“You think I am frightened,” she said slowly. “And I am, terribly frightened. But not about discovery. That has come, and cannot be helped.”
“Then why?”
“How does this woman, this medium, know these things?” Her voice rose, with an unexpected hysterical catch. “It is superhuman. I am almost mad.”
“We’re going to get to the bottom of this,” Sperry said soothingly. “Be sure that it is not what you think it is, Elinor. There’s a simple explanation, and I think I’ve got it. What about the stick that was taken from my library?”
“Will you tell me how you came to have it, doctor?”
“Yes. I took it from the lower hall the night—the night it happened.”
“It was Charlie Ellingham’s. He had left it there. We had to have it, doctor. Alone it might not mean much, but with the other things you knew—tell them, Clara.”
“I stole it from your office,” Clara said, looking straight ahead. “We had to have it. I knew at the second sitting that it was his.”
“When did you take it?”
“On Monday morning, I went for Mrs. Dane’s medicine, and you had promised her a book. Do you remember? I told your man, and he allowed me to go up to the library. It was there, on the table. I had expected to have to search for it, but it was lying out. I fastened it to my belt, under my long coat.”