Page:The achievements of Luther Trant - Balmer and MacHarg - 1910.djvu/127

Rh I had sent Raymond Murray after your son in the place where she has had him concealed."

"What—what?" the father cried, incredulously, staring into the woman's cold face.

"Oh, she has most enviable control of herself," Trant commented. "She will not believe that her son has gone for Edward until he brings him back. And I might say that Mrs. Murray probably did not make away with the boy, but merely had him kept away, after he had been taken."

Mrs. Murray had reseated herself, after her short struggle with Trant; and her face was absolutely devoid of expression. "He is a madman!" she said, calmly.

"Perhaps it will hasten matters," suggested Trant, "if I explain to you the road by which I reached this conclusion. As a number of startling cases of kidnaping have occurred recently, the very prevalent fear they have aroused has made it likely that kidnaping will be the first theory in any case even remotely resembling it. In view of this I could accept your statement of kidnaping only if the circumstances made it conclusive, which they did not. With the absence of any demand for a real ransom they made it impossible even for you to hold the idea of kidnaping, except by presuming it a plot of Mrs. Eldredge's.

"But when I began considering whether this could be her plan, as charged, I noted a singular inconsistency in the attitude of Raymond Murray. He showed obvious eagerness to disgrace Mrs. Eldredge, but for some reason—not on the surface—was most