No, I think you and I, and Joseph, are the only ones so far.”
“Joseph?
What’s Joseph got to do with it?”
He listened intently while I told him of my attempt to burn the carpet, and of my being locked in the cellar.
I could not gather from his face what he made of the incident.
He had had time to recover, and the fact that the carpet had been actually destroyed seemed to reassure him.
But when I finished he remained sunk in a silence which was more like brooding than anything else.
I finally broke in on this.
“Isn’t it time you told what you know, Wallie?
If this thing is to go on, none of us are safe.
Even Judy.”
“Judy’s all right,” he said roughly.
“And I don’t know anything.”
“That’s not entirely true, is it?”
“You’ll know all I know, when the time comes.”
He got up, looked at me furtively, and then began to finger the pens and pencils on my desk.
“I suppose,” he said, with an attempt at casualness, “that you are one of the uncorruptibles, eh? A lie’s a lie, and all that?”
“I will assuredly not perjure myself, if that’s what you mean.”
“Why put a label on everything?
What’s perjury anyhow?
What’s the difference except the label between your pretending you have a headache and making a statement that might save a life?”
“Perjury is a lie before God.”
“Every lie is a lie before God, if you believe in God.
All I want you to do is to say, if it becomes necessary to say anything, that that carpet was not in the car the other night.
Wait a minute,” he said, as I started to speak, “your own position isn’t any too comfortable is it?
You’ve destroyed valuable evidence.
And what do you do to Jim Blake if you tell the truth?
I tell you, there’s more behind this than you know.
There are worse sins than lies, if you insist on talking about lies.
I give you my word, if you tell about that carpet, Harrison will arrest Jim.
Arrest him immediately.”
“I’m not going to volunteer anything, Wallie.”
“You’ve got to do more than that.
You’ve got to stick it out.
There are always thieves about, and what’s to have hindered some one crawling over Jim’s fence and getting in by the garage window?
The car hadn’t been out, according to Amos, from the day Jim took sick; or went to bed, rather.
He’s not sick.
That carpet might have been gone for a week.”
I was in a state of greater confusion than ever when he had gone. Judy and Dick were out; on the hillside of the Larimer lot, I suspected, and after Wallie’s departure I sat down at my desk and made an outline of the possible case against Jim Blake.
I still have it, and it is before me now.
(a) Sarah had tried to communicate with him by call and telephone.
(b) She had finally written him a letter, which he had probably received, but had denied receiving.
(c) On the night she was murdered he did not dress for dinner, but dined early and went out, carrying the sword-cane.
(d) From some place, not his house, he telephoned to Judy, offering her mother’s anxiety as an excuse, and asking for Sarah.
(e) He was out that night for some time.
He offered no alibi for those hours, intimating that to do so would affect a woman’s reputation.
(f) When he returned he still carried the sword-cane, but on the discovery of Sarah’s body it had disappeared.
(g) Also, shortly after that discovery, he had taken to his bed, although actually not ill.
From that it was not difficult to go on to the second crime.
(h) Sarah and Florence Gunther knew each other, probably shared some secret knowledge.