He was gone but a minute.
Almost as soon as the lawyer started to follow him, he could be seen
beckoning from poor Georgian's door.
"Miss Hazen is asleep," whispered Ransom, as the other drew near. "We can
look about this room with impunity."
They both entered and the lawyer crossed at once to the window.
"Your wife could never have taken the leap ascribed to her by the woman
you call Anitra," he declared, after a minute's careful scrutiny of the
conditions. "The balustrade of the adjoining balcony is not only in the
way, but the distance is at least five feet from the extreme end of this
window-ledge. A woman accustomed to a life of adventure or to the feats
of a gymnasium might do it, but not a lady of Mrs. Ransom's habits. If
your wife made her way from this room to the balcony outside her sister's
window, she did it by means of the communicating door."
"But the door was found locked on this side. There is the key in the lock
now."
"You are sure of this?"
"I was the first one to call attention to it."
"Then," began the lawyer judicially, but stopped as he noted the peculiar
eagerness of Ransom's expression, and turned his attention instead to the
interior of the room and the various articles belonging to Mrs. Ransom
which were to be seen in it. "The dress your wife wore when she signed
her will," he remarked, pointing to the light green gown hanging on the
inside of the door by which they had entered.
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