Page:The achievements of Luther Trant - Balmer and MacHarg - 1910.djvu/108

86 "Mrs. Murray was with me," Eldredge assented, "from four till five o'clock that afternoon. She has nothing to do with the matter. But, Trant, if you see in this mass of accusation one ray of hope that Mrs. Eldredge is not guilty, for God's sake give it to me, for I need it!"

The psychologist ran his fingers through his red hair and arose, strongly affected by the appeal of the white-lipped man who faced him. "I can give you more than a ray of hope, Mr. Eldredge," he said. "I am almost certain that Mrs. Eldredge not only did not cause your son's disappearance, but that she knows absolutely nothing about the matter. And I am nearly, though not quite, so sure that this is not a case of kidnaping at all!"

"What, Trant? Man, you can't tell me that from that evidence?"

"I do, Mr. Eldredge!" Trant returned a little defiantly. "Just from this evidence!"

"But, Trant," the husband cried, trying to grasp the hope this stranger gave him against all his better reason, "if you can think that, why did she describe everything—the time, the circumstance, the size and appearance of the woman and even the color of her dress—so differently from all the rest? Why did she lie when she told me this, Mr. Trant?"

"I do not think she lied, Mr. Eldredge."

"Then the rest lied and it is a conspiracy of the witnesses against her?"

"No; no one lied, I think. And there was no conspiracy. That is my inference from the testimony