"Better take something for your nerves," Freeman said mildly, and ran one
hand soundlessly over the keys of the piano.
Captain Tucker's voice bit into the silence. "One of you four has every
right to be nervous." He turned to Dr. Stone. "I sent for you, Doctor,
because I am baffled. All four of these men came here late yesterday.
Cagge says----"
"Who's Cagge?" the doctor broke in.
"Old Anthony Fitch's servant. He says all four quarreled violently with
Anthony last night, and that the old man cackled at them, and goaded
them, and invited them to remain so that today the comedy could be
resumed. About eleven o'clock he went off to bed, holding to Cagge's arm,
after telling the servant to show the visitors to rooms."
"And then?" the doctor asked.
"Cagge says he awoke about three o'clock this morning and heard groans.
He went to Anthony's room, and there he found the old man crumpled on his
bed. He had been struck on the temple by a heavy brass candlestick that
lay on the floor. Cagge says he tried to speak, and muttered one word
several times before he died."
"That word was?"
"Four. Over and over again. 'Four, four, four.' What do you make of it?"
Slowly Doctor Stone filled a pipe, struck a match, and puffed in
unhurried contemplation. "It may be, Tucker, he meant that all four were
concerned in his murder."
Otis King laughed. "Doctor," he said easily, "that shot misses the
target. There isn't one of us trusts any of the other three. You couldn't
get us into a combine."
"You must know each other," the doctor observed.