'Even in this we are baffled for the time being,' said Thornton Carey. 'I heard accidentally that Mr. Warren was at Chicago.'
'Is that far distant?' asked Miss Montressor.
'Thirty-six hours' journey at least,' said Duval; 'and being, as I understand, essentially a man of business, Mr. Warren might not be able to leave at once, however earnestly we might venture to recall him.'
'You would be right, under ordinary circumstances,' said Thornton Carey; 'but I think if you were to let him know that it was of great importance that Mrs. Griswold should see him at once, he would return.'
'And what shall we say to him when he comes?' asked Miss Montressor.
'Rather what shall he say to us?' said Carey. 'Mixed up as he is with Griswold's affairs, he will be able to see at a glance to whose interest it would be that this unfortunate man should be unfairly gotten rid of.'
'You seem disposed to take my view of this affair, Mr. Carey,' said Bryan Duval: 'that robbery was not the motive cause for this murder, but some ulterior object.'
'Unquestionably,' said Carey, 'robbery was not the object, because, if the papers be correct, the unfortunate man's watch and money were left undisturbed. Some other motive, doubtless connected with the business which took him on his fatal journey, and which he was at such pains to keep secret--perhaps even dictated from this side of the water--must be at the bottom of it.'
'Your views coincide exactly with mine,' said Bryan Duval. 'It is useless for us, however, further to speculate on this matter, more especially since we know nothing at all approaching certainty, until Mr. Warren helps us with his experience. The one thing that confronts us and that cannot be blinked at is, that no matter from what reason or other the poor fellow has been murdered, the fact, sooner or later, must be broken to his wife.'
'That is what I feel so deeply,' said Carey. 'There is a mail from Europe due to-morrow; she will know of its arrival; and after that the truth can no longer be kept from her.'