"Perhaps it was better. It might have cost you your life to cross Simon at that point."
"Anyway, Porter Hays stopped by one day. My husband was out and I answered the door. He was a fine man, sensitive and kind, considering his adventurous temperament. He could see I was nervous—you know the disarming way he had of asking the most personal questions.
"I was afraid to talk there and asked him to drive me to Salt Lake. On the way, I told him the whole story. He was very sympathetic and promised to help—beginning by trying to contact my father. I hoped he would refuse to fly the ship when he knew about Simon. But he had absolute confidence in it and no fear at all. His plan was to complete the test and then ask you, Mr. Donner, to impound the ship and all the records on it.
"The day before the test flight, I put in the time completing the translation of the fourteenth tablet.
"Simon had shown no interest in this, believing it to be a summary of the others. As the sense of it began to emerge, I was horrified. By midnight, I had finished it and I sat down in the drawing room with a typed copy in my hand, waiting for my husband. I waited all night and must have fallen asleep around dawn.
"The door chime wakened me. It was a messenger with a note from Porter—Mr. Hays. A newspaper friend of his in Cairo had been checking and discovered that my father had been dead six months. The circumstances of his death were curious and Mr. Hays suggested contacting the Cairo police as soon as the flight was over.
"This news was a terrible blow, but the moment I read it, I was free of Simon Kane. I went to the phone and asked the operator for the police. While I was waiting for the connection, there was a slight sound behind me. I turned and Simon was crossing the room. He was in his dressing gown. He must have come in while I was dozing. I ran for the door, but he caught me and pushed me into a chair.
"When he had hung up the phone, he read Mr. Hays' note without saying a word. His face was terrible and I knew I was in danger. Then I saw that the typed copy of the fourteenth tablet was gone.