"Is Anthony's death supposed to fill any of us with sorrow?" Freeman
asked blandly.
"Fry mine on both sides," said Otis King. He stretched his legs and
smoothed his trousers. "Cagge, you were with Anthony how long?"
"Three years."
"Any trouble collecting your wages?"
Joe saw the servant's face flame. "Trouble? Why, the tight-fisted, old
skin-flint----. Do you know how much he's paid me this last year? A
couple of dollars here and there when I could wring it out of him. And
now he's dead, and where am I going to collect the four hundred dollars
he owes me?"
"Did you say four hundred dollars, Cagge?" King asked softly.
"I said four hundred dollars and I mean four hundred dollars." Like a
shadow, almost without sound, the man was gone. The clatter of a pan came
from the kitchen.
Otis King tapped a cigarette against a silver case. Joe's hands had gone
dry. Somewhere in the house a clock struck seven.
"Four!" King said thoughtfully. "What would you call that, Doctor,
coincidence or--something else? Many a man has killed for less than four
hundred dollars."
Dr. Stone stood up. Holding to the harness-handle of the dog's leash he
spoke to the four men who watched him intently. "Would a murderer first
tell that his victim kept muttering 'Four, four,' and then add that the
slain man owed him four hundred dollars? Lady, upstairs." The shepherd
dog guided him across the room skillfully preventing him from bumping
into chairs and furniture. With his feet on the first tread he spoke
again. "It wasn't Cagge, gentlemen."
"Do you always leap at conclusions?" Otis King asked insolently.
"I usually keep off paths other men mark for me," the doctor said
quietly.
Joe followed his uncle up the staircase. He kept close to the dog,
afraid, in this house of terror, of he knew not what. In the upper hall
Captain Tucker halted and clutched his arm.
"Doctor," he said rapidly, "there was something I did not want to tell
you downstairs in front of them. I found something in the room."
"Finger prints?"
"No; the candle-stick had been wiped clean. A plain, silk handkerchief.
It had evidently been used to cover the lower part of the murderer's
face. I found it in the center of the floor."
Joe saw the familiar tense lines form around his uncle's mouth, and a
soundless whistle came from the blind man's lips. "So! I hadn't expected
that. King was right. They had reason not to trust one another."
"What's that, Doctor?"
"Nothing, Captain; nothing. Lead me in."
A huddled figure was twisted grotesquely upon the bed. Joe, with a sudden
spot of ice in the pit of his stomach, backed out into the hall.
Presently there were leisurely footsteps on the stairs, and from inside
the room his uncle's voice said, "Lady, trail." The footsteps came on.
But the boy's ears were held by the softer pad-pad-pad of the shepherd
dog's feet.
Lady came out into the hall, ears back and nose close to the floor.
Sniffing, she veered this way and that, but went steadily along the
passage. And then, suddenly, Joe's heart gave a choked throb, for the
tawny shepherd had swung in and came to a stop before a closed door. True
to her training, she stopped with her head below the lock; and Dr. Stone,
reaching out a groping hand, touched the knob.
"Who's room is this?" he asked.
"Mine," came Otis King's voice from down the hall.
The tense lines were back around the doctor's mouth. "The trail clouds
again, Tucker," he said; but Captain Tucker, triumphant, held out the
silk handkerchief.
"Ever see this before, King?"
"No."
"It was found near Anthony's body. The dog, taking a scent from it,
followed a trail to your door. How you explain that?"
"Seeing that this is the first time I've been upstairs, I can't explain
it. Cagge brought my bag to this room, but I did not follow. When Anthony
went tottering off to bed I went outdoors and tramped the roads for
hours."
"What for?" Captain Tucker barked.
"I was trying," King said, "to hatch a plan by which I might get my hands
on that manuscript."
"And then you came back, and came up here----"
"I came back, but did not come upstairs. I went out again at once."
"Still plotting, I suppose?" Captain Tucker said in sarcasm.
"No," King said coolly; "the second time I acted. I destroyed Anthony's
book."
Joe found it hard to swallow. Uncle David said the man who stole the
manuscript was the man who had killed! Dr. Stone's face was
expressionless:
"I thought so."
"Look here," King burst out angrily. "I told you I went out. When I came
back the house was dark. As I opened the front door I heard someone run
up the stairs. I snapped on the light, and a bundle of typed papers lay
on the floor. I had to read only half a page to know it was Anthony's
manuscript. Would I be apt to tell voluntarily that I destroyed the book
if the fact would link me to the murder?"
Captain Tucker seemed a bit taken back. Lawton's voice came from
downstairs:
"Breakfast, Otis."
"You might have built this up," Captain Tucker said suspiciously.
"I might," King agreed. He was once more dapper and assured.
But when he came down stairs to the table, Joe saw that he had hardened
into cold watchfulness. Freeman said, "Sorry you won't eat with us,
Doctor." Lady, walking restlessly around the table, stopped at Freeman's
place and the man offered her a strip of bacon.
"Quite a dog, Doctor."
"Quite," Dr. Stone agreed; and Joe, reading something in the word, gave
his uncle a sharp, expectant glance.
Cagge came in from the kitchen with more coffee. His hand shook as he
refilled the cups, and the spout of the pot chattered against the china.
"Cagge," Dr. Stone said suddenly, "how did you sleep last night?"
"I didn't--much," Cagge answered in his nasal monotone. "I didn't like
the look of things."
"Did you hear anybody go out?"
"Yes." The servant put down the pot. "It was blasted queer. I heard
somebody go out twice, and I heard somebody come back three times."
"That doesn't make sense," Captain Tucker said irritably.
"Everything makes sense when you understand it," the blind man observed.
Joe, catching a movement of the hand that held Lady's leash, followed his
uncle into the living-room.
"Joe, was the window of King's room open?"
"Yes, sir."
The meal was over, and the four men came back through the doorway. Dr.
Stone found his chair. Ran Freeman dropped down upon the piano stool, but
Lawton seemed to seek a seat far from the blind man and the dog. Waring
paced the room, and Otis King was still cold and watchful.
Freeman's fingers, once more running soundlessly over the keys, struck a
faint note. As though the sound had broken a barrier, he banged a chord.
The next instant, swinging about on the stool, he faced the instrument
and began to play, freely and without restraint.
Joe found it hard to swallow. Music, in this house of death, sounded
ghastly, almost sacrilegious. He looked at his uncle. The calmness was
gone from Dr. Stone's face. Around the sightless eyes, around the serene
mouth, strange, intense lines he knew well had suddenly formed.
Captain Tucker had gone out into the kitchen to talk to Cagge. Freeman
ended with a crash of sound. Seconds passed, and nobody spoke. The
silence seemed no more ghastly than the music.
"Ran," Otis King drawled, dangerously quiet, "your veins must be filled
with ice."
"Why be hypocrites?" Freeman demanded. "We're not mourning Anthony, are
we?"
"We can be decent about it," King told him.
Dr. Stone's voice was again a calm stream. "There was one part,
Freeman--Tum, te-tum-tum, tum-tum-te-tum. Toward the end. The execution
was fast. Tum, te-tum----"
"Oh, this." Freeman faced the key-board again and began to play. "This
what you mean?"
"Play it," said the blind man.
Ran Freeman played. He was an artist, and he knew it. But Joe no longer
gave ear to the music. Something quiet--something too quiet--had been in
his uncle's voice. Something that suggested a cocked trigger about to be
fired. He shivered, and gripped the ends of his sweater, and held them
tight.
For the second time the music ended in a crash of chords. Freeman, swung
about on the stool.
"Like it, Doctor?"
"Beautifully done," the blind man said. He lay back against the cushions
of the chair, loose and relaxed. "In fact, it would have been perfect
if----"