He asked me what took me to the house in Spring Grove on that fateful night. To this I merely replied with the one word--
"Did you know the lady who was found stabbed a few feet from you?"
"Do you know the circumstances in which she was struck down?"
"I was not present then, therefore I could know nothing," was my evasive response.
"But the men in the house were friends of yours, were they not?" he asked.
"No. They were not," was my prompt reply.
"Then, who were they?" he asked, scribbling down my answers with his stumpy pencil.
"I--I don't feel well enough to be questioned like this," I complained to the Sister, who was standing by. "I've committed no crime, and I object to the police making a cross-examination as though I were a criminal. I appeal to you, Sister."
The middle-aged woman in her cool linen uniform, with a silver medal upon her breast, looked hard at me for a moment. Then, realizing the situation, she turned to the detective, and said--
"You must come to-morrow. The patient still suffers much from shock, and I cannot allow him to be questioned further. He is too weak."
"Very well, Sister," replied Warton, as he closed his pocket-book. "I'll come to-morrow. But a strange mystery envelopes that house in Spring Grove, Mr. Vidal," he added, turning back to me. "You'll be surprised when you go there and see for yourself."
"Perhaps Mr. Vidal may be well enough to do so in a few days," said the Sister. "We shall see."
And with that the police-officer was forced to depart.
On several occasions during the weary week that followed Inspector Warton called and saw me, but I always managed, by one subterfuge or another, to evade the more pointed of his questions.
The three men who had attacked Lola and myself that night knew from the papers that we both still lived as witnesses against them.
The nurses would not allow me to see the papers, but from Rayner I learnt that the more sensational section of the London Press had published reports headed, "Novelist Found Shot." Indeed, a great many reporters had called at the hospital, but had been promptly sent empty away.
At last, one morning, I was declared convalescent and sufficiently well to be removed to my chambers. Therefore Rayner ordered Stevens to bring his taxi for me, and we left the hospital.