“We expect him here any minute,” Vance replied. “Sergeant Heath has sent two of his men to fetch him.”
The hunchback’s eyebrows lifted. “Ah! So Sperling is being forcibly brought back.” He pyramided his spatulate fingers and inspected them musingly. Then he slowly lifted his eyes to Vance. “You asked me if I saw Robin and Sperling in the archery-room.—Yes; they came down-stairs just as I was going.”
Vance leaned back and stretched his legs before him.
“Did you get the impression, Mr. Drukker, that they had—as we euphemistically say—been having words?”
The man considered this question for several moments.
“Now that you mention it,” he said at length, “I do recall that there seemed to be a coolness between them. I wouldn’t, however, care to be too categorical on that point. You see, I left the room almost immediately after they entered.”
“You went out the basement door, I think you said, and thence through the wall gate into 75th Street. Is that correct?”
For a moment Drukker seemed loath to answer; but he replied with an effort at unconcern.
“Quite. I thought I’d take a stroll along the river before going back to work. I went to the Drive, then up the bridle path, and turned into the park at 79th Street.”
Heath, with his habitual suspicion of all statements made to the police, put the next question.