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Updated: May 16, 2025
Bristow, satisfied now that he had fathomed Braceway's reluctance to accept as final the case against Perry Carpenter, had not been the only one mystified by the detective's course.
His habits of thought were such that he had not wasted energy during the morning in idle speculation as to what he would find. In fact, he attached but little importance to Braceway's message. He had dismissed it the night before as a queer dodge on the other's part to bolster up his view of the case. He went to a desk in a remote part of the reading room.
Braceway's voice had in it the ring of combativeness. Bristow tried to remember the exact words Withers had used. Also, his harping on Withers' possible guilt struck him as absurd when he considered the strength of the case against Perry. "I can't swear he did," he admitted at last; "but there's no doubt about the impression he gave us.
When he was in Braceway's presence, influenced by his vitality and magnetism and listening to his conversation, he lost sight of his real feeling; but, left to himself, it came to the surface strongly. He wished he had never met the man. He knew he would never get close to him. And yet, he thought, why dislike him? "Oh, he isn't my kind. I don't know. Yes, I know.
"By all means," Bristow assented. Flicking from the roller the page he had already begun, he tore it up and inserted another. "I met Enid Fulton six years ago at Hot Springs, Virginia. She fell in love with me. "I had always known that a rich woman's indiscretions could be made to yield big dividends. She was a victim of her " Braceway's grasp caught the writer's hands.
Some of Braceway's friends were in the habit of laughing at him because, when he was sure of having solved a criminal puzzle, he always could be seen carrying a cane. The appearance of the cane invariably foretold the arrest of a guilty man. He went now to the corner near the bureau and picked up the light walking-stick he had brought to Furmville strapped to his suitcase.
"I thought," she continued, "that what I had seen would be of service to you and him. And I can't understand why father and George want all this secrecy. One would think they were afraid of finding out something something to make them ashamed! What I want is to see the guilty man punished that's all." He recalled Braceway's statement that he had been engaged to marry Maria Fulton.
What, then, they asked, was the true situation back of the pursuit and persecution of the bank clerk, Henry Morley? What possible interest could they have in running him down, in ruining his standing? What contingency was powerful enough to compel their approval of Braceway's forcing the conclusion upon the mind of the public that an ugly scandal had touched Mrs. Withers?
Since it was off the principal beats of police reporters, Morley was detained there. Bristow went into his bedroom, where Miss Martin gave him another dose of strychnine. He asked her to await his return not that he expected to be in need of her, he said, but just to be on the safe side. He waved aside Braceway's solicitousness about his strength.
You'll forgive an old man's temper." Bristow carried the argument no further. He saw that Fulton, and Withers too, would follow Braceway's lead. Consequently, he was confronted with the necessity of keeping up the idiotic duel with the Atlanta detective. Moreover, he sensed the viewpoint of the dead woman's family. They were averse to believing she had been the victim of an ordinary negro burglar.
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