“Waldon,” cried Kennedy, “for God’s sake, man—wait! Don’t you understand? The second message is signed Tracy Edwards.”
It came as quite as much a shock of surprise to me as to Waldon.
“Don’t you understand?” he repeated. “Your sister first learned from Dr. Jermyn what was going on. She moved the Lucie down here near Seaville in order to be near the wireless station when the ship bearing her rival, Valerie Fox, got in touch with land. With the help of Dr. Jermyn she intercepted the wireless messages from the Kronprinz to the shore—between her husband and Valerie Fox.”
Kennedy was hurrying on now to his irresistible conclusion. “She found that he was infatuated with the famous stage beauty, that he was planning to marry another, her rival. She accused him of it, threatened to defeat his plans. He knew she knew his unfaithfulness. Instead of being your sister’s murderer, Dr. Jermyn was helping her get the evidence that would save both her and perhaps win Miss Fox back to himself.”
Kennedy had turned sharply on Edwards.
“But,” he added, with a glance that crushed any lingering hope that the truth had been concealed, “the same night that Dr. Jermyn arrived here, you visited your wife. As she slept you severed the nerves that meant life or death to her. Then you covered the cuts with the preparation which you knew Dr. Jermyn used. You asked him to stay, while you went away, thinking that when death came you would have a perfect alibi—perhaps a scapegoat. Edwards, the radio detective convicts you!”
CHAPTER X
THE CURIO SHOP
Edwards crumpled up as Kennedy and I faced him. There was no escape. In fact our greatest difficulty was to protect him from Waldon.
Kennedy’s work in the case was over when we had got Edwards ashore and in the hands of the authorities. But mine had just begun and it was late when I got my story on the wire for the Star.
I felt pretty tired and determined to make up for it by sleeping the next day. It was no use, however.