“The prints on the knob were made by the lady,” he said. “I’ll get the three views you want first and then the blurred finger-prints. They’ll need a special lens.”
Landis nodded the man away and rose to his feet.
“Thanks, Miss Mount. Please ask Mr. Joel Harrison to get into something and come down to the library as quickly as possible. Please say nothing else to him whatever.”
Miss Mount stood up, flung him a glance out of dark eyes that sparkled dangerously and moved out of the room.
For the first view, that of the full length of the library, Thorpe wanted the room empty. So Landis and Bernard left it for the hall. Presently Thorpe called to them and they returned to find him adjusting his camera to photograph the armor. They were just sitting down by the fire again when a tall, angular individual in a dressing-gown, his white hair on end so that he looked like a cockatoo, moved into the doorway from the hall and stood staring at them.
“You requested that I come down here?” he asked in a reedy voice. “It seems very strange to me.”
“Come in and sit down!” ordered Bernard.
Spurred by the note of command, Joel Harrison obeyed, settled his bony length in a chair and began to stare into the flames. Bernard and Landis sat motionless, watching him curiously. The dead man’s brother appeared to have forgotten entirely that he was not alone.
Suddenly Landis remembered the sergeant still on duty in the hall. He went out, suggested that he join the policeman in the reception-room and returned to the library fire. As he drew near, Joel Harrison glanced up at him in surprise.