XIII. TIME, CIRCUMSTANCE, AND A VILLAIN'S HEART
"Our first difficulty is this. We must prove motive. Now, I do not thinkit will be so very hard to show that this Brotherson cherished feelingsof revenge towards Miss Challoner. But I have to acknowledge right hereand now that the most skillful and vigourous pumping of the janitorand such other tenants of the Hicks Street tenement as I have dared toapproach, fails to show that he has ever held any communication withMrs. Spotts, or even knew of her existence until her remarkable deathattracted his attention. I have spent all the afternoon over this, andwith no result. A complete break in the chain at the very start."
"Humph! we will set that down, then, as so much against us."
"The next, and this is a bitter pill too, is the almost insurmountabledifficulty already recognised of determining how a man, withoutapproaching his victim, could manage to inflict a mortal stab in herbreast. No cloak of complete invisibility has yet been found, even bythe cleverest criminals."
"True. The problem is such as a nightmare offers. For years my dreamshave been haunted by a gnome who proposes just such puzzles."
"But there's an answer to everything, and I'm sure there's an answer tothis. Remember his business. He's an inventor, with startling ideas. Somuch I've seen for myself. You may stretch probabilities a little inhis case; and with this conceded, we may add by way of off-set to thedifficulties you mention, coincidences of time and circumstance, andhis villainous heart. Oh, I know that I am prejudiced; but wait and see!Miss Challoner was well rid of him even at the cost of her life."
"She loved him. Even her father believes that now. Some latelydiscovered letters have come to light to prove that she was by no meansso heart free as he supposed. One of her friends, it seems, has alsoconfided to him that once, while she and Miss Challoner were sittingtogether, she caught Miss Challoner in the act of scribbling capitalsover a sheet of paper. They were all B's with the exception of hereand there a neatly turned O, and when her friend twitted her with herfondness for these two letters, and suggested a pleasing monogram, MissChalloner answered, 'O. B. (transferring the letters, as you see) arethe initials of the finest man in the world.'"
"Gosh! has he heard this story?"
"Who?"
"The gentleman in question."
"Mr. Brotherson?"
"Yes."
"I don't think so. It was told me in confidence."
"Told you, Mr. Gryce? Pardon my curiosity."
"By Mr. Challoner."
"Oh! by Mr. Challoner."
"He is greatly distressed at having the disgraceful suggestionof suicide attached to his daughter's name. Notwithstanding thecircumstances,--notwithstanding his full recognition of her secretpredilection for a man of whom he had never heard till the night ofher death, he cannot believe that she struck the blow she did,intentionally. He sent for me in order to inquire if anything couldbe done to reinstate her in public opinion. He dared not insist thatanother had wielded the weapon which laid her low so suddenly, buthe asked if, in my experience, it had never been known that a woman,hyper-sensitive to some strong man's magnetic influence, should sofollow his thought as to commit an act which never could have arisenin her own mind, uninfluenced. He evidently does not like Brothersoneither."
"And what--what did you--say?" asked Sweetwater, with a haltingutterance and his face full of thought.
"I simply quoted the latest authority on hypnotism that no personeven in hypnotic sleep could be influenced by another to do what wasantagonistic to his natural instincts."
"Latest authority. That doesn't mean a final one. Supposing that it washypnotism! But that wouldn't account for Mrs. Spotts' death. Her woundcertainly was not a self-inflicted one."
"How can you be sure?"
"There was no weapon found in the room, or in the court. The snowwas searched and the children too. No weapon, Mr. Gryce, not even apaper-cutter. Besides--but how did Mr. Challoner take what you said? Washe satisfied with this assurance?"
"He had to be. I didn't dare to hold out any hope based on sounsubstantial a theory. But the interview had this effect upon me.If the possibility remains of fixing guilt elsewhere than on MissChalloner's inconsiderate impulse, I am ready to devote any amount oftime and strength to the work. To see this grieving father relieved fromthe worst part of his burden is worth some effort and now you know whyI have listened so eagerly to you. Sweetwater, I will go with you to theSuperintendent. We may not gain his attention and again we may. If wedon't--but we won't cross that bridge prematurely. When will you beready for this business?"
"I must be at Headquarters to-morrow."
"Good, then let it be to-morrow. A taxicab, Sweetwater. The subway forthe young. I can no longer manage the stairs."