To Roger, the presence of Doctor Ryder showed that Grover suspected him. Of the whole staff only he had been told, included in this vigil.
The headset was shifted slightly away from his ears; Roger listened, as midnight approached, to his cousin’s chat with the experimenting medical man.
“Of course I know that I am under suspicion,” Dr. Ryder said. “The culture was hidden in my section. Other things look bad——”
“Of the whole staff you are the only man I need not suspect,” Grover saw deeper into things than had Roger. “It is an old trick, to turn suspicion toward an innocent man by ‘planting’ something.”
That, Roger decided, was sounder sense than he had used. He had forgotten to dig past appearances to the heart of truth!
“What do you expect will happen here?” asked the doctor.
“The miscreant will come, with his menagerie, for the priceless camphor secret.”
“Pretty smart stuff,” broke in Potts, “coagulating camphor with kangaroos.”
Coagulating was the wrong word, Roger knew; and the others saw through the meaning.
“Claws on glass implied something tall enough to reach up that high on top of the cage,” Grover explained. “The ‘snake’ trail and an animal with a dragging tail ‘coagulated.’”