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"We know everything is being done, Mrs. Ke
"He won't let her die," the old woman quavered; and Maria
"I know, I know. I'll tell you what, Mrs. Ke
Despite the absurd selection he had found the way to distract the housekeeper. Her face brightened.
"And some soup," she exclaimed. "Her Grace might fancy some nice strengthening broth when she feels a little better. There is nothing like it, I always say. I'll do it right away, Mr. Carlton."
She hobbled out.
"What will become of them?" Carlton muttered, staring after her. "All the misfits, the unemployables, whom she has taken in? Who else would find a place for them?"
"I am sure she has made provisions for them," Maria
"Gruffstone said he would send for us if… if we could be useful," was the reply, made in an abstracted voice, as if the lawyer had something else on his mind.
"Whatever possessed you to order that ridiculous amount of food? It would be impossible to eat anything."
But when, sometime later, trays of sandwiches and salad were brought up, she found that she was ravenous. The food and the strong tea removed the last traces of her dizziness; she felt keyed up and alert and too restless to sit or be silent. Talking seemed to relieve her mind. Unfortunately Carlton did not share this weakness, if weakness it was. He sat hunched in his chair staring into space and responded to her irritable comments in monosyllables, if at all.
It was almost dawn before the doctor came to them. "She will do now," he said. "It was not as serious as I feared, but I stayed with her till she slept."
"You look very tired," Maria
"I have no appetite." But he began to nibble on a sandwich and Maria
"And how do you propose to accomplish that?" Carlton demanded. Now that his anxieties were relieved he had reverted to his old snappish ma
"We have a little time to prepare," the doctor replied heavily. "If, as I suppose, the reference was to the a
"To do what?" Carlton seemed determined to be objectionable. "Give up hope of contacting that scoundrel, as you call him? Never believe it. Or have you some other scheme in mind? I warn you, Gruffstone, that any frustration of her hopes will prove as severe a shock as the message itself."
"Don't try to teach me my own profession! I know that as well as you do. I have an idea…" This time Carlton did not interrupt him, and after a moment of hesitation and a sidelong glance at Maria
"Why should you suppose she will be disappointed? The agency that produced those obscene demonstrations tonight is quite capable of doing it again, unless we can discover how it was done and prevent it. Ah – your face is too open, Doctor; it gives you away. That is what you plan, is it not? What do you have in mind?"
The doctor did not reply.
Maria
"No, no, it doesn't matter." The doctor waved his arm and gave a great yawn. "Only you will have to let me express my ideas without regard for your feelings, Miss Ransom, and not take offense. At the present time I have no plan, I have only theories – too many of them."
"You can dismiss Miss Ransom from consideration," Carlton declared. "I will swear she could not have freed herself."
"Are you sure? You did your best, but you have not studied, as I have, the tricks these charlatans employ. I made it a point to investigate them when the Duchess became so infatuated with – with spiritualism. Not that it was any use, exposing the tricks to her; she merely replied that because a thing could be done in a certain way did not prove it was done in that way. This, despite the fact that phenomena such as we saw tonight can be duplicated by any clever conjurer."
Carlton shook his head. "I don't believe Miss Ransom could have managed it." But he sounded less certain.
"I am not accusing her. I am merely pointing out a possibility. There are others. Young Henry, for instance, is quite bright enough and mischievous enough to perpetrate such antics. I am not convinced that Holmes did not install mechanisms of various kinds in that room. Even without such aids Henry could have crept in, by means of one of the secret passages he boasts of knowing so well – or hidden himself in the room beforehand – and done everything that was done under cover of darkness. His seizures are brought on by excitement; it would not be surprising if one followed a performance such as that."
"Hmm." Carlton nodded. "That is a possibility that did not occur to me. Though I believe the seizures began when that idiot tutor, trying to recapture him, laid violent hands on the boy. And what of M. Victor himself? He's a wretched creature, capable of playing tricks for the fun of it."
"He is," Maria
"I won't ask how you know that… Well, Doctor, you are a clever fellow, you have given me much to think about."
"I am not done," the doctor declared. "I ca
Carlton also said good night. Maria
She knew why the doctor had not voiced one of the theories that must have been in his mind. She, too, was reluctant to admit it; yet to an objective observer, the Duchess had to be considered a suspect. It was absurd, of course, to suppose that she would deliberately play tricks on herself, but the doctor's theory of hysteria, if Maria
There was one other suspect. Perhaps the doctor had reasons for dismissing her from consideration, or perhaps he had simply forgotten about her, for she was a shadowy figure at best. Maria
I will make an effort to meet her tomorrow, Maria