Isabel Ostrander

“ In spite of Terhune's sensational successes in the past, it is my opinion that the man is a bluff, pure and simple. The case has baffled him, just as it will everybody in the end, and he has taken the easy way out by thrusting the blame upon a man who is no longer here to defend himself. If Victor were only alive I would never cease my efforts to learn the truth, for that is the only way his name can be cleared. But I am an old man and I recognize the inevitability of defeat, as Inspector Druet will in time. Mark my words, McCarty, the mystery of Evelyn Jarvis' murder will never be solved. ”

“ Through the long hours of the night, while the coals died upon the hearth and the penetrating chill of a wintry dawn crept in at the windows McCarty sat tirelessly at his task. With the aid of the magnifying glass he studied a single sheet of paper before him upon which appeared to the casual eye merely the signature of Victor Marchal. The fruit of his examination was a series of strange and seemingly incomprehensible hieroglyphics which he painstakingly noted down. Then turning to the machine he touched a key here and there, erasing and altering the result in conformity with his notes. ”

“ Terhune doing, I wonder?" he queried.
"Terhune! Don't speak to me of him!" snorted the other indignantly. "He has rested his case completely on poor Victor's suicide, smirching the name of a dead man to hide his own incompetence, and more than all, he has managed to half convince Oliver of the truth of his damnable theory! Once let a man believe that another was secretly in love with his wife and he will be ready to believe anything else of him! Victor felt only a chivalrous and grateful admiration for Evelyn, that I know. ”