Page:Burton Stevenson--The marathon mystery.djvu/301

Rh “Oh, don’t you see, Lester, it’s the key to the whole problem. It’s the light we’ve been looking for—with our eyes shut! And to think that instead of coming straight here for it, I should have stumbled about in the dark for so long. It’s the only possible explanation, and yet I didn’t think of it. It was inevitable from the first, and yet I couldn’t see it. It disgusts me with myself—it’s what I get for being so cocked up over finding that bottle down there. Even after I saw that blotter, I didn’t guess it!”

He had taken out a card, and as he spoke he wrote a rapid sentence on it,

“Here,” he said to Thomas, “take this to Miss Croydon at once, please.”