The Key West citizen. [volume] (Key West, Fla.) 1879-current, 1940-01-16
Chapter 40
Explanations

people entered. All bore marks OF
strain, of sleepless nights and of
worry, but the air of tension had
disappeared.
"Will you sit here, please. Dun
CAM" Tuck murmured, indicating
the chair on her left.
Michael dropped into his own
chair when she was seated.
sand l." Tuck agreed. at was
% nice of you to come to breakfast,
Duncan. How is your brother?"
The fine eyes darkened. "Not
very well, the doctors say. but they
think they'll pull him through.
He's had almost three months of
-. torture. you know. Drugs. He
ISN'T sane yet"
The percolator dubbed and
sang. Bunny leaned forward, her
hands folded on the edge of the
table. There are seventeen things
| absolutely must know before |
can stop this Whizzing in my head"
she announced, "and I've been
waiting for years, it seems, al
though it's only thirty-six hours
TO ask them. Has the time arrived?
May u"
Michael tried his best to look
like an oracle. "You may"
THANK you, Michael. It's so kind
of you. -. Very well. I've got most
Of it straight, you know. It's true,
isn't it, that all the things you told
US yesterday, all the dreadful
things you heard about Edgar
Murchison from that poor soldier
Smith and from everyone . the
things you so carefully kept from
our tender little ears were not
true? Or, rather, were true only if
you put McBain's name in each
time instead of Edgar Murchi-
sons? It's true that DR.. McBain
was deliberately impersonating
DR.. MurchiSon just to keep himself
out Of trouble and get the other
man into it,"
Duncan's brows drew together.
Michael looked at him swiftly.
"That's it, Bunny. But l was pretty
stupid about it. l got an inkling of
the truth when Jameson described
how MurchiSon acted when the
delegation came to him with that
paper from the pound bearing his
signature. He had a perfect right,
you see. to get animals to expert
ment on from the pound. It's al
ways done that way. If he had been
guilty Of tOrturing those animals,
/ figured. he'd have had a story
ready for them. But he didn't. He
insisted on seeing the signature
and then he said, Very well,
gentlemen. you win Now. why did
he insist on seeing the paper?
That's what / asked myself. Be-
cause. | argued. he hadn't been
getting animals from the pound to
use in the ordinary way, anaeS-
thetiZed. Because he didn't believe
they had any, such paper. If he
didn't believe they had it, then he
could never have signed it. There
fore, since the paper obviously
existed. someone else had forged
his name. Who? Well. | reasoned
il could only be one of two people,
Duncan Murchison or DR.. McBain.
In either case DR.. Murchison might
have acted as he did. through a
sense of responsibility. In his
brothers case it would be because
he wanted to shield him. In Nc
Bain's case it would be because
Murchison felt responsible for
whatever went on in the lab any,
way and knew that he must settle
it with McBain himself"
"But the Shrek, Michael! The
poor tortured animals =. wouldn't
he have known about them?"
Il doubt it. | don't think it hap
pened very often. you know. A
thing like that doesn't need to
happen very often before people
start talking. That very story
about the animals crying at night
made me suspicious. You see,
Jameson couldn't say that it was
Murchison himself who worked in
the lab at night He wasn't on duty
then. No one was; and McBain had
managed so cleverly to spread a
net of insinuationS over his COL
league that when anything went
wrong, it was Murchison who was
accused. That's why he gave that
paper TO Smith signed presumably
by Murchison. I got a hint of that
the night of DeaneS' party, when
] talked TO McBain. He said, Il was
trained in a day when the human
body was sacred, when men had
souls. when every life was of
value. but I refuse to condemn
younger man who was trained diff
ferently and has the courage to act
according to his training Pretty
clever, and l swallowed it almost
whole then. I began to think
Just what he wanted me to think,
that MurchiSnn was a pretty cold
blooded lot"
'Pieeing Things Together
WTHEN Smith sent for me-"
w Michael went on, "and said
that he'd seen Murchison himself
/ got it all. It couldn't have been
Murchison, with every man on the
force on the lookout for him; and
by piecing things together it was
plain. McBain had been using
MurchiSon's name and identity to
further his own pleasant little
plans. and Murchison had found it
out. They had Quarreled. and Nc
Balm had taken the quickest way
out. He was bitterly jealous of
Murchison anyway, a younger man
who had been brought in over his
head, and had hated him from the
beginning because of his clever
ness. The motive was plain
jealousy, and fear for his own
skin. in case Murchison exposed
him. So ] decided that he had
killed Edgar Murc and
dropped his weighted body into
HAz