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twg_000000051100 | to Wynford Place. "Let us throw off this depressing business as well as we can," he said. "Of course I have had to break it to my sister and the others; they would have seen it to-day in print. Thank goodness the papers don't look beyond the suicide idea, so they are not making much fuss about it. If they | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051101 | took a more sensational view, as I fear they will now after the medical evidence, it would be a terrible nuisance." "I hope the ladies were not much upset when you told them," Gifford remarked. "Well, they already had an idea that something was seriously wrong, and that took the edge off the announcement. Of course they were horribly shocked | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051102 | at the idea of the tragedy so close at hand, though I softened the details as well as I could." "If the suicide idea is to be abandoned," said Kelson, speaking with an unusually gloomy, preoccupied air, "the police have an uncommonly difficult and delicate task before them." "Yes, indeed," Morriston responded. "And I should say that abnormally keen person, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051103 | the brother, will keep them up to collar." "He means to," Kelson replied rather grimly. "We had him for an hour last night cross-examining us, naturally to no purpose; we could tell him nothing." "He won't leave a stone unturned," Morriston said. "He proposes to return here after the funeral in town." "And I should say," observed Kelson, "if the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051104 | mystery is to be solved he is the man to solve it. What do you think, Hugh?" Gifford seemed to rouse himself by an effort from an absorbing train of thought. "Oh, yes," he answered. "Except that it is possible to be a little too clever and so overlook the obvious." "If," said Morriston, obsessed by the subject, "the case | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051105 | is not one of suicide it must be one of murder. Where is Mr. Gervase Henshaw, or any one else, going to look for the criminal?" "Not among your guests, let's hope," Kelson said with a touch of uneasiness. "For one thing," Morriston replied, "they, or a good part of them, were not exactly my guests. I can't tell who | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051106 | may have got a ticket and been present. There was a great crowd. We may have easily rubbed shoulders with the murderer, if murder it was." "Yes, so we may," said Kelson alertly, though with something of a shudder. "Not a pleasant idea," continued Morriston. "But I don't see, if a bad character did get in and mix with the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051107 | company, why he should have done a fellow guest to death, nor how he contrived to leave his victim and get out of the room after he had locked the door." "If the two men had a row over a girl, or anything else," Kelson said, "there is still that difficulty to be surmounted." Gifford spoke. "From what one could | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051108 | judge of the dead man's personality and character it is not a far-fetched supposition that he must have had enemies." "Down here?" Morriston objected incredulously. "Where he was a stranger? Unless some ingenious person, bent on vengeance, tracked him here and then lured him into the tower. Then how did the determined pursuer contrive to leave him and the key | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051109 | inside the locked room?" At Wynford Place, where they had now arrived, they found several callers. The subject of the tragedy was naturally uppermost in everybody's mind, and the principal topic of conversation. Morriston and his companions were eagerly questioned as to what had come out at the inquest, but, except that the medical evidence was rather sceptical of the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051110 | suicide theory, were unable to relieve the curiosity. "I think, my dear Dick," remarked Lord Painswick, who was there, "we can furnish more evidence in this room than you seem to have got hold of at the inquest." And he looked round the company with a knowing smile. "What do you mean, Painswick?" Morriston asked eagerly. "Has anything more come | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051111 | to light?" "Only we have had a lady here, Miss Elyot, who says she danced with the poor fellow." "I only just took a turn with him, for the waltz was nearly over when he asked me," said the girl thus alluded to. "Did you wear a green dress?" Kelson asked eagerly. "Yes. Why?" "Only that it must have been | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051112 | you I saw with him." "And can you throw any light on the mystery?" Morriston asked. The girl shook her head. "None at all, I'm afraid." "Did Mr. Henshaw's manner or state of mind strike you as being peculiar?" "Not in the least," Miss Elyot answered with decision. "During the short time we were together our talk was quite commonplace, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051113 | mostly of the changes in the county." "Did he, Henshaw, know it formerly?" Morriston asked with some surprise. "Oh, yes," Miss Elyot answered, "he used to stay with some people over at Lamberton; you remember the Peltons, Muriel?" she turned to Miss Tredworth. "Of course you do." "Oh, yes," Muriel Tredworth answered. "I remember them quite well, although we didn't | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051114 | know much about them." "Don't you recollect," Miss Elyot continued, "meeting this very Mr. Henshaw at a big garden party they gave. I know you played tennis with him." "Did I?" Miss Tredworth replied. "What a memory you have, Gladys. You can't expect me to recollect every one of the scores of men I must have played tennis with." As | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051115 | she spoke she caught Gifford's eye; he was watching her keenly, more closely perhaps than manners or tact warranted. "And do you find the place much changed since your time, Mr. Gifford?" she inquired, as though to relieve the awkwardness. "Not as much as I could have imagined," he answered, through what seemed a fit of preoccupation. "Mr. Gifford has | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051116 | not had much opportunity yet of seeing how far it has altered, with this tragic affair to upset everything," Morriston put in. "No, it has been a most unlucky time for him to revisit Wynford," Miss Morriston added in her cold tone. "I hope Mr. Gifford is not going to hurry away from the neighbourhood in consequence." "Not if I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051117 | can prevent it," Kelson replied, with a laugh. "I hope," Morriston said hospitably, "that whether his stay be short or long Mr. Gifford will consider himself quite at home here. And I need not say, my dear Kelson, that invitation includes you." Both men thanked him. "We have already done a little trespassing in your park," Kelson observed with a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051118 | laugh. "Please don't call it trespassing again," Miss Morriston commanded. "Let me give you another cup of tea, Muriel." "The old house looks most picturesque by moon-light," observed Lord Painswick. "I was quite fascinated by it the other night." "There is a full moon now," Gifford said. "We will stroll round and admire when we leave." "Don't stroll over the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051119 | edge of the haha as I very nearly did one night," Morriston said laughingly. "When it lies in the shadow of the house it is a regular trap." "Moonlight has its dangers as well as its beauties," Painswick murmured sententiously. "The friendly cloak of night is apt to trip one up," Gifford added. As he spoke the words there came | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051120 | a startling little cry from Miss Tredworth accompanied by the crash and clatter of falling crockery. Gifford's remark had been made with his eyes fixed on his friend's _fiance_, to whom at that moment Miss Morriston was handing the refilled cup of tea. A hand of each girl was upon the saucer as the words were uttered; by whose fault | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051121 | it was let fall it was impossible to say. But the slight cry of dismay had come from Miss Tredworth. "Oh, I am so sorry," she exclaimed, colouring with vexation. "How stupid and clumsy of me. Your lovely china." "It was my fault," Edith Morriston protested, her clear-cut face showing no trace of annoyance. "I thought you had hold of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051122 | the cup, and I let it go too soon. Ring the bell, will you, Dick." "Please don't distress yourself, Miss Tredworth," Mr. Morriston entreated her as he crossed to the bell. "I'm sure it was not your fault." "Was that a quotation, Mr. Gifford?" Miss Morriston asked, clearly with the object of dismissing the unfortunate episode. "My remark about the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051123 | cloak of night?" he replied. "Perhaps. I seem to have heard something like it somewhere." And as he spoke he glanced curiously at Miss Tredworth. AN ALARMING DISCOVERY Next evening the two friends at the _Golden Lion_ were engaged to dine with the Morristons. They had been out with the hounds all day, and, beyond the natural gossip of the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051124 | country-side, had heard nothing fresh concerning the tragedy. Gervase Henshaw had gone up to town for his brother's funeral, and Host Dipper had no fresh development to report. In answer to a question from Gifford, he said he expected Mr. Henshaw back on the morrow, or at latest the day after. "It is altogether a most mysterious affair," he observed | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051125 | sagely, being free, now that his late guest's perplexing disappearance was accounted for, even in that tragic fashion, to regard the business and to moralize over it without much personal feeling in the matter. "I fancy Mr. Gervase Henshaw means to work the police up to getting to the bottom of it. For I don't fancy that he is by | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051126 | any means satisfied that his unfortunate brother took his own life. And I must say," he added in a pronouncement evidently the fruit of careful deliberation, "I don't know how it strikes you, gentlemen, but from what I saw of the deceased it is hard to imagine him as making away with himself." "Yes," Gifford replied. "But before any other | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051127 | conclusion can be fairly arrived at the police will have to account for the locked door." Evidently Mr. Dipper's lucubrations had not, so far, reached a satisfactory explanation of that puzzle; he could only wag his head and respond generally, "Ah, yes. That will be a hard nut for them to crack, I'm thinking." The dinner at Wynford Place was | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051128 | made as cheerful as, with the gloom of a tragedy over the house, could be possible. "We had the police with a couple of detectives here all this morning," Morriston said, "and a great upset it has been. After having made the most minute scrutiny of the room in the tower they had every one of the servants in one | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051129 | by one and put them through a most searching examination. But, I imagine, without result. No one in the house, and I have questioned most of them casually myself, seems to be able to throw the smallest light on the affair." "Have the police arrived at any theory?" Gifford inquired. "Apparently they have come to no definite conclusion," Morriston answered. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051130 | "They seemed to have an idea, though--to account for the problem of the locked door--that thieves might have got into the house with the object of making a haul in the bedrooms while every one's attention was engaged down below, have secreted themselves in the tower, been surprised by Henshaw, and, to save themselves, have taken the only effectual means | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051131 | of silencing him, poor fellow." "Then how, with the door locked on the inside did they make their escape?" Miss Morriston asked. "That can so far be only a matter of conjecture," her brother answered, with a shrug. "Of course they might have provided themselves with some sort of ladder, but there are no signs of it. And the height | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051132 | of the window in that top room is decidedly against the theory." "We hear at the _Lion_" Kelson remarked, "that the brother, Gervase Henshaw, is returning to-morrow or next day." Morriston did not receive the news with any appearance of satisfaction. "I hope he won't come fussing about here," he said, with a touch of protest. "Making every allowance for | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051133 | the sudden shock under which he was labouring I thought his attitude the other day most objectionable, didn't you?" "I did most certainly," Gifford answered promptly. "His manners struck me as deplorable," Kelson agreed. "Yes," their host continued. "It never seemed to occur to the fellow that some little sympathy was due also to us. But he seemed rather to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051134 | suggest that the tragedy was our fault. In ordinary circumstances I should have dealt pretty shortly with him. But it was not worth while." "No," Kelson observed, "All the same, you need not allow a continuation of his behaviour." "I don't intend to," Morriston replied with decision. "I hope the man won't want to come ferreting in the place; that | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051135 | may well be left to the police; but if he does I can't very well refuse him leave. He must be free of the house, or at any rate of the tower." "Or," put in Kelson, "he'll have a grievance against you, and accuse you of trying to burk the mystery." "Is he a very objectionable person?" Miss Morriston asked. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051136 | "We passed one another in the hall as he left the house and I received what seemed a rather unmannerly stare." Her brother laughed. "My dear Edith, the type of man you would simply loathe. Abnormally, unpleasantly sharp and suspicious; with a cleverness which takes no account of tact or politeness, he questions you as though you were in the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051137 | witness-box and he a criminal barrister trying to trap you. I don't know whether he behaves more civilly to ladies, but from our experience of the man I should recommend you to keep out of his way." "I shall," his sister replied. "I should say no respecter of persons--or anything else," Kelson remarked with a laugh. "Let us hope he | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051138 | won't take it into his head to worry us," Miss Morriston said with quiet indifference. "I am sorry to see," Morriston observed later on when the ladies had left them, "that the papers are beginning to take a sensational view of the affair." "Yes," Kelson responded; "we noticed that. It will be a nuisance for you." "The trouble has already | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051139 | begun," his host continued somewhat ruefully. "We have had two or three reporters here to-day worrying the servants with all sorts of absurd questions. It is, of course, all to be accounted for by the medical evidence. That has put them on the scent of what they will no doubt call a sensational development. So long as it looked like | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051140 | nothing beyond suicide there was not so much likelihood of public interest in the case." "The police--" Gifford began. "The police," Morriston took up the word, "are fairly nonplussed. It seems the farther they get the less obvious does the suicide theory become. Well, we shall see." "In the meantime I'm afraid you and Miss Morriston are in for a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051141 | heap of undeserved annoyance," Kelson observed sympathetically. "Yes," Morriston agreed gloomily; "I am sorry for Edith; she is plucky, and feels it, I expect, far more than she cares to show." When the men went into the drawing-room Muriel Tredworth made a sign to Kelson; he joined her and, sitting down some distance apart from the rest, they carried on | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051142 | in low tones what seemed to be a serious conversation. "I want to tell you of something extraordinary which has happened to me, Hugh." Gifford just caught the words as the girl led the way out of earshot. He had noticed that she had been rather preoccupied during dinner, an unusual mood for so lively a girl, and now he | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051143 | could not help watching the pair in the distance, she talking with an earnest, troubled expression, and he listening to her story in grave wonderment, now and again interposing a few words. Once they looked at Gifford, and he was certain they were speaking of him. With the gloom of a tragedy over the house the little party could not | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051144 | be very festive; avoid it as they set themselves to do, the brooding subject could not be ignored, general conversation flagged, and it soon became time for the visitors to say good-night. As they walked back to the town together Gifford noticed that his companion was unusually silent, and he tactfully forbore to break in upon his preoccupation. At length | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051145 | Kelson spoke. "Muriel has just been telling me of an unpleasant and unaccountable thing which happened to her this evening. A discovery of a rather alarming character. I said I would take your advice about it, Hugh, and she agreed." "Does it concern the affair at Wynford?" "It may," Kelson answered in a perplexed tone; "and yet I don't well | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051146 | see how it can. Anyhow it is uncommonly mysterious. We won't talk about it here," he added gravely, "but wait till we get in." "Miss Morriston looked well to-night," Gifford remarked, falling in with his friend's wish to postpone the more engrossing subject. "Yes," Kelson agreed casually. "She takes this ghastly business quietly enough. But that is her way." "I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051147 | have been wondering," Gifford said, "how much she cares for Painswick. He is manifestly quite smitten, but I doubt her being nearly as keen on him." Kelson laughed. "If you ask me I don't think she cares a bit for him. And one can scarcely be surprised. He is not a bad fellow, but rather a prig, and Edith Morriston | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051148 | is not exactly the sort of girl to suffer that type of man gladly. But her brother is all for the match; from Painswick's point of view she is just the wife for him, money and a statuesque style of beauty; altogether I shall be surprised if it does not come off." "They are not engaged, then?" "I think not. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051149 | They say he proposes regularly once a week. But she holds him off." Arrived at the _Golden Lion_ they went straight up to Kelson's room, where with more curiosity than he quite cared to show, Gifford settled himself to hear what the other had to tell him. "I dare say you noticed how worried Muriel looked all dinner-time," Kelson began. | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051150 | "I thought that what had happened in the house had got on her nerves; but it was something worse than that; I mean touching her more nearly." "Tell me," Gifford said quietly. "You know," Kelson proceeded, "they are going to this dance at Hasborough to-morrow. Well, it appears that when her maid was overhauling her ball-dress, the same she wore | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051151 | here the other night, she found blood stains on it." "That," Gifford remarked coolly, "may satisfactorily account for the marks on your cuff." Kelson stared in surprise at the other's coolness. "I dare say it does," he exclaimed with a touch of impatience. "I had hardly connected the two. But what do you think of this? How in the name | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051152 | of all that's mysterious can it be accounted for?" "Hardly by the idea that Miss Tredworth had anything to do with the late tragedy," was the quiet answer. "Good heavens, man, I should hope not," Kelson cried vehemently. "That is too monstrously absurd." "What is Miss Tredworth's idea?" "She has none. She is completely mystified. And inclined to be horribly | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051153 | frightened." "Naturally," Gifford commented in the same even tone. His manner seemed to irritate Kelson. "I wish, my dear Hugh, I could take it half as coolly as you do," he exclaimed resentfully. "I don't know what you want me to do or say, Harry," Gifford expostulated. "The whole affair is so utterly mysterious that I can't pretend even to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051154 | hazard an explanation." "In the meantime Muriel and I are in the most appalling position. Why, man, she may at any moment be arrested on suspicion if this discovery leaks out, as it is sure to do." "You can't try to hush it up; that would be a fatal mistake," Gifford said thoughtfully, "and would immediately arouse suspicion." "Naturally I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051155 | am not going to be such a fool as to advise that," Kelson returned. "The discovery will be the subject of the servants' talk till it gets all over the place and into the papers. No, what I have determined to do, unless you see any good reason for the contrary, is to go first thing in the morning to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051156 | the police and tell them. What do you say?" he added sharply, as Gifford was silent. "I should not do anything in a hurry," Gifford answered. "But surely," Kelson remonstrated, "the sooner we take the line of putting ourselves in the right the better." Again Gifford paused before replying. "Can Miss Tredworth give no explanation, has she no idea as | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051157 | to how the stains came on her dress?" "None whatever," was the emphatic answer. "You are absolutely sure of that?" Kelson jumped up from his chair. "Hugh, what are you driving at?" he cried, his eyes full of vague suspicion. "I--I don't understand the cool way you are taking this. There is something behind it. Tell me. I will know; | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051158 | I have a right." Evidently the man was almost beside himself with the fear of something he could not comprehend. Gifford rose and laid a hand sympathetically on his shoulder. "I am sorry to seem so brutal, Harry," he said gently, "but this discovery does not surprise me." Kelson recoiled as from a blow, staring at his friend with a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051159 | horror-struck face. "Why, good heavens, what do you mean?" he gasped. "Only," Gifford answered calmly, "that when you introduced me to Miss Tredworth at the dance I noticed the stains on the white flowers she wore." "You did?" Kelson was staring stupidly at Gifford. "And you knew they were blood-stains?" "I could not tell that," was the answer. "But now | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051160 | it is pretty certain they were." For some seconds neither man spoke. Then with an effort Kelson seemed to nerve himself to put another question. "Hugh," he said, his eyes pitiful with fear, "you--you don't think Muriel Tredworth had anything to do with Henshaw's death?" Gifford turned away, and leaned on the mantelpiece. "I don't know what to think," he | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051161 | said gloomily. GIFFORD'S COMMISSION Next morning directly after breakfast Kelson started for Wynford Place. As the result of deliberating fully upon the anxious problem before them, he and Gifford had come to the conclusion that it might be a grave mistake to try to keep secret the maid's discovery. It would doubtless by this time have become a subject of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051162 | gossip and speculation in the household and consequently would very soon become public. Accordingly it was arranged that Kelson should arrive first and have a private interview with Muriel Tredworth with a view to ascertaining finally and for certain whether she could in any way account for the stain on her dress. Gifford was to follow half an hour later, | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051163 | when they would have a conference with the Morristons and afterwards, with their approval, go into the town and see the chief constable on the subject. If Gifford was doubtful as to the expediency of the plan, and it was with a considerable amount of hesitation that he brought himself to agree to it, he seemed to have no good | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051164 | reason to urge against it. And, after all, it appeared, in the circumstances, the only politic course to follow. Secrecy was practically now out of the question, and any attempt in that direction would inevitably fail and would in all probability produce results unpleasant to contemplate. When Gifford arrived at Wynford Place he found Kelson pacing the drive and impatiently | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051165 | expecting him. "Come along," he exclaimed, "the Morristons are waiting for us." "Miss Tredworth--?" "Is utterly unable to account for the state of her dress," Kelson declared promptly. "She is positive that if she noticed the man she never spoke a word to him, nor danced with him. She says that if she ever met him before, as according to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051166 | that girl the other day was the case, she had quite forgotten the circumstance. So the sooner we communicate this discovery to the police the better. As it is, they say the servants are talking of it; so the present position is quite intolerable." In the library they found Morriston and his sister with the Tredworths. The situation was discussed | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051167 | and there seemed no doubt in the mind of any one of the party that the only thing to be done was to inform the police at once. "The whole affair is so mysterious," Morriston said, "that all sorts of absurd rumours will be afloat if we don't take a strong, straightforward line at once. Don't you agree, Edith?" "Certainly | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051168 | I do," Miss Morriston answered with decision. "I don't suppose," she added with a smile, "that any one would be mad enough to suggest, my dear Muriel, that you were in any way implicated in the affair; but the world is full of stupid and ill-natured people and one can't be too careful to put oneself in the right. Don't | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051169 | you agree, Captain Kelson?" "Most decidedly," Kelson replied, with a troubled face. Charlie Tredworth was also quite emphatically of opinion that his sister should make no secret of what had been found. "The inspector, who is here," Morriston said, "tells me that Major Freeman, our chief constable, intends to come here this morning. I'll say we want to see him | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051170 | directly he arrives." It was not long before the chief constable was shown into the library. Morriston lost no time in telling him of the mysterious circumstance which had come to light. Major Freeman, a keen soldierly man, with the stern expression and uncompromising manner naturally acquired by those whose business is to deal with crime, received the information with | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051171 | grave perplexity. He turned a searching look upon Muriel Tredworth. "I understand you are quite unable to account for the stains on your dress, Miss Tredworth?" he asked in a tone of courteous insistence. "Quite," she answered. "I did not speak to Mr. Henshaw or even notice him in the ball-room." "You had--pardon these questions; I am putting this in | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051172 | your own interest--you had at no time any acquaintance with Mr. Clement Henshaw?" "I can hardly say that I had," the girl replied; "although a friend has told me that I played tennis with him at a garden-party some years ago." "A circumstance which you do not recollect?" The question was put politely, even sympathetically, yet with a certain uncomfortable | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051173 | directness. "No," Muriel answered. "Even when I was reminded of it, my recollection was of the vaguest description. So far as that goes I could neither admit nor deny it with any certainty." "And naturally you never, to your knowledge, saw or communicated with the deceased man since?" Muriel flushed. "No; absolutely no," she returned with a touch of resentment | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051174 | at the suggestion. Major Freeman forbore to distress the girl by any further questioning. "Thank you," he said simply. "I am sorry to have even appeared to suggest such a thing, but you and your friends will appreciate that it was my duty to ask these questions. This looks at the moment," he continued, addressing himself now to the party | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051175 | in general, "like proving a very mysterious, and I will add, peculiarly delicate affair. The medical evidence is inclined to scout the idea of suicide, and my men who have the case in hand are coming round to the conclusion that the theory is untenable." "The locked door--" Morriston suggested. "The locked door," said Major Freeman, "presents a difficulty, but | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051176 | still one not absolutely incapable of solution. We know," he added, with a faint smile, "from the way the door was eventually opened, that a key can be turned from the other side, given the right instrument to effect it." "Which only a burglar or a locksmith would be likely to have," Kelson suggested. Major Freeman nodded. "Quite so. I | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051177 | am not for a moment suggesting that as an explanation of the mystery. It goes naturally much deeper than that. Mr. Gervase Henshaw is to look into his brother's affairs and papers while in town, and I am hoping that on his return here he may be able to give some information which will afford a clue on which we | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051178 | can work. In the meantime my men are not relaxing their efforts in this rather baffling case." "In which," Morriston suggested, "this new piece of evidence does not afford any useful clue." Major Freeman smiled, a little awkwardly, it seemed. "If anything, it would appear to complicate the problem still further," he replied guardedly. "Still, I am very glad to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051179 | have it, and thank you for informing me so promptly. Miss Tredworth may rest assured that should we find it necessary to go still farther into this piece of evidence, it will be done with as little annoyance as possible." Some of the chief constable's habitual sternness of manner seemed to have returned to him as he now rose to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051180 | take leave. "I will just confer with my men who are on the premises before I leave," he said to Morriston in a quiet authoritative tone. "They may have something to report." With that he bowed to the company and quitted the room, leaving behind him a rather uncomfortable feeling which every one seemed to make an effort to throw | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051181 | off. But there was clearly nothing to be done except to let the police researches take their course and to wait for developments. The party at Wynford was going over to the dance at Stowgrave that evening and it was arranged that they would call for Kelson and Gifford and all go on together. Accordingly at the appointed time the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051182 | carriage stopped at the _Golden Lion_; Kelson joining Miss Tredworth and her brother, while Gifford drove with Morriston. In answer to his companion's inquiry Morriston said that he had heard of nothing fresh in the Henshaw case. "I saw Major Freeman for a moment as he was leaving," he said, "and gathered that the police were still at a loss | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051183 | for any satisfactory explanation as to how the crime was committed." "He made no suggestion as to the stains on Miss Tredworth's dress?" Gifford asked. "No. Although I fancy he is a good deal exercised by that piece of evidence. Mentioned, as delicately as possible, that it might be necessary to have the stains analyzed, but did not wish the | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051184 | girl to be alarmed or worried about it. I can't understand," Morriston added in a puzzled tone, "how on earth she could possibly have had anything to do with it." "No," Gifford assented thoughtfully; "it is inconceivable, unless by the supposition that she may by some means have come in contact with some one who was concerned in the crime." | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051185 | "You mean if a man had a stain on his coat and danced with her--" "Something of the sort. If there were blood on his lapel or sleeve." "H'm! It would be easy to ascertain for certain whom she danced with," Morriston said reflectively. "But that again is almost unthinkable." "And," Gifford added, "it seems to go no way towards | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051186 | elucidating the problem of how Henshaw came to his death. As a matter of fact I should say Miss Tredworth danced and sat out nearly the whole of the evening with Kelson. You know he proposed at the dance?" "Yes, I understood that. Poor Kelson; I am sorry for him, and for them both. It is an ominous beginning of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051187 | their betrothal." "It is horrible," Gifford observed sympathetically. "Although one tries to think there is really nothing in it for them to be concerned about." The dance was an enjoyable affair, and, at any rate for the time, dispersed the depression which had hung over the party from Wynford. Gifford had engaged Miss Morriston for two waltzes, and after a | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051188 | turn or two in the second his partner said she felt tired and suggested they should sit out the rest of it. Accordingly they strolled off to an adjoining room and made themselves comfortable in a retired corner, Gifford, nothing loath to have a quiet chat with the handsome girl whose self-possessed manner with its suggestion of underlying strength of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051189 | feeling was beginning to fascinate and intrigue his imagination. "It is rather pleasant," she said a little wearily, "to get away from the atmosphere of mystery and police investigation we have been living in at home." "Which I hope and believe will very soon be over," Gifford responded cheeringly. Miss Morriston glanced at him curiously. "You believe that?" she returned | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051190 | almost sharply. "How can you think so? It seems to me that with little apparent likelihood of clearing up the mystery, the affair may drag on for weeks." Gifford answered with a reassuring smile. "Hardly that. If the police can make nothing of it, and they seem to be quite nonplussed, they will have to give up their investigations and | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051191 | fall back on their first theory of suicide." Leaning back and watching his companion's face in profile as she sat forward, he could see that his suggestion was by no means convincing. "I wish I could take your view, Mr. Gifford," she returned, with the suggestion of a bitter smile. "I dare say if the authorities were left to themselves | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051192 | they might give up. But you forget a very potent factor in the tiresome business, the brother, Mr. Gervase Henshaw; he will keep them up to the work of investigation, will he not?" "Up to a certain point, and one can scarcely blame him. But even then, the police are not likely to continue working on his theories when they | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051193 | lead to no result." "No?" Miss Morriston replied in an unconvinced tone. "But he is--" she turned to him. "Tell me your candid opinion of this Mr. Gervase Henshaw. Is he very--" "Objectionable?" Gifford supplied as she hesitated. "Unpleasantly sharp and energetic, I should say. Although it is, perhaps, hardly fair to judge a man labouring under the stress of | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051194 | a brother's tragic death." "He is determined to get to the explanation of the mystery?" The tinge of excitement she had exhibited in her former question had now passed away: she now spoke in her habitual cold, even tone. "He says so. Naturally he will do all he can to that end. Of course it would be a satisfaction to | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051195 | know for certain how the tragedy came about: not that it matters much otherwise. But unfortunately he rather poses as an expert in criminology, and that will make for pertinacity." For a moment Miss Morriston kept silent. "It is very unfortunate," she murmured at length. "It will worry poor old Dick horribly. I think he is already beginning to wish | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051196 | he had never seen Wynford." Gifford leaned forward. "Oh, but, my dear Miss Morriston," he said earnestly, "you and your brother must really not take the matter so seriously. It is all very unpleasant, one must admit, but, after all, except that it happened in your house, I don't see that it affects you." "You think not," Miss Morriston responded | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051197 | mechanically. "Indeed I think so." As he spoke Gifford could not help a slight feeling of wonder that this girl, from whom he would have expected an attitude rather of indifference, should allow herself to be so greatly worried by the affair. For that she was far more troubled than she allowed to appear he was certain. It is her | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051198 | pride, he told himself. A high-bred girl like this would naturally hate the very idea of a sensational scandal under her roof, and all its unpleasant, rather sordid accompaniments. "I wish," he added with a touch of fervour, "that I could persuade you to dismiss any fear of annoyance from your mind." "I wish you could," she responded dully, with | 60 | gutenberg |
twg_000000051199 | an attempt at a smile. Suddenly she turned to him with more animation in her manner than she had hitherto shown. "Mr. Gifford, you--I--" she hesitated as though at a loss how to put what she wished to say; "I have no right to ask you, who are a comparative stranger, to help us in this--this worry, but if you | 60 | gutenberg |
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