Page:The achievements of Luther Trant - Balmer and MacHarg - 1910.djvu/107

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Trant looked up suddenly at Eldredge who had left his position by the window and over Trant's shoulder was reading the testimony. His face was gray.

"I asked Mrs. Eldredge," the husband said, pitifully, "why, if she suspected the woman from the first, and so much time elapsed, she did not try to prevent the kidnaping, and—she would not answer me!"

Trant nodded, and read the final paragraph of Mrs. Eldredge's testimony:

The woman who took Edward was unusually large—a very big woman, not stout, but tall and big. She was very dark, with black hair, and she wore a red dress and a hat with red flowers in it.

The psychologist laid down the papers and looked from one to the other of his companions reflectively. "What had happened that afternoon before Mrs. Eldredge and the boy went motoring?" he asked abruptly.

"Nothing out of the ordinary, Mr. Trant," said Eldredge. "Why do you ask that?"

Trant's fingertip followed on the table the last words of the evidence. "And what woman does Mrs. Eldredge know that answers that description—'unusually large, not stout, but tall and big, very dark, with black hair?

"No one," said Eldredge.

"No one except," young Murray laughed frankly, "my mother. Trant," he said, contemptuously, "don't start any false leads of that sort! My mother was with Walter at the time the kidnaping took place!"