“Are you under the impression, Mr. Bassett, that her story was true--that the boy _had_ been spying on her?” “I don’t know. Of course she was in a high-keyed emotional state that might engender unjust suspicions. On the other hand you couldn’t trust his word, and there was big money offered.” “And when you returned to New York you would have found it out.” “Yes, I told him that.” “And he would have realized that it would go hard with him, where you were concerned, and with the rest of the profession?” “Yes, he’d know. She was very popular and there was a general sympathy for her. Any one acting against her interests would have met with a pretty cold reception.” Williams stretched and rose from his chair: “Well, it’s all right to gather up everything, but it doesn’t get us any further. If the boy’d been here, seeing what he was and how he felt, there might be something in it. But as he got out before the shooting it leaves us just where we were before. What do you think about going up and looking over that top story--routine business we ought to get through.” “Not now,” Rawson moved to the door. “I’m going across to the mainland.” “Mainland--what’s that for?” “Look up some things--that boy’s movements for one. I’ll take Patrick and the launch and send him right back. The causeway’s covered so we don’t need him there. If Mr. Driscoll ever wanted to sell this place I’d recommend it for a penitentiary, save the state some money, only want guards twice in twenty-four hours. Come down to the dock with me, Mr. Bassett, and tell me which way Tracy was going.” Bassett went with him feeling for the first time that he could give information with the tranquillizing assurance it would react on nobody. When he left Rawson at the dock he went to look for Anne. XIII TO THE outside eye Anne had presented no more dolorous and dejected an aspect than any of the others. If she could not eat, neither could they, and if she sat sunk in somber gloom they either did the same or gave expression to their nerve-wracked state by breathless outbursts of speech. No one, not even Bassett, noticed that Anne’s demeanor was in any way other than what might have been expected. Had they been able to see into her mind the group at Gull Island would have received its second staggering shock.