Page:The achievements of Luther Trant - Balmer and MacHarg - 1910.djvu/28

10 speaking of Dr. Lawrie's secretary and assistant, "tell him I wish to see him. The treasurer's office will not be opened this morning."

"Harrison is late," he commented, as he returned to the others. "He usually is here by seven-thirty. We must notify Branower also." He picked up the telephone and called Branower, the president of the board of trustees, asking him merely to come to the treasurer's office at once.

"Now give me the particulars," the president said, turning to Trant.

"They are all before you," Trant replied briefly. "The room was filled with gas. These four outlets of the fixture were turned full on. And besides," he touched now with his fingers four tips with composition ends to regulate the flow, which lay upon the table, "these tips had been removed, probably with these pincers that lie beside them. Where the nippers came from I do not know."

"They belong here," Joslyn answered, absently. "Lawrie had the tinkering habit." He opened a lower desk drawer, filled with tools and nails and screws, and dropped the nippers into it.

"The door was locked inside?" inquired the president.

"Yes, it is a spring lock," Trant answered.

"And he had been burning papers." The president pointed quietly to the metal tray.

Dr. Reiland winced.

"Some one had been burning papers," Trant softly interpolated.

"Some one?" The president looked up sharply.