She jumped up and paced the room in sudden agitation. Then she controlled herself and sat down again.
“This won’t do!” she exclaimed, taking herself to task. “Unless I can consider everything calmly I shall deceive myself and start along the wrong road.” She took a pencil and sheet of paper and continued, talking to herself in an argumentative way: “Let’s marshal the facts. First, Mrs. Ritchie’s box is stolen. That’s a hard fact; you can’t get around it. In that box was a lot of money, some bonds as good as cash and other papers only valuable to their owner. The box was stolen for the money and bonds; fact number two. Whoever stole it from Judge Ferguson’s cupboard either had a key or picked the lock; anyhow the cupboard was found locked and the box gone. Yet no one but Judge Ferguson was supposed to have the key. Whoever it was that wanted the money, he or she had no key to the box itself and couldn’t pick the lock; so he or she had to carry away the box. That’s the third fact.
“Now, then, having got the box safely away, the thief broke it open, took the money and bonds, and then wondered what to do with the rest of the junk. He must get rid of all telltale evidence, somehow or other, so he took the box to the river, perhaps thinking to drown it. Perhaps he saw Toby’s shanty and decided to put the blame on him; that would throw the police on a false track. That was clever. Fact number—No! that isn’t really a fact; it’s just a surmise. No, if Toby is innocent it must be a fact. I’ll call it so—Fact number four.”
She jotted it down.
“Now let’s see where we are at,” she continued. “Thief has the money safe; police on a false track arrest Toby. Well, that’s as far as I can go on that line. Now, the important question is, who is the thief? First we must consider who knew about the box and that it contained money. Toby knew, of course, and Judge Ferguson. But who else? Mrs. Ritchie, but—Never mind; I’ll put her on the list. Janet knew; she couldn’t steal it but I’ll add her to the list. If I’m going to find out anything I must be thorough. I think Mr. Spaythe knew. I must ask him. Meantime, here he goes on the list. I wonder if Mr. Holbrook knew about the money? Not at first, but—Yes, I remember Janet told me that Toby took Mrs. Ritchie away, when she came to the house, and they went to ask Mr. Holbrook if it was lawful to give her the box. Of course the woman blabbed what was in it, and so—Mr. Holbrook knew. The theft was committed on the day or the night following the judge’s death, so that lets Mr. Holbrook into the game. Down he goes on the list. Who else? There’s Will Chandler, the postmaster; but perhaps he didn’t know. He owns the building and kept the judge’s key to the office. Will Chandler might have known there was money in the Ritchie box, so I’ll put the dear old boy under suspicion. Who else?”
She reflected long and deeply, but could not think of another person likely to know the location of the box and that it contained money. She considered Lawyer Kellogg, but knew that he and Judge Ferguson had been open enemies and that Kellogg had not been consulted by Mrs. Ritchie until after the loss of the box was a matter of public knowledge. So she reviewed her list: Mrs. Ritchie; Janet Ferguson; Mr. Spaythe; Mr. Holbrook; Will Chandler.
“Why, it’s nonsense!” she gasped in astonishment. “They’re every one impossible. I—I must start another line of discovery.”
But, try as she would, she could not get away from that list of obvious innocents.
“Unless some one knew the box was there, and that it contained money—enough to make it worth stealing—he couldn’t possibly have stolen it,” she told herself. “The list is all right, as far as it goes; but—is it complete?”
After more thought she put on her things and walked to Mr. Spaythe’s residence. Of course Toby was there, for he seldom if ever went out, and she promptly interviewed him.