Kennedy did not tell the Willards of the new letter.  The strain had begun to tell on Alma, and her father had had her quietly taken to a farm of his up in the country.  To escape the curious eyes of reporters, Halsey Post had driven up one night in his closed car.  She had entered it quickly with her father, and the journey had been made in the car, while Halsey Post had quietly dropped oft on the outskirts of the town, where another car was waiting to take him back.  It was evident that the Willard family relied implicitly on Halsey, and his assistance to them was most considerate.  While he never forced himself forward, he kept in close touch with the progress of the case, and now that Alma was away his watchfulness increased proportionately, and twice a day he wrote a long report which was sent to her.

Kennedy was now bending every effort to locate the missing artist.  When he left Danbridge, he seemed to have dropped out of sight completely.  However, with O’Connor’s aid, the police of all New England were on the lookout.

The Thurstons had been friends of Halsey’s before Vera Lytton had ever met Dr. Dixon, we discovered from the Danbridge gossips, and I, at least, jumped to the conclusion that Halsey was shielding the artist, perhaps through a sense of friendship when he found that Kennedy was interested in Thurston’s movement.  I must say I rather liked Halsey, for he seemed very thoughtful of the Willards, and was never too busy to give an hour or so to any commission they wished carried out without publicity.

Two days passed with not a word from Thurston.  Kennedy was obviously getting impatient.  One day a rumor was received that he was in Bar Harbor; the next it was a report from Nova Scotia.  At last, however, came the welcome news that he had been located in New Hampshire, arrested, and might be expected the next day.

At once Kennedy became all energy.  He arranged for a secret conference in Senator Willard’s house, the moment the artist was to arrive.  The senator and his daughter made a flying trip back to town.  Nothing was said to any one about Thurston, but Kennedy quietly arranged with the district attorney to be present with the note and the jar of ammonia properly safeguarded.  Leland of course came, although his client could not.  Halsey Post seemed only too glad to be with Miss Willard, though he seemed to have lost interest in the case as soon as the Willards returned to look after it themselves.  Mrs. Boncour was well enough to attend, and even Dr. Waterworth insisted on coming in a private ambulance which drove over from a near-by city especially for him.  The time was fixed just before the arrival of the train that was to bring Thurston.

It was an anxious gathering of friends and foes of Dr. Dixon who sat impatiently waiting for Kennedy to begin this momentous exposition that was to establish the guilt or innocence of the calm young physician who sat impassively in the jail not half a mile from the room where his life and death were being debated.