"No," he said, "not on such a wet night and in evening dress."
"I admit its improbability," I acknowledged, "but is it not possible, nevertheless?"
"Not sufficiently so to be taken into account," he replied. "Most things are possible, but if we stop to consider all the possibilities in a case, we will have no time for the real facts and will arrive nowhere and accomplish nothing. Take my word for it, Dick! the man who committed the murder took the ulster."
This was my opinion, too, and as we had reached the club no more was said.
On entering a servant told me that Mr. Van Bult was waiting for me in the library; so we went there and found Van Bult seated in front of the fire with an unopened paper in his hands gazing abstractedly before him. We greeted him and then for some moments were silent. There was so much to say and so little that seemed adequate. We four of all others were most allied by friendship and intimacy with poor White and by the incidents of that night with the tragedy of his death. All seemed too oppressed with the memories of our last gathering to break the silence and we stood waiting on one another for the first word. Several members of the club in the meantime came to the door and looked in, but seeing us four together turned back. At last Van Bult said:
"I suppose the papers have told me all you men know. I learned of it first in Buffalo, and returned as soon as I could. I am sorry I went away at all, but it was a matter of importance and I suppose I could have been of no use here." He paused a moment, but none of us said anything, and he went on: "So far as I can learn there is absolutely no clue to the mystery. I did not know that poor Arthur had an enemy in the world. Is there any evidence of a motive?" he concluded.
"None," Davis replied, "except that the money you left on the table was gone."
"That was a small sum to murder a man for," he replied; "and no one knew of its being there, either, but—" he hesitated, and then broke off: "Does suspicion attach to any one?"
I refrained from answering but Littell said, "No."
Noticing my silence, however, Van Bult turned to me and asked if the police knew more than the public.