIs it, do you think, because there was so much of it that I became callous?тАЭ + 

тАЬNo. Remember you were going around coked-up most of the time. That saved you from the sharp edge. Lucky for you you were. Stay away from the morphine now and itтАЩll always be a hazy sort of dream. Any time you want to bring it back clear and vivid, take a jolt.тАЭ + 

тАЬI wonтАЩt, I wonтАЩt, ever,тАЭ she said; тАЬnot even to give you theтБатАФthe fun of bullying me through a cure again. He enjoyed himself awfully,тАЭ she told Laurence Collinson. тАЬHe used to curse me, ridicule me, threaten me with the most terrible things, and then, at the last, I think he tried to seduce me. And if IтАЩm uncouth at times, Laurence, youтАЩll have to blame him: he positively hadnтАЩt a refining influence.тАЭ + 

She seemed to have come back far enough. + 

Laurence Collinson laughed with us, but not from any farther down than his chin. I had an idea he thought I hadnтАЩt a refining influence. + 