"Tucker?"
"No; State troopers. I saw them take him away."
"I expected it," Dr. Stone said mildly. Joe, watching him, was presently
aware that he slept peacefully in the depths of the porch chair. So can
the blind, shut out from the light of the world, in turn shut out the
world and drop off into almost instant slumber.
But at supper time the man was vividly awake. The strong, supple hands
that had made him a surgeon, were suddenly restless and nervous.
"Joe," he said, "change those hard leather shoes to soft sneakers.
Leather soles make too much noise."
The order had a sound of mystery and adventure. Joe raced upstairs to his
room. When he came down the day was gone and darkness lay over the
countryside. Lady was already harnessed. Out in the road the boy held to
his uncle's arm and hurried along. Here, walking into a wall of night, he
would by himself have to go slowly. But to his uncle the night presented
no change, nor did it bring up any new handicap. For to Dr. Stone the
world was always dark and black. There was no day or night.
Kent's car was gone from the driveway. Dr. Stone said: "Easy, Joe; walk
on the grass. Any lights?"
"Only in the back."
It seemed to the boy that his uncle made a sound of satisfaction. The
dog, as though sensing the man's desire for caution, led them slowly,
silently. Dr. Stone's cane touched the tree.
"Lady!" His voice was low.
The dog was all attention.
"Lady, search. Fetch."
Joe was conscious of the black bulk of the house, a black tower that was
the tree, and a blurred shadow moving noiselessly in the grass. Minutes
passed, and his heart pounded in his chest. One moment the dog was near
him, and the next it was gone. And then the shadow stood motionless
beside his uncle.
"Lady, again," Dr. Stone urged. "Search. Fetch."
For what? Joe racked his brain and tried to find an answer. Once he heard
the soft sniff of the dog, but could not see it. Suddenly it was beside
his uncle again, motionless as before. How long it had been there he did
not know.
"We'll go to the house now," Dr. Stone said.
They crossed to the porch and rang the bell. The living room was all at
once alight, and Harley Kent opened the door.
"I thought you might be along, Doctor. Come in; come in. It looks as
though we've cleared this thing up."
"Then the necklace was recovered?" Dr. Stone asked.
"No--not exactly. They'll sweat Donovan and make him come through. They
took him away this afternoon."
"So I heard," the doctor said without emotion. "Under arrest?"
"Technically, no. They took him down for questioning, but--you know how
those things are worked. Keep after him until he opens up and then book
him. The maid slipped."
"The maid?"
"Yes. They dragged it out of her a little at a time. Donovan wanted her
to marry him. Yesterday he urged her to marry him and leave for the West
at once. That sounded suspicious, Doctor. With so many now out of work,
why should a man marry and at once throw up his job? To do this he'd have
to have quite a bit of money--and Donovan didn't have any. Or else he'd
have to know how he could raise money very quickly. Get it?"
"Perfectly."
"So we sent out the maid and brought in Donovan. He had a smug answer to
the reason for that trip to the West. A friend owned a taxi company in a
western city and wanted him to come on and take the job of manager."
"He had this friend's letter, of course?"
Harley Kent laughed. "You're not as easily fooled as that, Doctor? Of
course not. Said he had lost it. So the troopers took him away."
"That's that," Dr. Stone said after a silence.
"Exactly. And a lucky thing the girl talked. Up to that point we had
nothing. No finger prints, no sign as to how the window had been forced,
no sign of the necklace. Nothing but an open window and an open safe. It
was as though a bird had flown in and had flown off with the jewels."
"A bird," Dr. Stone said slowly, and tapped his cane against the floor.
"Nobody thought of that seriously though?"
"A bird?" Harley Kent stared.
To Joe's amazement, his uncle appeared in earnest. "Because if they had
taken a bird seriously the next step----"
"The next step what?" Harley Kent demanded sharply.
The cane had ceased to tap the floor. "The next step," Dr. Stone said
softly, "would be to look where a bird would naturally fly with such a
bauble."
Something electric, something unsaid, hung in the air, and Joe shook with
a strange chill. Whatever that something was, it spoke to Lady. The dog
grew restless and growled in its throat.
"I think we'll be going, Kent," said the doctor.
"Good night," said Harley Kent.
Joe clung to his uncle's arm and swallowed with difficulty. A hundred
feet down the road the man halted.
"Can you see the house from here?"
"Yes, sir."
"Tell me when the downstairs lights go out." The man found his pipe and
struck a match to the bowl.
A whippoorwill called musically through the night, and distance softened
the hoot of an owl. Frogs croaked in a meadow and a rabbit stirred in the
brush. Joe shifted from foot to foot, and wondered what was to come next.
Twice cars passed them going into town, and off over the hill a dog
howled. And then, without warning, the oblongs of downstairs windows
disappeared and the roof was a dark patch against the sky.
"The lights are out," the boy whispered.