Alvin Heiner

“ It interests me. And I feel it a worthy occupation; gathering knowledge through which people may know the true causes of misfortune; may throw off the yoke of superstition."
"You feel, then, that nothing happens by chance?"
"My dear," he said, solemnly, "in this ordered universe there can be no such thing. Action and achievement—cause and result. The revealing pattern of each man's actions is in the pasts of himself and his antecedents."
"And by proving this you will exonerate the Reamer mansion of all guilt?"
He smiled. "You are a most intelligent young lady. Most intelligent! ”

“ Relative to that facet of the case, I am more interested in Henry Reamer himself. A very wise man once said, 'If you would understand violence, look also into the heart of the murdered'. A man carries the seeds of his destiny in his own soul. ”

“ If you go up in the hills hereabouts you'll find whole families living in dirt-floor houses. You'll find children who never heard of a bath or a telephone. But you won't find one person who would live in the Reamer mansion for a salary paid promptly every Saturday morning."
"Nonetheless," Professor Waits replied, "the so-called jinx of the mansion, or any other maligned locality, is a matter of monstrous coincidence. The truth lies hidden in the lives of the people involved. ”