oking
individual. But it was a perceptible instant before he stooped and
gathered up the coat.

Sperry turned to me when he had gone out. "That was Hawkins, Horace," he
said. "You remember, don't you? The Wellses' butler."

"I knew him at once."

"He wrote to me asking for a position, and I got him this. Looks sick,
poor devil. I intend to have a go at his chest."

"How long has he been here?"

"More than a week, I think."

As I drank my tea, I pondered. After all, the Neighborhood Club must
guard against the possibility of fraud, and I felt that Sperry had been
indiscreet, to say the least. From the time of Hawkins' service in Miss
Jeremy's home there would always be the suspicion of collusion between
them. I did not believe it was so, but Herbert, for instance, would be
inclined to suspect her. Suppose that Hawkins knew about the crime? Or
knew something and surmised the rest?

When we rose to go Sperry drew me aside.

"You think I've made a mistake?"

"I do."

He flung away with an impatient gesture, then came back to me.

"Now look here," he said, "I know what you mean, and the whole idea
is absurd. Of course I never thought about it, but even allowing for
connivance--which I don't for a moment--the fellow was not in the house
at the time of the murder."

"I know he says he was not."

"Even then," he said, "how about the first sitting? I'll swear she had
never even heard of him then."

"The fact remains that his presence here makes us all absurd."

"Do you want me to throw him out?"

"I don't see what possible good that will do now."

I was uneasy all the way home. The element of doubt, always so imminent
in our dealings with psychic phenomena, had me by the throat. How much
did Hawkins know? Was there any way, without going to the police, to
find if he had really been out of the Wellses' house that night, now
almost two weeks ago, when Arthur Wells had been killed?

That evening I went to Sperry's house, after telephoning that I was
coming. On the way I stopped in at Mrs. Dane's and secured something
from her. She was wildly curious, and made me promise to go in on my way
back, and explain. I made a compromise.

"I will come in if I have anything to tell you," I said.

But I knew, by her grim smile, that she would station herself by her
window, and that I would stop, unless I made a detour of three blocks to
avoid her. She is a very determined woman.

Sperry was waiting for me in his lib