“H’mm...” Doctor Alcazar pondered this apparently startling question. He said, “But surely the police—”
“Pah!” said Gloria Druce. “They haven’t got anywhere — and they never will!” She sighed. “I don’t suppose we can blame them really, though. God knows this must be outside their ken! I tell you, Doctor, that poor girl didn’t have an enemy in the world. Her whole life’s been wrapped up in mine ever since I first employed her in London umpteen years ago. That may sound conceited, but it’s true.”
She stopped again, abruptly, and fixed Doctor Alcazar with a penetrating eye. She said, “Well — will you try?”
Doctor Alcazar’s long white hand rubbed reflectively at his long white jaw. He said slowly, after due intervaclass="underline"
“It’s an interesting idea, Miss Druce...” He permitted a twinkle to come into the dark eyes. “In its way, too, it’s a sort of challenge...” He thought some more. “But I think I should warn you — it is most unlikely to succeed.”
“But you’ll try!” She beamed at him and then said briskly, “Wonderful! When do we start? And where?”
“Well,” he said, “before I could attempt to get in touch, I should require some — some personal belonging, constantly used, of the unfortunate Miss Morton’s. Some—”
“I know.” She couldn’t wait for him to finish his sentence. “And all her things are upstairs. What would you like?”
Doctor Alcazar was still reflective. He said, “Something she used recently — the more recently the better...”
“That’s easy! I’ve got everything she had when — when it happened. The police sent them back because there weren’t any fingerprints or anything.”
“Oh — really?” Doctor Alcazar sternly repressed eagerness. “Would her purse — her handbag — be among these effects?”
The pretty gray head nodded vigorously. “With everything in it — even her money, poor girl.”
“Then,” said Doctor Alcazar, “if I could have something out of it... Anything...” And then he said, as if in afterthought, “No, no. Perhaps it would be better if I could have the bag itself...”
She said, “Of course you can!”
It was, actually, only fifty seconds before she was back, holding out to Doctor Alcazar, as he rose to meet her, a purse of imitation crocodile — a purse which he remembered.
He took it in his hands and said, “Thank you... thank you...” His eyes closed, he turned it over and over, his long fingers seeming to sense its texture.
He shook his head. He murmured, “No... no—” and opened his eyes. He said, “You permit me—?” and crossed to the desk and opened the bag and gently tipped its contents out onto the blotter.
He stood staring down at the heterogeneous litter and picked out with his eye, first the candy-bar, a good bite or two smaller than when he had last seen it; next the change purse, still with the roll of stamps projecting from it; next the envelope addressed (he could see now) to Miss Lily Morton...
String and paper gone. As expected. As hoped. Something to work on. Get busy.
Doctor Alcazar picked out the small enameled compact. He said, “This might do very well,” in a low, murmuring voice, and stood upright with the little case in his hand, his fingers moving constantly over its smooth surface. His remarkable eyes were closed, and his striking head flung back.
He came to, as it were. He opened his eyes, and he looked down at the compact in his hand. He said, “Yes... Yes... With your permission, Mrs. de Vries, I will take this with me,” and slid it into a side-pocket of his coat.
She said, “Oh! Aren’t you going to stay and— No. You’ll have to have your crystal, of course.”
Her face had fallen like a disappointed child’s — which made matters even simpler than Doctor Alcazar had expected.
“I will indeed,” said Doctor Alcazar, with one of his gravest smiles. “However, I happen to have it in my car; so I could, if you wish, make preliminary studies here and now.”
“Oh — wonderful!” She was alight again. “I’ll ring for Josef.”
Doctor Alcazar raised a gently protesting hand. “If you don’t mind,” he said, “I will go myself. I don’t allow anyone else to handle it — even my own man...” With a little bow he strode to the door, and opened it, and passed out of the room.
He crossed the hall, and opened the big door, and went quickly down the steps towards the Cadillac. He called, “Dupois! Dupois!” — and Avvie jumped out of the driver’s seat, and said, “Yes sir?”
Doctor Alcazar came up to the car and while Avvie held the door, leaned in and fumbled with the glove compartment.
Doctor Alcazar said softly, out of the side of his mobile mouth, “I’ll see you get inside. I want dope on Clinton,” and then straightened and stood away from the car, holding something wrapped in a chamois-leather bag.
He returned to the house. As he stepped into the hallway, he saw the man servant entering the long room with a tray upon which were glasses and decanters.
His hostess came to meet Doctor Alcazar. “Suppose we have a drink?” she said.
“That,” said Doctor Alcazar, “would be delightful.” And then he added, with graceful hesitance, “I wonder whether I might impose still more on your kindness, Miss Druce? On behalf of my chauffeur. He has been driving all day, and—”
“But of course!” She turned quickly and said, “Josef will you see that Doctor Alcazar’s man has anything he wants?”
“Yes, Madam,” Josef said, and very soon was seen through the window by Doctor Alcazar, leading Avvie away around the corner of the house.
Much gratified with the course of events, Doctor Alcazar, having handed his hostess her glass, took a big and grateful draught from his own...
It was nearly an hour later when he pushed his chair back from the desk, sighed wearily, and peered at Gloria de Vries through the bluish dusk they had produced in the room by lowering all the blinds.
In front of him on the desk, glittering softly in the light of the single lamp, was the small crystal globe which the chamois leather had covered. He drew a hand wearily across his brow. He said, “There’s nothing... nothing...”
He opened his other hand and laid down Lily Morton’s compact. He said, “I am wasting your time, my dear lady... wasting your time...”
She said, in a kind of vehement whisper, “Oh, don’t give up yet! Please don’t!”
“As you wish,” said Doctor Alcazar bravely. He turned in his chair, picked up the compact in his left hand, shaded his eyes with his right hand, and hunched once more over the glittering ball of the crystal...
And once more there was silence...
But not for long this time. Suddenly, Doctor Alcazar’s whole body seemed to grow tense and he said, in a hushed yet urgent voice:
“Ah! Here is something!... The crystal is clouding...”
His left hand, gripping the dead woman’s compact, raised itself from the table, seemed to hover close to his temple. He said:
“Ah! The mists are clearing... I see — is it a figure, a woman’s figure? I cannot be sure... No — it is gone... All I see is — a big post standing in the ground. There is something coiling around the post — a serpent, is it?... No. It is something being coiled around the post, by unseen hands... Ah! It is a rope — a strange rope — oddly colored — with interwoven strands of green and gold...”
No reaction. But keep on trying.
“...The mists are clearing, clearing... The colors of the rope are vivid, very vivid... There is a strange light over everything... The post itself is colored — a peculiar, almost violet shade... The contrast between the violet of the post and the green-and-gold of the rope is striking...”