“Why do anything? It is only four days since he left Sennen.”
“Yes, but something has evidently happened. He may have met with an accident and be in some hospital. Do you think I ought to notify the police that he is missing?”
“No; certainly not,” Mr. Penfield replied emphatically; for, to his mind, Purcell’s disappearance was quite simply explained. He had discovered the mistake of the transposed letter, and knew that Penfield held the means of convicting him of a felony, and he had gone into hiding until he should discover what the lawyer meant to do. To put the police on his track would be to convince him of his danger and drive him hopelessly out of reach. But Mr. Penfield could not explain this to Margaret; and to cover his emphatic rejection of police assistance he continued: “You see, he can hardly be said to be missing; he may merely have altered his plans and neglected to write. Have patience for a day or two, and if you still hear no tidings of him, send me a line and I will take what measures seem advisable for trying to get into touch with him.”
“Thank you,” said Margaret, not very enthusiastically, rising to take her departure. She was in the act of shaking Mr. Penfield’s hand when, with a sudden afterthought she asked:
“By the way, was there anything in Dan’s letter that might account for his disappearance in this fashion?”
This was rather a facer for Mr. Penfield, who, like many casuists, hated telling a direct lie. For the answer was clearly “yes,” whereas the sense that he was compelled to convey was “no.”
“You are forgetting that the letter was not addressed to me,” he said. “And that reminds me that there must have been another letter—the one that was addressed to me and that must have been put into the other person’s envelope. May I ask if that letter has been returned?”
“No, it has not,” replied Margaret.
“Ha!” said Mr. Penfield. “But it probably will be in the course of a day or two. Then we shall know what he was writing to me about and who is the other correspondent. Good day, good day, Mrs. Purcell.”
He shook her hand warmly and hastened to open the door for her in the hope—justified by the result—that she would not realize until she had left that her very significant question had not been answered.