“Let us change the subject,” suggested the attorney. “Tell me why you came here tonight.”
“I am worried,” admitted Froman sourly. “I have been worried since last night. Bad luck seems to have followed me. I lost one of my most trusted men, and I cannot account for it!”
Noyes raised his eyebrows questioningly.
“I did away with Holtmann,” declared Froman in a matter-of-fact tone. “I told you last night that I intended to. I learned all he knew, and there was no use keeping him. But I lost Sergoff, in the bargain, and I cannot understand how it happened.
“I put poison in Holtmann’s food” — Froman was speaking in a calm, explanatory way — “and Sergoff was to go down and view the body. He went; and when he didn’t return, I went down and found him dead.”
“Holtmann or Sergoff?”
“Both!” declared Froman. “The poison finished Holtmann; but Sergoff was brutally slain. His neck was broken, and his head dashed against the floor.”
“Holtmann must have killed him,” said Noyes. “I see no mystery there.”
“The evidence supports your theory,” responded Froman. “The position of the bodies showed that a struggle must have taken place between the two men. But the whole situation is incredible.
“Picture this: Holtmann so weak and helpless he had scarcely strength enough to eat when I left him, and Sergoff armed and powerful. I would not have believed that any two men of far greater strength than Holtmann could have combined to beat Sergoff to death.”