You could see a cap and a white shirt front, but you could not see anything more?”
And it was then that Jim hesitated.
He was under oath, and an oath is a solemn matter.
Then he glanced toward Katherine, and sat up a little in his chair.
“That is all I saw.
I was on the ground.
His face was turned down the hill.”
Whom would he protect with his life but Howard?
Howard with his heavy white hair, his invariable dinner dress in the evenings, and something to be kept hidden at any cost.
Small wonder that Katherine thought of Margaret, or that she reverted to the will as the key to the mystery.
And so, very close to the end now, I go to the scene that afternoon, when at Katherine’s request I accompanied her to Mr. Waite’s office.
She had made the appointment and we were admitted at once.
I was rather shocked by the change in Mr. Waite.
He looked worn and not too well, and I thought there was a certain apprehension in his eyes when he greeted us.
He rose, but did not come forward.
“I am lame again,” he explained, indicating a cane which stood beside him.
“The old trouble.
Well, I can only say that I am shocked and grieved, Mrs. Somers.
Of course the appeal—”
“An appeal will do no good,” said Katherine somberly.
“Still, new facts may come up.
The case is of course not closed until—”
“Until they have killed an innocent man,” Katherine finished for him.
“And that is what they will do, Mr. Waite, unless the truth can be brought out.”
He stirred uneasily in his chair.
“The truth?
What is the truth?
I am as much in the dark as you are.”
And seeing her face, he bent toward her across the desk.
“I know what you mean, Mrs. Somers, and—I can understand.
Nevertheless, I tell you that as surely as I sit here in this chair, Mr. Somers outlined the provisions of that will and signed it when I had prepared it.
He was as rational as I am now.
He discussed his family and his affairs. He even recognized that the will would be a blow to you, and said that he meant to leave an explanatory letter with it.
Just why he did not do so I don’t understand.”
He was not acting. He was telling us facts, and I think Katherine saw it as well as I did.
She sat stiffly upright, but the antagonism was gone from her voice.
“He did not explain the fund of fifty thousand dollars?”
“He did, and he did not.
The son was to administer it for some purpose.
He simply said that Walter would understand.
He was of course still very weak, and he was not a talkative man, I understand.
To be frank, I was in pain that first day, and not much better the second.
I don’t recall many details, although of course I have tried to since.
A will is a routine matter.”
“He did not appear to have been drugged?”
“Absolutely not.”
“And Sarah was there?
Sarah Gittings?”
“She left the room, but she came in once and gave him some medicine.”
But Katherine was stubborn.