“But, as I say, this piece of grim grotesquerie was only a side-issue. The Little-Miss-Muffet episode was to be the dénouement; and it was carefully planned so as to bring the heavens crashing down on Arnesson. The professor was at the Drukker house the morning of the funeral when Madeleine Moffat brought the flowers for Humpty Dumpty; and he undoubtedly knew the child by name—she was Drukker’s favorite and had been to the house on numerous occasions. The Mother-Goose idea being now firmly implanted in his mind, like a homicidal obsession, he very naturally associated the name Moffat with Muffet. Indeed, it’s not unlikely that Drukker or Mrs. Drukker had called the child ‘Little Miss Muffat’ in his presence. It was easy for him to attract her attention and summon her to the mound by the wall yesterday afternoon. He probably told her that Humpty Dumpty wanted to see her; and she came with him eagerly, following him under the trees by the bridle path, thence across the Drive, and through the alley between the apartment houses. No one would have noticed them, for the Drive is teeming with children at that hour. Then last night he planted in us the seed of suspicion against Arnesson, believing that when the Little-Miss-Muffet notes reached the press we would look for the child and find her, dead from lack of air, in the Drukker house. . . . A clever, devilish plan!”
“But did he expect us to search the attic of his own home?”
“Oh, yes; but not until to-morrow. By then he would have cleaned out the closet and put the typewriter in a more conspicuous place. And he would have removed the note-book, for there’s little doubt that he intended to appropriate Drukker’s quantum researches. But we came a day too soon, and upset his calculations.”
Markham smoked moodily for a time.
“You say you were convinced of Dillard’s guilt last night when you remembered the character of Bishop Arnesson. . . .”
“Yes—oh, yes. That gave me the motive. At that moment I realized that the professor’s object was to shoulder Arnesson with the guilt, and that the signature to the notes had been chosen for that purpose.”
“He waited a long time before he called our attention to ‘The Pretenders,’ ” commented Markham.
“The fact is, he didn’t expect to have to do it at all. He thought we’d discover the name for ourselves. But we were duller than he anticipated; and at last, in desperation, he sent for you and beat cleverly round the bush, accentuating ‘The Pretenders.’ ”
Markham did not speak for several moments. He sat frowning reproachfully, his fingers tapping a tattoo on the blotter.
“Why,” he asked at length, “did you not tell us last night that the professor and not Arnesson was the Bishop? You let us think——”