"
"I had two purposes," he insisted, "either of which justify. I felt it
a duty to locate this man Hobart; and also to warn you of the danger
you were in."
"Warn me!" she laughed scornfully. "That is ridiculous enough surely. I
have a perfectly good reason for being here, but I am not accountable to
you in any way for my movements. A duty you say--a duty to locate this
man? A duty to whom?"
"To the State, if no one else," he answered gravely. "Percival Coolidge
did not commit suicide; he was murdered."
"Murdered!" she came to her feet with utterance of the word. "You cannot
think that!"
"I know it, Miss Natalie; the evidence is beyond question; he was
murdered in cold blood."
"But by whom? for what purpose?"
"These points are not yet determined; I am only sure of the crime."
"Yes, but--but you suspect Jim Hobart. Isn't that true? You came here
seeking him--yes, and me. You even think I know how this death occurred.
You--you connect it with my fortune."
"No, Miss Natalie," he protested stoutly, moved by her agitation. "The
cause is a mystery, and who did it equally mysterious. The evidence thus
far unearthed is all circumstantial."
"Then why did you come out here searching for Hobart?"
"Because of his strange meeting with Percival Coolidge the very day of
his death; because his sudden disappearance furnished the only clue."
"And that is all the knowledge you possess, absolutely all?"
"Yes; I am no more than groping in the dark.
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