Sight Unseen


       “I believe it now,” Mrs. Dane said. “I saw your watch go, Horace, but tomorrow I won’t believe it at all.”      

       “How about your companion?” I asked. “Can she take shorthand? We ought to have a record.”      

       “Probably not in the dark.”      

       “We can have some light now,” Sperry said.     

       There was a sort of restrained movement in the room now. Herbert turned on a bracket light, and I moved away the roller chair.     

       “Go and get Clara, Horace,” Mrs. Dane said to me, “and have her bring a note-book and pencil.” Nothing, I believe, happened during my absence. Miss Jeremy was sunk in her chair and breathing heavily when I came back with Clara, and Sperry was still watching her pulse. Suddenly my wife said:     

       “Why, look! She’s wearing my bracelet!”      

       This proved to be the case, and was, I regret to say, the cause of a most unjust suspicion on my wife’s part. Even today, with all the knowledge she possesses, I am certain that Mrs. Johnson believes that some mysterious power took my watch and dragged it off the table, and threw the pen, but that I myself under cover of darkness placed her bracelet on Miss Jeremy’s arm. I can only reiterate here what I have told her many times, that I never touched the bracelet after it was placed on the stand.     

       “Take down everything that happens, Clara, and all we say,” Mrs. Dane said in a low tone. “Even if it sounds like nonsense, put it down.”      

       It is because Clara took her orders literally that I am making this more readable version of her script. There was a certain amount of non-pertinent matter which would only cloud the statement if rendered word for word, and also certain scattered, unrelated words with which many of the statements terminated. For instance, at the end of the sentence, “Just above the ear,” came a number of rhymes to the final word, “dear, near, fear, rear, cheer, three cheers.” These I have cut, for the sake of clearness.     

       For 
 Prev. P 12/96 next 
Back Top
Privacy Statement Terms of Service Contact