"Now let's go a step further by taking, as example, a lower mentality than our own. A horse, knowing nothing of the laws of electricity, would step on a high voltage wire and never know why it was electrocuted. In such a case, the animal would violate a law it did not know existed."
I was beginning to see what he was driving at. "You mean—"
"We are far above the horse in mentality and understanding but there are still many laws we do not understand. That is what my work involves."
I insisted upon being heard. "You mean a lot of apparently innocent things we do are really electric wires."
He beamed. "Exactly. When we reap misfortune it is because we violate some law. Ignorance of that law doesn't change the end-result one iota."
"And you're trying to find out what these—these booby traps are?"
"Oh I know many of them already. My paper will surprise the world. I'm working on a more advanced phase of the problem now. I am tracing a pattern of interlocking violations to show that the scene of the end-results can be only sheerest coincidence. I want to banish once and for all the superstition-stigma attached to scenes of repeated misfortune and violence."
"The Reamer mansion."
"That's right. And now I must be going, Miss Hopstead." He gave me the departing smile and started for the door.
"Professor Waits."