“Then you think he did it?”
“They say so,” he said grimly. And added,—irritably: “Good heavens, Horace, we must keep that other fool thing out of our minds.”
“Yes,” I agreed. “We must.”
Although the Wells house was brilliantly lighted when we reached it, we had difficulty in gaining admission. Whoever were in the house were up-stairs, and the bell evidently rang in the deserted kitchen or a neighboring pantry.
“We might try the servants’ entrance,” Sperry said. Then he laughed mirthlessly.
“We might see,” he said, “if there’s a key on the nail among the vines.”
I confess to a nervous tightening of my muscles as we made our way around the house. If the key was there, we were on the track of a revelation that might revolutionize much that we had held fundamental in science and in our knowledge of life itself. If, sitting in Mrs. Dane’s quiet room, a woman could tell us what was happening in a house a mile or so away, it opened up a new earth. Almost a new heaven.
I stopped and touched Sperry’s arm. “This Miss Jeremy—did she know Arthur Wells or Elinor? If she knew the house, and the situation between them, isn’t it barely possible that she anticipated this thing?”
“We knew them,” he said gruffly, “and whatever we anticipated, it wasn’t this.”
Sperry had a pocket flash, and when we found the door locked we proceeded with our search for the key. The porch had been covered with heavy vines, now dead of the November frosts, and showing, here and there, dead and dried leaves that crackled as we touched them. In the darkness something leaped against, me, and I almost cried out. It was, however, only a collie dog, eager for the warmth of his place by the kitchen fire.
“Here’s the key,” Sperry said, and held it out. The flash wavered in his hand, and his voice was strained.
“So far, so good,” I replied, and was conscious that my own voice rang strange in my ears.
We admitted ourselves, and the dog, bounding past us, gave a
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