The influence of a familiar and sequestered place is not only
soothing; the bruised mind may often find it restorative. Thus
Hedrick, in his studio, surrounded by his own loved bric-a-brac,
began to feel once more the stir of impulse. Two hours' reading
inspired him. What a French reporter (in the Count's bedroom)
could do, an American youth in full possession of his
powers--except for a strained knee and other injuries--could do.
Yes, and would!
He evolved a new chain of reasoning. The ledger had been seen in
Laura's room; it had been heard in her room; it appeared to be
kept in her room. But it was in no single part of the room. All
the parts make a whole. Therefore, the book was not in the room.
On the other hand, Laura had not left the room when she took the
book from its hiding-place. This was confusing; therefore he
determined to concentrate logic solely upon what she had done with
the ledger when she finished writing in it. It was dangerous to
assume that she had restored it to the place whence she obtained
it, because he had already proved that place to be both in the
room and out of the room. No; the question he must keep in was:
What did she do with it?
Laura had not left the room. But the book had left the room.
Arrived at this inevitable deduction, he sprang to his feet in a
state of repressed excitement and began to pace the floor--like a
hound on the trail. Laura had not left the room, but the book had
left the room: he must keep his mind upon this point. He uttered a
loud exclamation and struck the zinc table-top a smart blow with
his clenched fist.
Laura had thrown the book out of the window!
In the exaltation of this triumph, he forgot that it was not yet
the hour for a scholar's reappearance, and went forth in haste to
search the ground beneath the window--a disappointing quest, for
nowhere in the yard was there anything but withered grass, and the
rubbish of other frost-bitten vegetation. His mother, however,
discovered something else, and, opening the kitchen window, she
asked, with surprise:
"Why, Hedrick, what on earth are you doing here?"
"Me?" inquired Hedrick.
"What are you doing here?"
"Here?" Evidently she puzzled him.