“Just a moment, chief,” remarked one of the most intelligent members of the board. “Suppose we follow your suggestion and leave all investigation until this man—what is his name?”
“Lance O’Leary,” supplied the chief sulkily.
“Until this Lance O’Leary gets here. You seem to have great confidence in him and——”
“Him and me always work together,” interpolated the chief.
“He is out of town at present,” went on the board member, addressing me.
“Suits me,” said the chief. “I’ve wired him and he will be here on the afternoon train. We’ve got everything under guard and can leave the room just as we found it.”
“Then there is no need for us to stay any longer,” remarked a particularly well-fed board member, getting fussily to his feet and kicking a little to shake down his trousers over his fat calves. “I’ve got to get to the office. And now see here, Dr. Balman—and you others—of course we don’t say that this is your fault——”
“Well, I should hope not!” I interrupted tartly.
“Your fault,” he repeated, eyeing me severely. “But at the same time it shouldn’t have happened. There is something wrong somewhere. Here we go and put sixty-five thousand dollars into a whole gram of radium and now look what happens!” The other members shook their fat cheeks in sympathy.
“You seem to forget,” I remarked with some asperity, “that there was also a murder in the hospital last night, which might have been prevented had we had an emergency gas line installed. We were without lights a good share of the night.”