Page:Burton Stevenson--The marathon mystery.djvu/139

Rh cool off a bit and think it over. I don’t understand yet how he came to strike such a false note.”

“It’s the Latin blood in him. They never can comprehend the Anglo-Saxon point of view.”

“Perhaps that’s it. By the way,” I added suddenly, “that was mighty lucky.”

“It was uncommonly lucky,” he agreed, with an enigmatic smile.

“I mean his not looking through the rooms. I almost had a nervous chill when I remembered you were in there. But it was too late to come back.”

“I’m glad you didn’t come back-that would have spoiled everything.”

“You mean he didn’t sit still?”

“Not for an instant. I was sure he wouldn’t; therefore as soon as I caught Higgins’s errand, I dived behind your raincoat. Luckily, it’s a long one.”

“Yes—and then?”

“And then he took a quick look through the bedroom—I heard him open the closet door and drop on one knee to glance under the bed. Then he went on into the bathroom, and finally came back again to the sitting-room.”

“Well?” I asked, for I saw that there was something yet untold.

“Well,” continued Godfrey, “after a minute or two, I thought it safe to venture out from under the raincoat, more especially as certain peculiar sounds from the other room awakened my curiosity. The sounds were a sort of slow, regular scraping.”

He paused a moment to look at me; I could only stare at him.