“I am so glad to hear you say so. I felt sure of it the moment I heard of the terrible crime.”
“I will do all that is possible, Miss Langham, I assure you.”
Clayton then introduced the physician.
“Doctor David Guelpa,” said he. “Shake hands with Mr. Carter, doctor. He is the Hungarian specialist, Nick, who has quarters in Fifth Avenue. Luckily he was in his suite on this floor, however, when Mademoiselle Falloni was informed of the robbery. For she fainted dead away, and since has been in hysterics. I sent for Doctor Guelpa, and he came immediately.”
“I am pleased to know you, Mr. Carter, very pleased,” said the physician, while they shook hands. “I long have known you by name. Very pleased, sir, I am sure.”
Nick bowed and responded in conventional terms, at the same time viewing the Hungarian specialist a bit curiously.
Doctor Guelpa was a man of medium build and apparently about forty years old. He looked like a foreigner. His complexion was medium, also, and his head was crowned with a bushy growth of reddish-brown hair, while his lower features were covered with a mustache and a profuse crinkly beard of the same obtrusive hue.
He wore spectacles with tortoise-shell rims and bows, the lenses of which were unusually thick, and he blinked frequently in a way denoting near-sightedness and a slight nervous affection. He spoke with a slight foreign accent, moreover, but was a man of pleasing address and evident gentility.
Nick turned almost immediately to Clayton, however, saying while he took a chair:
“That we may lose no time, as you say, we will get right at this matter. I have sent for two of my assistants.[Pg 13] While waiting for them, Clayton, I wish to hear your side of the story.”