“Why, what do you mean? Is Jim Gainsay——”
“Jim Gainsay is the man who was following Corole last night. O’Brien was stationed up at the cottage last night and saw him. It seems that Corole slipped out a side door. She came out so unexpectedly that she was into the orchard before O’Brien was after her. He was going full tilt when he found that someone else was ahead of him, both of them after Corole, who was having the devil’s own luck, according to O’Brien, in avoiding tree trunks and shrubbery. O’Brien says she can see in the dark. At the bridge O’Brien caught up with the man and can swear it was Gainsay, but just then a low-hanging branch knocked O’Brien down and senseless for a moment and when he got to his feet Corole and Gainsay were both gone. O’Brien wandered about the orchard hunting them for half the night and I ran into him about five o’clock, soaked to the skin and his face a welt of scratches and his disposition permanently warped.”
“So it was Jim Gainsay who gave Corole such a fright,” I murmured. “I wonder what he wanted.”
“It looks bad for Gainsay,” said O’Leary thoughtfully. “Whether he killed Dr. Letheny in a mistaken effort to defend Miss Day, or whether he killed Jackson for the sake of the radium, or whether, thinking that the radium is still at large he is determined to secure it for his own use, in any case it looks bad. I hope your little friend, Miss Day, is not going to be too much hurt.”
“You mean if she cares for Gainsay? Maida is not one to wear her heart on her sleeve. If we could only find that radium,” I concluded hopelessly.
“Oh, I have the radium,” said O’Leary simply.
16. The Red Light Above the Door
“You have the radium!”
He nodded. My mouth open I waited for him to tell me more. In the little silence I heard a sort of rustle and I looked about me in some alarm. O’Leary heard the rustle, too, but his face wore the most peculiar expression of mingled satisfaction and anxiety. He made the barest perceptible gesture against comment, and just at the moment Morgue dropped casually down from an opening above what was formerly a hay loft. I jumped a little at his—I mean, her unexpected advent and O’Leary spoke unconcernedly.
“Yes, I have the radium. Or rather it is in Room 18 which is, I believe, the safest place in the world for it, inasmuch as there is not a soul in St. Ann’s who would willingly enter that room—save perhaps your intrepid self.”