“Almost,” agreed O’Leary. “But I wanted to trap him into a final admission. To catch him in the act of making off with the radium. And there I failed. When you turned on the light here to-night, Miss Keate, and I saw only Hajek and Gainsay, I was sure that I had failed. But when Dr. Balman came on the scene I began to see my way clear. I caused Hajek considerable anguish of soul but he deserved it. What on earth did you come blundering around for, Gainsay?”
Jim looked uncomfortable.
“Why, you see, O’Leary, I saw Corole come into the south door of St. Ann’s last night and watched through the pane of glass. I had nearly caught her and I was convinced that she had the radium in her jewel case. I could barely see in the hospital corridor through that door, but I saw that she left the jewel case in Room 18. So I figured that she likely thought Room 18 a safe place in which to leave the stuff. Thinking it over during the day, I came to the conclusion that it would be a fine thing to recover the radium myself.” He laughed rather shamefacedly. “I—didn’t think much of you, O’Leary. And I was worried about Miss Day, too. And well—I just made an ass of myself generally.”
“You did,” said O’Leary. “You did. You had better stick to bridges after this, Mr. Gainsay.”
“You are right,” said Jim heartily. “But I can’t say that I regret having been here. And I still hope that I have not failed—at one thing I have undertaken.” His eyes were on Maida and she turned entirely crimson and O’Leary laughed boyishly.
I sighed; time enough for romance when this thing was all clear to me.
“Mr. O’Leary,” I said, “can you prove all this?”
He sobered instantly.
“The only thing that is supposition—or rather based solely upon reason, is Dr. Letheny’s part in the business, and even there, we know that only certain events could have taken place. As for the rest of it, change Hajek’s name to Balman’s and—there it is.”
And I may as well say here and now that Dr. Balman confessed to the whole thing, and the only point on which O’Leary was mistaken was this: it was Dr. Hajek who took the key from its place above the chart desk on that Sunday night when Maida and I were so frightened. He had slipped out his window with the key, but when he heard us coming he fled from Room 18, around St. Ann’s to his room, through the window again, through the corridor from the main part of the hospital to the south wing, tossed the key on the desk and hurried back to his own room.