"'This little caterpillar ... is certain to find those leaves.'"
Overcome with excitement and admiration for this intelligent and unusually beautiful girl, I seized her hands and congratulated her.
"Murder," said I to the miserable Quint, "will out! This infant caterpillar shall lead us to that dark and secret spot where you had hoped to conceal the horrid evidence of your guilt. Three things have undone you—a caterpillar replete with mysterious instinct, a humble bunch of Bimba leaves, and the marvellous intelligence of this young and lovely girl. Madman, your hour has struck!"
He looked at me in a dazed sort of way, as though astonishment had left him unable to articulate. But I had become tired of his violence and his shouts and yells; so I asked Jones for his handkerchief, and, before Quint knew what I was up to I had tied it over his mouth.
He became a brilliant purple, but all he could utter was a furious humming, buzzing noise.
Meanwhile, Jones had opened the door; the little caterpillar, followed by Mildred and myself, continued to hustle along as though he knew quite well where he was going.
Down the hallway he went in undulating haste, past my door, we all following in silent excitement as we discovered that, parallel to the caterpillar's course, ran a gruesome trail of blood drops.
And when the little creature turned and made straight for the door of Professor Farrago, our revered chief, the excitement among us was terrific.
The caterpillar halted; I gently tried the door; it was open.
Instantly the caterpillar crossed the threshold, wriggling forward at top speed. We followed, peering fearfully around us. Nobody was visible.
Could Quint have dragged his victim here? By Heaven, he had! For the caterpillar was travelling straight under the lounge upon which Professor Farrago was accustomed to repose after luncheon, and, dropping on one knee, I saw a fat foot partly protruding from under the shirred edges of the fringed drapery.
"He's there!" I whispered, in an awed voice to the others.
"Courage, Miss Case! Try not to faint."
Jones turned and looked at her with that same odd expression; then he went over to where she stood and coolly passed one arm around her waist.
"Try not to faint, Mildred," he said. "It might muss your hair."
It was a strange thing to say, but I had no time then to analyze it, for I had seized the fat foot which partly protruded from under the sofa, clad in a low-cut congress gaiter and a white sock.
And then I nearly fainted, for instead of the dreadful, inert resistance of lifeless clay, the foot wriggled and tried to kick at me.
"Help!" came a thin but muffled voice. "Help! Help, in the name of Heaven!"
"Boomly!" I cried, scarcely believing my ears.
"Take that man away, Smith!" whimpered Boomly. "He's a devil! He'll murder me! He made my nose bleed all over everything!"
"Boomly! You're not dead!"
"Yes, I am!" he whined. "I'm dead enough to suit me. Keep that little lunatic off—that's all I ask. He can have his Carnegie medal for all I care, only tie him up somewhere—"
"Professor Boomly!" cried Mildred excitedly. "Have you any Bimba leaves concealed about your person?"
"Yes, I have," he said sulkily. There came a hitch of the fat foot, a heavy scuffling sound, heavy panting, and then, skittering out across the floor came a flat, sealed parcel.
"There you are," he said; "now, let me alone until that fiend has gone home."
"He won't attack you again," I said. "Come out."
But Professor Boomly flatly declined to stir.
I looked at the parcel: it was marked: "Bimba leaves; Johore."
With a sigh of unutterable relief, I picked up the ravenous little caterpillar, placed him on the packet, and turned to go. And didn't.
It is a very sickening fact I have now to record. But to a scientist all facts are sacred, sickening or otherwise.
For what I caught a glimpse of, just outside the door in the hallway, was Jones kissing Mildred Case. And being shyly indemnified for his trouble with a gentle return in kind. Both his arms were around her waist; both her hands rested upon his shoulders; and, as I looked—but let it pass!—let it pass.
Deliberately I fished in my pocket, found my packet of cigarettes, lighted one.
Tobacco diffugiunt mordaces curae et laetificat cor hominis!