Initials Only | Page 7

man had stopped, for I
could see from my vantage point two figures bending near the kerb, and
even pawing at the snow which lay there. It gave me a slight turn when
one of them--I do not think it was George--began to rub his hands
together in much the way the unknown gentleman had done, and, in my
excitement, I probably uttered some sort of an ejaculation, for I was
suddenly conscious of a silence in the room, and when I turned saw all
the men about me looking my way.
I attempted to smile, but instead, shuddered painfully, as I raised my
hand and pointed down at the street.
"They are imitating the man," I cried; "my husband and--and the person
he went out with. It looked dreadful to me; that is all."
One of the gentlemen immediately said some kind words to me, and
another smiled in a very encouraging way. But their attention was soon
diverted, and so was mine by the entrance of a man in semi-uniform,
who was immediately addressed as Clausen.
I knew his face. He was one of the doorkeepers; the oldest employee
about the hotel, and the one best liked. I had often exchanged words
with him myself.

Mr. Slater at once put his question:
"Has Mr. Brotherson passed your door at any time to-night?
"Mr. Brotherson! I don't remember, really I don't," was the unexpected
reply. "It's not often I forget. But so many people came rushing in
during those few minutes, and all so excited--"
"Before the excitement, Clausen. A little while before, possibly just
before."
"Oh, now I recall him! Yes, Mr. Brotherson went out of my door not
many minutes before the cry upstairs. I forgot because I had stepped
back from the door to hand a lady the muff she had dropped, and it was
at that minute he went out. I just got a glimpse of his back as he passed
into the street."
"But you are sure of that back?"
"I don't know another like it, when he wears that big coat of his. But
Jim can tell you, sir. He was in the cafe up to that minute, and that's
where Mr. Brotherson usually goes first."
"Very well; send up Jim. Tell him I have some orders to give him."
The old man bowed and went out.
Meanwhile, Mr. Slater had exchanged some words with the two
officials, and now approached me with an expression of extreme
consideration. They were about to excuse me from further participation
in this informal inquiry. This I saw before he spoke. Of course they
were right. But I should greatly have preferred to stay where I was till
George came back.
However, I met him for an instant in the hall before I took the elevator,
and later I heard in a round-about way what Jim and some others about
the house had to say of Mr. Brotherson.
He was an habitue of the hotel, to the extent of dining once or twice a

week in the cafe, and smoking, afterwards, in the public lobby. When
he was in the mood for talk, he would draw an ever-enlarging group
about him, but at other times he would be seen sitting quite alone and
morosely indifferent to all who approached him. There was no mystery
about his business. He was an inventor, with one or two valuable
patents already on the market. But this was not his only interest. He
was an all round sort of man, moody but brilliant in many ways--a
character which at once attracted and repelled, odd in that he seemed to
set little store by his good looks, yet was most careful to dress himself
in a way to show them off to advantage. If he had means beyond the
ordinary no one knew it, nor could any man say that he had not. On all
personal matters he was very close-mouthed, though he would talk
about other men's riches in a way to show that he cherished some very
extreme views.
This was all which could be learned about him off-hand, and at so late
an hour. I was greatly interested, of course, and had plenty to think of
till I saw George again and learned the result of the latest
investigations.
Miss Challoner had been shot, not stabbed. No other deduction was
possible from such facts as were now known, though the physicians
had not yet handed in their report, or even intimated what that report
would be. No assailant could have approached or left her, without
attracting the notice of some one, if not all of the persons seated at a
table in the same room. She could only have been reached by a bullet
sent from a point near the head