The Greatest Works of Anna Katharine Green. Анна Грин

Gryce rose.

      “But the writer of these words is saved,” I went on, trying to grasp the one comfort left me. “No one who reads this Diary will ever dare to insinuate she is capable of committing a crime.”

      “Assuredly not; the Diary settles that matter effectually.”

      I tried to be man enough to think of that and nothing else. To rejoice in her deliverance, and let every other consideration go; but in this I did not succeed. “But Mary, her cousin, almost her sister, is lost,” I muttered.

      Mr. Gryce thrust his hands into his pockets and, for the first time, showed some evidence of secret disturbance. “Yes, I am afraid she is; I really am afraid she is.” Then after a pause, during which I felt a certain thrill of vague hope: “Such an entrancing creature too! It is a pity, it positively is a pity! I declare, now that the thing is worked up, I begin to feel almost sorry we have succeeded so well. Strange, but true. If there was the least loophole out of it,” he muttered. “But there isn’t. The thing is clear as A, B, C.” Suddenly he rose, and began pacing the floor very thoughtfully, casting his glances here, there, and everywhere, except at me, though I believe now, as then, my face was all he saw.

      “Would it be a very great grief to you, Mr. Raymond, if Miss Mary Leavenworth should be arrested on this charge of murder?” he asked, pausing before a sort of tank in which two or three disconsolate-looking fishes were slowly swimming about.

      “Yes,” said I, “it would; a very great grief.”

      “Yet it must be done,” said he, though with a strange lack of his usual decision. “As an honest official, trusted to bring the murderer of Mr. Leavenworth to the notice of the proper authorities, I have got to do it.”

      Again that strange thrill of hope at my heart induced by his peculiar manner.

      “Then my reputation as a detective! I ought surely to consider that. I am not so rich or so famous that I can afford to forget all that a success like this may bring me. No, lovely as she is, I have got to push it through.” But even as he said this, he became still more thoughtful, gazing down into the murky depths of the wretched tank before him with such an intentness I half expected the fascinated fishes to rise from the water and return his gaze. What was in his mind?

      After a little while he turned, his indecision utterly gone. “Mr. Raymond, come here again at three. I shall then have my report ready for the Superintendent. I should like to show it to you first, so don’t fail me.”

      There was something so repressed in his expression, I could not prevent myself from venturing one question. “Is your mind made up?” I asked.

      “Yes,” he returned, but in a peculiar tone, and with a peculiar gesture.

      “And you are going to make the arrest you speak of?”

      “Come at three!”