But his first words relieved her fears.
"Spooky sort of place in the dark, isn't it?" he said casually.
"Yes--rather." If he would only go away before Brooks came back or Richard Fleming arrived! But he seemed in a distressingly chatty frame of mind.
"Left me upstairs without a match," continued Anderson. "I found my way down by walking part of the way and falling the rest. Don't suppose I'll ever find the room I left my toothbrush in!" He laughed, lighting the candle in his hand from the candle on the table.
"You're not going to stay up all night, are you?" said Dale nervously, hoping he would take the hint. But he seemed entirely oblivious of such minor considerations as sleep. He took out a cigar.
"Oh, I may doze a bit," he said. He eyed her with a certain approval. She was a darned pretty girl and she looked intelligent. "I suppose you have a theory of your own about these intrusions you've been having here? Or apparently having."
"I knew nothing about them until tonight."
"Still," he persisted conversationally, "you know about them now." But when she remained silent, "Is Miss Van Gorder usually--of a nervous temperament? Imagines she sees things, and all that?"
"I don't think so." Dale's voice was strained. Where was Brooks? What had happened to him?
Anderson puffed on his cigar, pondering. "Know the Flemings?" he asked.
"I've met Mr. Richard Fleming once or twice."
Something in her tone caused him to glance at her. "Nice fellow?"
"I don't know him at all well."
"Know the cashier of the Union Bank?" he shot at her suddenly.
"No!" She strove desperately to make the denial convincing but she could not hide the little tremor in her voice.
The detective mused.
"Fellow of good family, I understand," he said, eyeing her. "Very popular. That's what's behind most of these bank embezzlements--men getting into society and spending more than they make."
Dale hailed the tinkle of the city telephone with an inward sigh of relief. The detective moved to answer the house phone on the wall by the alcove, mistaking the direction of the ring. Dale corrected him quickly.
"No, the other one. That's the house phone." Anderson looked the apparatus over.
"No connection with the outside, eh?"
"No," said Dale absent-mindedly. "Just from room to room in the house."
He accepted her explanation and answered the other telephone.
"Hello--hello--what the--" He moved the receiver hook up and down, without result, and gave it up. "This line sounds dead," he said.
"It was all right a few minutes ago," said Dale without thinking.
"You were using it a few minutes ago?"