Part 31 (1/2)
Garrison ignored the query for a moment.
”Where is Foster now?”
”No one knows--he seems to have run away--that's one of the worst things about it.”
”But you came over here to warn him,” said Garrison.
Dorothy flushed.
”That was my impulse, I admit, when you told me about the cigars. I hardly knew what else I could do.”
”You are very fond of Foster?”
”I am very fond of Alice.”
Garrison was glad. He could even have been jealous of a brother.
”But how could Foster have tampered with your cigars?” he inquired.
”Was he up there at Hickwood when you left them?”
”He was there all the time of uncle's visit, in hiding, and even on the night of his death,” she confessed in a whisper. ”Alice doesn't know of this, but he admitted it all to me.”
”This is what you have been trying to conceal from me, all the time,”
Garrison observed. ”Do the Robinsons have their suspicions?”
”I can't be certain. Perhaps they have. Theodore has exercised a very bad influence on Foster's life. He intimated once to me that perhaps Uncle John had been murdered.”
Garrison thought for a moment.
”It is almost impossible for anyone to have had that suspicion who had no guilty knowledge,” he said. ”Theodore was, and is, capable of any crime. If he knew about the will and believed you had not fulfilled the conditions, by marrying, he would have had all the motive in the world to commit the crime himself.”
”But,” said Dorothy, ”he knew nothing of the will, as I told you before.”
”And he with an influence over Foster, who _did_ know all about the will?”
Dorothy changed color once again. She was startled.
”I never thought of that,” she admitted. ”Foster might have told.”
”There's a great deal to clear up in a case like this,” said Garrison, ”even when suspicions point your course. I think I can land Mr.
Theodore on the things he attempted on me, but not just yet. He may reveal himself a little more. Besides, our alleged marriage will hardly bear a close investigation.”
For the moment Dorothy was more concerned by his personal danger than by anything concerning the case.
”You told me a little of what was attempted in the park,” she said.
”I've thought about it ever since--such a terrible attack! If anything dreadful should happen to you----”
She broke off suddenly, turned crimson to her hair, and dropped her gaze from his face.