"A. E. Merritt - Creep, Shadow!" - читать интересную книгу автора (Merritt A. E)

I poured him and myself another drink; I said: "Quit beating about the bush and tell me what it's all
about."

He looked at me, thoughtfully; he answered, quietly: "No, Alan. Not yet." He put down his glass.
"Suppose you had discovered a new bug, an unknown germ--or thought you had. And had studied it and
noted its peculiarities. And suppose you wanted someone to check up. What would you do--give him all
your supposed observations first, and then ask him to look into the microscope to verify them? Or simply
give him an outline and ask him to look into the microscope and find out for himself?"

"Outline and find out for himself, of course."

"Exactly. Well, I think I have such a new bug--or a very old one, although it has nothing whatever to do
with germs. But I'm not going to tell you any more about it until I put your eye to the microscope. I want
your opinion uncolored by mine. Send out for a paper, will you?"
I called the office and told them to get me one of the latest editions. When it came, Bill took it. He
glanced over the first page, then turned the sheets until he came to what he was looking for. He read it,
and nodded, and passed the paper to me.

"Dick's reduced from page one to page five," he said. "But I've gotten it over. Read the first few
paragraphs--all the rest is rehash and idle conjecture. Very idle."

I read:

"Dr. William Bennett, the eminent brain specialist and associate of Dr. Austin Lowell, the distinguished
psychiatrist, visited Police Headquarters this morning and identified himself as the 'Bill' of the unfinished
letter found in the bedroom of Richard J. Ralston, Jr., after the latter's suicide yesterday morning.

"Dr. Bennett said that undoubtedly the letter had been meant for him, that Mr. Ralston had been one of
his oldest friends and had recently consulted him for what he might describe roughly as insomnia and bad
dreams. Mr. Ralston had, in fact, been his guest at dinner the night before. He had wanted Mr. Ralston to
spend the night with him, but after consenting, he had changed his mind and gone home to sleep. That
was what he had referred to in the opening sentence of his letter. Professional confidence prevented Dr.
Bennett from going into further description of Mr. Ralston's symptoms. Asked whether the mental
condition of Mr. Ralston might explain why he had killed himself, Dr. Bennett guardedly replied that
suicide was always the result of some mental condition."

In spite of my perplexity and sorrow, I couldn't help smiling at that.

"The 'Alan' referred to in the letter, Dr. Bennett said, is Dr. Alan Caranac, who was also an old friend of
Mr. Ralston, and who is due in New York today on the Augustus after three years in Northern Africa.
Dr. Caranac is well-known in scientific circles for his ethnological researches. Dr. Bennett said that Mr.
Ralston had thought that some of his symptoms might be explained by Dr. Caranac because of the latter's
study of certain obscure mental aberrations among primitive peoples."

"Now for the kicker," said Bill, and pointed to the next paragraph:

"Dr. Bennett talked freely with the reporters after his statement to the police, but could add no essential
facts beyond those he had given them. He did say that Mr. Ralston had withdrawn large sums in cash
from his accounts during the two weeks before his death, and that there was no evidence of what had