The Mystery of the Hidden Room Part 18

Before I could adjust my thoughts to his rapid speech I found myself in the street looking in some perplexity at the closed door of Graydon McKelvie's house.

"Well, I'll be hanged!" I exclaimed wrathfully, as I climbed into my car.

I drove away in no very pleased frame of mind at the reception I had received, for when I reviewed the conversation I realized that he had not compromised himself to help me at all. The moment I reached home, however, I forgot my annoyance at the cavalier way I had been treated.

The sudden transformation of Jenkins' lugubrious countenance into an ecstatic smile as he hastened to carry out McKelvie's command, for that's just what it was, made me feel sanguine once more of that gentleman's aid. I put down his manner, therefore, to eccentricity and the natural desire to know more of the problem before he promised to bring his faculties to bear upon it.

I pa.s.sed the evening in Elysium and I came down to earth with a bang when promptly at ten o'clock the next morning, in answer to my query, McKelvie tossed a sheet of paper across the table to me with the remark:

"Find the answers to those questions and you'll have the name of the person who committed the crime."

I looked at him, sitting smoking unconcernedly, to the paper in my hand, undecided which to tackle first, when my mind caught the sense of the words before me. After that I forgot my surroundings until I had absorbed every line that McKelvie had written. The doc.u.ment was drawn up in the form of a series of questions, with sufficient s.p.a.ce below each one to insert the proper answer, and it read as follows:

(1) Why was the pistol fired at midnight?

(2) Did the murderer also light the lamp?

(3) How did the murderer enter and leave the study?

(4) What was the motive for the murder?

(5) Why did the doctors disagree, and which was in the right?

(6) Why did Philip Darwin put that ring on his finger and then pull it off?

(7) Whose is the blood-stained handkerchief?

(8) Where did the second bullet go?

(9) Why is there so much evidence against Mrs. Darwin, and who would most desire to injure her?

(10) Is Cora Manning the woman in the case and if so, who and what is she?

(11) What has become of Darwin's securities?

(12) What is Lee Darwin's connection with the affair?

(13) Why did Richard Trenton come to New York and then commit suicide?

(14) What is the relation between Mr. Cunningham and the murdered man?

(15) Which one of those having a sufficient motive for killing Darwin answers to the following description: clever, unprincipled, and absolutely cold-blooded?

"Find the answers to those questions!" I repeated when I had devoured the sheet with my eyes. "It would take me a lifetime! For mercy's sake, don't fail me now when I have only you to depend on to help me!" I cried.

With an odd smile he took his pipe from his mouth and tapped the bowl upon his open palm. Then he looked at me and spoke abruptly, "If I take this case it will be on one condition."

"A thousand if you wish," I exclaimed impatiently.

"No, only one, that when I give commands they shall be obeyed implicitly, even though you may not be able to perceive their wisdom at the time."

I blinked at the unexpectedness of the answer and then held out my hand.

"It shall be as you say, Mr. McKelvie, only don't let them convict Ruth."

He clasped my hand. "I won't, Mr. Davies, if she is guiltless, and my first command is this: I want an interview with Mrs. Darwin this afternoon."

CHAPTER XV

THE INTERVIEW

When we entered the Tombs that afternoon I noticed that several of the wardens smiled at McKelvie, as if his presence were a familiar one in that place of horrors. The matron too was very accommodating, more so than she had been to me, when McKelvie suggested that she stand out in the corridor when Ruth arrived. I noticed, however, that though she did as he asked and moved out of earshot, she remained where she could keep an eye upon our movements.

When I presented Graydon McKelvie to Ruth and explained his mission, she gave him such a sweet, pathetic smile and wished him success in so gentle a manner that he was won over to her cause on the spot.

"Mrs. Darwin," he said, with feeling, in that wonderful voice of his, "my best is the least I can offer you."

From that moment I had no misgivings as to the outcome of the affair.

Let come what would, Graydon McKelvie would prove Ruth innocent, not because he believed, but because like myself he knew her to be innocent.

"Mrs. Darwin," McKelvie was saying gently, "in order to get at the bottom of this matter it will be necessary to ask you certain pertinent questions. I trust you won't be offended by anything I may say and also that you will answer me truthfully in every case."

"I will tell you anything you desire to know," she answered quietly.

"The coroner's inquest brought out a number of facts which do not, in my estimation, agree with one another. You say the study was in darkness when you entered, yet the lamp was lighted after the shot was fired. You are sure you did not light it yourself, unconsciously, perhaps?" he inquired in a brisk manner.

"I did not touch it," she answered with conviction. "I had just picked up the pistol and was standing beside the chair some distance from the table when the lamp apparently lighted itself."

"If someone had pulled the cord of the lamp would you have been able to see that person?" he persisted.

"Yes, for I turned toward the table the minute the light went on. There was no one there--except Phil--and myself," she said low.

"Point to investigate," he muttered, making a note in a small black book. "Memo: How was the light turned on?

"Now, Mrs. Darwin, please go back in your mind to the moment when you heard the shot. What part of the room did it appear to come from?" he continued.

"I--I'm afraid I couldn't say."

"Did it sound very close to you, or far away?" he prompted.

"Quite close. It was deafening," she said.

"Did it sound in front or behind you?" he continued, patiently.

"Behind, I think."

He nodded. "You say you trod on the pistol as you moved forward. You did not hear it fall near you, for instance?"