Betty handed me over the list. "Do you notice anything peculiar about those dates?" she asked.
I read the paper through, and then again. "You have already pointed out," I began hesitatingly, "that the tenure of 'Hildebrand Hundred' was for the comparatively brief period of one to three years. Except for Richard, who held the property for over fifty."
"I don't mean that. Examine the actual dates."
I scanned the record with still greater attention. "Ah!" I exclaimed, "here is something strange. Everyone of these men, and Eunice, too, died in June; yes, and on a day of the month that varied between the twentieth and the twenty-second. Is that what you had in mind?"
"Yes, and it seemed to indicate clearly that those particular three days, the twentieth, twenty-first, and twenty-second of June——"
"In astronomical parlance, the summer solstice," interrupted Warriner.
"——was the danger period."
"Yes, and then?"
"Your letter came, saying that you had been obliged to enter the library to look after the window repairs; you added that you would probably have to go again to finish up the job. As I have already told you, that letter reached me on Thursday morning, June the twenty-first; Chalmers and I left at once for New York. On the way down I succeeded in reading the cypher, and so got Fielding Thaneford's message in full."
"But how in the world——" I began.