Sight Unseen | Page 9

we
had heard lead us? Sperry had said he had killed himself. But - suppose
he had not?
I realize now, looking back, that my recollection of the other man in the
triangle is largely colored by the fact that he fell in the great war. At
that time I hardly knew him, except as a wealthy and self-made man in
his late thirties; I saw him now and then, in the club playing billiards or
going in and out of the Wells house, a large, fastidiously dressed man,
strong featured and broad shouldered, with rather too much manner. I
remember particularly how I hated the light spats he affected, and the
glaring yellow gloves.
A man who would go straight for the thing he wanted, woman or power
or money. And get it.
Sperry was waiting on his door-step, and we went on to the Wells
house. What with the magnitude of the thing that had happened, and
our mutual feeling that we were somehow involved in it, we were
rather silent. Sperry asked one question. however, "Are you certain
about the time when Miss Jeremy saw what looks like this thing?"
"Certainly. My watch fell at five minutes after nine. When it was all
over, and I picked it up, it was still going, and it was 9:30."
He was silent for a moment. Then:
"The Wellses' nursery governess telephoned for me at 9:35. We keep a
record of the time of all calls."
Sperry is a heart specialist, I think I have said, with offices in his house.
And, a block or so farther on: "I suppose it was bound to come. To tell
the truth, I didn't think the boy had the courage."
"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 sharp
yelp of gratitude and ran into the kitchen.
"Look here, Sperry," I said, as we stood inside the door, "they don't
want me here. They've sent for you, but I'm the most casual sort of an
acquaintance. I haven't any business here."
That struck him, too. We had both been so obsessed with the scene at
Mrs. Dane's that we had not thought of anything else.
"Suppose you sit down in the library," he said. "The chances are against
her coming down, and the servants don't matter."
As a matter of fact, we learned later that all the servants were out
except the nursery governess. There were two small children. There
was a servants' ball somewhere, and, with the exception of the butler, it
was after two before they commenced to straggle in. Except two
plain-clothes men from the central office, a physician who was with
Elinor in her room, and the governess, there was no one