The Classic Mystery Collection - Arthur Conan Doyle [4000]
"I think I understand you, Mr. Gryce," observed Sweetwater, rising slowly to his feet. "But a dream may help me out; we will see."
"I shall not leave here till ten to-morrow morning."
"Very good, sir. If you don't mind, I'll take this with me."
"Take it, by all means."
As Sweetwater turned to go, he was induced by the silence of his patron to cast a backward glance. Mr. Gryce had risen to his feet and was leaning toward him with an evident desire to speak.
"My boy," said he, "if your dreams lead you to undertake the search I have mentioned, spare nobody; I say, spare _nobody_."
Then he sat down; and the memory which Sweetwater carried away with him of the old detective at the moment he uttered this final injunction was far from being a cheerful one.
XIII
"WRITE ME HIS NAME"
Refreshed by a good night's rest and quite ready to take up his task again, Mr. Gryce sat at the same table in the early morning, awaiting the expected message from Sweetwater. Meanwhile he studied, with a fuller attention than he had been able to give it the evening before, the memorandum which this young fellow had handed him of his day's work. A portion of this may be interesting to the reader. Against the list of people registered on his chart as present in the museum at the moment of tragedy, he had inscribed such details concerning them as he could gather in the short time allotted him.
* * * * *
I--Ephraim Short. A sturdy New Englander visiting New York for the first time. Has a big story to take back. Don't care much for broken marbles and pictures so dingy you cannot tell what you are looking at; but the sight of a lot of folks standing up like scarecrows in a field, here and there all over a great building, because something had happened to somebody, will make a story the children will listen to for years.
Address taken, and account of himself verified by telegraph.
II--Mrs. Lynch. Widow, with a small house in Jersey and money to support it. No children. Interested in church work. Honest and of reliable character. Only fault a physical one--extreme nervousness.
III--Mr. Carleton Roberts, director; active in his work, member of the Union League and an aspirant for the high office of U. S. Senator. Lives in bachelor apartment, 67 W. ---- Street. A universally respected man of unquestioned integrity and decided importance. Close friend of Curator Jewett.
IV--Eben Clarke, door-man. Been long in the employ of museum. Considered entirely trustworthy. Home in decent quarter of West 80th Street. Wife and nine children, mostly grown. Never been abroad. Has no foreign correspondence.
V--Emma Sutton, an art enthusiast, gaining her living by copying old masters. Is at museum six days in the week. It was behind her easel Travis found a hiding-place in Room H.
VI--Mrs. Alice Lee, widowed sister of Edward Cronk Tailor, ---- Sixth Ave. Lives with brother. Kindly in disposition, much liked and truthful to a fault. No acquaintance abroad.
VII-VIII--John and Mary Draper, husband and wife, living in East Orange, N. J. Decent, respectable folk with no foreign connections.
IX--Hetty Armstrong, young girl, none too bright but honest to the core. Impossible to connect her with this affair.
X--Charles Simpson, resident of Minneapolis. In town on business, stopping at Hotel St. Denis. Eager to return home, but willing to remain if requested to do so. Hates foreigners; thinks the United States the greatest country on earth.
XI--John Turnbull, college professor; one of the new type, alert, observant and extremely precise. Not apt to make a misstatement.
XII--James Hunter, door-man, a little old for his work, but straight as a string and methodical to a fault. No wife, no child. Bank account more than sufficient for his small wants.
XIII--Miss Charlotte Hunsicker,