"Come," said he softly, "there is no time for us who have loved her so much, each in his own way, to misunderstand."
Cranch did not answer. He did not move a muscle. But his eyes filled with the thin tears of aged persons.
"And now, Doctor," said Estabrook, wheeling toward me, "we must find out if Margaret has sent us word."
He plucked my sleeve; he started toward the stairs. He turned his back on the Gardens of Versailles and the vagrant who kneeled beside the cot in the foreground, with his face buried in the red blankets.
It was the hoarse call of this ghost of a man that stopped us.
The younger man went back and without speaking, clasped the other's hand.
"You will tell one person--just one--about me?" asked Cranch.
"Julianna!" Estabrook exclaimed with horror.
The other shook his head patiently from side to side.
"I meant Margaret Murchie," he whispered.
Then, feeling the wistful gaze of his worn and watery eyes upon our backs, we left the Mohave Scenic Studio forever. A run across town in my car brought us again to my door. My scrawny busybody of a maid opened it before I had opportunity to even draw forth my key.
"Four or five telephone calls," she said with her impudent importance, "but only one is pressing."
"Somebody I don't know, Doctor. Margaret Somebody. She left a message. She wouldn't say no more than just one word."
"What was that word?" cried Estabrook at my shoulder.
I suppose that both of us felt the shock and then the tingle of excitement in the meaning of that phrase, interpreted in the light of our understanding.
"Yes, Estabrook," said I; "keep your nerve. I think I have the key to this problem in my possession. I have not yet explained. I did not want to do so unless it was necessary. But if I am right you must not weaken. You must be ready to throw your whole strength into loyalty and affection for your wife and courage to protect her at any cost!"
"I'm ready!" he cried. "I feel that I must win her all over again. She is as fresh and new and beautiful to me as the day I first saw her. And I love her now as never before!"
"Jump into the car, then!" I commanded, and turning to my chauffeur, whispered, "To the Marburys'. Where we were this morning. And what--we--want--is--speed!"