“What’s wrong, old chap? That’s the Chief Medical Examiner’s car, isn’t it? I was afraid——” He broke off as the other raised his eyes. “Heavens, Storm, what is it?”
“My wife!” Storm bowed his head, and added brokenly: “She’s dead, Millard! Died suddenly, sometime during the night.”
“Mrs. Storm!” Millard fell back a step, his apoplectic face paling. “What——? How? God, this is frightful! What caused it?”
“Dr. Carr says it was one of her fainting spells. She must have fallen and struck her head. I—we only found her this morning.”
“Terrible! I—I don’t know what to say, old chap!” Millard stammered. His small, beady eyes strayed eagerly past his host into the darkened hallway, and he advanced, but Storm’s figure barred the entrance. “I’m simply aghast! Poor, dear little woman! I can’t believe it! You have all my sympathy, dear fellow, but words can’t seem to express it just now. How—how did it happen——?”
“We don’t know yet.” Storm gripped the agitated little man’s arm for a moment as if for support. “I can’t talk of it! Carr will tell you all about it later, but I don’t think he wants the news to get about until the formalities have been concluded with the coroner’s men. I can depend on you——?”
“You know that, old chap!” Millard interrupted him warmly. “I say, isn’t there anything that I can do? The car’s right here, you know, and I’m glad to be of service——”
“Why, yes.” Storm eyed him gratefully. “I’ve sent for George Holworthy, but he hasn’t been told what has happened. He ought to be here on the next train, and it is due any minute. Would you mind running down to the station and bringing him back here, and—and break the news to him for me?”
“Certainly, dear fellow!” Millard clapped his hand to the other’s shoulder. “I’ll go at once, Storm. There doesn’t seem to be anything a chap can say at a time like this, but I’m right here if you want me! Remember that, and try to—to bear it, some way. I’ll be back in no time!”
He bustled off down the veranda steps and toward his waiting car, and Storm closed the door with a grim smile. He was well aware that Millard—who was known facetiously about the Country Club as the “town crier”—would spread the news of the tragic “accident” far and wide, and he had carefully planted in the other’s mind the impression that Dr. Carr was responsible for the theory of accident. He had always maintained a certain reserve with Millard, and realized that his confidence now had immeasurably flattered the little man, cementing a friendship which would prove valuable if by any chance ugly whispers arose.