The phenomena, thus far, including the materialization of the spectre, had taken a little more than half an hour. I heard the sound for which I had been listening—the roar of the doctor’s motor.
“A remarkable chair, doctor,” I said. “The thing rather fagged me. I think I’ll step out on the porch for a breath of cool air.”
The door obligingly opened for me when I left the room. The front door, however, was already open. Rafferty was standing on the porch.
“Go on down to the car,” he whispered. “The doctor’s waitin’ for you.”
I went, and climbed into the front seat beside the doctor. Detective Hogan was in the back seat. We whirled away with moaning gears.
The doctor handed me a folded map.
“Open this, will you, Evans?” he requested. “Hold it beneath the dash light. I don’t want to miss the road.”
I opened it, and found it was a detailed map of Lake County. A large triangle had been traced on the paper, its smallest angle resting on a spot marked with an X, apparently some eight miles due west of our present location.
“Does X mark the spot where the body was found?” I asked, as we spun around onto Sheridan Road on two wheels.
“It marks the spot where I expect to find the source of Miss Van Loan’s troubles,” replied the doctor. “It isn’t far, as the crow flies, but there is no through road to it. We have a roundabout trip of about sixteen miles ahead of us.”