"The vigilance of the board of health has been most commendable in this
case. Beginning with a wager over the telephone that they would break
quarantine in twenty-four hours, and ending with the attempt to span
a twelve-foot gulf with a board, over which to cross to freedom, these
shut-in society folk have shown characteristic disregard of the laws
of the state. It is quite time to extend to the millionaire the same
strictness that keeps the commuter at home for three weeks with the
measles; that makes him get the milk bottles and groceries from the
gate post and smell like dog soap for a month afterward, as a result of
disinfection.'"
We sat in dead silence for a minute. Then: "Perhaps it is true," I said. "Not of you, Jim--but some one may have
tried to get out that way. In fact, I think it extremely likely."
"Who? Flannigan? You couldn't drive him out. He's having the time of his
life. Do you suspect me?"
"Come away and don't fight," Anne broke in pacifically. "You will have
to have luncheon sent in, Jimmy; nobody has ordered anything from the
shops, and I feel like old Mother Hubbard."
"I wish you would all go out," I said wearily. "If every man in the
house says he didn't try to get over to the next roof last night, well
and good. But you might look and see if the board is still lying where
it fell."
There was an instantaneous rush for the window, and a second's pause.
Then Jimmy's voice, incredulous, awed: "Well, I'll be--blessed! There's the board!"
I stayed in my room all that day. My head really ached and then, too,
I did not care to meet Mr. Harbison. It would have to come; I realized
that a meeting was inevitable, but I wanted time to think how I would
meet him. It would be impossible to cut him, without rousing the
curiosity of the others to fever pitch; and it was equally impossible to
ignore the disgraceful episode on the stairs. As it happened, however, I
need not have worried. I went down to dinner, languidly, when every
one was seated, and found Max at my right, and Mr. Harbison moved over
beside Bella. Every one was talking at once, for Flannigan, ambling
around the table as airily as he walked his beat, had presented Bella
with her bracelet on a salad plate, garnished with romaine. He had found
it in the furnace room, he said, where she must have dropped it. And he
looked at me stealthily, to approve his mendacity!
Every one was famished, and as they ate they discussed the board in the
area way, and pretended to deride it as a clever bit of press work, to
revive a dying sensation. No one was deceived; Anne's pearls and the
attempt to escape, coming just after, pointed only to one thing. I
looked around the table, dazed. Flannigan, almost the only unknown
quantity, might have tried to escape the night before, but he would not
have been in dress clothes. Besides, he must be eliminated as far as the
pearls were concerned, having been locked in the furnace room the night
they were stolen. There was no one among the girls to suspect. The
Mercer girls had stunning pearls, and could secure all they wanted
legitimately; and Bella disliked them. Oh, there was no question about
it, I decided; Dallas and Anne had taken a wolf to their bosom--or is
it a viper?--and the Harbison man was the creature. Although I must say
that, looking over the table, at Jimmy's breadth and not very imposing
personality, at Max's lean length, sallow skin, and bold dark eyes, at
Dallas, blond, growing bald and florid, and then at the Harbison boy,
tall, muscular, clear-eyed and sunburned, one would have taken Max at
first choice as the villain, with Dal next, Jim third, and the Harbison
boy not in the running.