This was not quite true, in that the murder had been committed, I had no doubt, before the lights had gone out, but the subject of gas for emergency use had been a matter of contention between the board and the staff for some time and I was glad to note that the entire board looked distinctly uneasy as it filed fatly from the office.
“A splendid group of gentlemen,” commented the chief approvingly.
“Then we are to do nothing until this detective arrives?” I asked impatiently.
“So it seems,” said Dr. Balman, sighing wearily.
“Yes, and nothing is enough,” said the chief, whose name, by the way, proved to be Blunt. “Once Lance O’Leary gets his teeth in anything it is as good as finished. Say—I could tell you things——”
“If only we could find Dr. Letheny,” I reflected. “It is so strange, his disappearing like this and at such a time.”
“Maybe it ain’t so strange as you think,” remarked Chief Blunt. “There is many a man would like to disappear with about sixty-five thousand dollars in his pocket. Say, what does that radium look like? How would you carry it anyhow? Wouldn’t it burn you?”
“It is carried in a small steel box that is especially made to protect it—and you,” explained Dr. Balman. As I glanced at him I was struck by the unbelievably drawn and haggard appearance of his face, which was intensified by a bruise on one cheek bone that was turning a dark, purplish green. “It would be a ticklish thing to dispose of,” he added thoughtfully.
“Well, we shall have some disclosures in another night,” said the chief comfortably. “And mark my words, this Letheny has had something to do with it. A man don’t disappear like this for nothing. In the meantime we’ll guard Room 18 and keep everybody away from it. And let nobody leave or come into the hospital.”
“No visitors?” I inquired, with the first shade of approval I had felt for the chief so far.