Before the chair, on the floor where the body had been found, he
pointed out to us the peculiar ash-marks for some space around,
but it really seemed to me as if something else interested him
more than these ash-marks.
We had been engaged perhaps half an hour in viewing the room. At
last Craig suddenly stopped.
"Tom," he said, "I think I'll wait till daylight before I go any
further. I can't tell with certainty under these lights, though
perhaps they show me some things the sunlight wouldn't show. We'd
better leave everything just as it is until morning."
So we locked the room again and went into a sort of library
across the hall.
We were sitting in silence, each occupied with his own thoughts
on the mystery, when the telephone rang. It proved to be a
long-distance call from New York for Tom himself. His uncle's
attorney had received the news at his home out on Long Island and
had hurried to the city to take charge of the estate. But that
was not the news that caused the grave look on Tom's face as he
nervously rejoined us.
"That was uncle's lawyer, Mr. Clark, of Clark & Burdick," he
said. "He has opened uncle's personal safe in the offices of the
Langley estate--you remember them, Craig--where all the property
of the Langley heirs is administered by the trustees.
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