“Well, make it as brief as you can, Markham. And do try to spare Belle as much as possible.—Let me see you before you go.”
When Professor Dillard had returned up-stairs, Markham took a turn up and down the room, his brows knit, his hands clasped behind him.
“What do you make of Drukker?” he asked, halting before Vance.
“Decidedly not a pleasant character. Diseased physically and mentally. A congenital liar. But canny—oh, deuced canny. An abnormal brain—you often find it in cripples of his type. Sometimes it runs to real constructive genius, as with Steinmetz; but too often it takes to abstruse speculation along impractical lines, as with Drukker. Still, our little verbal give-and-take has not been without fruit. He’s hiding something that he’d like to tell but doesn’t dare.”
“That’s possible, of course,” returned Markham doubtfully. “He’s touchy on the subject of that hour between eleven and noon. And he was watching you all the time like a cat.”
“A weasel,” Vance corrected him. “Yes, I was aware of his flatterin’ scrutiny.”
“Anyway, I can’t see that he’s helped us very much.”
“No,” agreed Vance. “We’re not exactly forrader. But we’re at least getting some luggage aboard. Our excitable mathematical wizard has opened up some very interestin’ lines of speculation. And Mrs. Drukker is fairly teemin’ with possibilities. If we knew what both of ’em together know we might find the key to this silly business.”
Heath had been sullen for the past hour, and had looked on at the proceedings with bored disdain. But now he drew himself up combatively.
“I’m here to tell you, Mr. Markham, that we’re wasting our time. What’s the good of all these parleys? Sperling’s the boy we want, and when my men bring him in and put him through a little sweating, we’ll have enough material for an indictment. He was in love with the Dillard girl and was jealous of Robin—not only on account of the girl, but because Robin could shoot those red sticks straighter than he could. He had a scrap with Robin in this here room—the professor heard ’em at it; and he was down-stairs with Robin, according to the evidence, a few minutes before the murder. . . .”