Vance hesitated before answering.
“I could bear to know,” he drawled, “why that house of cards collapsed so readily when I deliberately leaned against the table——”
“Yes?”
“—and why it didn’t topple over when Pardee’s head and shoulders fell forward on the table after he’d shot himself.”
“Nothing to that,” said Markham. “The first jar may have loosened the cards——” Suddenly his eyes narrowed. “Are you implying that the card-house was built after Pardee was dead?”
“Oh, my dear fellow! I’m not indulgin’ in implications. I’m merely givin’ tongue to my youthful curiosity, don’t y’ know.”
CHAPTER XXIII.
A Startling Discovery
(Monday, April 25; 8.30 p. m.)
Eight days went by. The Drukker funeral was held in the little house on 76th Street, attended only by the Dillards and Arnesson and a few men from the university who came to pay a last tribute of respect to a scientist for whose work they had a very genuine admiration.
Vance and I were at the house on the morning of the funeral when a little girl brought a small cluster of spring flowers she had picked herself, and asked Arnesson to give them to Drukker. I almost expected a cynical response from him, and was surprised when he took the flowers gravely and said in a tone almost tender: