“And threatened him?” the doctor asked.
“Yes,” Waring answered after a momentary hesitation. “He laughed at us. He said the only way to stop that book was to kill him, and invited us to do it. He said there was a blind man in the village with the very devil of a dog and that the man who killed him would be tracked down.” Waring’s voice rose. “But, for once, Anthony was wrong. He forgot——” The passionate flow of words stopped with startling suddenness.
“What did he forget?” Dr. Stone asked.
Waring said nothing.
“Did he forget that there was such a thing as the manuscript being stolen?”
Captain Tucker spoke. “What good would that do? The old man could write it again.”
“Could he?” Dr. Stone mused. “I’m not so sure. A man who has to lean on a servant’s arm is a sick man—perhaps a dying man. By the way, Tucker, did you look for the manuscript?”
“Yes. He kept it in his bedroom.”
“And?”
“It’s gone.”