“Just what happened after that we do not know. His frenzy would not last long. Remember he was not technically insane—only unbalanced upon several things, with a warped mind. It is my opinion he went away and then returned later. Perhaps he remembered the door was open. Perhaps when he came to his right mind, he realized what he had done and went back to see if he left a clew. And then it was he who must have broken the bookcase to take those books—books he must have often heard of, but was unable to secure.”
At that moment there came a voice from the doorway:
“May I come in?”
We turned to see the secretary. She was wearing a gay-colored dressing gown which must have belonged to Carter. Her face was rather pale, but otherwise she showed little signs of the experience she had been through. We rose to our feet, and Ranville found her a chair. She dropped into it and smiled faintly as she turned to Carter:
“Did you telephone my aunt?” she asked anxiously.
Carter rose with a jump and said sheepishly that he had never thought of it. As he started for the door the girl stopped him, saying that no doubt the chief would be willing to take her home in a few moments. The chief agreed to this, but said he wanted to hear what had happened to her.
Her story was a very brief one. She had gone home to her supper and, when it was over, returned to the library. As she came up the steps of the building, to her great surprise, she heard a shot within. She rushed to the door and went a few feet within the room. To her consternation, the minister was near the desk and in his hand was a gun. He turned at her cry.
She gave a shudder at the recollection. His face was a vivid red, and his eyes blazed as he looked at her. She said that she thought he was crazy. With a weird cry, as she turned to run from the room, he made a dash after her. Just as his hand was about to fall upon her, she must have fainted, for she remembered no more until she came to in the boat house—alone.
Though she tried to open the two doors of the room, she discovered they were locked on the outside. She yelled as loud as she could, but the approaching storm and the high wind drowned her voice. And then when she thought it would be useless to cry out again, she heard the door open. A moment later the door leading into the room was swung aside, and the lights flashed on. Just what happened after that she did not know. There was a short moment when, to her horror, she again saw the minister—saw him creep over the floor in her direction—and then she said she must have fainted again.
We said nothing, and then with an appealing look, which took us all in, the girl asked: