“You see, he was in good condition. And combined with the theft of the radium—Oh! I know it is a fearful thing to suspect. But what explanation is there?”
“Who could have done it? How——”
“I don’t know.” With an effort I pulled myself together, forced myself to think. “We have no time to think of that now. We must keep things going—get a doctor.” I paused, eyeing her dubiously. “Could you stay here with—with it—while I go to the office, rouse Dr. Hajek and the janitor, and get some sort of lights?”
She glanced from the bed, where her horrified eyes had fastened themselves, to the feeble ray of the candle.
“The candle is almost burnt out,” she whispered.
“I know,” I said. “I’ll hurry.”
Her lips tightened to a thin white line.
“Hurry.”
Once groping my way through that dark corridor I was vaguely surprised to find my hands like ice and my face damp. My mind was whirling but one thought was predominant: I must not leave Maida alone for long in that terrifying room with what it held, I must hurry.
As I turned into the corridor running east and west, that connects the south wing with the main portion of the hospital, the storm burst upon the place with renewed savagery. At another time the fury of the thunder and lightning and wind and rain would have appalled me, but then it seemed all in a piece with what I feared had happened.