Mrs. Arthur and Mr.
Phar, before the coroner gets here. I rather think they'll find it
convincing."

"Good," I responded. "But, first of all, let me read them this. I've
just jotted down my analysis of the whole situation. It's a piece of
cold constructive reasoning from the admitted data, and I shall be
greatly surprised if it doesn't on the whole agree with what you've been
able to obtain."

Doctor Askew stared at me a moment curiously. "And if it doesn't agree?"
he asked.

"If it don't," exclaimed Conlon, with obvious relief, "it may help us,
all the same! This thing can't be settled by _that_ kind of stuff, doc."
He gave a would-be contemptuous nod toward Doctor Askew's handful of
scrawled pages. "That's no evidence--whatever it says. Where does it
come from? Who's givin' it? It can't be sworn to on the Book, that's
certain--eh? Let's get outa here and begin to talk sense!" Conlon opened
the door eagerly, and creaked off through the hall.

"Go with him," ordered Doctor Askew. "I'll put out the lights." Then he
touched my elbow and gave me a slight nod. "I see your point of course.
But I hope to God you've hit somewhere near it?"

"Doctor," I replied, "this account of mine is exact. I'll tell you
later how I know that."

"Ah!" he grunted, with a green-blue flash of eyes. "What a lucky devil I
am!... But I've felt all along this would prove a rewarding case."

IV

Up to this point I have been necessarily thus detailed, but I am eager
now to win past the cruder melodrama of this insanely disordered night.
I am eager to win back from all these damnable and distracting things to
Susan. This book is hers, not mine; it is certainly not Sergeant
Conlon's or Doctor Askew's. So you will forgive me, and understand, if I
present little more than a summary of the immediately following hours.

We found Maltby and Lucette in the drawing-room, worn out with their
night-long vigil; Maltby, somnolent and savage; Lucette still keyed
high, suffering from exasperated nerves which--perhaps for the first
time in her life--she could not control. They were seated as far apart
as the room permitted, having long since talked themselves out, and were
engaged, I think, in tacitly hating one another. The situation was
almost impossible; yet I knew I must dominate it somehow, and begin by
dominating myself--and in the end, with Conlon's and Doctor Askew's
help, I succeeded. Conlon, I confess, proved to be an unexpected ally
all thro