Farrington, Mrs. Popper, and Mr. Vandam into my
imitation hall of the Vandam mansion. I want each of you in turn
to tiptoe up that hall to a spot indicated on the wall, back of
the cabinet, and strike that spot several sharp blows with your
knuckles."
I did as Craig instructed tiptoeing up myself first so that they
could not mistake his meaning. The rest followed separately, and
after a moment we returned silently in suppressed excitement to
the room.
Craig was still standing by the table, but now the pendulums with
the magnets and needles and the drums worked by clockwork were
before him.
"Another person outside the Vandam family had a key to the Vandam
mansion," he began gravely. "That person, by the way, was the one
who waited, night by night, until Mrs. Vandam took the fatal
capsule, and then when she had taken it apprised the old man of
the fact and strengthened an already blind faith in the shadow
world."
You could have heard a pin drop. In fact you could almost have
felt it drop.
"That other person who, unobserved, had free access to the
house," he continued in the breathless stillness, "is in this
room now."
He was looking at O'Connor as if for corroboration. O'Connor
nodded. "Information derived from the butler," he muttered.
"I did not know this until yesterday," Kennedy continued, "but I
suspected that something of the sort existed when I was first
told by Dr.
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