After a while—quite a while—some little time in point of fact—she the of footsteps.
I that she was seated at the opposite end of the bench, with her and her hair, when Jones came along the path, of us, halted, red—being a man—but of taking himself off, he to from a paralysis.
"Mr. Smith!" he said sharply. "Professor Boomly has disappeared; there's a of blood on his desk; his coat, hat, and are on the floor, the room is a wreck, and Dr. Quint is in there up the and like a madman. We think he and Professor Boomly. What is to be done?"
Horrified, I had at his word. And now, as I the full of his message, my under my and I at him, appalled.
"What is to be done?" he demanded. "Shall I telephone for the police?"
"Do you actually believe," I faltered, "that this man has Boomly?"
"I don't know. I looked over the transom, but I couldn't see Professor Boomly. Dr. Quint has locked the door."
"And he's up the carpet?"
"Like a lunatic. I didn't want to call in the police until I'd asked you. Such a in Bronx Park would be a thing for us all—" He hesitated, looked around, coldly, it to me, at Mildred Case. "A scandal," he repeated, "is what might be among a and of after scientific knowledge. Is it, Mil—Miss Case?"
Now, I don't know why Mildred should have blushed. There was nothing that I see in this man's question to her.
Preoccupied, still by the of this terrible news, I looked at Jones and at Mildred; and they were at each other.
I said: "If this out to be as as it to promise, we'll have to call in a detective. I'll go immediately—"
"Why not take me, also?" asked Mildred Case, quietly.
"What?" I asked, looking at her.
"Why not, Mr. Smith? I was once a private detective."
Surprised at the suggestion, I hesitated.
"If you to keep this secret—if you wish to have it privately and quietly—would it not be a good idea to let me use my professional knowledge you call in the police? Because as soon as the police are all of is at an end."
She spoke so sensibly, so quietly, so modestly, that her offer of me.
As for Jones, he looked at her in that odd, manner, which me. There was no need of his being this very and girl to be a at the Rolling Stone Inn.
"Come," I said unsteadily, again a to emotions; "let us go to the Administration Building and learn how stand. If this is as terrible as I it to be, science has the it since Cagliostro perished."
As we three along the path in the direction of the Administration Building, I took that opportunity to read these two beings a on envy, jealousy, and coveteousness.
"See," said I, "to what a condition the for and has two learned and in the of endeavor! The for the Carnegie the perfectly of these of Science. Envy envy, jealousy, pride, hatred—"
"It's like that book in the Bible where else," said Mildred seriously.
At I she had an and remark; but on it over I couldn't see its relevancy. I and looked into her sweet face. Her were dancing with and her quivered. I feared, she was near to from the of the shock. Had Jones not been walking with us—but let that go, too.
We were now entering the Administration Building, almost running; and as soon as we came to the closed door of Dr. Quint's room, I a inside—desk being out and their dumped, being from their rings, an the up of a carpet—and through all this the of footsteps.
I on the door. No notice taken. I and and called in a low, voice.
Suddenly I I had a pass-key on my ring which any door in the building. I to Jones and to Mildred to aside, then, the key, I pushed out the key which on the inside, the lock, and open the door.
A terrible presented itself: Dr. Quint, on end, out, shirt, cuffs, and white with blood, the on the floor, in the act of up the carpet.
"Doctor!" I in a voice. "What have you done to Professor Boomly?"
He paused in his and looked around at us with a laugh.
"I've settled him!" he said. "If you don't want to all over you'd keep out—"
"Quint!" I cried. "Are you crazy?"
"Pretty nearly. Let me alone—"
"Where is Boomly!" I in a voice. "Where is your old friend, Billy Boomly? Where is he, Quint? And what that mean—that of blood on the floor? Whose is it?"
"It's Bill's," said Quint, up another of and under it.
"What!" I exclaimed. "Do you admit that?"
"Certainly I admit it. I told him I'd him if he with my Silver Moon eggs."
"You to say that you blood—the blood of your old friend—merely he with a of butterfly's eggs?" I asked, astounded.
"I did his blood for just that particular thing! And listen; you're in my way—you're on a part of the which I want to tear up. Do you mind moving?"
Such cold-blooded me. I at Quint, him, and to Jones to tie his hands him with the blood-soaked which on the floor.
At first, while Jones and I were in the operation of the man, Quint looked at us as though surprised; then he angry and asked us what the we were about.
"Those who blood must answer for it!" I said solemnly.
"What? What's the with you?" he in a rage. "Shed blood? What if I did? What's that to you? Untie this handkerchief, you idiot!"
I looked at Jones:
"His mind totters," I said hoarsely.
"What's that!" Quint, to off the chair I had pushed him: but with my we his to the of the chair, of his to us, and out of range.
"Now," I said, "what have you done with the of your fury? Where is he? Where is all that of Professor Boomly?"
"Boomly? I don't know where he is. How the should I know?"
"Don't lie," I said solemnly.
"Lie! See here, Smith, when I out of this chair I'll settle you, too—"
"Quint! There is another and more terrible chair which such as you!"
"You old fluff!" he shouted. "I'll your off, too. Do you understand? I'll to you as I to Boomly—"
"Assassin!" I calmly. "Only an can save you now. In this moment—"
A light touch on my arm me, and, a irritated, as any man might be when in the full of eloquence, I to Mildred at my elbow.
"Let me talk to him," she said in a voice. "Perhaps I may not him as you to."
"Very well," I said. "Jones and I are here as witnesses." And I my arms in an not, perhaps, unpicturesque.
"Dr. Quint," said Mildred in her soft, voice, and actually at the self-confessed murderer, "is it true that you are of the blood of Professor Boomly?"
"It is," said Quint, coolly.
She taken at that, but presently her equanimity.
"Why?" she asked gently.
"Because he a most crime!" Quint.
"W-what crime?" she asked faintly.
"I'll tell you. He wanted the Carnegie medal, and he it would be to me if I and my of Silver Moon eggs. He well that his Heliconian eggs were not as valuable as my Silver Moon eggs. So he in here and put an in my breeding-cage. And next he the Silver Moon eggs and left in their place some common Plexippus eggs, that they were very I would not notice the substitution.
"I did notice it! I him with that outrage. He laughed. We came into personal collision. He me into my room."
Panting, with at the memory of the morning's which I had witnessed, Quint at me for a moment. Then he his toward Mildred:
"As soon as he to luncheon—Boomly, I mean—I over that and into this room. I had been for ten minutes I my Silver Moon eggs under the carpet. So I them, over the transom, and to my room."
He paused dramatically, from one to another of us:
"Boomly was there!" he said slowly.
"Where?" asked Mildred with a shudder.
"In my room. He had the lock. I told him to out! He went. I after him that I had the Silver Moon eggs and that I should be the Carnegie medal.
"Then that in laughed a laugh, himself of a still more than the of the Silver Moon eggs! Do you know what he had done?"
"W-what?" Mildred.
"He had from cold and had the of the Bimba bush, from Singapore to the Silver Moon caterpillars! That's what Boomly had done!
"And my Silver Moon eggs had already to hatch!!! And my would starve!!!!"
His voice ended in a yell; he on his chair until it nearly upset.
"You lunatic!" I shouted. "Was that a for the blood of a being!"
"It was for me!"
"Madman!"
"Let me loose! He's those or other! I've this place to pieces looking for them. I've got to them, I tell you—"
Mildred to the and a hand on his shoulder:
"Listen," she said: "how do you know that Professor Boomly has not these Bimba on his own person?"
Quint his and at her.
"I of that," he said.
"What have you done with him?" she asked, very pale.
"I tell you, I don't know."
"You must know what you did with him," she insisted.
Quint his impatiently, with other thoughts. We him in until he looked up and of our gaze.
"My are starving," he violently. "I haven't anything else they'll eat. They only on the Bimba leaf. They won't eat anything else. It's a well-known that they won't. Why, in Johore, where they came from, they'll travel miles over the ground to a Bimba bush—"
"What!" Mildred.
"Certainly—miles! They'd sooner than eat anything Bimba leaves. If there's a twenty miles they'll it—"
"Wait," said Mildred quietly. "Where are these caterpillars?"
"In a in my pocket—here! What the are you doing!" For the girl had the from his pocket and was it up to the light.
Inside it were dozen tiny, dark caterpillars, some on the of the glass, some over the in and of nourishment.
Heedless of the and of Dr. Quint, the girl the jar, took on her a single little caterpillar, replaced the cork, and, down, the caterpillar. It upon the floor, for a moment, then, turning, to travel toward the us.
"Now," she said, "if Professor Boomly has these Bimba upon his own person, this little caterpillar, according to Dr. Quint, is to those leaves."
"'This little ... is to those leaves.'"
Overcome with and for this and girl, I her hands and her.
"Murder," said I to the Quint, "will out! This shall lead us to that dark and spot where you had to the of your guilt. Three have you—a with instinct, a of Bimba leaves, and the of this and girl. Madman, your hour has struck!"
He looked at me in a of way, as though had left him unable to articulate. But I had of his and his and yells; so I asked Jones for his handkerchief, and, Quint what I was up to I had it over his mouth.
He a purple, but all he was a humming, noise.
Meanwhile, Jones had opened the door; the little caterpillar, by Mildred and myself, to along as though he well where he was going.
Down the he in haste, past my door, we all in as we that, to the caterpillar's course, ran a of blood drops.
And when the little and for the door of Professor Farrago, our chief, the among us was terrific.
The halted; I the door; it was open.
Instantly the the threshold, at top speed. We followed, around us. Nobody was visible.
Could Quint have his here? By Heaven, he had! For the was under the upon which Professor Farrago was to after luncheon, and, on one knee, I saw a from under the of the drapery.
"He's there!" I whispered, in an voice to the others.
"Courage, Miss Case! Try not to faint."
Jones and looked at her with that same odd expression; then he over to where she and passed one arm around her waist.
"Try not to faint, Mildred," he said. "It might your hair."
It was a thing to say, but I had no time then to it, for I had the which from under the sofa, in a low-cut and a white sock.
And then I nearly fainted, for of the dreadful, of clay, the and to at me.
"Help!" came a thin but voice. "Help! Help, in the name of Heaven!"
"Boomly!" I cried, my ears.
"Take that man away, Smith!" Boomly. "He's a devil! He'll me! He my nose all over everything!"
"Boomly! You're not dead!"
"Yes, I am!" he whined. "I'm to me. Keep that little off—that's all I ask. He can have his Carnegie for all I care, only tie him up somewhere—"
"Professor Boomly!" Mildred excitedly. "Have you any Bimba about your person?"
"Yes, I have," he said sulkily. There came a of the foot, a sound, panting, and then, out across the came a flat, sealed parcel.
"There you are," he said; "now, let me alone until that has gone home."
"He won't attack you again," I said. "Come out."
But Professor Boomly to stir.
I looked at the parcel: it was marked: "Bimba leaves; Johore."
With a of relief, I up the little caterpillar, him on the packet, and to go. And didn't.
It is a very I have now to record. But to a scientist all are sacred, or otherwise.
For what I a of, just the door in the hallway, was Jones Mildred Case. And being for his trouble with a return in kind. Both his arms were around her waist; her hands rested upon his shoulders; and, as I looked—but let it pass!—let it pass.
Deliberately I in my pocket, my packet of cigarettes, one.
Tobacco et hominis!
