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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/9808-8.txt b/9808-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e180711 --- /dev/null +++ b/9808-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7687 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Loudwater Mystery, by Edgar Jepson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Loudwater Mystery + +Author: Edgar Jepson + +Posting Date: December 15, 2009 [EBook #9808] +Release Date: February, 2006 +First Posted: October 19, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOUDWATER MYSTERY *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + THE LOUDWATER MYSTERY + + BY EDGAR JEPSON + + 1920 + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Lord Loudwater was paying attention neither to his breakfast nor to the +cat Melchisidec. Absorbed in a leader in _The Times_ newspaper, now and +again he tugged at his red-brown beard in order to quicken his +comprehension of the weighty phrases of the leader-writer; now and again +he made noises, chiefly with his nose, expressive of disgust. Lady +Loudwater paid no attention to these noises. She did not even raise her +eyes to her husband's face. She ate her breakfast with a thoughtful air, +her brow puckered by a faint frown. + +She also paid no attention to her favourite, Melchisidec. Melchisidec, +unduly excited by the smell of grilled sole, came to Lord Loudwater, rose +on his hind legs, laid his paws on his trousers, and stuck some claws +into his thigh. It was no more than gentle, arresting pricks; but the +tender nobleman sprang from his chair with a short howl, kicked with +futile violence a portion of the empty air which Melchisidec had just +vacated, staggered, and nearly fell. + +Lady Loudwater did not laugh; but she did cough. + +Her husband, his face a furious crimson, glared at her with reddish eyes, +and swore violently at her and the cat. + +Lady Loudwater rose, her face flushed, her lips trembling, picked up +Melchisidec, and walked out of the room. Lord Loudwater scowled at the +closed door, sat down, and went on with his breakfast. + +James Hutchings, the butler, came quietly into the room, took one of the +smaller dishes from the sideboard and Lady Loudwater's teapot from the +table. He went quietly out of the room, pausing at the door to scowl at +his master's back. Lady Loudwater finished her breakfast in the +sitting-room of her suite of rooms on the first floor. She was no longer +inattentive to Melchisidec. + +During her breakfast she put all consideration of her husband's behaviour +out of her mind. As she smoked a cigarette after breakfast she considered +it for a little while. She often had to consider it. She came to the +conclusion to which she had often come before: that she owed him nothing +whatever. She came to the further conclusion that she detested him. She +had far too good a brow not to be able to see a fact clearly. She wished +more heartily than ever that she had never married him. It had been a +grievous mistake; and it seemed likely to last a life-time--her +life-time. The last five ancestors of her husband had lived to be eighty. +His father would doubtless have lived to be eighty too, had he not broken +his neck in the hunting-field at the age of fifty-four. On the other +hand, none of the Quaintons, her own family, had reached the age of +sixty. Lord Loudwater was thirty-five; she was twenty-two; he would +therefore survive her by at least seven years. She would certainly be +bowed down all her life under this grievous burden. + +It was an odd calculation for a young married woman to make; but Lady +Loudwater came of an uncommon family, which had produced more brilliant, +irresponsible, and passably unscrupulous men than any other of the +leading families in England. Her father had been one of them. She took +after him. Moreover, Lord Loudwater would have induced odd reveries in +any wife. He had been intolerable since the second week of their +honeymoon. Wholly without power of self-restraint, the furious outbursts +of his vile temper had been consistently revolting. She once more told +herself that something would have to be done about it--not on the +instant, however. At the moment there appeared to her to be months to do +it in. She dropped her cigarette end into the ash-tray, and with it any +further consideration of the manners and disposition of Lord Loudwater. + +She lit another cigarette and let her thoughts turn to that far more +appealing subject, Colonel Antony Grey. They turned to him readily and +wholly. In less than three minutes she was seeing his face and hearing +certain tones in his voice with amazing clearness. Once she looked at the +clock impatiently. It was half-past ten. She would not see him till +three--four and a half hours. It seemed a long while to her. However, +she could go on thinking about him. She did. + +While she considered her ill-tempered husband her eyes had been hard and +almost shallow. While she considered Colonel Grey, they grew soft and +deep. Her lips had been set and almost thin; now they grew most kissable. + +Lord Loudwater finished his breakfast, the scowl on his face fading +slowly to a frown. He lit a cigar and with a moody air went to his +smoking-room. The criminal carelessness of the cat Melchisidec +still rankled. + +As he entered the room, half office and half smoking-room, Mr. Herbert +Manley, his secretary, bade him good morning. Lord Loudwater returned his +greeting with a scowl. + +Mr. Herbert Manley had one of those faces which begin well and end badly. +He had a fine forehead, lofty and broad, a well-cut, gently-curving-nose, +a slack, thick-lipped mouth, always a little open, a heavy, animal jaw, +and the chin of an eagle. His fine, black hair was thin on the temples. +His moustache was thin and straggled. His black eyes were as good as his +brow, intelligent, observant, and alert. It was plain that had his lips +been thinner and his chin larger he would not have been the secretary of +Lord Loudwater--or of any one else. He would have been a masterless man. +The success of two one-act plays on the stage of the music-halls had +given him the firm hope of one day becoming a masterless man as a +successful dramatist. His post gave him the leisure to write plays. But +for the fact that it brought him into such frequent contact with the Lord +Loudwater it would have been a really pleasant post: the food was +excellent; the wine was good; the library was passable; and the servants, +with the exception of James Hutchings, liked and respected him. He had +the art of making himself valued (at far more than his real worth, said +his enemies), and his air of importance continuously impressed them. + +With a patient air he began to discuss the morning's letters, and ask for +instructions. Lord Loudwater was, as often happened, uncommonly captious +about the letters. He had not recovered from the shock the inconsiderate +Melchisidec had given his nerves. The instructions he gave were somewhat +muddled; and when Mr. Manley tried to get them clearer, his employer +swore at him for an idiot. Mr. Manley persisted firmly through much abuse +till he did get them clear. He had come to consider his employer's furies +an unfortunate weakness which had to be endured by the holder of the post +he found so advantageous. He endured them with what stoicism he might. + +Lord Loudwater in a bad temper always produced a strong impression of +redness for a man whose colouring was merely red-brown. Owing to the fact +that his fierce, protruding blue eyes were red-rimmed and somewhat +bloodshot, in moments of emotion they shone with a curious red glint, and +his florid face flushed a deeper red. In these moments Mr. Manley had a +feeling that he was dealing with a bad-tempered red bull. His employer +made very much the same impression on other people, but few of them had +the impression of bullness so clear and so complete as did Mr. Manley. +Lady Loudwater, on the other hand, felt always, whether her husband was +ramping or quiet, that she was dealing with a bad-tempered bull. + +Presently they came to the end of the letters. Lord Loudwater lit another +cigar, and scowled thoughtfully. Mr. Manley gazed at his scowling face +and wondered idly whether he would ever light on another human being whom +he would detest so heartily as he detested his employer. He thought it +indeed unlikely. Still, when he became a successful dramatist there might +be an actor-manager-- + +Then Lord Loudwater said: "Did you tell Mrs. Truslove that after +September her allowance would be reduced to three hundred a year?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Manley. + +"What did she say?" + +Mr. Manley hesitated; then he said diplomatically: "She did not seem +to like it." + +"What did she _say_?" cried Lord Loudwater in a sudden, startling bellow, +and his eyes shone red. + +Mr. Manley winced and said quickly: "She said it was just like you." + +"Just like me? Hey? And what did she mean by that?" cried Lord Loudwater +loudly and angrily. + +Mr. Manley expressed utter ignorance by looking blank and shrugging his +shoulders. + +"The jade! She's had six hundred a year for more than two years. Did she +think it would go on for ever?" cried his employer. + +"No," said Mr. Manley. + +"And why didn't she think it would go on for ever? Hey?" said Lord +Loudwater in a challenging tone. + +"Because there wasn't an actual deed of settlement," said Mr. Manley. + +"The ungrateful jade! I've a good mind to stop it altogether!" cried +his employer. + +Mr. Manley said nothing. His face was blank; it neither approved nor +disapproved the suggestion. + +Lord Loudwater scowled at him and said: "I expect she said she wished +she'd never had anything to do with me." + +"No," said Mr. Manley. + +"I'll bet that's what she thinks," growled Lord Loudwater. + +Mr. Manley let the suggestion pass without comment. His face was blank. + +"And what's she going to do about it?" said Lord Loudwater in a tone of +challenge. + +"She's going to see you about it." + +"I'm damned if she is!" cried Lord Loudwater hastily, in a much less +assured tone. + +Mr. Manley permitted a faint, sceptical smile to wreathe his lips. + +"What are you grinning at? If you think she'll gain anything by doing +that, she won't," said Lord Loudwater, with a blustering truculence. + +Mr. Manley wondered. Helena Truslove was a lady of considerable force of +character. He suspected that if Lord Loudwater had ever been afraid of a +fellow-creature, he must at times have been afraid of Helena Truslove. +He fancied that now he was not nearly as fearless as he sounded. He did +not say so. + +His employer was silent, buried in scowling reflection. Mr. Manley gazed +at him without any great intentness, and came to the conclusion that he +did not merely detest him, he loathed him. + +Presently he said: "There's a cheque from Hanbury and Johnson for twelve +thousand and forty-six pounds for the rubber shares your lordship sold. +It wants endorsing." + +He handed the cheque across the table to Lord Loudwater. Lord +Loudwater dipped his pen in the ink, transfixed a struggling +bluebottle, and drew it out. + +"Why the devil don't you see that the ink is fresh?" he roared. + +"It is fresh. The bluebottle must have just fallen into it," said Mr. +Manley in an unruffled tone. + +Lord Loudwater cursed the bluebottle, restored it to the ink-pot, +endorsed the cheque, and tossed it across the table to Mr. Manley. + +"By the way," said Mr. Manley, with some hesitation, "there's another +anonymous letter." + +"Why didn't you burn it? I told you to burn 'em all," snapped his +employer. + +"This one is not about you. It's about Hutchings," said Mr. Manley in an +explanatory tone. + +"Hutchings? What about Hutchings?" + +"You'd better read it," said Mr. Manley, handing him the letter. "It +seems to be from some spiteful woman." + +The letter was indeed written in female handwriting, and it accused the +butler, wordily enough, of having received a commission from Lord +Loudwater's wine merchants on a purchase of fifty dozen of champagne +which he had bought from them a month before. It further stated that he +had received a like commission on many other such purchases. + +Lord Loudwater read it, scowling, sprang up from his chair with his eyes +protruding further than usual, and cried: "The scoundrel! The blackguard! +I'll teach him! I'll gaol him!" + +He dashed at the electric bell by the fireplace, set his thumb on it, and +kept it there. + +Holloway, the second footman, came running. The servants knew their +master's ring. They always ran to answer it, after some discussion as to +which of them should go. + +He entered and said: "Yes, m'lord?" + +"Send that scoundrel Hutchings to me! Send him at once!" roared +his master. + +"Yes, m'lord," said Holloway, and hurried away. + +He found James Hutchings in his pantry, told him that their master wanted +him, and added that he was in a tearing rage. + +Hutchings, who never expected his sanguine and irascible master to be in +any other mood, finished the paragraph of the article in the _Daily +Telegraph_ he was reading, put on his coat, and went to the study. His +delay gave Lord Loudwater's wrath full time to mature. + +When the butler entered his master shook his fist at him and roared: "You +scoundrel! You infernal scoundrel! You've been robbing me! You've been +robbing me for years, you blackguard!" + +James Hutchings met the charge with complete calm. He shook his head and +said in a surly tone: "No; I haven't done anything of the kind, m'lord." + +The flat denial infuriated his master yet more. He spluttered and was for +a while incoherent. Then he became again articulate and said: "You have, +you rogue! You took a commission--a secret commission on that fifty dozen +of champagne I bought last month. You've been doing it for years." + +James Hutchings' surly face was transformed. It grew malignant; his +fierce, protruding, red-rimmed blue eyes sparkled balefully, and he +flushed to a redness as deep as that of his master. He knew at once who +had betrayed him, and he was furious--at the betrayal. At the same time, +he was not greatly alarmed; he had never received a cheque from the wine +merchants; all their payments to him had been in cash, and he had always +cherished a warm contempt for his master. + +"I haven't," he said fiercely. "And if I had it would be quite +regular--only a perquisite." + +For the hundredth time Mr. Manley remarked the likeness between Lord +Loudwater and his butler. They had the same fierce, protruding, +red-rimmed blue eyes, the same narrow, low forehead, the same large ears. +Hutchings' hair was a darker brown than Lord Loudwater's, and his lips +were thinner. But Mr. Manley was sure that, had he worn a beard instead +of whiskers, it would have been difficult for many people to be sure +which was Lord Loudwater and which his butler. + +Lord Loudwater again spluttered; then he roared: "A perquisite! What +about the Corrupt Practices Act? It was passed for rogues like you! +I'll show you all about perquisites! You'll find yourself in gaol +inside of a month." + +"I shan't. There isn't a word of truth in it, or a scrap of evidence," +said Hutchings fiercely. + +"Evidence? I'll find evidence all right!" cried his master. "And if I +don't, I'll, anyhow, discharge you without a character. I'll get you one +way or another, my fine fellow! I'll teach you to rob me!" + +"I haven't robbed your lordship," said Hutchings in a less surly tone. + +He was much more moved by the threat of discharge than the threat of +prosecution. + +"I tell you you have. And you can clear out of this. I'll wire to town at +once for another butler--an honest butler. You'll clear out the moment he +comes. Pack up and be ready to go. And when you do go, I'll give you +twenty-four hours to clear out of the country before I put the police on +your track," cried Lord Loudwater. + +Mr. Manley observed that it was exactly like him to take no risk, in +spite of his fury, of any loss of comfort from the lack of a butler. The +instinct of self-protection was indeed strong in him. + +"Not a bit of it. You've told me to go, and I'm going at once--this very +day. The police will find me at my father's for the next fortnight," said +Hutchings with a sneer. "And when I go to London I'll leave my address." + +"A lot of good your going to London will do you. I'll see you never get +another place in this country," snarled Lord Loudwater. + +Hutchings gave him a look of vindictive malignity so intense that it +made Mr. Manley quite uncomfortable, turned, and went out of the room. + +Lord Loudwater said: "I'll teach the scoundrel to rob me! Write at once +for a new butler." + +He took some lumps of sugar from a jar on the mantelpiece, and went +through the door which opened into the library. + +In the library he stopped and shouted back: "If Morton comes about the +timber, I shall be in the stables." + +Then he went through one of the long windows of the library into the +garden and took his way to the stables. As he drew near them the scowl +cleared from his face. But it remained a formidable face; it did not grow +pleasant. None the less, he spent a pleasant hour in the stables, petting +his horses. He was fond of horses, not of cats, and he never bullied and +seldom abused his horses as he abused and bullied his fellow men and +women. This was the result of his experience. He had learnt from it that +he might bully and abuse his human dependents with impunity. As a boy he +had also bullied and abused his horses. But in his eighteenth year he had +been savaged by a young horse he had maltreated, and the lesson had stuck +in his mind. It was a simple, obtuse mind, but it had formed the theory +that he got more out of human beings, more deference and service, by +bullying them and more out of horses by treating them kindly. Besides, he +liked horses. + +Mr. Manley did not set about answering the letters at once. He reflected +for a while on the likeness between Hutchings and his master. He thought +the physical likeness of little interest. There was a whole clan of +Hutchingses in the villages and woods round the castle, the bulk of them +gamekeepers; and there had been for generations. Mr. Manley was much more +interested in the resemblance in character between Hutchings and Lord +Loudwater. Hutchings, probably under the pressure of circumstances, was +much less of a bore than his master, but quite as much of a bully. Also, +he was more intelligent, and consequently more dangerous. Mr. Manley +would on no account have had him look at him with the intense malignity +with which he had looked at his master. Doubtless the butler had far +greater self-control than Lord Loudwater; but if ever he did lose it it +would be uncommonly bad for Lord Loudwater. + +It would be interesting to find in the Loudwater archives the common +ancestor to whom they both cast so directly back. He fancied that it must +be the third Baron. At any rate, both had his protruding blue eyes, +softened in his portrait doubtless by the natural politeness of the +fashionable painter. Was it worth his while to look up the record of the +third Lord Loudwater? He decided that, if he found himself at sufficient +leisure, he would. Then he decided that he was glad that Hutchins was +going; the butler had shown him but little civility. Then he set about +answering the letters. + +When he had finished them he took up the stockbroker's cheque and +considered it with a thoughtful frown. He had never before seen a cheque +for so large a sum; and it interested him. Then he wrote a short note of +instructions to Lord Loudwater's bankers. The ink in his fountain-pen ran +out as he came to the end of it, and he signed it with the pen with which +Lord Loudwater had endorsed the cheque. He put the cheque into the +envelope he had already addressed, put stamps on all the letters, carried +them to the post-box on a table in the hall, went through the library out +into the garden, and smoked a cigarette with a somewhat languid air. Then +he went into the library and took up his task of cataloguing the books at +the point at which he had stopped the day before. He often paused to dip +at length into a book before entering it in the catalogue. He did not +believe in hasty work. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Lord Loudwater came to lunch in a better temper than that in which he had +left the breakfast-table. He had ridden eight miles round and about his +estate, and the ride had soothed that seat of the evil humours--his +liver. Lady Loudwater had been careful to shut Melchisidec in her +boudoir; James Hutchings had no desire in the world to see his master's +florid face or square back, and had instructed Wilkins and Holloway, the +first and second footmen, to wait at table. Lord Loudwater therefore +could, without any ruffling of his sensibilities, give all his thought to +his food, and he did. The cooking at the castle was always excellent. If +it was not, he sent for the chef and spoke to him about it. + +There was little conversation at lunch. Lady Loudwater never spoke to her +husband first, save on rare occasions about a matter of importance. It +was not that she perceived any glamour of royalty about him; she did not +wish to hear his voice. Besides, she had never found a conversational +opening so harmless that he could not contrive, were it his whim, to be +offensive about it. Besides, she had at the moment nothing to say to him. + +In truth, owing to the fact that she took so many practically silent +meals with him, she was becoming rather a gourmet. The food, naturally +the most important fact, had become really the most important fact at the +meals they took together. She had come to realize this. It was the only +advantage she had ever derived from her intercourse with her husband. + +At this lunch, however, she did not pay as much attention to the food as +usual, not indeed as much as it deserved. Her mind would stray from it to +Colonel Grey. She wondered what he would tell her about herself that +afternoon. He was always discovering possibilities in her which she had +never discovered for herself. She only perceived their existence when he +pointed them out to her. Then they became obvious. Also, he was always +discovering fresh facts, attractive facts, about her--about her eyes and +lips and hair and figure. He imparted each discovery to her as he made +it, without delay, and with the genuine enthusiasm of a discoverer. Of +course, he should not have done this. It was, indeed, wrong. But he had +assured her that he could not help it, that he was always blurting things +out. Since it was a habit of long standing, now probably ingrained, it +was useless to reproach him with any great severity for his frankness. +She did not do so. + +For his part, the Lord Loudwater had but little to say to his wife. She +was fond of Melchisidec and indifferent to horses. For the greater part +of the meal he was hardly aware that she was at the other end of the +table. Immersed in his food and its deglutition, he was hardly sensible +of the outside world at all. Once, disturbed by Holloway's removing his +empty plate, he told her that he had seen a dog-fox on Windy Ridge; +again, when Holloway handed the cheese-straws to him, he told her that +Merry Belle's black colt had a cold. Her two replies, "Oh, did you?" and +"Has he?" appeared to fall on deaf ears. He did not continue either +conversation. + +Then Lord Loudwater broke into an eloquent monologue. Wilkins had poured +out a glass of port for both of them to drink with their cheese-straws. +Lord Loudwater finished his cheese-straws, took a long sip from his +glass, rolled it lovingly over his tongue, gulped it down with a hideous +grimace, banged down his fist on the table, and roared in a terrible, +anguished voice: + +"It's corked! It's corked! It's that scoundrel Hutchings! This is his way +of taking it out of me for sacking him. He's done it on purpose, the +scoundrel! Now I will gaol him! Hanged if I don't!" + +"I'll get another bottle, m'lord," said Wilkins, catching up the +decanter, and hurrying towards the door. + +"Get it! And be quick about it! And tell that scoundrel I'll gaol him!" +cried Lord Loudwater. + +Wilkins rushed from the room bearing in his hand the decanter of +offending port; Holloway followed him to help. + +Lady Loudwater sipped a little port from her glass. She was rather +inclined to take no one's word for anything which she could herself +verify. Then she took another sip. + +Then she said; "Are you sure this wine's corked?" + +Corked wine at the end of a really good meal is a bitter blow to any man, +an exceedingly bitter blow to a man of Lord Loudwater's sensitiveness in +such matters. + +"Am I sure? Hey? Am I sure? Yes! I am sure, you little fool!" he +bellowed. "What do you know about wine? Talk about things you +understand!" + +Lady Loudwater's face was twisted by a faint spasm of hate which left it +flushed. She would never grow used to being bellowed at for a fool. Once +more her husband's refusal to let her take her meals apart from him +seemed monstrous. Hardly ever did she rise from one at which she had not +been abused and insulted. She realized indeed that she had been foolish +to ask the question. But why should she sit tongue-tied before the brute? + +She took another sip and said quietly: "It isn't corked." + +Then she turned cold with fright. + +Lord Loudwater could not believe his ears. It could not be that his wife +had contradicted him flatly. It--could--_not_--be. + +He was still incredulous, breathing heavily, when the door opened and +James Hutchings appeared on the threshold. In his right hand he held the +decanter of offending port, in his left a sound cork. + +He said firmly: "This wine isn't corked, m'lord. Its flavour is perfect. +Besides, a cork like this couldn't cork it." + +A less sensitive man than Lord Loudwater might have risen to the +double emergency. Lord Loudwater could not. He sat perfectly still. +But his eyes rolled so horribly that the Lady Loudwater started from +her chair, uttered a faint scream, and fairly ran through the long +window into the garden. + +James Hutchings advanced to the table, thumped the decanter down on +it--no way to treat an old vintage port--at Lord Loudwater's right hand, +walked out of the room, and shut the door firmly behind him. + +In the great hall he smiled a triumphant, malevolent smile. Then he +called Wilkins and Holloway, who stood together in the middle of it, +cowardly dogs and shirkers, and strode past them to the door to the +servants' quarters. + +A few moments later Lord Loudwater rose to his feet and staggered +dizzily along to the other end of the table. He picked up his wife's +half-emptied glass and sipped the port. It was _not_ corked. It was +incredible! He would never forgive her! + +He rang the bell. Both Wilkins and Holloway answered it. He bade them +tell Hutchings to pack his belongings and go at once. If he were not out +of the castle by four o'clock, they were to kick him out. Then he went, +still scowling, to the stables. + +Mr. Manley had already finished his lunch. Halfway through his +after-lunch pipe he rose, took his hat and stick, and set out to pay a +visit to Mrs. Truslove. + +As he came out of the park gates he came upon the Rev. George Stebbing, +the _locum tenens_ in charge of the parish, for the vicar was away on a +holiday, enjoying a respite from his perpetual struggle with the patron +of the living, Lord Loudwater. + +They fell into step and for a while discussed the local weather and local +affairs. Then Mr. Manley, who had been gifted by Heaven with a lively +imagination wholly untrammelled by any straining passion for exactitude, +entertained Mr. Stebbing with a vivid account of his experiences as +leader of the first Great Push. Mr. Manley was one of the many rather +stout, soft men who in different parts of Great Britain will till their +dying days entertain acquaintances with vivid accounts of their +experiences as leaders of the Great Pushes. Like that of most of them, +his war experience, before his weak heart had procured him his discharge +from the army, had consisted wholly of office work in England. His +account of his strenuous fighting lacked nothing of fire or +picturesqueness on that account. He was too modest to say in so many +words that but for his martial qualities there would have been no Great +Push at all, and that any success it had had was due to those martial +qualities, but that was the impression he left on Mr. Stebbing's simple +and rather plastic mind. When therefore they parted at the crossroads, +Mr. Manley went on his way in a pleasant content at having once more made +himself valued; and Mr. Stebbing went on his way feeling thankful that he +had been brought into friendly contact with a really able hero. Both of +them were the happier for their chance meeting. + +Mr. Manley found Helena Truslove in her drawing-room, and when the door +closed behind the maid who had ushered him into it, he embraced her with +affectionate warmth. Then he held her out at arm's-length, and for the +several hundredth time admired her handsome, clear-skinned, +high-coloured, gipsy face, her black, rather wild eyes, and the black +hair wreathed round her head in so heavy a mass. + +"It has been an awful long time between the kisses," he said. + +She sighed a sigh of content and laughed softly. Then she said: "I +sometimes think that you must have had a great deal of practice." + +"No," said Mr. Manley firmly. "I have never had occasion to be in +love before." + +He put her back into the chair from which he had lifted her, sat down +facing her, and gazed at her with adoring eyes. He was truly very much in +love with her. + +They were excellent complements the one of the other. If Mr. Manley had +the brains for two--indeed, he had the brains for half a dozen--she had +the character for two. Her chin was very unlike the chin of an eagle. She +was not, indeed, lacking in brains. Her brow forbade the supposition. But +hers was rather the practical intelligence, his the creative. That she +had the force of character, on occasion the fierceness, which he lacked, +was no small source of her attraction for him. + +"And how was the hog this morning?" she said, ready to be soothing. + +"The hog" was their pet name for Lord Loudwater. + +"Beastly. He's an utterly loathsome fellow," said Mr. Manley with +conviction. + +"Oh, no; not utterly--at any rate, not if you're independent of him," she +protested. + +"Does he ever come into contact with any one who is not dependent on him? +I believe he shuns them like the pest." + +"Not into close contact," she said--"at any rate, nowadays. But +I've known him to do good-natured things; and then he's very fond of +his horses." + +"That makes the way he treats every human being who is in any way +dependent on him all the more disgusting," said Mr. Manley firmly. + +"Oh, I don't know. It's something to be fond of animals," she said +tolerantly. + +"This morning he had a devil of a row with Hutchings, the butler, you +know, and discharged him." + +"That was a silly thing to do. Hutchings is not at all a good person to +have a row with," she said quickly. "I should say that he was a far more +dangerous brute than Loudwater and much more intelligent. Still, I don't +know what he could do. What was the row about?" + +"Some woman sent Loudwater an anonymous letter accusing Hutchings of +having received commissions from the wine merchants." + +"That would be Elizabeth Twitcher's mother. Elizabeth and Hutchings were +engaged, and about ten days ago he jilted her," said Mrs. Truslove. "I +suppose that when he was in love with her he bragged about these +commissions to her and she told her mother." + +"Her mother has certainly taken it out of him for jilting her daughter. +But what an unsavoury place the castle is!" said Mr. Manley. + +"With such a master--what can you expect?" said Mrs. Truslove. "Did the +hog say anything more about halving my allowance?" + +Mr. Manley frowned. A few days before he had been greatly surprised to +learn from Lord Loudwater that the bulk of Helena Truslove's income was +an allowance from him. The matter had greatly exercised his mind. Why +should his employer allow her six hundred a year? It was a matter which +should be cleared up. + +He said slowly: "Yes, he did. He asked what you said when I told you that +he was going to halve it, and he did not seem to like the idea of your +seeing him about it." + +"He'll like my seeing him about it even less than the idea of it," +said Mrs. Truslove firmly, and there was a sudden gleam in her wild +black eyes. + +Mr. Manley looked at her, frowning faintly. Then he said in a rather +hesitating manner: "I've never asked you about it. But why does the hog +make you this allowance?" + +"That's my dark past," she said in a teasing tone, smiling at him. "I +suppose that as we're going to be married so soon I ought to make a clean +breast of it, if you really want to know." + +"Just as you like," said Mr. Manley, his face clearing a little at her +careless tone. + +"Well, the hog treated me badly--not really badly, because I didn't care +enough about him to make it possible for him to treat me really badly, +but just as badly as he could. For when he and I first met I was on the +way to get engaged to a man, named Hardwicke--a rich city man, rather a +bore, but a man who would make an excellent husband. Loudwater knew that +Hardwicke was ready and eager to marry me, and I suppose that that helped +to make him keen on me. At any rate, he made love to me, not nearly so +badly as you'd think, and persuaded me to promise to marry him." + +"I can't think how you could have done it!" cried Mr. Manley. + +"How was I to know what a hog he was at home? At Trouville he was quite +nice, as I tell you. Besides, there was the title--I thought I should +like to be Lady Loudwater. You know, I do have strong impulses, and I +act on them." + +"Well, after all, you didn't marry him," said Mr. Manley in a tone of +relief. "What did happen?" + +"We were engaged for about two months. Then, about a month before the +date fixed for our marriage, he met Olivia Quainton, fell in love with +her, and broke off our engagement a week before our wedding-day." + +"Well, of all the caddish tricks!" cried Mr. Manley. + +"You can imagine how furious I was. And I wasn't going to stand it--not +from Loudwater, at any rate. I had learnt a good deal more about him in +the eleven weeks we were engaged, and, naturally, I wasn't pleased with +what I had learnt. I set out to make myself very disagreeable. I saw him +and did make myself very disagreeable. I told him a good many unpleasant +things about himself which made him much more furious than I was myself." + +"I'm glad some of it got through his thick skin," said Mr. Manley. + +"A good deal of it did. Then I made it clear to him that he had robbed me +of John Hardwicke and an excellent settlement in life, and told him that +I was going to bring an action for breach of promise against him. That +certainly got through his thick skin, for it's very painful to him to +spend money on any one but himself. But he made terms at once, gave me +this house furnished, and promised to allow me six hundred a year for +life. You don't think I was wrong to take it?" she added anxiously. + +"Certainly not," said Mr. Manley quickly and firmly. + +Her face cleared and she said: "So many people would say that it was not +nice my taking money for an injury like that." + +"Rubbish! It wasn't as if you'd been in love with him," said Mr. Manley +with the firmest conviction. + +"That's the exact point. You do see things," she said, smiling at him +gratefully. "If I had been, it would have been quite different." + +"And how else were you to score off him except by hitting him in the +pocket? That and his stomach are his only vulnerable points," said Mr. +Manley viciously. + +He was ignorant of Melchisidec's discovery of another. + +"They are. And he certainly had robbed me of an income. It was only fair +that he should make up for it," she said rather plaintively. + +"Absolutely fair." + +"Well, those were the terms. The house is mine all right; it was properly +made over to me. But, stupidly, I didn't have a proper deed drawn up +about the money. I had his promise. One supposes that one can take the +word of an English Peer. But I think that it's really all right. I have +his letters about it." + +"There's no saying. You'd better see a lawyer about it and find out. But +this isn't a very dark past," he said, and rose and came to her and +kissed her. + +He was, indeed, relieved and reassured. In these circumstances the six +hundred a year was not an allowance at all. It was merely the payment of +a debt--a just debt. + +"But it won't be nearly so nice for us, if the hog does manage to cut the +six hundred down to three hundred. My husband only left me a hundred a +year," she said, frowning. + +"To be with you will be perfection, whatever our income is," said Mr. +Manley, with ringing conviction, and he kissed her again. + +She smiled happily and said: "He shan't cut it down. I'll see that he +doesn't. When I've had a talk with him, he'll be glad enough to leave it +as it is." + +"It's very likely that he's only trying it on. It's the kind of thing he +would do. But you'll find it difficult to get that talk. He's bent on +shirking it," said Mr. Manley. + +"I'll see that he doesn't get the chance of shirking it," she said, and +her eyes gleamed again. + +"I believe you're the only person in the world he's afraid of," he said +in a tone of admiration. + +"I shouldn't wonder," she said. "At any rate, I seem to be the only +person in the world to whom he's always been civil. At least, I've never +heard of any one else." + +"I'm afraid he won't be civil when you get that talk with him--if ever +you do get it," said Mr. Manley, frowning rather anxiously. + +"That'll be all the worse for him," she said dauntlessly. "But, after +all, if I did fail to make him leave my income at six hundred, we should +still have this house and four hundred a year. We should still be quite +comfortable. Besides, you could keep on as his secretary, and that would +be another two hundred a year." + +"I can't do that! It's out of the question!" cried Mr. Manley. "I'm +getting so to loathe the brute that I shall soon be quite unable to stand +him. As it is, I sometimes have a violent desire to wring his neck. Now +that I know that he played this measly trick on you, it will be more +violent than ever. Besides, we must have a flat in town. It's really +necessary to my work! I can do my actual writing down here fairly well. +But what I really need is to get in touch with the right people, with the +people who are really stimulating. Besides, I'm gregarious; I like mixing +with people." + +"Yes. You're right. We must have a flat in town. Therefore, I must make +the hog keep to his bargain, and I will," she said firmly. + +"I believe you may," he said, gazing at her determined face with +admiring eyes. + +There was a pause. Then she said carelessly: "When are we going to tell +people that we're engaged?" + +"Not yet awhile," said Mr. Manley quickly. "At least I don't want the +people about here to know about it. And if you come to think of it, +things being as they are, Loudwater would probably make himself more +infernally disagreeable to me than he does at present. He'd not only try +to take it out of me to annoy you, but it's just as likely as not that he +would consider my getting engaged to you as poaching on his +preserves--infernal cheek. He's the most hopelessly vain and +unreasonable sweep in the British Isles." + +"I shouldn't be a bit surprised if he did. He couldn't possibly help +being a dog in the manger," she said thoughtfully. "And there's another +thing. It has just occurred to me that if he tries to halve my income for +nothing at all, he might try to stop it altogether if I got married. No; +I must get that matter settled for good and all. I'll have that talk with +him at once." + +"If you can get it," said Mr. Manley doubtfully. + +"I can get it," she said confidently. "You must remember that, having +lived here for nearly two years, I know all about his habits. I shall +take him by surprise. But we've talked enough about these dull things; +let's talk about something interesting. How's the play going?" + +They talked about the play he was writing, and then they talked about one +another. They had their afternoon tea soon after four, for Mr. Manley had +to return to the Castle to deal with any letters that the five o'clock +post might bring. + +At twenty minutes to five he left Mrs. Truslove and walked back to the +Castle. He was truly in love with Helena. She was intelligent and +appreciative. She was of his own class, with his own practical outlook on +life, born of having belonged to a middle-class family of moderate means +like himself. She was the daughter of a country architect. He could +nowhere have found a more suitable wife. He was relieved about the matter +of the reason why she received an allowance from Lord Loudwater; but he +was not relieved about the matter of its being halved. Seven hundred a +year had been an excellent income for the wife of a struggling playwright +to enjoy. It had promised him the full social life in which his genius +would most rapidly develop. He had regarded that income with great +pleasure. Ever since Lord Loudwater had bidden him inform Helena of his +intention of halving her allowance he had been bitterly angered by this +barefaced attempt to rob her and consequently her future husband. In the +light of her story the attempt had grown yet more disgraceful, and he +resented it yet more bitterly. + +The further danger that Lord Loudwater might attempt to stop her income +altogether if she married, though he perceived that it was a real, even +imminent danger, did not greatly trouble him. He was full of resentment, +not fear. He felt that he loathed his employer more than ever and with +more reason. + +Holloway brought the post-bag to the library, and waited while Mr. +Manley sorted the letters, that he might take those addressed to Lady +Loudwater to her rooms and those addressed to the servants to the +housekeeper's room. + +As Mr. Manley inverted the bag and poured its contents on to the table, +the footman said: "'Utchings 'as gone, sir." + +"We must bear up," said Mr. Manley, in a tone wholly void of any sympathy +with Hutchings in his misfortune. + +"He was that furious. The things 'e said 'e'd do to his lordship!" said +Holloway in a deeply-impressed tone. + +"Threatened men live long," said Mr. Manley carelessly. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +There is in the collection of the Earl of Ellesmere a picture of the head +of a girl which the connoisseurs of the nineteenth century ascribed to +Leonardo da Vinci. The connoisseurs of the twentieth century ascribe it +to Luini. But for the colour of the hair it might have been a portrait of +Lady Loudwater, a faded portrait. It might also very well be a portrait +of one of her actual ancestresses, for her grandmother was a lady of an +old Tuscan family. + +Be that as it may, Lady Loudwater had the soft, dark, dreamy eyes, set +rather wide apart, the straight, delicate nose, the alluring lips, +promising all the kisses, the broad, well-moulded forehead, and the +faint, exactly curving eyebrows of the girl in the picture. Above all, +when Lord Loudwater was not present, the mysterious, enchanting, +lingering smile, which is perhaps the chief charm of Luini's women, +rested nearly always on her face. But while the hair of the girl in the +picture is a deep, dull red, the hair of Olivia was dark brown with +glimmers of gold in it. Also, her colouring was warmer than that of the +girl in the picture, and her alluring charm stronger. + +At a quarter to three that afternoon she came out on to the East lawn in +a silk frock and hat of a green rather sombre for the summer day. She had +been bidden by a fashionable fortune-teller never to wear green, for it +was her unlucky colour. But that tint had so given her colouring its full +values and her dark, liquid eyes so deep a depth, that she had paid no +heed to the warning. There was a bright light of expectation in her eyes, +and the alluring smile lingered on her face. + +She walked quickly across the lawn with the easy, graceful gait proper to +the accomplished golfer she was, into the shrubbery on the other side of +it. A few feet along the path through it she looked sharply back over her +shoulder. She saw no one at those windows of the East wing which looked +on to the lawn and shrubbery, but a movement on the lawn itself caught +her eye. The cat Melchisidec was following her. She did not slacken her +pace, but for a moment the smile faded from her face at the remembrance +of her husband's outburst at breakfast. Then the smile returned, subtile +and expectant. + +She did not wait for Melchisidec. She knew his way of pretending to +follow her like a dog; she knew that if she displayed any interest in +him, even showed that she was aware of his presence, he would probably +come no further. She went on at the same brisk pace till she came to the +gate in the East wood. She went through it, shut it gently, paused, and +again looked back. All of the path through the shrubbery that she could +see was empty. She turned and walked briskly along the narrow path +through the wood, and came into the long, turf-paved aisle which ran at +right angles to it. + +The middle of the aisle was deeply rutted by the wheels of the carts +which had carried away the timber from the spring thinning of the wood. +She turned to the left and sauntered slowly up the smooth turf along the +side of the aisle, a brighter light of expectation in her eyes, her smile +even more mysterious and alluring. + +She had not gone fifty yards up the aisle when Colonel Grey came limping +out of the entrance of a path on the other side of it, and quickened his +pace as he crossed it. + +She stood still, flushing faintly, gazing at him with her lips parted a +little. He looked, as he was, very young to be a Lieutenant-Colonel, and +uncommonly fragile for a V. C. At any time he would look delicate, and +he was the paler for the fact that at times he still suffered +considerable pain from his wound. But there was force in his delicate, +distinguished face. His sensitive lips could set very firm; his chin was +square; his nose had a rather heavy bridge, and usually his grey eyes +were cold and very keen. He gave the impression of being wrought of +finely-tempered steel. + +His eyes were shining so brightly at the moment that they had lost their +keenness with their coldness. He marked joyfully the flush on her face, +and did not know that he was flushing himself. + +About five feet away he stopped, gazing, or rather staring, at her, and +said in a tone of fervent conviction: "Heavens, Olivia! What a beautiful +and entrancing creature you are!" + +She smiled, flushing more deeply. He stepped forward, took her hand, and +held it very tightly. + +"Goodness! But I have been impatient for you to come!" he cried. + +"I'm not late," she said in her low, sweet, rather drawling voice. + +He let go of her hand and said: "I don't know how it is, but I've been as +restless as a cat all the morning. I'm never sure that you will be able +to come; and the uncertainty worries me." + +"But you saw me for three hours yesterday," she said, moving forward. + +"Yesterday?" he said, falling into step with her. "Yesterday is a +thousand years away. I wasn't sure that you'd come today." + +"Why shouldn't I come?" she said. + +"Loudwater might have got to know of it and stopped you coming." + +"Fortunately he doesn't take enough interest in my doings. Of course, if +I didn't turn up at a meal, he'd make a fuss, though why he should make +such a point of our having all our meals together I can't conceive. I +should certainly enjoy mine much more if I had them in my sitting-room," +she said in a dispassionate tone, for all the world as if she were +discussing the case of some one else. + +"I _am_ so worried about you," he said with a harassed air. "Ever since +that evening I heard him bullying you I've been simply worried to death +about it." + +"It was nice of you to interfere, but it was a pity," she said gently. +"It didn't do any good as far as his behaviour is concerned, and we saw +so much more of one another when you could come to the Castle." + +"Then you do want to see more of me?" he said eagerly. + +Lady Loudwater lost her smiling air; she became demureness itself, and +she said: "Well, you see--thanks to Egbert's vile temper--we have so +few friends." + +Grey frowned; she was always quick to elude him. Then he growled: "What a +name! Egbert!" + +"He can't help that. It was given him. Besides, it's a family name," she +said in a tone of fine impartiality. + +"It would be. Hogbert!" said Grey contemptuously. + +Mrs. Truslove and Mr. Manley were not the only people to ignore the +essential bullness of Lord Loudwater. + +They went on a few steps in silence; then she said: "Besides, I don't +mind his outbursts. I'm used to them." + +"I don't believe it! You're much too delicate and sensitive!" he cried. + +"But I _am_ getting used to them," she protested. + +"You never will. Has he been bullying you again?" he said, looking +anxiously into her eyes. + +"Not more than usual," she said in a wholly indifferent tone. + +"Then it is usual! I was afraid it was," he said in a miserable voice. +"What on earth is to be done about it?" + +"Why, there's nothing to be done, except just grin and bear it," she said +bravely enough, and with the conviction of one who has thought a matter +out thoroughly. + +"Then it's monstrous! Just monstrous, that the most charming and +loveliest creature in the world should be bullied by that infernal +brute!" he cried, and put his arm around her. + +The Countess was on the very point of slipping out of it when the cat +Melchisidec came out of the bushes a dozen yards ahead of them, and +with Melchisidec came a very distinct vision of Lord Loudwater's +flushed, distorted, and revolting face as he swore at her at breakfast +that morning. + +She did not slip out of the encircling arm, and Grey bent his head and +kissed her lightly on the lips. + +It was the gentlest, lightest kiss, the kiss he might have given a +pretty child, just a natural tribute to beauty and charm. + +But the harm was done. The population of Great Britain cannot really be +more than one and a half persons to the acre, and the great majority of +them live, thousands to the acre, in towns; yet it is indeed difficult +to kiss a girl during the daytime in any given acre, however thickly +wooded, without being seen by some superfluous sojourner on that acre; +and whether, or no, it was that the green frock and hat brought the +Countess the bad luck the fortuneteller had foretold, there was a +witness to that kiss. + +Undoubtedly, too, it was not the right kind of witness. If it had been an +indulgent elder not given to gossip, or a chivalrous young man not averse +himself from kisses, all might have been well. But William Roper, +under-gamekeeper, was a young man without a spark of chivalry in him, and +he had been soured in the matter of kisses by the steadfast resolve of +the young women of the village to suffer none from him. He was an +unattractive young man, not unlike the ferrets he kept at his cottage. He +was the last young man in the world, or at any rate in the neighbourhood, +to keep silent about what he had seen. + +Even so, no great harm might have been done. He might have blabbed about +the matter in the village, and the whole village and the servants of the +Castle might have talked about it for weeks and months, or even years, +without it reaching the ears of Lord Loudwater. But William Roper saw in +that kiss his royal road to Fortune. Ambitious in the grain, he was not +content with his post of under-gamekeeper; he desired to oust William +Hutchings from the post of head-gamekeeper, and though there were two +under-gamekeepers senior to him with a greater claim on that post, occupy +it himself. Here was the way to it; his lordship could not but be +grateful to the man who informed him of such goings-on; he could not but +promote him to the post of his desire. + +He wholly misjudged his lordship. Ordinary gratitude was not one of his +attributes. + +Olivia slipped out of Grey's arm, and they walked on up the aisle. But +they walked on, changed creatures--trembling, a little bemused. + +William Roper, the ill-favoured minister of Nemesis, followed them. + +At the top of the aisle they came to the pavilion, a small white marble +building in the Classic style, standing in the middle of a broad glade. + +As they went into it, Olivia said wistfully: "It's a pity I couldn't have +tea sent here." + +"I did. At least I brought it," said Grey, waving his hand towards a +basket which stood on the table. "I knew you'd be happier for tea." + +"No one has ever been so thoughtful of me as you are," she said, gazing +at him with grateful, troubled eyes. + +"Let's hope that your luck is changing," he said gravely, gazing at her +with eyes no less troubled. + +Then Melchisidec scratched at the door and mewed. Olivia let him in. +Purring in the friendliest way, he rubbed his head against Grey's leg. He +never treated Lord Loudwater with such friendliness. + +William Roper chose a tree about forty yards from the pavilion and set +his gun against the trunk. Then he filled and lit his pipe, leaned back +comfortably against the trunk, hidden by the fringe of undergrowth, and, +with his eyes on the door of the pavilion, waited. For Grey and Olivia, +never dreaming of this patient watcher, the minutes flew; they had so +many things to tell one another, so many questions to ask. At least Grey +had; Olivia, for the most part, listened without comment, unless the +flush which waxed and waned should be considered comment, to the things +he told her about herself and the many ways in which she affected him. +For William Roper the minutes dragged; he was eager to start briskly up +the royal road to Fortune. He was a slow smoker and he smoked a strong, +slow-burning twist; but he had nearly emptied the screw of paper which +held it before they came out of the door of the pavilion. + +It was a still evening, but some drift of air had carried the rank smoke +from William Roper's pipe into the glade, and it hung there. Colonel Grey +had not taken five steps before his nostrils were assailed by it. + +"Damn!" he said softly. + +"What's the matter?" said Olivia. + +She was too deeply absorbed in Grey for her senses to be alert, and +the reek of William Roper's twist had reached her nostrils, but not +her brain. + +"There's some one about," he said. "Can't you smell his vile tobacco?" + +"Bother!" said Olivia softly, and she frowned. They walked quietly on. +Grey was careful not to look about him with any show of earnestness, for +there was nothing to be gained by letting the watcher know that they had +perceived his presence. Indeed, he would have seen nothing, for the +undergrowth between him and the glade was too thin to form a good screen, +and William Roper was now behind the tree-trunk. + +Thirty yards down the broad aisle Grey said in a low voice: "This is an +infernal nuisance!" + +"Why?" said Olivia. + +"If it comes to Loudwater's ears, he'll make himself devilishly +unpleasant to you." + +"He can't make himself more unpleasant than he does," she said, in a tone +of quiet certitude and utter indifference. "But why shouldn't I have tea +with you in the pavilion? It's what it's there for." + +"All the same, Loudwater will make an infernal fuss about it, if it gets +to his ears. He'll bully you worse than ever," he said in an unhappy +tone, frowning heavily. + +"What do I care about Loudwater--now?" she said, smiling at him, and she +brushed her fingertips across the back of his hand. + +He caught her fingers and held them for a moment, but the frown +did not lift. + +"The nuisance is that, whoever it was, he had been there a long time," he +said gravely. "The glade was full of the reek of his vile tobacco. +Suppose he saw me kiss you in the drive here and then followed us?" + +"Well, if you will do such wicked things in the open air--" she +said, smiling. + +"It isn't a laughing matter, I'm afraid," he said rather heavily, +and frowning. + +"Well, I should have to consider your reputation and say that you didn't. +It would be very bad for your career if it became known that you did such +things, and Egbert would never rest till he had done everything he could +do to injure you. I should certainly declare that you didn't, and you'd +have to do the same." + +"Oh, leave me out of it! Hogbert can't touch me. It's you I'm thinking +about," he said. + +"But there's no need to worry about me. I'm not afraid of Egbert any +longer," she said, and her eyes, full of confidence and courage, met his +steadily. Then, resolved to clear the anxiety away from his mind, she +went on: "It's no use meeting trouble half-way. If some one did see us, +Egbert may not get to hear of it for days, or weeks--perhaps never." + +She did not know that they had to reckon with the ambition of +William Roper. + +"Lord, how I want to kiss you again!" he cried. + +"You'll have to wait till tomorrow," she said. + +It was as well that he did not kiss her again, for fifty yards behind +them, stealing through the wood, came William Roper, all eyes. And he had +already quite enough to tell. + +Grey walked with her through the rest of the wood and nearly to the end +of the path through the shrubbery. She spared no effort to set his mind +at ease, protesting that she did not care a rap how furiously her husband +abused her. A few yards from the edge of the East lawn they stopped, but +they lingered over their parting. She promised to meet him in the East +wood at three on the morrow. + +She walked slowly across the lawn and up to her suite of rooms, thinking +of Grey. She changed into a _peignoir_, lit a cigarette, lay down on a +couch, and went on thinking about him. She gave no thought to the matter +of whether they had been watched. Lord Loudwater had become of less +interest than ever to her; his furies seemed trivial. She had a feeling +that he had become a mere shadow in her life. + +As she lay smoking that cigarette William Roper was telling his story to +Lord Loudwater. He had waited in the wood till Colonel Grey had gone +back through it; then he had walked briskly to the back door of the +Castle and asked to see his lordship. Mary Hutchings, the second +housemaid, who had answered his knock, took him to the servants' hall, +and told Holloway what he asked. Both of them regarded him curiously; +they themselves never wanted to see his lordship, though seeing him was +part of their jobs, and one who could go out of his way to see him must +indeed be remarkable. William Roper was hardly remarkable. He was merely +somewhat repulsive. Holloway said that he would inquire whether his +lordship would see him, and went. + +As he went out of the door William Roper said, with an air of great +importance: "Tell 'is lordship as it's very partic'ler." + +Mary Hutchings' curiosity was aroused, and she tried to discover what it +was. All she gained by doing so was an acute irritation of her curiosity. +William Roper grew mysterious to the very limits of aggravation, but he +told her nothing. + +Her irritation was not alleviated when he said darkly: "You'll 'ear all +about these goings-on in time." + +She wished to hear all about them then and there. + +Holloway came back presently, looking rather sulky, and said that his +lordship would see William Roper. + +"Though why 'e should curse me because you want to see 'im very +partic'ler, I can't see," he added, with an aggrieved air. + +He led the way, and for the first time in his life William Roper found +himself entering the presence of the head of the House of Loudwater +without any sense of trepidation. He carried himself unusually upright +with an air of conscious rectitude. + +Lord Loudwater was in the smoking-room in which he had that morning dealt +with his letters with Mr. Manley. It was his favourite room, his +smoking-room, his reading-room, and his office. He had been for a long +ride, and was now lying back in an easy chair, with a long +whisky-and-soda by his side, reading the _Pall Mall Gazette_. In +literature his taste was blameless. + +Holloway, ushering William Roper into the room, said: "William Roper, +m'lord," and withdrew. + +Lord Loudwater went on reading the paragraph he had just begun. William +Roper gazed at him without any weakening of his courage, so strong was +his conviction of the nobility of the duty he was discharging, and +cleared his throat. + +Lord Loudwater finished the paragraph, scowled at the interrupter, and +said: "Well, what is it? Hey? What do you want?" + +"It's about 'er ladyship, your lordship. I thought your lordship oughter +be told about it--its not being at all the sort of thing as your lordship +would be likely to 'old with." + +There are noblemen who would, on the instant, have bidden William Roper +go to the devil. Lord Loudwater was not of these. He set the newspaper +down beside the whisky-and-soda, leaned forward, and said in a hushed +voice: "What the devil are you talking about? Hey?" + +"I seed Colonel Grey--the gentleman as is staying at the 'Cart and +'Orses'--kiss 'er in the East wood," said William Roper. + +The first emotion of Lord Loudwater was incredulous amazement. It was his +very strong conviction that his wife was a cold-blooded, passionless +creature, incapable of inspiring or feeling any warm emotion. He had +forgotten that he had married her for love--violent love. + +"You infernal liar!" he said in a rather breathless voice. + +"It ain't no lie, your lordship. What for should I go telling lies about +'er?" said William Roper in an injured tone. + +Lord Loudwater stared at him. The fellow was telling the truth. + +"And what did she do? Hey? Did she smack his face for him?" he cried. + +"No. She let 'im do it, your lordship." + +"She did?" bellowed his lordship. + +"Yes. She didn't seem a bit put out, your lordship," said William +Roper simply. + +"And what happened then?" bellowed Lord Loudwater, and he got to his +feet. + +"They walked on to the pavilion, your lordship. An' they had their tea +there. Leastways, I seed'er ladyship come to the door an' empty hot water +out of a tea-pot." + +"Tea? Tea?" said Lord Loudwater in the tone of one saying: "Arson! +Arson!" + +Then, in all his black wrath, he perceived that he must have himself in +hand to deal with the matter. He took a long draught of whisky-and-soda, +rose, walked across the room and back again, grinding his teeth, rolling +his eyes, and snapping the middle finger and thumb of his right hand. +Never had the flush of rage been so deep in his face. It was almost +purple. Never had his eyes protruded so far from his head. + +He stopped and said thickly: "How long were they in the pavilion?" + +"In the pavilion, your lordship? They were there a longish while--an hour +and a half maybe," said William Roper, with quiet pride in the impression +his information had made on his employer. + +His employer looked at him as if it was the dearest wish of his heart to +shake the life out of him then and there. It _was_ the dearest wish of +his heart. But he refrained. It would be a senseless act to slay the +goose which lay these golden eggs of information. + +"All right. Get out! And keep your tongue between your teeth, or I'll cut +it out for you! Do you understand? Hey?" he roared, approaching William +Roper with an air so menacing that the conscientious fellow backed +against the door with his arm up to shield his face. + +"I ain't a-going to say a word to no one!" he cried. + +"You'd better not! Get out!" snarled his employer. + +William Roper got out. Trembling and perspiring freely, he walked +straight through the Castle and out of the back door without pausing to +say a word to any one, though he heard the voice of Holloway discussing +his mysterious errand with Mary Hutchings in the servants' hall. He had +walked nearly a mile before he succeeded in convincing himself that his +feet were firmly set on the royal road to Fortune. His conviction was +ill-founded. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +For a good three minutes after the departure of William Roper the Lord +Loudwater walked up and down the smoking-room. His redly-glinting eyes +still rolled in a terrifying fashion, and still every few seconds he +snapped his fingers in the throes of an effort to make up his raging mind +whether to begin by an attack on his wife or on Colonel Grey. He could +not remember ever having been so angry in his life; now and again his red +eyes saw red. + +Then of a sudden he made up his mind that he was at the moment +angrier with Colonel Grey. He would deal with him first. Olivia could +wait. He hurried out to the stables and bellowed for a horse with +such violence that two startled grooms saddled one for him in little +more than a minute. + +He made no attempt to think what he would say to Colonel Grey. He was +too angry. He galloped the two miles to the "Cart and Horses" at +Bellingham, where Colonel Grey was staying, in order to restore his +health and to fish. + +At the door of the inn he bellowed: "Ostler! Ostler!" Then without +waiting to see whether an ostler came, he threw the reins on his horse's +neck, left it to its own devices, strode into the tap-room, and bellowed +to the affrighted landlady, Mrs. Turnbull, to take him straight to +Colonel Grey. Trembling, she led him upstairs to Grey's sitting-room on +the first floor. Before she could knock, he opened the door, bounced +through it, and slammed it. + +Grey was sitting at the other side of the table, looking through a book +of flies. He appeared to be quite unmoved by the sudden entry of the +infuriated nobleman, or by his raucous bellow: + +"So here you are, you infernal scoundrel!" + +He looked at him with a cold, distasteful eye, and said in a clear, very +unpleasant voice: "Another time knock before you come into my room." + +Lord Loudwater had not expected to be received in this fashion; dimly he +had seen Grey cowering. + +He paused, then said less loudly: "Knock? Hey? Knock? Knock at the door +of an infernal scoundrel like you?" His voice began to gather volume +again. "Likely I should take the trouble! I know all about your +scoundrelly game." + +Colonel Grey remembered that Olivia had said that she proposed to deny +the kiss, and his course was quite clear to him. + +"I don't know whether you're drunk, or mad," he said in a quiet, +contemptuous voice. + +This again was not what Lord Loudwater had expected. But Grey was a +strong believer in the theory that the attacker has the advantage, and +he had an even stronger belief that an enemy in a fury is far less +dangerous than an enemy calm. + +"You're lying! You know I'm neither!" bellowed Lord Loudwater. "You +kissed Olivia--Lady Loudwater--in the East wood. You know you did. You +were seen doing it." + +"You're raving, man," said Colonel Grey quietly, in a yet more +unpleasant tone. + +The interview was not going as Lord Loudwater had seen it. He had to +swallow violently before he could say: "You were seen doing it! Seen! By +one of my gamekeepers!" + +"You must have paid him to say so," said Colonel Grey with quiet +conviction. + +Lord Loudwater was a little staggered by the accusation. He gasped and +stuttered: "D-D-Damn your impudence! P-P-Paid to say it!" + +"Yes, paid," said Colonel Grey, without raising his voice. "You happened +to hear that we had tea in the pavilion in the wood--probably from Lady +Loudwater herself--and you made up this stupid lie and paid your +gamekeeper to tell it in order to score off her. It's exactly the dog's +trick a bullying ruffian like you would play a woman." + +"D-D-Dog's trick? Me?" stammered Lord Loudwater, gasping. + +He was used to saying things of this kind to other people; not to have +them said to him. + +"Yes, you. You know that you're a wretched bully and cad," said Colonel +Grey, with just a little more warmth in his tone. + +Had Lord Loudwater's belief that William Roper had told him the truth +about the kiss been weaker, it might have been shaken by the +whole-hearted thoroughness of Grey's attack. But William Roper had +impressed that belief on him deeply. He was sure that Grey had kissed +Lady Loudwater. + +The certainty spurred him to a fresh effort, and he cried: "It's no good +your trying to humbug me--none at all. I've got evidence--plenty of +evidence! And I'm going to act on it, too. I'm going to hound you out of +the Army and that jade of a wife of mine out of decent society. Do you +think, because I don't spend four or five months every year in that +rotten hole, London, I haven't got any influence? Hey? If you do, you're +damn well wrong. I've got more than enough twice over to clear a +scoundrel like you out of the Army." + +"Don't talk absurd nonsense!" said Grey calmly. + +"Nonsense? Hey? Absurd nonsense?" howled Lord Loudwater on a new note of +exasperation. + +"Yes, nonsense. A disreputable cad like you can't hurt me in any way, and +well you know it," said Grey with painstaking distinctness. + +"Not hurt you? Hey? I can't hurt the corespondent in a divorce case? +Hey?" said Lord Loudwater rather breathlessly. + +"As if a man who has abused and bullied his wife as you have could get a +divorce!" said Grey, and he laughed a gentle, contemptuous laugh, galling +beyond words. + +It galled Lord Loudwater surely enough; he snapped his fingers four times +and gibbered. + +"I tell you what it is: I've had enough of your manners," said Grey. +"What you want is a lesson. And if I hear that you've been bullying Lady +Loudwater about this simple matter of my having had tea with her, I'll +give it you--with a horsewhip." + +"You'll give me a lesson? You?" whispered Lord Loudwater, and he danced a +little frantically. + +"Yes. I'll give you the soundest thrashing any man hereabouts has had for +the last twenty years, if I have to begin by knocking your ugly head off +your shoulders," said Grey, raising his clear voice, so that for the +first time Mrs. Turnbull, trembling, but thrilled, on the landing, heard +what was being said. + +The enunciation of Lord Loudwater had been thick, his words had +been slurred. + +"You? You thrash me?" he howled. + +"Yes, me. Now get out!" + +Lord Loudwater gnashed his teeth at him and again snapped his fingers. He +burned to rush round the table and hammer the life out of Grey, but he +could not do it; violent words, not violent deeds, were his +accomplishment. Moreover, there was something daunting in Grey's cold +and steady eye. He snapped his fingers again, and, pouring out a stream +of furious abuse, turned to the door and flung out of it. Mrs. Turnbull +scuttled aside into Grey's bedroom. + +Half-way down the stairs Lord Loudwater paused to bellow: "I'll ruin you +yet, you scoundrel! Mark my word! I _will_ hound you out of the Army!" + +He flung out of the house and found that the ostler had taken his horse +round to the stable, removed its bridle, and given it a feed of corn. He +cursed him heartily. + +Grey rose, shut the door, and laughed gently. Then he frowned. Of a +sudden he perceived that, natural as had been his manner of dealing with +Lord Loudwater, he had handled him badly. At least, it was possible that +he had handled him badly. It would have been wiser, perhaps, to have been +suave and firm rather than firm and provoking. But it was not likely that +suavity would have been of much use; the brute would probably have +regarded it as weakness. But for Olivia's sake he ought probably to have +tried to soothe him. As it was, the brute had gone raging off and would +vent his fury on her. + +What had he better do? + +He was not long perceiving that there was nothing that he could do. The +natural thing was to go to the Castle and prevent her husband--by force, +if need be--from abusing and bullying Olivia. That was what his +strongest instincts bade him do. It was quite impossible. It would +compromise her beyond repair. He had done her harm enough by his +impulsive indiscretion in the wood. His face slowly settled into a set +scowl as he cudgelled his brains to find a way of coming effectually to +her help. It seemed a vain effort, but a way had to be found. + +Lord Loudwater galloped half-way to the Castle in a furious haste to +punish Olivia for allowing Grey to make love to her, and even more for +the contemptuous way in which Grey had treated him. He had hopes also +of bullying her into a confession of the truth of William Roper's +story. But Grey had excited him to a height of fury at which not even +he could remain without exhaustion. In a reaction he reined in his +horse to a canter, then to a trot, and then to a walk. He found that he +was feeling tired. + +He continued, however, to chafe at his injuries, but with less vehemence, +and he was still resolved to make a strong effort to draw the confession +from Olivia. On reaching the Castle, he did not go to her at once. He sat +down in an easy chair in his smoking-room and drank two +whiskies-and-sodas. + +In the background of Olivia's mind, meditating pleasantly on her pleasant +afternoon, there had been a patient and resigned expectation that +presently her conscience would begin to reproach her for allowing Grey to +make love to her. But the minutes slipped by, and she did not begin to +feel that she had been wicked. The meditation remained pleasant. At last +she realized suddenly that she was not going to feel wicked. She was +surprised and even a trifle horror-stricken by her insensibility. Then, +fairly faced by it, she came to the conclusion that, in a woman cursed +with such a brute of a husband, such insensibility was not only natural, +it was even proper. + +Her woman's craving to be loved and to love was the strongest of her +emotions, and it had gone unsatisfied for so long. Her husband had +killed, or rather extirpated, her fondness for him before they had been +married a month. She was inclined to believe that she had never really +loved him at all. He had certainly ceased to love her before they had +been married a fortnight, if, indeed, he had ever loved her at all. She +had no child; she was an orphan without sisters or brothers. Her husband +let her see but little of the friends who were fond of her. She began to +suspect that her conscience did not reproach her because she had merely +acted on her natural right to love and be loved. This conclusion brought +her mind again to the consideration of Antony Grey, and again she let her +thoughts dwell on him. + +The gong, informing her that it was time to dress for dinner, interrupted +this pleasant occupation. She had her bath, put herself into the hands of +her maid, Elizabeth Twitcher, and resumed her meditation. She was at +once so deeply absorbed in it that she did not observe her maid's sullen +and depressed air. + +She was presently interrupted again, and in a manner far more violent and +startling than the summons of the gong. The door was jerked open, and her +refreshed husband strode into the room. + +"I know all about your little game, madam!" he cried. "You've been +letting that blackguard Grey make love to you! You kissed him in the East +wood this afternoon!" + +The mysterious smile faded from the face of Olivia, and an expression of +the most natural astonishment took its place. + +"I sometimes think that you are quite mad, Egbert," she said in her slow, +musical voice. + +Elizabeth Twitcher continued her deft manipulation of a thick strand of +hair without any change in her sullen and depressed air. To all seeming, +she was uninterested, or deaf. + +Lord Loudwater had expected, in the face of Olivia's gentleness, to have +to work himself up to a proper height of indignant fury by degrees. The +echo of Grey's accusation from the mouth of his wife raised him to it on +the instant and without an effort. + +"Don't lie to me!" he bellowed. "It's no good whatever! I tell +you, I know!" + +Olivia was surprised to find herself wholly free from her old fear of +him. The fact that she was in love with Grey and he with her had already +worked a change in her. These were the only things in the world of any +real importance. That clear knowledge gave her a new confidence and a new +strength. Her husband had been able to frighten her nearly out of her +wits. Now he could not; and she could use them. + +"I'm not lying at all. I really do believe you're mad--often," she said +very distinctly. + +Once more Lord Loudwater was compelled to grind his teeth. Then he +laughed a harsh, barking laugh, and cried: "It's no good! I've just had +a short interview with that scoundrel Grey. And I put the fear of God +into him, I can tell you. I made him admit that you'd kissed him in the +East wood." + +For a breath Olivia was taken aback. Then she perceived clearly that it +was a lie. He could not put the fear of God into Grey. Besides, Grey had +kissed her, not she him. + +"It's you who are lying," she said quickly and with spirit. "How could +Colonel Grey admit a thing that never happened?" + +Lord Loudwater perceived that it was going to be harder to wring the +confession from her than he had expected. Checked, he paused. Then +Elizabeth Twitcher caught his attention. + +"Here: you--clear out!" he said. + +Elizabeth Twitcher caught her mistress's eye in the glass. Olivia +made no sign. + +"I can't leave her ladyship's hair in this state, your lordship," said +Elizabeth Twitcher with sullen firmness. + +"You do as you're told and clear out!" bellowed his lordship. + +"I don't want to be half an hour late for dinner," said Olivia, accepting +the diversion and ready to make the most of it. + +Elizabeth Twitcher looked at Lord Loudwater, saw more clearly than +ever his likeness to the loathed James Hutchings, and made up her mind +to do nothing that he bade her do. She went on dressing her mistress's +hair sullenly. + +"Are you going? Or am I to throw you out of the room?" cried Lord +Loudwater in a blustering voice. + +"Don't be silly, Egbert!" said Olivia sharply. + +From the height of her new emotional experience she felt that her husband +was merely a noisy and obnoxious boy. This was, indeed, quite plain to +her. She felt years older than he and very much wiser. + +Lord Loudwater, with a quite unusual glimmer of intelligence, perceived +that bringing Elizabeth Twitcher into the matter had been a mistake. It +had weakened his main action. In a less violent but more malevolent +voice he said: + +"Silly? Hey? I'll show you all about that, you little jade! You clear +out of this first thing to-morrow morning. My lawyers will settle your +hash for you. I'll deal with that blackguard Grey myself. I'll hound him +out of the Army inside of a month. Perhaps it'll be a consolation to you +to know that you've done him in as well as yourself." + +He turned on his heel, left the room with a positively melodramatic +stride, and slammed the door behind him. + +Olivia was stricken by a sudden panic. She had lost all fear of her +husband as far as she herself was concerned. He had become a mere +offensive windbag. She did not care whether he did, or did not, try to +divorce her. Even on the terms of so great a scandal it would be a cheap +deliverance. But Antony was another matter.... She could not bear that he +should be ruined on her account.... It was intolerable ... not to be +thought of.... She must find some way of preventing it. + +She began to cudgel her brains for that way of preventing it, but in +vain. She could devise no plan. The more she considered the matter, the +worse it grew. She could not bear to be associated in Antony's mind with +disaster; she desired most keenly to stand for everything that was +pleasant and delightful in his life. She would not let her brute of a +husband spoil both their lives. He had already spoiled enough of hers. + +After his injunction to her to leave the Castle first thing next +morning, she took it that they would hardly dine together, and told +Elizabeth Twitcher to tell Wilkins to serve her dinner in her boudoir. +Also, she refused to put on an evening gown, saying that the _peignoir_ +she was wearing was more comfortable on such a hot night. Last of all, +she told her to pack some of her clothes that night. + +Elizabeth Twitcher, stirred somewhat out of her brooding on her own +troubles by this trouble of her mistress, looked at her thoughtfully and +said: "I shouldn't go, m'lady. It'll look as if you agreed with what his +lordship said. And it's only William Roper as has been telling these +lies. He asked to see his lordship about something very partic'ler before +his lordship went out. And who's going to pay any heed to William Roper?" + +"William Roper? Who is William Roper? What kind of a man is he?" said +Olivia quickly. + +"He's an under-gamekeeper, m'lady, and the biggest little beast on the +estate. Everybody hates William Roper," said Elizabeth with conviction. + +This was satisfactory as far as it went. The worse her husband's evidence +was the freer it left her to take her own course of action. But it was no +great comfort, for she was but little concerned about the harm he could +do her. Indeed, she was only concerned about the harm he could do Antony. +She returned to her search for a method of preventing that harm during +her dinner, and after her dinner she continued that search without any +success. This injury to Antony, for her the central fact of the +situation, weighed on her spirit more and more heavily. + +The longer she pondered it the more harassed she grew. The most fantastic +schemes for baulking her husband and saving Antony came thronging into +her mind. She rose and walked restlessly up and down the room, working +herself up into a veritable fever. + +Mr. Manley, having dealt with the letters which had come by the +five-o'clock post, read half a dozen chapters of the last published novel +of Artzybachev with the pleasure he never failed to draw from the works +of that author. Then he dressed and set forth, in a very cheerful spirit, +to dine with Helena Truslove. His cheerful expectations were wholly +fulfilled. She had divined that he was endowed, not only with a romantic +spirit, but with a hearty and discriminating appetite, and was careful to +give him good food and wine and plenty of both. With his coffee he smoked +one of Lord Loudwater's favourite cigars. Expanding naturally, he talked +with spirit and intelligence during dinner, and made love to her after +dinner with even more spirit and intelligence. As a rule, he stayed on +the nights he dined with her till a quarter to eleven. But that night she +dismissed him at ten o'clock, saying that she was feeling tired and +wished to go to bed early. Smoking another of Lord Loudwater's favourite +cigars, he walked briskly back to the Castle, more firmly convinced than +ever that every possible step must be taken to prevent any diminution of +the income of a woman of such excellent taste in food and wine. It would +be little short of a crime to discourage the exercise of her fine natural +gift for stimulating the genius of a promising dramatist. + +He was not in the habit of going to bed early, and having put on slippers +and an old and comfortable coat, he once more turned to the novel by +Artzybachev. He read two more chapters, smoking a pipe, and then he +became aware that he was thirsty. + +He could have mixed himself a whisky and soda then and there, for he had +both in the cupboard, in his sitting-room. But he was a stickler for the +proprieties: he had drunk red wine, Burgundy with his dinner and port +after it, and after red wine brandy is the proper spirit. There would be +brandy in the tantalus in the small dining-room. + +He went quietly down the stairs. The big hall, lighted by a single +electric bulb, was very dim, and he took it that, as was their habit, the +servants had already gone to bed. As he came to the bottom of the stairs +the door at the back of the hall opened; James Hutchings came through the +doorway and shut the door quietly behind him. + +Mr. Manley stood still. James Hutchings came very quietly down the hall, +saw him, and started. + +"Good evening, Hutchings. I thought you'd left us," said Mr. Manley, in a +rather unpleasant tone. + +"You may take your oath to it!" said James Hutchings truculently, in a +much more unpleasant tone than Mr. Manley had used. "I just came back to +get a box of cigarettes I left in the cupboard of my pantry. I don't want +any help in smoking them from any one here." + +He opened the library door gently, went quietly through it, and drew it +to behind him, leaving Mr. Manley frowning at it. It was a fact that +Hutchings carried a packet, which might very well have been cigarettes; +but Mr. Manley did not believe his story of his errand. He took it that +he was leaving the Castle by one of the library windows. Well, it was no +business of his. + +At a few minutes past eight the next morning he was roused from the +deep dreamless sleep which follows good food and good wine well +digested, by a loud knocking on his door. It was not the loud, steady +and prolonged knocking which the third housemaid found necessary to +wake him. It was more vigorous and more staccato and jerkier. Also, a +voice was calling loudly: + +"Mr. Manley, sir! Mr. Manley! Mr. Manley!" + +For all the noise and insistence of the calling Mr. Manley did not awake +quickly. It took him a good minute to realize that he was Herbert Manley +and in bed, and half a minute longer to gather that the knocking and +calling were unusual and uncommonly urgent. He sat up in bed and yawned +terrifically. + +Then he slipped out of bed--the knocking and calling still +continued--unlocked the door, and found Holloway, the second footman, on +the threshold looking scared and horror-stricken. + +"Please, sir, his lordship's dead!" he cried. "He's bin murdered! Stabbed +through the 'eart!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +"Murdered? Lord Loudwater?" said Mr. Manley with another terrific yawn, +and he rubbed his eyes. Then he awoke completely and said: "Send a groom +for Black the constable at once. Yes--and tell Wilkins to telephone the +news to the Chief Inspector at Low Wycombe. Hurry up! I'll get dressed +and be down in a few minutes. Hurry up!" + +Holloway turned to go. + +"Stop!" said Mr. Manley. "Tell Wilkins to see that no one disturbs Lady +Loudwater. I'll break the news myself when she is dressed." + +"Yes, sir," said Holloway, and ran down the corridor. + +Mr. Manley was much quicker than usual making his toilet, but thorough. +He foresaw a hard and trying day before him, and he wished to start it +fresh and clean. He would come into contact with new people; he saw +himself playing an important rôle in a most important affair; he would +naturally and as usual make himself valued. A slovenly air did not +conduce to that. It seemed fitting to put on his darkest tweed suit and a +black necktie. + +When he came--briskly for him--downstairs he found a group of women +servants in the hall, outside the door of the smoking-room, three of them +snivelling, and Wilkins and Holloway in the smoking-room itself, standing +and staring with a wholly helpless air at the body of Lord Loudwater, +huddled in the easy chair in which he had been wont to sleep after dinner +every evening. + +"He's been stabbed, sir. There's that knife which was in the inkstand on +the library table stickin' in 'is 'eart," said Wilkins in a dismal voice. + +Mr. Manley glanced at the dead man. He looked to have been stabbed as he +slept. His body had sagged down in the chair, and his head was sunk +between his shoulders, so that he appeared almost neckless. His once so +florid face was of an even, dead, yellowish pallor. + +Mr. Manley's glance at the dead man was brief. Then he saw that the door +between the smoking-room and the library was ajar. He could not see the +library windows without crossing the smoking-room. That he would not do. +He was a stickler for correctness in all matters, and he knew that the +scene of a crime must be left untrampled. + +He turned and said: "We will leave everything just as it is till the +police come. And telephone at once to Doctor Thornhill, and ask him to +come. If he is out, tell them to get word to him, Wilkins." + +Wilkins and Holloway filed out of the room before him; he followed them +out, locked the door and put the key in his pocket. Then he opened the +door from the hall into the library. The long window nearest the +smoking-room door was open. + +The group of servants were all watching him; never had he moved or +acted with an air of graver or greater importance. His portliness gave +it weight. + +"Has any of you opened the windows of the library this morning?" he said. + +No one answered. + +Then Mrs. Carruthers, the housekeeper, said: "Clarke does the library +every morning. Have you done it this morning, Clarke?" + +"No, mum. I hadn't finished the green droring-room when Mr. Holloway +brought the sad news," said one of the housemaids. + +Mr. Manley locked the library door and put that key also in his pocket. + +Then he said in a tone of authority: "I think, Mrs. Carruthers, that the +sooner we all have breakfast the better. I for one am going to have a +hard day, and I shall need all my strength. We all shall." + +"Certainly, Mr. Manley. You're quite right. We shall all need our +strength. You shall have your breakfast at once. I'll have it sent to +the little dining-room. You would like to be on the spot. Come along, +girls. Wilkins, and you, Holloway, get on with your work as quickly as +you can," said Mrs. Carruthers, driving her flock before her towards the +servants' quarters. + +"Thank you. And will you see that no one wakes Lady Loudwater before +her usual hour, or tells her what has happened? I will tell her myself +and try to break the news with as little of a shock as possible," said +Mr. Manley. + +"Twitcher hasn't bin downstairs yet. She doesn't know anything about it," +said one of the maids. + +"Send her straight to me--to the terrace when she does come down," said +Mr. Manley, walking towards the hall door. + +He felt that after the sight of the dead man's face the fresh morning air +would do him good. + +There came a sudden burst of excited chatter from the women as they +passed beyond the door into the back of the Castle. All their tongues +seemed to be loosed at once. Mr. Manley went out of the Castle door, +crossed the drive, and walked up and down the lawn. He took long breaths +through his nostrils; the sight of the dead man's yellowish face had been +unpleasant indeed to a man of his sensibility. + +In about five minutes Elizabeth Twitcher came out of the big door and +across the lawn to him. She was looking startled and scared. + +"Mrs. Carruthers said you wished to speak to me, sir?" she said quickly. + +"Yes. I propose to break the news of this very shocking affair to Lady +Loudwater myself. She's rather fragile, I fancy. And I think that it +needs doing with the greatest possible tact--so as to lessen the shock," +said Mr. Manley in an impressive voice. + +Elizabeth Twitcher gazed at him with a growing suspicion in her eyes. +Then she said: "It isn't--it isn't a trap?" + +"A trap? What kind of a trap? What on earth do you mean?" said Mr. +Manley, in a not unnatural bewilderment at the odd suggestion. + +"You might be trying to take her off her guard," said Elizabeth Twitcher +in a tone of deep suspicion. + +"Her guard against what?" said Mr. Manley, still bewildered. + +Elizabeth's Twitcher's eyes lost some of their suspicion, and he heard +her breathe a faint sigh of relief. + +"I thought as 'ow--as how some of them might have told you what his +lordship was going to do to her, and that she--she stuck that knife into +him so as to stop it," she said. + +"What on earth are you talking about? What was his lordship going to do +to her?" cried Mr. Manley, in a tone of yet greater bewilderment. + +"He was going to divorce her ladyship. He told her so last night when I +was doing her hair for dinner," said Elizabeth Twitcher. + +She paused and stared at him, frowning. Then she went on: "And, like a +fool, I went and talked about it--to some one else." + +Mr. Manley glared at her in a momentary speechlessness; then found his +voice and cried: "But, gracious heavens! You don't suspect her ladyship +of having murdered Lord Loudwater?" + +"No, I don't. But there'll be plenty as will," said Elizabeth Twitcher +with conviction. + +"It's absurd!" cried Mr. Manley. + +Elizabeth Twitcher shook her head. + +"You must allow as she had reason enough--for a lady, that is. He was +always swearing at her and abusing her, and it isn't at all the kind of +thing a lady can stand. And this divorce coming on the top of it all," +she said in a dispassionate tone. + +"You mustn't talk like this! There's no saying what trouble you may +make!" cried Mr. Manley in a tone of stern severity. + +"I'm not going to talk like that--only to you, sir. You're a gentleman, +and it's safe. What I'm afraid of is that I've talked too much +already--last night that is," she said despondently. + +"Well, don't make it worse by talking any more. And let me know when your +mistress is dressed, and I'll come up and break the news of this shocking +affair to her." + +"Very good, sir," said Elizabeth, and with a gloomy face and depressed +air she went back into the Castle. + +She had scarcely disappeared, when Holloway came out to tell Mr. Manley +that his breakfast was ready for him in the little dining-room. Mr. +Manley set about it with the firmness of a man preparing himself against +a strenuous day. The frown with which Elizabeth Twitcher's suggestion had +puckered his brow faded from it slowly, as the excellence of the chop he +was eating soothed him. Holloway waited on him, and Mr. Manley asked him +whether any of the servants had heard anything suspicious in the night. +Holloway assured him that none of them had. + +Mr. Manley had just helped himself a second time to eggs and bacon when +Wilkins brought in Robert Black, the village constable. Mr. Manley had +seen him in the village often enough, a portly, grave man, who regarded +his position and work with the proper official seriousness. Mr. Manley +told him that he had locked the door of the smoking-room and of the +library, in order that the scene of the crime might be left undisturbed +for examination by the Low Wycombe police. Robert Black did not appear +pleased by this precaution. He would have liked to demonstrate his +importance by making some preliminary investigations himself. Mr. Manley +did not offer to hand the keys over to him. He intended to have the +credit of the precautions he had taken with the constable's superiors. + +He said: "I suppose you would like to question the servants to begin +with. Take the constable to the servants' hall, give him a glass of beer, +and let him get to work, Wilkins." + +He spoke in the imperative tone proper to a man in charge of such an +important affair, and Robert Black went. Mr. Manley could not see that +the grave fellow could do any harm by his questions, or, for that +matter, any good. + +He finished his breakfast and lighted his pipe. Elizabeth Twitcher came +to tell him that Lady Loudwater was dressed. He told her to tell her that +he would like to see her, and followed her up the stairs. The maid went +into Lady Loudwater's sitting-room, came out, and ushered him into it. + +His strong sense of the fitness of things caused him to enter the room +slowly, with an air grave to solemnity. Olivia greeted him with a faint, +rather forced smile. + +He thought that she was paler than usual, and lacked something of her +wonted charm. She seemed rather nervous. She thought that he had come +from her husband with an unpleasant and probably most insulting message. + +He cleared his throat and said in the deep, grave voice he felt +appropriate: "I've come on a very painful errand, Lady Loudwater--a very +painful errand." + +"Indeed?" she said, and looked at him with uneasy, anxious eyes. + +"I'm sorry to tell you that Lord Loudwater has had an accident, a very +bad accident," he said. + +"An accident? Egbert?" she cried, in a tone of surprise that sounded +genuine enough. + +It gave Mr. Manley to understand that she had expected some other kind of +painful communication--doubtless about the divorce Lord Loudwater had +threatened. But he had composed a series of phrases leading up by a nice +gradation to the final announcement, and he went on: "Yes. There is very +little likelihood of his recovering from it." + +Olivia looked at him queerly, hesitating. Then she said: "Do you mean +that he's going to be a cripple for life?" + +"I mean that he will not live to be a cripple," said Mr. Manley, pleased +to insert a further phrase into his series. + +"Is it as bad as that?" she said, in a tone which again gave Mr. Manley +the impression that she was thinking of something else and had not +realized the seriousness of his words. + +"I'm sorry to say that it's worse than that. Lord Loudwater is dead," he +said, in his deepest, most sympathetic voice. + +"Dead?" she said, in a shocked tone which sounded to him rather forced. + +"Murdered," he said. + +"Murdered?" cried Olivia, and Mr. Manley had the feeling that there was +less surprise than relief in her tone. + +"I have sent for Dr. Thornhill and the police from Low Wycombe," he said. +"They ought to have been here before this. And I am going to telegraph to +Lord Loudwater's solicitors. You would like to have their help as soon as +possible, I suppose. There seems nothing else to be done at the moment." + +"Then you don't know who did it?" said Olivia. + +Her tone did not display a very lively interest in the matter or any +great dismay, and Mr. Manley felt somewhat disappointed. He had expected +much more emotion from her than she was displaying, even though the death +of her ill-tempered husband must be a considerable relief. He had +expected her to be shocked and horror-stricken at first, before she +realized that she had been relieved of a painful burden. But she seemed +to him to be really less moved by the murder of her husband than she +would have been, had the Lord Loudwater carried out his not infrequent +threat of shooting, or hanging, or drowning the cat Melchisidec. + +"No one so far seems to be able to throw any light at all on the crime," +said Mr. Manley. + +Olivia frowned thoughtfully, but seemed to have no more to say on +the matter. + +"Well, then, I'll telegraph to Paley and Carrington, and ask Mr. +Carrington to come down," said Mr. Manley. + +"Please," said Olivia. + +Mr. Manley hesitated; then he said: "And I suppose that I'd better be +getting some one to make arrangements about the funeral?" + +"Please do everything you think necessary," said Olivia. "In fact, you'd +better manage everything till Mr. Carrington comes. A man is much better +at arranging important matters like this than a woman." + +"You may rely on me," said Mr. Manley, with a reassuring air, and greatly +pleased by this recognition of his capacity. "And allow me to assure you +of my sincerest sympathy." + +"Thank you," said Olivia, and then with more animation and interest she +added: "And I suppose I shall want some black clothes." + +"Shall I write to your dressmaker?" said Mr. Manley. + +"No, thank you. I shall be able to tell her what I want better myself." + +Mr. Manley withdrew in a pleasant temper. It was true that as a student +of dramatic emotion he had been disappointed by the calmness with which +Olivia had received the news of the murder; but she had instructed him to +do everything he thought fit. He saw his way to controlling the +situation, and ruling the Castle till some one with a better right should +supersede him. He was halfway along the corridor before he realized that +Olivia had asked no single question about the circumstance of the crime. +Indifference could go no further. But--he paused, considering--was it +indifference? Could she--could she have known already? + +As he came down the stairs Wilkins opened the door of the big hall, and a +man of medium height, wearing a tweed suit and carrying a soft hat and a +heavy malacca cane, entered briskly. He looked about thirty. On his heels +came a tall, thin police inspector in uniform. + +Mr. Manley came forward, and the man in the tweed suit said: "My name is +Flexen, George Flexen. I'm acting as Chief Constable. Major Arbuthnot is +away for a month. I happened to be at the police station at Low Wycombe +when your news came, and I thought it best to come myself. This is +Inspector Perkins." + +Mr. Manley introduced himself as the secretary of the murdered man, and +with an air of quiet importance told Mr. Flexen that Lady Loudwater had +put him in charge of the Castle till her lawyer came. Then he took the +keys of the smoking-room and the library door from his pocket and said: + +"I locked up the room in which the dead body is, and the library through +which there is also access to it, leaving everything just as it was when +the body was found. I do not think that any traces which the criminal has +left, if, that is, he has left any, can have been obliterated." + +He spoke with the quiet pride of a man who has done the right thing in +an emergency. + +"That's good," said Mr. Flexen, in a tone of warm approval. "It +isn't often that we get a clear start like that. We'll examine these +rooms at once." + +Mr. Manley went to the door of the smoking-room and was about to unlock +it, when Dr. Thornhill, a big, bluff man of fifty-five, bustled in. Mr. +Manley introduced him to Mr. Flexen; then he unlocked the door and +opened it. + +The doctor was leading the way into the smoking-room when Mr. Flexen +stepped smartly in front of him and said: "Please stay outside all of +you. I'll make the examination myself first." + +He spoke quietly, but in the tone of a man used to command. + +"But, for anything we know, his lordship may still be alive," said Dr. +Thornhill in a somewhat blustering tone, and pushing forward. "As his +medical adviser, it's my duty to make sure at once." + +"I'll tell you whether Lord Loudwater is alive or not. Don't let any one +cross the threshold, Perkins," said Mr. Flexen, with quiet decision. + +Perkins laid a hand on the doctor's arm, and the doctor said: "A nice way +of doing things! Arbuthnot would have given his first attention to his +lordship!" + +"I'm going to," said Mr. Flexen quietly. + +He went to the dead man, looked in his pale face, lifted his hand, let +it fall, and said: "Been dead hours." + +Then he examined carefully the position of the knife. He was more than a +minute over it. Then he drew it gingerly from the wound by the ring at +the end of it. It was one of these Swedish knives, the blades of which +are slipped into the handle when they are not being used. + +"I think that's the knife that lay, open, in the big ink-stand in the +library. We used it as a paper-knife, and to cut string with," said Mr. +Manley, who was watching him with most careful attention. + +"It may have some evidence on the handle," said Mr. Flexen, still holding +it by the ring, and he drove the point of it into the pad of blotting +paper on which Mr. Manley had been wont to write letters at the murdered +man's dictation. + +"And how am I to tell whether the wound was self-inflicted, or not?" +cried the doctor in an aggrieved tone. + +"If you will get some of the servants, you can remove the body to any +room convenient and make your examination. It's a clean stab into the +heart, and it looks to me as if the person who used that knife had some +knowledge of anatomy. Most people who strike for the heart get the middle +of the left lung," said Mr. Flexen. + +So saying, he gently drew the easy chair, in which the body was huddled, +nearer the door by its back. Mr. Manley bade Holloway fetch Wilkins and +two of the grooms, and then, eager for hints of the actions of a +detective, so useful to a dramatist, gave all his attention again to the +proceedings of Mr. Flexen, who was down on one knee on the spot in which +the chair had stood, studying the carpet round it. He rose and walked +slowly towards the door which opened into the library, paused on the +threshold to bid Perkins examine the chair and the clothes of the +murdered man, and went into the library. + +He was still in it when the footman and the grooms lifted the body of +Lord Loudwater out of the chair, and carried it up to his bedroom. Mr. +Manley stayed on the threshold of the smoking-room. His interest in the +doings of Mr. Flexen forbade him leaving it to superintend decorously the +removal of the body. + +Presently Mr. Flexen came back, and as he walked round the room, +examining the rest of it, especially the carpet, Mr. Manley studied the +man himself, the detective type. He was about five feet eight, +broad-shouldered out of proportion to that height, but thin. He had an +uncommonly good forehead, a square, strong chin, a hooked nose and thin, +set lips, which gave him a rather predatory air, belied rather by his +pleasant blue eyes. The sun wrinkles round their corners and his sallow +complexion gave Mr. Manley the impression that he had spent some years in +the tropics and suffered for it. + +When Mr. Flexen had examined the room, though Inspector Perkins had +already done so, he felt round the cushions of the easy chair in which +Lord Loudwater had been stabbed, found nothing, and stood beside it in +quiet thought. + +Then he looked at Mr. Manley and said: "The murderer must have been some +one with whom Lord Loudwater was so familiar that he took no notice of +his or her movements, for he came up to him from the front, or walked +round the chair to the front of him, and stabbed him with a quite +straightforward thrust. Lord Loudwater should have actually seen the +knife--unless by any chance he was asleep." + +"He was sure to be asleep," said Mr. Manley quickly. "He always did sleep +in the evening--generally from the time he finished his cigar till he +went to bed. I think he acquired the habit from coming back from hunting, +tired and sleepy. Besides, I came down for a drink between eleven and +twelve, and I'm almost sure I heard him snore. He snored like the devil." + +"Slept every evening, did he? That puts a different complexion on the +business," said Mr. Flexen. "The murderer need _not_ have been any one +with whom he was familiar." + +"No. He need not. But are you quite sure that the wound wasn't +self-inflicted--that it wasn't a case of suicide?" said Mr. Manley. + +"No, I'm not; and I don't think that that doctor--what's his name? +Thornhill--can be sure either. But why should Lord Loudwater have +committed suicide?" + +"Well, he had found out, or thought he had found out, something about +Lady Loudwater, and was threatening to start an action against her for +divorce. At least, so her maid told me this morning. And as he wholly +lacked balance, he might in a fury of jealousy have made away with +himself," said Mr. Manley thoughtfully. + +"Was he so fond of Lady Loudwater?" said Mr. Flexen in a somewhat +doubtful tone. + +He had heard stories about Lord Loudwater's treatment of his wife. + +"He didn't show any great fondness for her, I'm bound to say. In fact, +he was always bullying her. But he wouldn't need to be very fond of any +one to go crazy with jealousy about her. He was a man of strong passions +and quite unbalanced. I suppose he had been so utterly spoilt as a +child, a boy, and a young man, that he never acquired any power of +self-control at all." + +"M'm, I should have thought that in that case he'd have been more likely +to murder the man," said Mr. Flexen. + +"He was," said Mr. Manley in ready agreement. "But the other's always +possible." + +"Yes; one has to bear every possibility in mind," said Mr. Flexen. "I've +heard that he was a bad-tempered man." + +"He was the most unpleasant brute I ever came across in my life," said +Mr. Manley with heartfelt conviction. + +"Then he had enemies?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Scores, I should think. But, of course, I don't know. Only I can't +conceive his having had a friend," said Mr. Manley in a tone of some +bitterness. + +"Then it's certainly a case with possibilities," said Mr. Flexen in a +pleased tone. "But I expect that the solution will be quite simple. It +generally is." + +He said it rather sadly, as if he would have much preferred the solution +to be difficult. + +"Let's hope so. A big newspaper fuss will be detestable for Lady +Loudwater. She's a charming creature," said Mr. Manley. + +"So I've heard. Do you know who the man was that Loudwater was making a +fuss about?" + +"I haven't the slightest idea. Probably the maid, Elizabeth Twitcher, +will be able to tell you," said Mr. Manley. + +Mr. Flexen walked across the room and drew the knife out of the pad of +blotting-paper by the ring in its handle, and studied it. + +"I suppose this is the knife that was in the library? They're pretty +common," he said. + +Mr. Manley came to him, looked at it earnestly, and said: "That's it all +right. I tried to sharpen it a day or two ago, so that it would sharpen a +pencil. I generally leave my penknife in the waist-coat I'm not wearing. +But I couldn't get it sharp enough. It's rotten steel." + +"All of them are, but good enough for a stab," said Mr. Flexen. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Olivia had very little appetite for breakfast. It is to be doubted, +indeed, whether she was aware of what she was eating. Elizabeth Twitcher +hovered about her, solicitous, pressing her to eat more. She was fond of +her mistress, and very uneasy lest she should have harmed her seriously +by her careless gossiping the night before. But she was surprised by the +exceedingly anxious and worried expression which dwelt on Olivia's face. +Her air grew more and more harassed. The murder of her husband had +doubtless been a shock, but he had been such a husband. Elizabeth +Twitcher had expected her mistress to cry a little about his death, and +then grow serene as she realized what a good riddance it was. But Olivia +had not cried, and she showed no likelihood whatever of becoming serene. + +At the end of her short breakfast she lit a cigarette, and began to pace +up and down her sitting-room with a jerky, nervous gait, quite unlike her +wonted graceful, easy, swinging walk. She had to relight her cigarette, +and as she did so, Elizabeth Twitcher, who was clearing away the +breakfast, perceived that her hands were shaking. There was plainly more +in the matter than Elizabeth Twitcher had supposed, and she wondered, +growing more and more uneasy. + +When she went downstairs with the tray she learned that Dr. Thornhill was +examining the wound which had caused the Lord Loudwater's death, and that +Mr. Flexen and Inspector Perkins were questioning Wilkins. Talking to the +other servants, she found of a sudden that she had reason for anxiety +herself, and hurried back in a panic to her mistress's boudoir. She found +Olivia still walking nervously up and down. + +"The inspector and the gentleman who is acting Chief Constable are +questioning the servants, m'lady," said Elizabeth. + +Olivia stopped short and stared at her with rather scared eyes. + +Then she said sharply: "Go down and learn what the servants have told +them--all the servants--everything." + +Her mistress's plainly greater anxiety eased a little Elizabeth +Twitcher's own panic in the matter of James Hutchings, and she went down +again to the servants' quarters. + +Mr. Flexen and Inspector Perkins learnt nothing of importance from +Wilkins; but he made it clearer to Mr. Flexen that the temper of the +murdered man had indeed been abominable. Holloway, on the other hand, +proved far more enlightening. From him they learnt that Hutchings had +been discharged the day before without notice, and that he had uttered +violent threats against his employer before he went. Also they learnt +that Hutchings, who had left about four o'clock in the afternoon, had +come back to the Castle at night. Jane Pittaway, an under-house-maid, had +heard him talking to Elizabeth Twitcher in the blue drawing-room between +eleven and half-past. + +Mr. Flexen questioned Holloway at length, and learned that James +Hutchings was a man of uncommonly violent temper; that it had been a +matter of debate in the servants' hall whether his furies or those of +their dead master were the worse. Then he dismissed Holloway, and sent +for Jane Pittaway. A small, sharp-eyed, sharp-featured young woman, she +was quite clear in her story. About eleven the night before she had gone +into the great hall to bring away two vases full of flowers, to be +emptied and washed next morning, and coming past the door of the blue +drawing-room, had heard voices. She had listened and recognized the +voices of Hutchings and Elizabeth Twitcher. No; she had not heard what +they were saying. The door was too thick. But he seemed to be arguing +with her. Yes; she had been surprised to find him in the house after he +had gone off like that. Besides, everybody thought that he had jilted +Elizabeth Twitcher and was keeping company with Mabel Evans, who had come +home on a holiday from her place in London to her mother's in the +village. No; she did not know how long he stayed. She minded her own +business, but, if any one asked her, she must say that he was more likely +to murder some one than any one she knew, for he had a worse temper than +his lordship even, and bullied every one he came near worse than his +lordship. In fact, she had never been able to understand how Elizabeth +Twitcher could stand him, though of course every one knew that Elizabeth +could always give as good as she got. + +When Mr. Flexen thanked her and said that she might go, she displayed a +desire to remain and give them her further views on the matter. But +Inspector Perkins shooed her out of the room. + +Then Wilkins came to say that Dr. Thornhill had finished his examination +and would like to see them. + +He came in with a somewhat dissatisfied air, sat down heavily in the +chair the inspector pushed forward for him, and said in a +dissatisfied tone: + +"The blade pierced the left ventricle, about the middle, a good inch and +a half. Death was practically instantaneous, of course." + +"I took it that it must have been. The collapse had been so complete. I +suppose the blade stopped the heart dead," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Absolutely dead," said the doctor. "But the thing is that I can't swear +to it that the wound was not self-inflicted. Knowing Lord Loudwater, I +could swear to it morally. There isn't the ghost of a chance that he +took his own life. But physically, his right hand might have driven that +blade into his heart." + +"I thought so myself, though of course I'm no expert," said Mr. Flexen. +"And I agree with you when you say that you are morally certain that the +wound was not self-inflicted. Those bad-tempered brutes may murder other +people, but themselves never." + +"Well, I've not your experience in crime, but I should say that you were +right," said the doctor. + +"All the same, the fact that you cannot swear that the wound was not +self-inflicted will be of great help to the murderer, unless we get an +absolute case against him," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Well, I'm sure I hope you will. Lord Loudwater had a bad temper--an +infernal temper, in fact. But that's no excuse for murdering him," said +Dr. Thornhill. + +"None whatever," said Mr. Flexen. "What about the inquest? I suppose we'd +better have it as soon as possible." + +"Yes. Tomorrow morning, if you can," said the doctor, rising. + +"Very good. Send word to the coroner at once, Perkins. Don't go yourself. +I shall want you here," said Mr. Flexen. + +He shook hands with the doctor and bade him good-day. As Inspector +Perkins went out of the room to send word to the coroner, he bade him +send Elizabeth Twitcher to him. + +She was not long coming, for, in obedience to Olivia's injunction, she +was engaged in learning what the other servants knew, or thought they +knew, about the murder. + +When she came into the dining-room, Mr. Flexen's keen eyes examined her +with greater care than he had given to the other servants. On Jane +Pittaway's showing, she should prove an important witness. Now Elizabeth +Twitcher was an uncommonly pretty girl, dark-eyed and dark-haired, and +her forehead and chin and the way her eyes were set in her head showed +considerable character. Mr. Flexen made up his mind on the instant that +he was going to learn from Elizabeth Twitcher exactly what Elizabeth +Twitcher thought fit to tell him and no more, for all that he perceived +that she was badly scared. + +He did not beat about the bush; he said: "You had a conversation with +James Hutchings last night, about eleven o'clock, in the blue +drawing-room. Did you let him in?" + +Elizabeth Twitcher's cheeks lost some more of their colour while he was +speaking, and her eyes grew more scared. She hesitated for a moment; +then she said: + +"Yes. I let him in at the side door." + +He had not missed her hesitation; he was sure that she was not telling +the truth. + +"How did you know he was at the side door?" he said. + +She hesitated again. Then she said: "He whistled to me under my window +just as I was going to bed." + +Again he did not believe her. + +"Did you let him out of the Castle?" he said. + +"No, I didn't. He let himself out," she said quickly. + +"Out of the side door?" + +"How else would he go out?" she snapped. + +"You don't know that he went out by the side door?" said Mr. Flexen. + +Elizabeth hesitated again. Then she said sullenly: "No, I don't. I left +him in the blue drawing-room." + +"In a very bad temper?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"I don't know what kind of a temper he was in," she said. + +Mr. Flexen paused, looking at her thoughtfully. Then he said: "I'm told +that you and he were engaged to be married, and that he broke the +engagement off." + +"_I_ broke it off!" said Elizabeth angrily, and she drew herself up very +stiff and frowning. + +It was Mr. Flexen's turn to hesitate. Then he made a shot, and said: "I +see. He wanted you to become engaged to him again, and you wouldn't." + +Elizabeth looked at him with an air of surprise and respect, and said: +"It wasn't quite like that, sir. I didn't say as I wouldn't be his fioncy +again. I said I'd see how he behaved himself." + +"Then he wasn't in a good temper," said Mr. Flexen. + +"He was in a better temper than he'd any right to expect to be," said +Elizabeth with some heat. + +"That's true," said Mr. Flexen, smiling at her. "But after the trouble he +had had with Lord Loudwater he couldn't be in a very good temper." + +"He was too used to his lordship's tantrums to take much notice of them. +He was too much that way himself," said Elizabeth quickly. + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen. "What time was it when he left you?" + +"I can't rightly say. But it wasn't half-past eleven," she said. + +He perceived that that was true. At the moment there was no more to be +learned from her. If she could throw any more light on the doings of +James Hutchings, she was on her guard and would not. But he had learned +that James Hutchings had not entered the Castle by the side door. Had he +entered it and left it by the library window? + +He asked Elizabeth a few more unimportant questions and dismissed her. + +Inspector Perkins, having sent a groom to inform the coroner of the +murder, and of the need for an early inquest into it, came back to him. +They discussed the matter of James Hutchings, and decided to have him +watched and arrest him on suspicion should he try to leave the +neighbourhood. The inspector telephoned to Low Wycombe for two of his +detectives. + +Mr. Flexen questioned the rest of the servants and learned nothing new +from them. By the time he had finished the two detectives from Low +Wycombe arrived, and he sent them out to make inquiries in the village, +though he thought it unlikely that anything was to be learnt there, +unless Hutchings had been talking again. + +He had risen and was about to go to the smoking-room to look round it +again, on the chance that something had escaped his eye, when Mrs. +Carruthers, the housekeeper, entered the room. None of the servants had +mentioned her to him, and it had not occurred to him that there would of +course be a housekeeper. + +"Good morning, Mr. Flexen. I'm Mrs. Carruthers, the housekeeper," she +said. "You didn't send for me. But I thought I ought to see you, for +I know something which may be important, and I thought you ought to +know it, too." + +"Of course. I can't know too much about an affair like this," said Mr. +Flexen quickly. + +"Well, there was a woman, or rather I should say a lady, with his +lordship in the smoking-room last night--about eleven o'clock." + +"Indeed?" said Mr. Flexen. "Won't you sit down? A lady you say?" + +"Yes; she was a lady, though she seemed very angry and excited, and was +talking in a very high voice. I didn't recognize it, so I can't tell you +who it was. You see, I don't belong to the neighbourhood. I've only been +here six weeks." + +"And how long did this interview last?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"I can't tell you. It was no business of mine. I was making my round last +thing to see that the servants had left nothing about. I always do. You +know how careless they are. I went round the hall, and then I went to +bed. But, of course, I wondered about it," said Mrs. Carruthers. + +Mr. Flexen looked at her refined, rather delicate face, and he did not +wonder how she had repressed her natural curiosity. + +"Can you tell me whether the French window in the library, the end one, +was open at that time?" he said. + +"I can't," she said in a tone of regret. "I couldn't very well open the +library door. If the door between the library and the smoking-room was +open, I should have been certain to hear something that was not meant +for my ears. And it generally is open in summer time. But I should think +it very likely that the lady came in by that window. It's always open in +summer time. In fact, his lordship always went out into the garden +through it, going from his smoking-room." + +"And what time was it that you heard this?" he said. + +"A few minutes past eleven. I looked round the drawing-room and the two +dining-rooms, and it was a quarter-past eleven when I came into my room." + +"That's the first exact time I've got from any one yet," said Mr. Flexen +in a tone of satisfaction. "And that's all you heard?" + +She hesitated, and a look of distress came over her face. Then she said: +"You have questioned Elizabeth Twitcher. Did she tell you anything about +his lordship's last quarrel with her ladyship?" + +"She did not," said Mr. Flexen. "Mr. Manley told me that she had told +him about the quarrel. But I did not question her about it. I left it +till later." + +Mrs. Carruthers hesitated; then she said: "It's so difficult to see what +one's duty is in a case like this." + +"Well, one's obvious duty is to make no secret of anything that may throw +a light on the crime. Was it anything out of the way in the way of +quarrels? Wasn't Lord Loudwater always quarrelling with Lady Loudwater? +I've been told that he was always insulting and bullying her." + +"Well, this one was rather out of the common," said Mrs. Carruthers +reluctantly. "He accused her of having kissed Colonel Grey in the East +wood and declared that he would divorce her." + +"It was Colonel Grey, was it?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"That is what Elizabeth Twitcher told me after supper last night. It +seems that his lordship burst in upon them when she was dressing her +ladyship's hair for dinner and blurted it out before her. I've no doubt +she was telling the truth. Twitcher is a truthful girl." + +"Moderately truthful," said Mr. Flexen in a somewhat ironical tone. + +"Of course she may have exaggerated. Servants do," said Mrs. Carruthers. + +"And how did Lady Loudwater take it?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Twitcher said that she denied everything, and did not appear at all +upset about it. Of course, she was used to Lord Loudwater's making +scenes. He had a most dreadful temper." + +"M'm," said Mr. Flexen, and he played a tune on the table with his +finger-tips, frowning thoughtfully. "Was Colonel Grey--I suppose it is +Colonel Antony Grey--the V.C. who has been staying down here?" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Carruthers. "He's at the 'Cart and Horses' at +Bellingham." + +"Was he on good terms with Lord Loudwater?" + +"They were quite friendly up to about a fortnight ago. The Colonel used +to play billiards with his lordship and stay on to dinner two or three +times a week. Then they had a quarrel--about the way his lordship +treated her ladyship. Holloway, the footman, heard it, and the Colonel +told his lordship that he was a cad and a blackguard, and he hasn't been +here since." + +"But he met Lady Loudwater in the wood?" + +"So his lordship declared," said Mrs. Carruthers in a non-committal tone. + +"Do you know how Lord Loudwater came to hear of their meeting?" + +"Twitcher said that he must have had it from one of the +under-gamekeepers, a young fellow called William Roper. Roper asked to +see his lordship that evening and was very mysterious about his errand, +so that it looks as if she might be right. None of the servants ever went +near his lordship, if they could help it. It had to be something very +important to induce William Roper to go to him of his own accord." + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen thoughtfully. "Well, I'm glad you told me about +this. Do you suppose that this Twitcher girl has talked to any one but +you about it?" + +"That I can't say at all. But she has a bedroom to herself," said Mrs. +Carruthers. "Besides, if she had talked to any of the others, they would +have told you about it." + +"Yes; there is that. I think it would be a good thing if you were to +give her a hint to keep it to herself. It may have no bearing whatever +on the crime. It's not probable that it has. But it's the kind of +thing to set people talking and do both Lady Loudwater and Colonel +Grey a lot of harm." + +"I will give her a hint at once," said Mrs. Carruthers, rising. "But the +unfortunate thing is that if Twitcher doesn't talk, this young fellow +Roper will. And, really, Lord Loudwater gave her ladyship quite enough +trouble and unhappiness when he was alive without giving her more now +that he's dead." + +"I may be able to induce William Roper to hold his tongue," said Mr. +Flexen dryly. "Certainly his talking cannot do any good in any case. And +I have gathered that Lady Loudwater has suffered quite enough already +from her husband." + +"I'm sure she has; and I do hope you will be able to keep that young man +quiet," said Mrs. Carruthers, moving towards the door. As she opened it, +she paused and said: "Will you be here to lunch, Mr. Flexen?" + +"To lunch and probably all the afternoon." He hesitated and added: "It +would be rather an advantage if I could sleep here, too. I do not think +that I shall need to look much further than the Castle for the solution +of this problem, though there's no telling. At any rate, I should like to +have exhausted all the possibilities of the Castle before I leave it. And +if I'm on the spot, I shall probably exhaust them much more quickly." + +"Oh, that can easily be arranged. I'll see her ladyship about it at +once," said Mrs. Carruthers quickly. + +"And would you ask her if she feels equal to seeing me yet?" + +"Certainly, Mr. Flexen; and if she does, I'll let you know at once," she +said and went through the door. + +Mr. Flexen was considering the new facts she had given him, when about +three minutes later Inspector Perkins returned; and Mr. Flexen bade him +find William Roper and bring him to him without delay. The inspector +departed briskly. He was not used to having the inquiry into a crime +conducted by the Chief Constable himself; but Mr. Flexen had impressed +the conviction on him that it was work which he thoroughly understood. +Moreover, he had been appointed acting Chief Constable of the district +during the absence of Major Arbuthnot, on the ground of his many years' +experience in the Indian Police. Also, the inspector realized that this +was, indeed, an exceptional case worthy of the personal effort of any +Chief Constable. He could not remember a case of the murder of a peer; +they had always seemed to him a class immune from anything more serious +than ordinary assault. He was pleased that Mr. Flexen was conducting the +inquiry himself, for he did not wish Scotland Yard to deal with it. Not +only would that cast a slur on the capacity of the police of the +district, but he was sure that he himself would get much more credit for +his work, if he and Mr. Flexen were successful in discovering the +murderer, than he would get if a detective inspector from Scotland Yard +were in charge of the case. Such a detective inspector might or might not +earn all the credit, but he would certainly know how to get it and +probably insist on having it. + +He had not been gone a minute when Elizabeth Twitcher came into the +dining-room, said that her ladyship would be pleased to see Mr. Flexen, +and led him upstairs to her sitting-room. + +He found Olivia paler than her wont, but quite composed. She had lost her +nervous air, for she had perceived very clearly that it would be +dangerous, indeed, to display the anxiety which was harassing her. It was +only natural that she should appear upset by the shock, but not that she +should appear in any way fearful. + +Mr. Flexen had been told that Lady Loudwater was pretty, but he had not +been prepared to find her as charming a creature as Olivia. He made up +his mind at once to do the best he could to save her from the trouble +that the gossip about her and Colonel Grey would surely bring upon +her--if always he were satisfied that neither of them had a hand in the +crime. Looking at Olivia, nothing seemed more unlikely than that she +should be in any way connected with it. But he preserved an open mind. As +such reasons go, she was not without reasons, substantial reasons, for +getting rid of her husband, and she appeared to him to be a creature of +sufficiently delicate sensibilities to feel that husband's brutality more +than most women. At the same time he found it hard to conceive of her +using that fatal knife herself. Yet the knife is most frequently the +womanly weapon. + +For her part, Olivia liked his face; but she had an uneasy feeling that +he would go further than most men in solving any problem with which he +set his mind to grapple. + +They greeted one another; he sat down in a chair facing the light, though +he would have preferred that Olivia should have faced it, and expressed +his concern at the trouble which had befallen her. + +Then he said: "I came to see you, Lady Loudwater, in the hope that you +might be able to throw some light on this deplorable event." + +"I don't think I can," said Olivia gently. "But of course, if I can do +anything to help you find out about it I shall be very pleased to try." + +She looked at him with steady, candid eyes that deepened his feeling +that she had had no hand in the crime. + +"And, of course, I'll make it as little distressing for you as I can," +he said. "Do you know whether your husband had anything worrying +him--any serious trouble of any kind which would make him likely to +commit suicide?" + +"Suicide? Egbert?" cried Olivia, in a tone of such astonishment that, as +far as Mr. Flexen was concerned, the hypothesis of suicide received its +death-blow. "No. I don't know of anything which would have made him +commit suicide." + +"Of course he had no money troubles; but were there any domestic troubles +which might have unhinged his mind to that extent?" said Mr. Flexen. + +He wished to be able to deal with the hypothesis of suicide, should it be +put forward. + +Olivia did not answer immediately. She was thinking hard. The possibility +that her husband had committed suicide, or that any one could suppose +that he had committed suicide, had never entered her head. She perceived, +however, that it was a supposition worth encouraging. At the same time, +she must not seem eager to encourage it. + +"But they told me that he'd been murdered," she said. + +"We cannot exclude any possibility from a matter like this, and the +possibility of suicide must be taken into account," said Mr. Flexen +quickly. "You don't know of any domestic trouble which might have induced +Lord Loudwater to make an end of himself?" + +"No, I don't know of one," said Olivia firmly. "But, of course, he was +sometimes quite mad." + +"Mad?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes, quite. I told him so last night--just before dinner. He was quite +mad. He said that I had kissed a friend of ours--at least he was a friend +of both of us till he quarrelled with my husband some weeks ago--in the +East wood. He raged about it, and declared he was going to start a +divorce action. But I didn't take much notice of it. He was always +falling into dreadful rages. There was one at breakfast about my cat and +another at lunch about the wine. He fancied it was corked." + +Olivia had perceived clearly that since Elizabeth Twitcher had been a +witness of her husband's outburst about Grey, it would be merely foolish +not to be frank about it. + +"But the last matter was very much more serious than the matter of the +cat or the wine," said Mr. Flexen. "You don't think that your husband +brooded on it for the rest of the evening and worked himself up into a +dangerous frame of mind?" + +Olivia hesitated. She was quite sure that her husband had done nothing of +the kind, for if he had worked himself up into a dangerous frame of mind +he would assuredly have made some effort to get at her and give some +violent expression to it. But she said: + +"That I can't say. I wish I'd gone down to dinner--now. But I was too +much annoyed. I dined in my boudoir. I'd had quite enough unpleasantness +for one day. Perhaps one of the servants could tell you. They may have +noticed something unusual in him--perhaps that he was brooding." + +"Wilkins did say that Lord Loudwater seemed upset at dinner, and that he +was frowning most of the meal," said Mr. Flexen. + +"That wasn't unusual," said Olivia somewhat pathetically. "Besides--" + +She stopped short, on the very verge of saying that she was sure that +those frowns cleared from her husband's face before the sweets, for he +would never take afternoon tea, in order to have a better appetite for +dinner, and consequently was wont to begin that meal in a tetchy humour. +Such an explanation would have gone no way to support the hypothesis of +suicide. Instead of making it she said: + +"Of course, he did seem frightfully upset." + +"But you don't think that he was sufficiently upset to do himself an +injury?" said Mr. Flexen. + +Olivia had formed a strong impression that her husband would not in any +circumstance do himself an injury; it was his part to injure others. +But she said: + +"I can't say. He might have gone on working himself up all the evening. I +didn't see him after he left my dressing-room. It was there he made the +row--while I was dressing for dinner." + +Mr. Flexen paused; then he said: "Mr. Manley tells me that Lord Loudwater +used to sleep every evening after dinner. Do you think that he was too +upset to go to sleep last night?" + +"Oh, dear no! I've known him go to sleep in his smoking-room after a much +worse row than that!" cried Olivia. + +"With you?" said Mr. Flexen quickly. + +"No; with Hutchings--the butler," said Olivia. + +"But that wouldn't be such a serious matter--not one to brood upon," said +Mr. Flexen. + +"I suppose not," said Olivia readily. + +Mr. Flexen paused again; then he said in a somewhat reluctant tone: +"There's another matter I must go into. Have you any reason to believe +that there was any other woman in Lord Loudwater's life--anything in the +nature of an intrigue? It's not a pleasant question to have to ask, but +it's really important." + +"Oh, I don't expect any pleasantness where Lord Loudwater is concerned," +said Olivia, with a sudden almost petulant impatience, for this +inquisition was a much more severe strain on her than Mr. Flexen +perceived. "Do you mean now, or before we were married?" + +"Now," said Mr. Flexen. + +"I haven't the slightest idea," said Olivia. + +"Do you think it likely?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"No, I don't--not very. I don't see how he could have got another woman +in. He was always about--always. Of course, he rode a good deal, though." + +"He did, did he?" said Mr. Flexen quickly. + +"Every afternoon and most mornings." + +That was important. Mr. Flexen thought that he might not have to go very +far afield to find the woman who had been quarrelling with Lord Loudwater +at a few minutes past eleven the night before. She probably lived within +an easy ride of the Castle. + +"I'm very much obliged to you for helping me so readily in such +distressing circumstances," he said in a grateful voice as he rose. "If +anything further occurs to you that may throw any light on the matter, +you might let me hear it with as little delay as possible." + +"I will," said Olivia. "By the way, Mrs. Carruthers told me that you +would like to stay here while you were making your inquiry; please do; +and please make any use of the servants and the cars you like. My +husband's heir is still in Mesopotamia, and I expect that I shall have +to run the Castle till he comes back." + +"Thank you. To stay here will be very convenient and useful," said Mr. +Flexen gratefully, and left her. + +He came down the stairs thoughtfully. It seemed to him quite unlikely +that she had had anything to do with the crime, or knew anything more +about it than she had told him. Nevertheless, there was this business of +Colonel Grey and her murdered husband's threat to divorce her. They must +be borne in mind. + +He would have been surprised, intrigued, and somewhat shaken in his +conviction that she had been in no way connected with the murder, had he +heard the gasp of intense relief which burst from Olivia's lips when the +door closed behind him, and seen her huddle up in her chair and begin to +cry weakly in the reaction from the strain of his inquisition. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +Mr. Flexen found Inspector Perkins waiting for him in the dining-room +with the information that James Hutchings was at his father's cottage in +the West wood, and that he had set one of his detectives to watch him. +Also, he told him that he had learned that Hutchings was generally +disliked in the village as well as at the Castle, as a violent, +bad-tempered man, with a habit of fixing quarrels on any one who would +quarrel with him, and as often as not on mild and inoffensive persons, +quite incapable of bearing themselves in a quarrel with any unpleasant +effectiveness. + +Mr. Flexen discussed with the inspector the question of taking out a +warrant for the arrest of Hutchings, and they decided that there was no +need to take the step--at any rate, at the moment; it was enough to have +him watched. He would learn doubtless that it was known that he had been +in the Castle late the night before. If, on learning it, he took fright +and bolted, it would rather simplify the case. + +Then Mr. Flexen sent again for Elizabeth Twitcher and questioned her at +length about Lord Loudwater's onslaught on Lady Loudwater the night +before and about the condition in which he had been at the end of it. +Elizabeth was somewhat sulky in her manner, for she felt that she was to +blame for that onslaught having come to Mr. Flexen's ears. She was the +more careful to make it plain that however violently Lord Loudwater may +have been affected, Olivia had taken the business lightly enough, and +decided to ignore his injunction to her to leave the Castle. Mr. Flexen +did not miss the point that Lord Loudwater had threatened to hound +Colonel Grey out of the Army; but at the moment he did not attach +importance to it. It was the kind of threat that an angry man would be +pretty sure to make in the circumstances. + +Having dismissed Elizabeth Twitcher, he came to lunch with the impression +strong on him that he had made as much progress as could be expected in +one morning towards the solution of the problem. He was quite undecided +whether Hutchings' presence in the Castle at so late an hour, and the +probability that he had entered and left it by the library window, or the +matter of the woman who had had the stormy interview with the murdered +man, was the more important. It must be his early task to discover who +that woman was. + +He found Mr. Manley awaiting him in the little dining-room, ready to play +host. Over their soup and fish they talked about ordinary topics and a +little about themselves. Mr. Manley learned that Mr. Flexen had been in +the Indian Police for over seven years, and had been forced to resign his +post by the breaking down of his health; that during the war he had twice +acted as Chief Constable and three times as stipendiary magistrate in +different districts. Mr. Flexen gathered that Mr. Manley had fought in +France with a brilliant intrepidity which had not met with the public +recognition it deserved, and learned that he had been invalided out of +the Army owing to the weakness of his heart. This common failure of +health was a bond of sympathy between them, and made them well disposed +to one another. + +There came a pause in this personal talk, and either of them addressed +himself to the consumption of the wing of a chicken with a certain +absorption in the occupation. It was not uncharacteristic of Mr. Manley +that his high sense of the fitness of things had not prevailed on him to +accord the liver wing to the guest. He was firmly eating it himself. + +Then Mr. Flexen said: "I suppose you came across Hutchings, the butler, +pretty often. What kind of a fellow was he?" + +"He was rather more like his master than if he had been his twin brother, +except that he wore whiskers and not a beard," said Mr. Manley, in a tone +of hearty dislike. + +"He does not appear to have been at all popular with the other servants," +said Mr. Flexen. + +"He certainly wasn't popular with me," said Mr. Manley dryly. + +"What did Lord Loudwater discharge him for?" + +"A matter of a commission on the purchase of some wine," said Mr. Manley. +Then in a more earnest tone he added: "Look here: the trenches knock a +good deal of the nonsense out of one, and I tell you frankly that if I +could help you in any way to discover the criminal, I wouldn't. My +feeling is that if ever any one wanted putting out of the way, Lord +Loudwater did; and as he was put out of the way quite painlessly, +probably it was a valuble action, whatever its motive." + +"I expect that a good many people have come back from the trenches with +very different ideas about justice," said Mr. Flexen in an indulgent +tone. "The Indian Police also changes your ideas about it. But it's my +duty to see that justice is done, and I shall. Besides, I'm very keen on +solving this problem, if I can. It seems that Hutchings was in the Castle +last night about eleven o'clock, and as you said something about coming +down for a drink about that time, I thought you might possibly know +something about his movements." + +"Well, as it happens," said Mr. Manley and stopped short, paused, and +went on: "You seem to have made up your mind that it was a murder and not +a suicide." + +"So you do know something about the movements of Hutchings," said Mr. +Flexen, smiling. "You'll be subpoenaed, you know, if he is charged with +the murder." + +"That would, of course, be quite a different matter," said Mr. +Manley gravely. + +"As to its being a murder, I've pretty well made up my mind that it was," +said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley looked at him gravely: "You have, have you?" he said. Then he +added: "About that knife and the finger-prints on it, if it happens to +have recorded any: I've been thinking that you may find yourself +suffering from an embarrassment of riches. I know that mine will be on +it, and Lady Loudwater's, who used it to cut the leaves of a volume of +poetry the day before yesterday, and Hutchings', who cut the string of a +parcel of books with it yesterday, and very likely the fingerprints of +Lord Loudwater. You know how it is with a knife like that, which lies +open and handy. Every one uses it. I've seen Lady Loudwater use it to cut +flowers, and Lord Loudwater to cut the end off a cigar--cursing, of +course, because he couldn't lay his hands on a cigar-cutter, and the +knife was blunt--and I've cut all kinds of things with it myself." + +"Yes; but the finger-prints of the murderer, if it does record them, will +be on the top of all those others. I shall simply take prints from all of +you and eliminate them." + +"Of course; you can get at it that way," said Mr. Manley. + +They were silent while Holloway set the cheese-straws on the table. + +When he had left the room Mr. Flexen said in a casual tone: "You don't +happen to know whether Lord Loudwater was mixed up with any woman in the +neighbourhood?" + +Mr. Manley paused, then laughed and said: "It's no use at all. When I +told you that I would throw no light on the matter, if I could help it, I +really meant it. At the same time, I don't mind saying that, with his +reputation for brutality, I should think it very unlikely." + +"You can never tell about women. So many of them seem to prefer brutes. +And, after all, a peer is a peer," said Mr. Flexen. + +"There is that," said Mr. Manley in thoughtful agreement. + +But he was frowning faintly as he cudgelled his brains in the effort to +think what had set Mr. Flexen on the track of Helena Truslove, for it +must be Helena. + +"I expect I shall be able to find out from his lawyers," said Mr. Flexen. + +"This promises to be interesting--the intervention of Romance," said Mr. +Manley in a tone of livelier interest. "I took it that the murder, if it +was a murder, would be a sordid business, in keeping with Lord +Loudwater himself. But if you're going to introduce a lady into the +case, it promises to be more fruitful in interest for the dramatist. I'm +writing plays." + +But Mr. Flexen was not going to divulge the curious fact that about the +time of his murder Lord Loudwater had had a violent quarrel with a lady. +He had no doubt that Mrs. Carruthers would keep it to herself. + +"Oh, one has to look out for every possible factor in a problem like +this, you know," he said carelessly. + +The faint frown lingered on Mr. Manley's brow. Mr. Flexen supposed that +it was the result of his refraining from gratifying his appetite for the +dramatic. They were silent a while. + +"When are you going to take our finger-prints?" said Mr. Manley +presently. + +"Not till I've learned whether there are any on the handle of the knife," +said Mr. Flexen. "Perkins has already sent it off to Scotland Yard." + +"I never thought of that. It would be rather a waste of time to take them +before knowing that," said Mr. Manley. + +Holloway brought the coffee; Mr. Manley gave Mr. Flexen an excellent +cigar, and they talked about the war. Mr. Flexen drank his coffee +quickly, said that he must get back to his work, and added that he hoped +that he would enjoy the company of Mr. Manley at dinner. Mr. Manley had +been going to dine with Helena Truslove; but after Mr. Flexen's question +whether Lord Loudwater had been entangled with any woman in the +neighbourhood, he thought that he had better dine with him. He might +learn something useful, if he could induce Mr. Flexen to expand under the +relaxing influence of dinner. He resolved to use his authority to have +the most engaging wine the cellar held. He was determined to make every +endeavour to keep Helena's name out of the affair, and he thought that he +would succeed. + +Mr. Flexen left him. He finished his coffee, the second cup, slowly, +wondering about Mr. Flexen's question about Lord Loudwater and a woman. +Then, since he had done all the work he could think of, in the way of +making arrangements for the funeral, during the morning, he set out +briskly to Helena's house, hoping that she would be able to throw some +light on it. + +He greeted her with his usual warmth, and then, when he came to look at +her at his leisure, it was plain to him that the murder had been a much +greater shock to her than he had expected. He was surprised at it, for +she had assured him that she had never been really in love with Lord +Loudwater, and he had believed her. But there was no doubt that she had +been greatly upset by the news of his death. Her high colouring was +dimmed; she wore a harassed air, and she was uncommonly nervous and ill +at ease. He thought it strange that she should be so deeply affected by +the death of a man she had such good reason to detest. But, of course, +there was no telling how a woman would take anything; Lady Loudwater's +distress had fallen as far short of what he had expected as Helena's had +exceeded it. + +To Mr. Manley's credit it must be admitted that in less than twenty +minutes Helena Truslove was looking another creature; her face had +recovered all its colour; the harassed air had vanished from it, and she +was sitting on his knee in a condition of the most pleasant repose. It +was his theory that a woman was never too ill, or too ill at ease, or too +unhappy to be made love to. He had acted on it. + +When he had thus restored her peace of mind, he told her that Mr. Flexen +had asked him whether the late Lord Loudwater had been mixed up with any +lady in the neighbourhood, and asked her if she could suggest any reason +for his having asked the question. She appeared greatly startled to hear +of it. But she could not suggest any reason for his having asked the +question. He then asked her about the manner in which the allowance had +been paid to her, and was pleased to learn that there was little +likelihood of Mr. Flexen's learning that she had received such an +allowance from Lord Loudwater, for it had been paid her through a young +lawyer of the name of Shepherd, at Low Wycombe, the lawyer who had dealt +with the matter of the transference of the house they were in to her, +from the rents of some houses Lord Loudwater owned in that town, and that +lawyer was somewhere in Mesopotamia, his practice in abeyance. + +She was in entire accord with Mr. Manley about the advantage of her name +not being connected in any way with the tragedy at the Castle. She +pointed out that it was also an advantage that she had just been paid +her allowance for the present quarter, and there would not be another +payment for three months. By that time it was probable that the murder +would have passed out of people's minds and Mr. Flexen be busy with other +work. It seemed to Mr. Manley that Mr. Flexen would not easily learn +about the allowance unless Mr. Carrington also knew it, which seemed +unlikely, though it was always possible that there was some record of it +among the Lord Loudwater's papers at the Castle. Soon after seven he left +her to walk back to dine with Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Flexen had had a considerable surprise that afternoon. He had told +Robert Black to find William Roper and bring him to him. He wished to +hear the story he had told Lord Loudwater the evening before, for it +might be of a triviality to make the hypothesis that Lord Loudwater had +committed suicide yet less worthy of serious consideration. Black was a +long while finding William Roper, for he was at work in the woods. +Indeed, he had not yet heard that Lord Loudwater had been murdered, for +he had been up most of the night, risen late, got his own breakfast in +his out-of-the-way cottage in the depths of the West wood, and gone out +on his rounds. The constable found him at the cottage, in the act of +preparing his dinner, or rather his tea and dinner, at a quarter to four. + +William Roper was startled, indeed, to hear of the murder, and then +bitterly annoyed. All the while on his rounds he had been congratulating +himself on his coming promotion, and reckoning up the many advantages +which would accrue from it, not the least of which was a wider prospect +of finding a wife. The cup was dashed from his lips. He had acquired no +merit in the eyes of the new Lord Loudwater, and he had most probably +made the present Lady Loudwater his enemy, if the murdered man had +divulged the source of his knowledge of her goings-on with Colonel Grey. +He ate his mixed meal very sulkily, listening to the constable's account +of the circumstances of the crime. Slowly, however, his face grew +brighter as he listened; the new information he had obtained for his +murdered employer might very well have an important bearing on the crime +itself. He might yet establish himself as the benefactor of the family. + +On the way to the Castle he was so mysterious with Robert Black that the +stout constable became a prey to mingled curiosity and doubt. He could +not make up his mind whether William Roper really knew something of +importance or was merely vapouring. William Roper neither gratified his +curiosity, nor banished his doubt. He was alive to the advantage of +reserving his information for the most important ear, so as to gain the +greatest possible credit for it. + +At the first sight of him Mr. Flexen felt that he had before him an +important witness, for he took a violent dislike to him, and he had +observed, in the course of his many years' experience in the detection of +crime, that the most important witness in hounding down a criminal was +very often of a repulsive type, the nark type. William Roper was of that +type, but his story was indeed startling. + +He first told how he had seen Colonel Grey kiss Lady Loudwater in the +afternoon--Mr. Flexen noted that Lord Loudwater had accused her of +kissing Grey--and of their spending most of the afternoon in the pavilion +in the East wood. The time of his watching had already lengthened in +William Roper's memory. There was nothing new in these facts, and Mr. +Flexen saw no reason to suppose that they had any bearing on the crime. +But William Roper went on to say that soon after ten in the evening he +had been on his round in the East wood, when he saw Colonel Grey walking +in the direction of the Castle. His curiosity had been aroused by what he +had seen in the afternoon, and thinking it not unlikely that he was on +his way to another meeting with the Lady Loudwater, and that it was the +duty of a faithful retainer to make sure about it, with a view to +informing his master should his surmise prove correct, he followed him. + +The Colonel went straight through the wood into the Castle garden, walked +round the Castle, keeping in its shadow as he went, till he stood under +the window of Lady Loudwater's suite of rooms. + +There he appeared to suffer a check. There was a light in the room on the +ground floor under her boudoir. The Colonel had waited quite a while; +then he had walked round the Castle and into it by the library window. + +William, greatly surprised by the Colonel's audacity, had taken up his +position in a clump of tall rhododendrons, opposite the library window, +from which he could keep watch on it. + +"What time would this be?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"It couldn't have been more than twenty minutes past ten, sir," said +William Roper. + +"And what happened then?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Nothing 'appened for a good ten minutes. Then James Hutchings, the +butler, come across the gardens from the south gate, as if 'e'd come from +the village, and 'e went in through the libery winder--the same winder." + +Mr. Flexen had thought it not unlikely that Hutchings had entered the +Castle by that entrance. He was pleased to have his guess corroborated. + +"That would be about half-past ten," he said. "Could you see into the +library at all?" + +"Only a very little way, sir." + +"You couldn't see whether Colonel Grey and then James Hutchings went +straight through it into the hall, or whether either of them went into +the smoking-room?" + +"No; I couldn't see so far in as that, though there was a light burning +in the libery," said William Roper. + +That was a new fact. Any one passing through the library would be able to +see the open knife lying in the big inkstand. + +"Go on," said Mr. Flexen. "What happened next?" + +"Nothing 'appened for a long while--twenty minutes, I should think--and +then there come a woman round the right-'and corner of the Castle wall +and along it and into the libery winder. At first I thought it was Mrs. +Carruthers, or one of the maids--she were too tall for her ladyship--but +it warn't." + +"Are you quite sure?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Quite, sir. I should have known 'er if she had been. Besides, she was +all muffled up like. You couldn't see 'er face." + +"Did she hesitate before going through the library window?" said +Mr. Flexen. + +"Not as I noticed. She seemed to go straight in." + +"As if she were used to going into the Castle that way?" said Mr. Flexen. + +William Roper scratched his head. Then he said cautiously: "She seemed to +know that way in all right, sir." + +"And how was she dressed?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"She wasn't in black. It wasn't as dull as black, but it was dullish. It +might have been grey and again it might not. It might have been blue or +brown. You see, there was a fair moon, sir, but it was be'ind the Castle, +an' I never seed 'er in the full moonlight, as you may say, seeing as, +coming and going, she come along the wall and went round the right 'and +corner of it, in the shadder." + +"And which of these three people came away first?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"She did. She wasn't in the Castle more nor twenty minutes--if that." + +"Did she seem to be in a hurry when she came out? Did she run, or +walk quickly?" + +"No. I can't say as she did. She went away just about as she came--in no +purtic'ler 'urry," said William Roper. + +Mr. Flexen paused, considering; then he said: "And who was the next +to leave?" + +"The Colonel, 'e come out next--in about ten minutes." + +"Did he seem in a hurry?" + +"'E walked pretty brisk, and 'e was frowning, like as if 'e was in a +rage. 'E passed me close, so I 'ad a good look at 'im. Yes; I should say +'e was fair boilen', 'e was," said William Roper, in a solemn, pleased +tone of one giving damning evidence. + +Mr. Flexen did not press the matter. He said: "So James Hutchings came +away last?" + +"Yes; about five minutes after the Colonel. And 'e was in a pretty fair +to-do, too. Leastways, he was frowning and a-muttering of to 'imself. He +passed me close." + +"Did _he_ seem in any hurry?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"'E was walkin' fairly fast," said William Roper. + +Mr. Flexen paused again, pondering. He thought that William Roper had +thrown all the light on the matter he could; and he had certainly +revealed a number of facts which looked uncommonly important. + +"And that was all you saw?" he said. + +"That was all--except 'er ladyship," said William Roper. + +"Her ladyship?" said Mr. Flexen sharply. + +"Yes. You see, there was no 'urry for me to go back to the woods, sir; +an' I sat down on one of them garden seats along the edge of the +Wellin'tonia shrubbery to smoke a pipe and think it ou'. I felt it was my +dooty like to let 'is lordship know about these goings-on, never thinking +as 'ow 'e was sitting there all the time with a knife in 'im. I should +think it was twenty minutes arter that I saw 'er ladyship come out. Of +course, I was farther away from the window, but I saw 'er quite plain." + +"And where did she go?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"She didn't go nowhere, so to speak. She just walked up an' down the +gravel path--like as if she'd come out for a breath of fresh air. +Then she went in. She wasn't out more nor ten minutes, or a quarter +of an hour." + +Mr. Flexen was silent in frowning thought; then he looked earnestly at +William Roper for a good minute; then he said: "Well, this may be +important, or it may not. But it is very important that you should keep +it to yourself." He looked hard again at William, decided that an appeal +to his vanity would be best, and added: "You're pretty shrewd, I fancy, +and you can see that it is most important not to put the criminal on his +guard--if it was a crime." + +"I suppose I shall 'ave to tell what I know at the inquest?" said William +Roper, with an air of importance. + +Mr. Flexen gazed at him thoughtfully, weighing the matter. Here were a +number of facts which might or might not have an important bearing on the +murder, but which would give rise to a great deal of painful and harmful +scandal if they were given to the world at this juncture. + +Besides the publication of them might force his hand, and he preferred to +have a free hand in this matter as he had been used to have a free hand +in India. There he had dealt with more than one case in such a manner as +to secure substantial justice rather than the exact execution of the law. +It might be that in this case justice would be best secured by leaving +the murderer to his, or her, conscience rather than by causing several +people great unhappiness by bringing about a conviction. He was inclined +to think, with Mr. Manley, that the murderer might have performed a +public service by removing Lord Loudwater from the world he had so ill +adorned. At any rate, he was resolved to have a free hand to deal with +the case, and most certainly he was not going to allow this noxious young +fellow to hamper his freedom of action and final decision. + +"Your evidence seems to me of much too great importance to be given at +the inquest. It must be reserved for the trial," he said in an impressive +tone. "But if it gets abroad that you have seen what you have told me, +the criminal will be prepared to upset your evidence; and it will +probably become quite worthless. You must not breathe a word about what +you saw to a soul till we have your evidence supported beyond all +possibility of its being refuted. Do you understand?" + +For a moment William Roper looked disappointed. He had looked to become +famous that very day. But he realized his great importance in the affair, +and his face cleared. + +"I understands, sir," he said with a dark solemnity. + +"Not a word," said Mr. Flexen yet more impressively. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +That morning Olivia went to meet Grey in a mood very different from that +of the afternoon before. Then she had moved on light feet, in high +spirits, expectant, even excited. She had not known what was coming, but +the prospect had been full of possibilities; and, thanks to the sudden +appearance of the cat Melchisidec at the crucial moment, she had not been +disappointed. Today she would have gone to meet the man who loved her in +yet higher spirits, for there is no blinking the fact that she was wholly +unable to grieve for her husband. He had with such thoroughness +extirpated the girlish fondness she had felt for him when she married +him, that she could not without hypocrisy make even a show of grieving +for him. His death had merely removed the barrier between her and the man +she loved. + +But today she did not go to her tryst in spirits higher for the removal +of that barrier. She went more slowly, on heavier, lingering feet. Her +eyes were downcast, and her forehead was furrowed by an anxious, +brooding frown. + +The sight of Colonel Grey, waiting for her at the door of the Pavilion, +smoothed the furrows from her forehead and quickened her steps. When the +door closed behind them he caught her in his arms and kissed her. It was +early in her widowhood to be kissed, but she made no protest. She did not +feel a widow; she felt a free woman again. It is even to be feared that +her lips were responsive. + +Antony, too, was changed. He was paler and almost careworn. There was no +doubt of his joy at her coming, no doubt that it was greater than the day +before. But it was qualified by some other troubling emotion. Now and +again he looked at her with different eyes--eyes from which the joy had +of a sudden faded, rather fearful eyes that looked a question which could +not be asked. Her eyes rather shrank from his, and when they did look +into them it was with a like question. + +But they were too deeply in love with one another for any other emotion +to hold them for long at a time. Presently in the joy of being together, +looking at one another, touching one another, the fearfulness and the +question passed from their eyes. + +There was nothing rustic about the Pavilion inside or out. It was of +white marble, brought from Carrara for the fifth Baron Loudwater at the +end of the eighteenth century; and a whim of her murdered husband had led +him to replace the original, delicate, rather severe furniture by a most +comfortable broad couch, two no less comfortable chairs with arms, a +small red lacquer table and a dozen cushions. He had hung on each wall a +drawing of dancing-girls by Degas. Since the coverings of the couch and +the cushions were of Chinese silken embroideries, the interior appeared a +somewhat bizarre mixture of the Oriental and the French. + +Antony had been in some doubt that Olivia would come. But he had thought +it natural that she should come to him in such an hour of distress, for +he knew the simple directness of her nature. Therefore he had taken no +chance. He had gone to High Wycombe, ransacked its simple provision +shops, and brought away a lunch basket. + +She was for returning to the Castle to lunch. But he persuaded her to +stay. She needed no great pressing; she had a feeling that every hour was +precious, that it was unsafe to lose a single one of them: a foreboding +that she and Antony might not be together long. It almost seemed that a +like foreboding weighed on him. At times they seemed almost feverish in +their desire to wring the last drop of sweetness out of the swiftly +flying hour. + +After lunch again the thought came to her that she ought to go back to +the Castle, that she might be needed, and missed; but it found no +expression. She could not tear herself away. She had been denied joy too +long, and it was intoxicating. + +It was five o'clock before she left the Pavilion. She walked briskly, +with her wonted, easy, swinging gait, back to the Castle, in a dream, her +anxiety and fear for the while forgotten. On her way up to her suite of +rooms she met no one. She was quick to take off her hat and ring for her +tea. Elizabeth Twitcher brought it to her, and from her Olivia learned +that only Mr. Manley had asked for her. She realized that, after all, +thanks to her dead husband, she was but an inconspicuous person in the +Castle. No one had been used to consult her in any matter. She was glad +of it. At the moment all she desired was freedom of action, freedom to be +with Antony; and the fact that the life of the Castle moved smoothly +along in the capable hands of Mrs. Carruthers and Mr. Manley gave her +that freedom. + +After her tea she went out into the rose-garden and was strolling up and +down it when Mr. Flexen, pondering the information which he had obtained +from William Roper, saw her and came out to her. He thought that she +shrank a little at the sight of him, but assured himself that it must be +fancy; surely there could be no reason why she should shrink from him. + +"I'm told, Lady Loudwater, that you went out through the library window +into the garden for a stroll about a quarter to twelve last night. Did +you by any chance, as you went in or came out, hear Lord Loudwater snore? +I want to fix the latest hour at which he was certainly alive. You see +how important it may prove." + +She hesitated, wrinkling her brow as she weighed the importance of her +answer. Then she looked at him with limpid eyes and said: + +"Yes." + +He knew--the sixth sense of the criminal investigator told him--that she +lied, and he was taken aback. Why should she lie? What did she know? What +had she to hide? + +"Did you hear him snore going out, or coming in?" he said. + +"Both," said Olivia firmly. + +Mr. Flexen hesitated. He did not believe her. Then he said: "How long did +Lord Loudwater sleep after dinner as a rule? What time did he go to bed?" + +"It varied a good deal. Generally he awoke and went to bed before twelve. +But sometimes it was nearer one, especially if he was disturbed and went +to sleep again." + +"Thank you," said Mr. Flexen, and he left her and went back into +the Castle. + +Lord Loudwater had certainly been disturbed by the woman with whom he +had quarrelled. He might have slept on late. But why had Lady Loudwater +lied about the snoring? What did she know? What on earth was she +hiding? Whom was she screening? Could it be Colonel Grey? Was he mixed +up in the actual murder? Mr. Flexen decided that he must have more +information about Colonel Grey, that he would get into touch with him, +and that soon. + +He had information about him sooner than he expected and without seeking +it. Inspector Perkins was awaiting him, with Mrs. Turnbull, the landlady +of the "Cart and Horses." The inspector had learned from her that the +Lord Loudwater had paid a visit to her lodger the evening before, and +that they had quarrelled fiercely. Mr. Flexen heard her story and +questioned her. The important point in it seemed to him to be Lord +Loudwater's threats to hound Colonel Grey out of the Army. + +Mrs. Turnbull left him plenty to ponder. Mr. Manley had told him that the +handle of the famous knife would probably provide him with an +embarrassment of riches in the way of finger-prints. It seemed to him +that the stories of William Roper, Mrs. Carruthers, and Mrs. Turnbull had +provided him with an embarrassment of riches in the way of possible +murderers. It grew clearer than ever to him that the inquest must be +conducted with the greatest discretion, that as few facts as possible +must be revealed at it. It was also clear to him that, unless the handle +of the knife told a plain story, he would get nothing but circumstantial +evidence, and so far he had gotten too much of it. + +He made up his mind that it would be best to see Colonel Grey at once and +form his impression as to the likelihood of his having had a hand in the +crime. He was loth to believe that a V.C. would murder in cold blood +even as detestable a bully as the Lord Loudwater appeared to have been. +But he had seen stranger things. Moreover, it depended on the type of +V.C. Colonel Grey was. V.C.s varied. + +Mr. Flexen lost no time. It was nearly six o'clock. It was likely that +the Colonel would be back at his inn after his fishing. Mrs. Turnbull was +sure that he had as usual gone fishing, for, when he set out in the +morning, he had taken his rod with him. Antony Grey was not the man to +omit a simple precaution like that. Therefore, Mr. Flexen ordered a car +to be brought round, and was at the "Cart and Horses" by twenty past six. + +He found that Colonel Grey had indeed returned. He sent up his card; +the maid came back and at once took him up to the Colonel's +sitting-room. Grey received him with an air of inquiry, which grew yet +more inquiring when Mr. Flexen told him that he was engaged in +investigating the affair of Lord Loudwater's death. Therefore, Mr. +Flexen came to the point at once. + +"I have been informed that Lord Loudwater paid you a visit last night, +and that a violent quarrel ensued, Colonel Grey," he said. + +"Pardon me; but the violence was all on Lord Loudwater's part," said +Colonel Grey in an exceedingly unpleasant tone. "I merely made myself +nasty in a quiet way. Violence is not in my line, unless I'm absolutely +driven to it; and any one less likely to drive any one to violence than +that obnoxious and noisy jackass I've never come across. The fellow was +all words--abusive words. He'd no fight in him. I gave him every reason I +could think of to go for me because I particularly wanted to hammer him. +But he hadn't got it in him." + +Grey spoke quietly, without raising his voice, but there was a rasp in +his tone that impressed Mr. Flexen. If a man could give such an +impression of dangerousness with his voice, what would he be like in +action? He realized that here was a quite uncommon type of V. C. He +realized, too, that Lord Loudwater had made the mistake of a lifetime in +his attempt to bully him. Moreover, he had a strong feeling that if it +had seemed to Colonel Grey that Lord Loudwater was better out of the +way, and a favourable opportunity had presented itself, he might very +well have displayed little hesitation in putting him out of the way. He +felt that the obnoxious peer would have been little more than a +dangerous dog to him. + +He did not speak at once. He looked into Colonel Grey's grey eyes, and +cold and hard they were, weighing him. Then he said: "Lord Loudwater +threatened to hound you out of the Army, I'm told." + +"Among other things," said Grey carelessly. + +Mr. Flexen guessed that the other things were threats to divorce Lady +Loudwater. + +"That would have been a very serious blow to you," he said. + +"You're quite--right," said Colonel Grey. + +Mr. Flexen could have sworn that he had started to say: "You're quite +wrong," and changed his mind. + +The Colonel seemed to hesitate for words; then he went on: "It would have +been a very heavy blow indeed. You can see that for a man who enlisted in +the Artists' Rifles in 1914, and fought his way up to the command of a +regiment, nothing could be more painful. It would have been +heartbreaking; I should have been years getting over it." + +The rasp had gone out of his voice. He was speaking in a pleasant, +confidential tone, and Mr. Flexen did not believe a word he said. At the +least he was exaggerating the distress he would have felt at leaving the +Army; but Mr. Flexen had the strongest feeling that he would have felt +next to no distress at all. Again he was astonished. Colonel Grey was +lying to him just as Lady Loudwater had lied. What could be their reason? +What on earth had they done? + +He kept his astonishment out of his face, and said in a sympathetic +voice: "Yes, I can see that. And then, again, it would have been painful +and very unpleasant to feel that your thoughtlessness had landed Lady +Loudwater in the Divorce Court." + +"Oh, Lord, no!" said Colonel Grey quickly. "There was no chance of any +divorce proceedings. Even for a divorce case, at any rate one brought by +the husband, there must be _some_ grounds; he must have _some_ evidence. +The cock-and-bull story of a gamekeeper is hardly enough to found a +divorce case on, is it?" + +"Oh, I don't know. The gamekeeper might convince a jury. You know what +juries are. You can never tell what form their stupidity will take," said +Mr. Flexen. + +"But apart from the lack of evidence, there was no chance of a divorce +case. I tell you, Loudwater hadn't got it in him," said Grey +confidently. "He'd have threatened and been abusive. He'd have gone on +throwing that cock-and-bull story at Lady Loudwater for as long as she +continued to stick to him; but it would have stopped at that. His +infernal temper never went any deeper than his lungs. Lady Loudwater had +nothing to fear." + +"Yet you think that he would have done his best to hound you out of the +Army?" said Mr. Flexen, finding this conception of Lord Loudwater as a +harmless, if violent, vapourer somewhat inconsistent. + +"That's quite another matter," said Grey quickly. "It merely meant using +his influence behind my back with some scurvy politician. There wouldn't +have been any publicity attached to that, any exposure of his bullying. +He'd have done that all right." + +"I should have thought that a man of Lord Loudwater's violent temper +would rather have sought an open row," Mr. Flexen persisted. + +"Of course--if he'd been really violent. But he wasn't, I tell you. He +was only a blustering bully where women and servants were +concerned--people he could cow. I tell you, I made it quite clear that he +crumpled up directly you stood up to him. Why, hang it all! Any man with +the soul of a mouse who really believed that I had been making love to +his wife, couldn't have taken the things I told him without going for me +at any risk. And as I'm still rather crocked up, and he knew it, there +must have seemed precious little risk about it. I tell you that he was +just a blustering ruffian." + +Mr. Flexen had a strong impression that Colonel Grey was unused to being +as expansive as this, that he was talking for talking's sake, possibly +to put him off asking some question which would be difficult or +dangerous to answer. He could not for the life of him think what that +question could be. + +"I daresay you're right," he said carelessly. "Bullies aren't over-fond +of a real scrap. But I am told that you paid a visit to the Castle last +night and came away about a quarter past eleven. Did you?" + +Colonel Grey showed no faintest disquiet on hearing that his visit to +Olivia the night before was known. But he did not give Mr. Flexen time to +finish the sentence. + +He interrupted him, saying quickly: "Yes. I went to see Lady Loudwater. I +thought it likely that she would attach a good deal more importance to +Loudwater's silly threats than they deserved and might be worrying. It +would have been quite natural. I wanted to talk it over with her and set +her mind at rest about it. It didn't take very long to do that, partly +because it was a long time since he had really frightened her. She had +got used to his tantrums and bullying; and even this new game had not +disturbed her very much. We both came to the conclusion that he was just +blustering again, and wouldn't do anything. As a matter of fact, I don't +think she cared very much what he did. She had got so fed up with him +that she didn't care whether they separated or not." + +Mr. Flexen felt more sure than ever that this garrulity was unusual in +Colonel Grey. He was talking with a purpose, apparently to induce him to +believe that both he and Lady Loudwater had taken her husband's threat of +divorce proceedings lightly. He began to think that they had not taken it +lightly at all, or, at any rate, one or other of them had not. + +"Yes," he said. "That's what always happens with those blustering +fellows. In the end no one takes them seriously. But what I came to ask +you was: Did you, as you came through the library or went out through it, +hear Lord Loudwater snore?" + +Colonel Grey hesitated, just as Lady Loudwater had hesitated over that +question. Plainly he was weighing the effect of his answer. + +Then he said: "No." + +Mr. Flexen's instinct assured him that Colonel Grey had lied just as Lady +Loudwater had lied. + +"Are you sure that nothing in the nature of a snore came to your ears as +you came out? Did you hear any sound from the room? You can see how +important it is to fix as near as we possibly can the hour of Lord +Loudwater's death," he said earnestly. + +"No, I heard nothing," said Colonel Grey firmly. + +"Bother!" said Mr. Flexen. "It's very important. Possibly I shall be able +to find out from some one else." + +"I hope you will," said Grey politely. + +Mr. Flexen bade him good-night cordially enough, and drove back to the +Castle in a considerable perplexity. Both Colonel Grey and Lady Loudwater +were behaving in an uncommonly odd, not to say suspicious manner. + +He was quite sure that both of them had lied about the dead man's +snoring. But it was plain that either had lied with a different object. +Lady Loudwater had lied to make it appear that her husband had been alive +at midnight. Colonel Grey had lied to make it appear that he was dead at +a quarter-past eleven. But Mr. Flexen was sure that Colonel Grey had +heard Lord Loudwater snore and that Lady Loudwater had not. + +What did they know? What had they done? Or what had one of them done? + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +When Mr. Flexen reached the Castle Wilkins took him to a bedroom in the +west wing. He found that his portmanteau had arrived, had been unpacked, +and that his dress clothes were laid out ready for him on the bed. + +As he dressed he cudgelled his brains for the reason why Lady +Loudwater and Colonel Grey had lied. Then an idea came to him: were +they lying to shield the unknown woman with whom Lord Loudwater had +had that violent quarrel? The longer he considered this hypothesis the +more possible it grew. + +He must find that unknown woman, and at once. Possibly Mr. Carrington, as +Lord Loudwater's legal adviser, would be able to put him on her track. + +He came to dinner, still perplexed, to find Mr. Manley waiting to +bear him company. They talked for a while about public affairs and +the weather. + +Then Mr. Flexen said: "Was Lord Loudwater the kind of man to confide in +his lawyers?" + +"Not if he could help it," said Mr. Manley with conviction. + +Mr. Flexen hoped that Lord Loudwater had not been able to help confiding +in his lawyers about this unknown woman. + +Then he said: "By the way, do you know Colonel Grey?" + +"Oh, yes. He was here a lot up to a little while ago. Then he had a row, +the inevitable row, with Lord Loudwater, and he hasn't been here since. +He dropped on to Lord Loudwater for bullying Lady Loudwater, and he +didn't drop on him lightly either. Hell, I fancy, was what he gave him." + +"Yes; I gathered that something of the kind had taken place. What kind of +a man is the Colonel?" said Mr. Flexen carelessly. + +"The best man in the world not to have a row with. He's a cold terror," +said Mr. Manley, in a tone of enthusiastic conviction. "He always seems +rather cooler than a cucumber. But my belief is that that coolness is +just the mask of really violent emotions. I saw them working once. I came +in on the end of his row with Loudwater--just the end of it--my goodness! +From my point of view, the dramatist's, you know, he's the most +interesting person in the county--bar Lady Loudwater, of course." + +"I should never have thought him a terror," said Mr. Flexen, in a tone of +somewhat incredulous surprise. "I had a talk with him this evening about +Lord Loudwater's death, and he seemed to me to be a pleasant enough +fellow and an excellent soldier. I take it that he's very keen on his +career in the Army?" + +"Not a bit of it. The war is merely a side issue with him," said Mr. +Manley in an assured tone. "I know from what he told me himself. We were +talking over our experiences." + +"But, hang it all! he's a V. C.!" cried Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes, he's a V. C. all right. But that's because he's one of those men +who have the knack of taking an interest in everything they turn their +hands to, and doing it well. But his two passions are Chinese art and +women," said Mr. Manley. + +"Women?" said Mr. Flexen. "He didn't strike me as being that kind of man +at all. He seemed a quite simple, straightforward soldier." + +"Simplicity and a passion for Chinese art don't go together--at least, +not what is usually called simplicity," said Mr. Manley dryly. "A friend +of mine, who knows all about him, told me that he had had more really +serious love affairs than any other man in London. He seems to be one of +those men who fall in love hard every time they fall in love. He said +that it was one of the mysteries of the polite world how he had kept out +of the Divorce Court." + +"Sounds an odd type," said Mr. Flexen, storing up the information, and +marking how little it agreed with his own observation of Colonel Grey. +"And you say that Lady Loudwater is interesting too?" + +"Oh, come! Are you pumping me or merely pulling my leg?" said Mr. Manley. +"Surely you can see that Lady Loudwater is pure Italian Renaissance. She +is one of those subtle, mysterious creatures that Leonardo and Luini were +always painting, compact of emotion." + +"It's so long since I was at Balliol, and then I was doing Indian Civil +work--the languages, you know. I've forgotten all I knew about the +Renaissance in Italy, and I don't look at many pictures. All the same, I +think you're wrong--your dramatic imagination, you know. My own idea is +that Lady Loudwater, at any rate, is a quite simple creature." + +"It isn't mine," said Mr. Manley firmly. "She's a great deal too +intelligent to be simple, and she comes of far too intelligent a family." + +"What family?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"She's a Quainton, with Italian blood in her veins." + +"The deuce she is!" cried Mr. Flexen, and half a dozen stories of the +Quaintons rose in his mind. + +He must amend his impressions of Lady Loudwater. + +"And she has a keener sense of humour than any woman I ever came across," +said Mr. Manley, driving his contention home. + +"Has she?" said Mr. Flexen. + +There was a pause. Then Mr. Manley said in a musing tone: "Do you suppose +that Colonel Grey finds her simple?" + +"What? You don't think that there is really anything serious between +them?" said Mr. Flexen quickly. + +"No, not really serious--at any rate, on Colonel Grey's part. You can +hardly expect a man, recovering very slowly from three bad wounds and +still crocked up, to fall in love, can you? Especially a man who, when he +does fall in love, falls in love with the violence with which Grey is +charged," said Mr. Manley. + +"There is that," said Mr. Flexen. "But that wouldn't prevent Lady +Loudwater from falling in love with Colonel Grey. And after the way her +husband treated her, she must have needed something in the way of +affection--badly." + +"It's no good a woman falling in love with a man unless he falls in love +with her," said Mr. Manley, in the tone of a philosopher. "Besides, women +don't fall in love with men who are so feeble from illness as the Colonel +seems to be. How can there be the attraction? She might, of course, want +to mother him very keenly. But that's quite a different thing." He +paused, then added in a tone of some anxiety: "I say, you're not trying +to mix her up with the murder--if it was a murder?" + +"I'm not trying to mix anybody up in it," said Mr. Flexen slowly. "But I +don't mind telling you that it is growing quite a pretty problem, and to +solve a problem you must have every factor in it. You see that the +strong point about both Lady Loudwater and Colonel Grey is, on your own +showing, that they are uncommonly clever; and only stupid people commit +murder--except, of course, once in a blue moon." + +"But what about these gangs of criminals we sometimes read about, with +extraordinarily clever men at the head of them? Don't they exist?" said +Mr. Manley, in a tone of surprise. + +"They exist; but they don't commit murders--not in Europe, at any rate," +said Mr. Flexen. "In the East and in the United States it's different +perhaps. Murder is always as much of a blunder as a crime. It makes +people so keen after the criminal. No: no really intelligent criminal +commits murder." + +"Of course, that's true," said Mr. Manley readily. He paused, then added +in a thoughtful tone: "I wonder whether the war has weakened our +conception of the sanctity of human life?" + +"I shouldn't wonder," said Mr. Flexen; and their talk drifted into a +discussion of generalities. + +He was glad that he was staying at the Castle. His talk with Mr. Manley +had been illuminating. + +Olivia dined in her sitting-room, and with a poor appetite. Away from +Grey, she had fallen back into her anxiety and fearfulness. Wilkins was +waiting on her, an insensible block of a fellow; but even he perceived +that she was very little aware of what she was eating, and now and again +paused, and in some worrying train of thought forgot that she was +dining at all. + +After dinner, however, her mood changed. The fearfulness and anxiety at +times vanished from her face, and a pleasant, eager expectancy took +their place. + +At a quarter to nine she took a dark wrap from her wardrobe, went quietly +down the stairs, and slipped out of the side door, across the east lawn, +and into the path through the shrubbery, unseen. Grey had suggested that +he should come to the Castle after dinner to spend the evening with her; +but they had decided that it would be wiser to meet in the pavilion. +There would be talk if he spent the evening with her so soon after her +husband's death, with his body still unburied in the house. This was the +only mention they made of him all the time they spent together. Besides, +both of them found the pavilion in the wood a far more delightful +meeting-place than the Castle. In the pavilion they felt that they were +out of the world. + +Grey, too anxious and restless to await her at the pavilion, had come +down the wood and into the end of the path through the shrubbery. It +startled her to come upon him so suddenly. But when they came out of the +shrubbery into the moonlit aisle of the wood, the fearfulness and +anxiety and restlessness had vanished utterly from their faces; both of +them were smiling. + +They walked slowly, saying little, touching now and again as they +swayed in their walk along the turf. It seemed wiser not to light the +candles in the pavilion. The moonlight, shining through the high +windows, gave them light enough to see one another's eyes. It was all +they needed. The time passed quickly in the ineffable confidences of +lovers. They had a hundred things to tell one another, a hundred things +to ask one another, in their effort to attain that oneness which is the +aim of all true love. But in their joy in being together, in the joy of +both of them, there was a feverishness, a sense that it was a menaced +joy which must needs be brief. Again they were striving to wring the +most out of the hour which was so swiftly passing. At times the sense of +danger which hung over them was so strong, that they clung to one +another like frightened children in the dark. + +Though Mr. Flexen had at the time shown himself somewhat unbelieving in +the matter of Mr. Manley's conclusions about the character and +temperament of Grey and Olivia, the impression they had made on him grew +stronger. He was too good a judge of men not to perceive that the budding +dramatist had the intelligent imagination which makes for real +shrewdness, and he was not disposed to underrate the value of the +imagination in forming judgments of men and women. Probably Colonel Grey +was a man of less intensity of emotion than Mr. Manley had declared, and +Lady Loudwater less subtile and intelligent. But, after making these +reductions, he had here possible actors in a drama of passion; and though +it was his experience that money, not passion, is the most frequent +motive of murder, he must take the probability of Lord Loudwater's murder +being a crime of passion into account, though, of course, the violent +Hutchings, threatened with ruin, would undoubtedly benefit from a +monetary point of view by the murder. At the same time, Hutchings had +just had an interview, which had gone better probably than he had +expected, with an uncommonly pretty girl. + +Mr. Carrington arrived soon after breakfast next morning, and Mr. Flexen +at once discussed the matter of the inquest with him and the Coroner. He +found the lawyer chiefly eager to have as little scandal as possible, and +the Coroner took his cue from the lawyer. This suited Mr. Flexen +admirably. He had no wish to show his hand so early. He foresaw that if +the story of William Roper were told, and the story of Lord Loudwater's +quarrel with Colonel Grey at the "Cart and Horses," there would be a +painful scandal. The majority of the people of the neighbourhood would at +once believe and declare that Lady Loudwater, or Colonel Grey, or both, +had murdered Lord Loudwater. Such a scandal would in no way serve his +purpose. It might rather hamper him. Pressure might be put on him which +might force him to take steps before the time was ripe for them. + +There was no difficulty in their having exactly the kind of inquest they +wanted, for it was wholly in the hands of Mr. Flexen and the Coroner. +After careful discussion they decided to limit it to Dr. Thornhill's +evidence, and that of the servants with regard to the dead nobleman's +mood on the night of his death. Mr. Carrington urged strongly that full +prominence should be given to the fact that the wound might have been +self-inflicted, and the Coroner promised that this should be done. + +When the Coroner had left them the lawyer said to Mr. Flexen: "In the +case of a man like the late Lord Loudwater, you can't be too careful, you +know. Really, it would be better if the jury brought in a verdict of +suicide. A suicide in a family is always better than a murder." + +"H'm! You could hardly expect me to rest content with such a verdict," +said Mr. Flexen. "Not, I mean, on the evidence." + +"Oh, no; I shouldn't," said Mr. Carrington. "All I want to avoid is a lot +of quite unnecessary painful scandal, which won't lead to anything of use +to you, about innocent people connected with my late client. You won't +act without something pretty definite to go upon, while the +scandalmongers will talk on no grounds at all. Lord Loudwater was a queer +customer, and goodness knows what will come to light, for, of course, +you'll investigate the affair thoroughly." + +The inquest accordingly was conducted on these lines. Only Dr. Thornhill, +Wilkins and Holloway were called as witnesses; and the Coroner directed +the jury to bring in a verdict to the effect that Lord Loudwater had died +of a knife-wound, and that there was no evidence to show whether it was +self-inflicted or not. + +But in this he failed. The jury, muddle-headed, obstinate country folk, +had made up their minds that Lord Loudwater was the kind of man to be +murdered, and that, therefore, he had been murdered. They brought in +the verdict that Lord Loudwater had been murdered by some person or +persons unknown. + +Mr. Flexen, Mr. Carrington and the Coroner were annoyed, but they had had +too wide an experience of juries to be surprised. + +"This will let loose a horde of reporters on us," said Mr. Carrington +very gloomily. + +"It will," said Mr. Flexen. "The pet sleuths of the _Wire_ and the +_Planet_ will leave London in about an hour." + +"Well, they'll have to be dealt with," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Oh, they're all right. I probably know them. I'll get them to work with +me. They must be treated very nicely," said Mr. Flexen cheerfully. + +"They're always a confounded nuisance," said Mr. Carrington, frowning. + +"Not if they're kindly treated. Indeed, I shall very likely find them +really useful," said Mr. Flexen. "But you might give the servants a +hint to be careful of what they say. The hint will come best from you, +and be much more effective than if it came from any one else. You +represent the family." + +"I'll see about it," said Mr. Carrington, and he went to Olivia's boudoir +to confer with her about the invitations to the funeral. + +Mr. Flexen was, indeed, little disturbed by the prospect of the coming of +the newspaper men. A popular member of the chief literary and +journalistic club in London, he would probably know them, or they would +know of him; and he would find them ready enough to work with him. +Besides, even if they discovered that the quarrel between Colonel Grey +and Lord Loudwater had its origin in Lady Loudwater, in the present state +of mind of the country, they would have to move very cautiously indeed in +the case of a V.C. + +He did not, indeed, think it likely that they would discover the cause of +the quarrel for some time--possibly not before their papers had tired of +the business and sent them on other errands. Mrs. Turnbull only knew of +Lord Loudwater's threat to hound Colonel Grey out of the Army; she did +not know the reason of his fury and his threat. Elizabeth Twitcher would +certainly hold her tongue about Lord Loudwater's subsequent quarrel with +Lady Loudwater, and his accusations and threats; Mrs. Carruthers was even +more unlikely to tell of it. It was unlikely that William Roper would +come within the ken of the newspaper men. No one could tell them that he +was the great repository of facts in the case, and Mr. Flexen believed +that he had given him good cause to keep his mouth shut till he called on +him to open it. + +Taking one thing with another, he thought it more than likely that the +newspaper men would not hinder him in his purpose of dealing with the +affair in his own way. + +On the other hand, they might very well be used to help him discover the +unknown woman who had had the furious quarrel with Lord Loudwater at +about eleven o'clock. Indeed, he regarded the information about that +quarrel as a sop to be thrown to them. She afforded just the element of +melodrama in the case which would be most grateful to their different +newspapers, and provide them with plenty of the kind of headlines which +best sold them. It was certain that James Hutchings would also occupy +their attention. The fact that he had been discharged with contumely and +threats, that he had departed uttering violent threats against the dead +man, and that he had returned to visit Elizabeth Twitcher late that +night, were doubtless being discussed by the whole neighbourhood. +However, only himself and William Roper knew, at present, that James +Hutchings had come and gone by the library window, had actually passed +twice within a few feet of his sleeping, or dead, master. That fact, +also, Mr. Flexen proposed to keep to himself till he saw reason to +divulge it. His next business must be to question Hutchings. + +It was quite likely that there lay the solution of the mystery. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +It would have been easy enough for Mr. Flexen to send for Hutchings to +the Castle and question him there. But he did not. In the first place, he +did not think it fair to a man who had already prejudiced himself so +seriously by his threats against the murdered man. Besides, he would be +at a disadvantage, under a greater strain at the Castle, and Mr. Flexen +wanted him where he would be at his best, for he wished to be able to +form an exact judgment of the likelihood of his being the murderer. +Indeed, it must be a very careful and exact judgment, for he felt that he +was moving in deep waters; that it was a case in which it was possible, +even easy, to go hopelessly wrong. Also, he was fully alive to the fact +that if threatened men live long, the men who threaten are to blame for +it, and that threats such as Hutchings' are the commonest things in the +world, and, as a rule, of very little importance. But there was always +the chance that Hutchings was the unusual threatener; and, if he were, he +had assuredly been in circumstances most favourable to the carrying out +of his threats. + +Accordingly he learnt from Inspector Perkins the way to the gamekeeper's +cottage in the West Wood, where Hutchings was staying with his father, +and drove the car to it himself. Hutchings was alone in the cottage, for +his father was out on his rounds. He invited Mr. Flexen to come in. Mr. +Flexen came in, sat down in an arm-chair, and examined Hutchings' face. +He saw that the man was plainly very anxious and ill at ease. It was +natural enough. He must perceive quite clearly how black against him +things looked. + +He was forced also to admit to himself that Hutchings had not a pleasant +face. It was choleric and truculent, and in spite of the man's evident +anxiety, there was a sullen fierceness on it which gave him no little of +the air of a wild beast trapped. + +Mr. Flexen wasted no time beating about the bush, but said to him: "When +you visited Elizabeth Twitcher last night you entered and left the Castle +by the library window." + +"You got that from that young blighter Manley," said Hutchings bitterly. + +"Not at all. I did not know that Mr. Manley knew it," said Mr. Flexen. +"So you did?" + +"Yes, sir, I did. I always went to the village that way in the +summer-time. It's the shortest. Besides, his lordship was nearly always +asleep; and if he wasn't and did 'ear me, there was always something I +could be doing in the library, sir." + +He spoke with eager, rather humble civility. + +"Well, did you, as you went through the library, coming or going, hear +Lord Loudwater snore?" + +Hutchings knitted his brow, thinking; then he said: "I can't call to mind +as I did, sir. But, then, I wasn't giving him any attention. I was +thinking about other things altogether. Of course, I went out quietly +enough. But that was habit." + +"That sounds as if you had not heard him snore--as if you thought that he +was awake," said Mr. Flexen. + +"I don't think I thought about him at all, sir, at the moment. I was +thinking about other things," said Hutchings. + +"You say that Mr. Manley saw you go out?" + +"Yes, sir. I passed him in the hall and went into the library. We had a +few words, and I told him I had come to fetch some cigarettes as I'd +left behind." + +"Do you know what the time was?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"No, sir--not exactly. But it must have been nearly half-past eleven, I +should think." + +"It is very important to fix the time at which Lord Loudwater died," said +Mr. Flexen. "You can't tell me nearer than that?" + +"No, sir. It was nearly ten to twelve when I got home, and I reckon it's +about twenty minutes' walk from the Castle to the cottage here." + +"And all you went to the Castle for was to speak to Elizabeth Twitcher?" +said Mr. Flexen. + +"That was all I went for--every single thing. And it was all I did +there--every mortal thing I did there, sir," Hutchings asseverated, and +he wiped his brow. + +"H'm!" said Mr. Flexen. "As you passed through the library, did you +happen to notice whether the knife was in its place in the big inkstand?" + +Hutchings hesitated, and his lips twitched. Then he said: "Yes, I did, +sir. It was in the big inkstand." + +Mr. Flexen could not make up his mind whether he was telling the truth or +not. He thought that he was not. But he did not attach much importance to +the matter. People who knew themselves to be suspected of a crime had +often told him quite stupid and unnecessary lies and been proved innocent +after all. + +"I should have thought that your mind was too full of other things to +notice a thing like that," he said in a somewhat incredulous tone. + +Then there came an outburst. Mr. Flexen had thought that Hutchings was +worked up to a high degree of nervous tension, and he was. He cried out +that he knew that every one believed that he had done it; but he hadn't. +He'd never thought of it. He was damned if he didn't wish he had done it. +He might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, anyhow. He broke off to +curse Lord Loudwater at length. He had been a curse to every one who came +into contact with him while he was alive, and now he was getting people +into trouble when he was dead. Yes: he wished it had occurred to him to +stick that knife into him. He'd have done it like a shot, and he'd have +done the right thing. The world was well rid of a swine like that! + +His face was contorted, and his eyes kept gleaming red as he talked, and +he came to the end of his outburst, trembling and panting. + +Mr. Flexen was unmoved and unenlightened. It was merely the outburst +of a badly-frightened man lacking in self-control, and told him +nothing. It left it equally likely that Hutchings had, or had not, +committed the crime. + +"There's nothing to get so frantic about," he said quietly to the panting +man. "It doesn't do any good." + +"It's all very well to talk like that, sir," said Hutchings in a shaky +voice. "But I know what people are saying. It's enough to make any one +lose their temper." + +"I should think that yours was pretty easy to lose," said Mr. +Flexen dryly. + +"I know it. It is very short, sir. It always was; and I can't help it," +said Hutchings in an apologetic voice. + +"Then you'd better set about learning to help it, my man," said +Mr. Flexen. + +He took out his pipe and filled it slowly. The flush faded a little from +Hutchings' face. Mr. Flexen lighted his pipe and rose. + +Then as he went to the door he said: "I should advise you to get that +stupid temper well in hand. It makes a bad impression. Good afternoon." + +Mr. Flexen drove back to the Castle, considering Hutchings carefully. +There was no doubt that he was, indeed, badly frightened; but he had +reason to be. Mr. Flexen could not decide whether he had worn the air of +a guilty man or an innocent. He could not decide whether the butler had +been too deeply absorbed in his own affairs to hear the snoring of Lord +Loudwater as he went through the library. It was possible that Lord +Loudwater was alive, asleep, and yet not snoring at the time. Snoring is +often intermittent. + +He considered Hutchings' violent outburst. Certainly such an outburst +showed the man uncommonly unbalanced; it might, indeed, on occasion take +the form of uncontrollable murderous fury. But it seemed to him that an +actual meeting with Lord Loudwater would have been necessary to provoke +that. But Lord Loudwater had been sitting in his chair when he died; and +if he had not killed himself, he had been killed in his sleep. At any +rate, there was probably sufficient evidence, seeing what juries are, to +convict Hutchings. If he had been one of those not uncommon ministers of +the law, whose only desire is to secure a conviction, he would doubtless +arrest him at once. But it was not his only desire to secure a +conviction; it was his very keen desire to find the right solution of the +problem. He could not see where any more evidence against Hutchings was +to come from. What Mr. Manley had told him about the knife, that it had +been in general use, and that he had seen Hutchings cut string with it +the day before the murder, greatly lessened its value as evidence, even +if Hutchings' finger-prints were thick on it. He decided to dismiss +Hutchings from his mind for the time being, and devote all his energies +to discovering the mysterious woman with whom Lord Loudwater had had the +furious quarrel between eleven and a quarter-past. + +With this end in view, on his return to the Castle, he went straight to +the library, where Mr. Carrington was engaged, along with Mr. Manley, in +an examination of the murdered man's papers. They were uncommonly few, +and Mr. Manley had already set them in order. Lord Loudwater seemed to +have kept but few letters, and the papers consisted chiefly of receipted +and unreceipted bills. + +When he found that Mr. Flexen had come to confer with the lawyer, Mr. +Manley assumed an air of extraordinary discretion and softly withdrew. + +"I want to know--it is most important--whether there was any +entanglement between Lord Loudwater and a woman," said Mr. Flexen. + +"I should think it very unlikely," said Mr. Carrington without +hesitation. "At least, I have never heard of anything of the kind, +and so far I have come across no trace of anything of the kind among +his papers." + +Mr. Flexen frowned, considering; then he said: "Do you happen to know +whether he employed any one besides your firm to do legal work for him?" + +"As to that I can't say. But I should not think it likely. It was always +a business to get him to attend to anything that wanted doing, and he +always made a fuss about it. I can't see him employing another firm too. +But he may have done. The only thing is that I ought to have found either +their bills or the receipts for them among those papers--except that my +late client does not appear to have taken the trouble to keep many +receipts." + +"The thing is that I've learnt that Lord Loudwater had a furious quarrel +with some unknown woman between eleven and a quarter-past on the night of +his death, and I want to find her. You can see how important it is. It +may be that she stabbed him, or it may be that she provided him with the +motive to commit suicide--not that that seems likely. But you can't tell: +she might have been able to threaten him with some exposure. Those people +without any self-control are always doing the most senseless +things--bigamy, for instance, is often one of their weaknesses." + +"Loudwater was certainly without self-control; but I hardly think that he +was the man to commit bigamy," said the lawyer. + +"It would very much simplify matters if he had," said Mr. Flexen in +a dissatisfied tone. "I wonder whether Manley would know anything +about it?" + +"He might," said Mr. Carrington. + +Mr. Flexen went through the library window to find Mr. Manley strolling +up and down the lawn with every appearance of enjoying his pipe and the +respite from perusing papers. + +"Mr. Carrington tells me that you were in Lord Loudwater's confidence," +said Mr. Flexen. + +"Wholly," said Mr. Manley, with more promptness than his actual knowledge +of the facts warranted. + +It seemed to him fitting that a secretary of his intelligence and +discretion should have been wholly in the confidence of any nobleman who +employed him. Therefore he himself must have been. + +"Then perhaps you can tell me whether he was entangled with a woman," +said Mr. Flexen. + +"Entangled? In what way?" said Mr. Manley in a tone of surprise. + +"In the usual way, I suppose. Was he engaged in a love-affair with any +woman, or had he been?" + +"He certainly did not tell me anything about it if he was," said Mr. +Manley. "But that is the kind of thing he might very well _not_ confide +to his secretary." + +"You don't happen to know if he was making any payments to a woman--an +allowance, for example?" said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley was well on his guard by now. These questions must surely +refer to Helena. + +"He never told me anything about it," he said with perfect readiness. +"Not, of course, that I would tell you if he had," he added, in his most +amiable voice. "I've told you that I thought that he made enough trouble +while he was alive. I won't help him to make trouble now that he's dead." + +Mr. Flexen thought that the asseveration was unnecessary, since Mr. +Manley had not the knowledge which would make the trouble. He returned to +the lawyer and told him that Mr. Manley had no information to give. + +"It seems a very important point in the affair," said the lawyer. + +"It is," said Mr. Flexen, frowning. "I wonder if there was an intrigue +with a country girl or woman, some one in the neighbourhood?" + +"There might have been. Lord Loudwater rode a great deal. He was +hours in the saddle every day. He had time and opportunity for that +kind of thing." + +"On the other hand, there's no need for it to have been any one in the +neighbourhood at all. To say nothing of the train, it's a short enough +motor drive from London; and it was a moonlight night," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Then you may be able to find traces of the car. The woman must have left +it somewhere while she had the interview with Lord Loudwater," said Mr. +Carrington. + +"I'll try," said Mr. Flexen, not very hopefully, "But there are so few +people about at night nowadays. Five out of the eight gamekeepers are +still abroad. In ordinary times there would have been four at least of +them about the roads and woods. On that night there was only one." + +"There's the further difficulty that Lord Loudwater had so few friends. +That will make it harder to find out anything about an affair of this +kind--if he had one," said Mr. Carrington. + +"It will, indeed," said Mr. Flexen, and paused, frowning. Then he +added gravely: "I'm sure that there was such an affair, and I've got +to find the woman." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +Mr. Manley did not lunch with Mr. Flexen and the lawyer. In cultivating +Mr. Flexen he had been forced to see less than usual of Helena, and, +interesting a companion as Mr. Flexen was, Mr. Manley very much preferred +her society. He found her less nervous than she had been the day before, +but she still wore a sufficiently anxious air, and was still restless. +She seemed more pleased to see him than usual, and the warmth of her +welcome gave him a sudden sense that she was even fonder of him than he +had thought, or hoped. It stirred him to an admirable response. + +At lunch she questioned him with uncommon particularity about the +proceedings of Mr. Flexen, the discoveries he had made, the lines on +which he was making his investigation. Her interest seemed natural +enough, and he told her all that he knew, which was little. She seemed +much disappointed by his lack of information. He was careful not to tell +her that Mr. Flexen had inquired of him whether he knew of any +entanglement between Lord Loudwater and a woman. Thanks to his +imagination he was a young man of uncommon discretion, and it was plain +that she was suffering anxiety enough. + +At the end of her fruitless questioning she sighed and said: "Of course, +the whole affair is of no great interest to you really." + +"It isn't of very great interest to me," said Mr. Manley. "You see, the +victim of the crime, if it was a crime, was such an uninteresting +creature. Nature, as I've told you before, intended him for a bull, +changed her mind when it was too late to make a satisfactory alteration, +and botched it. You must admit that the bull man is a very dull kind of +creature, unless he can make things lively for you by prodding you with +his horns. When he is dead, he is certainly done with." + +"I wish he was done with," she said, with a sigh. + +"Well, as far as you are concerned, he is done with, surely," he said, in +some surprise. + +"Of course, of course," she said quickly. "But still, he seems likely to +give a great deal of trouble to somebody; and if there is a trial, how am +I to know that my name won't be brought up?" + +"I don't think there's a chance of it," he said. "How should it be +brought up?" + +"One never knows," she said, with a note of nervous dread in her voice. + +"Well, as far as I'm concerned, he'll get no help in making a posthumous +nuisance of himself from me; and I'm inclined to think that, as things +are going, he'll need my help to do that," he said in a tone of quiet +satisfaction. + +"A posthumous nuisance--you do have phrases! And how you do dislike +him!" she said. + +"The moderately civilized man, with a gentle disposition like mine, +always does hate the bull man. Also, he despises him," said Mr. +Manley calmly. + +She was silent a while, thinking; then she said: "What did you mean by +saying: 'If it was a crime.' What else could it have been?" + +"A suicide. The evidence was that the wound might have been +self-inflicted," said Mr. Manley. + +"Absurd! Lord Loudwater was the last man in the world to commit suicide!" +she cried. + +"That's purely a matter of individual opinion. I am of the opinion that a +man of his uncontrollable temper was quite likely to commit suicide," he +said firmly. "As for its being absurd, if there is any attempt to prove +any one guilty of murdering him on purely circumstantial evidence, that +person won't find anything absurd in the theory at all. In fact, he'll +work it for all it's worth. I think myself that, with Dr. Thornhill's +evidence in mind, the police, or the Public Prosecutor, or the Treasury, +or whoever it is that decides those things, will never attempt in this +case to bring any one to trial for the murder on merely circumstantial +evidence." + +"Do you think not?" she said in a tone of relief. + +"I'm sure of it," said Mr. Manley. "But why do we waste our time talking +about the tiresome fellow when there are things a thousand times more +interesting to talk about? Your eyes, now--" + +Mr. Flexen instructed Inspector Perkins and his men to make inquiries +about the rides of Lord Loudwater and to try to learn whether any one had +seen a strange car, or, indeed, a car of any kind, in the neighbourhood +of the Castle about eleven o'clock on the night of the murder. Also, he +could see his way to using the newspaper men to help him to discover +whether there had been any entanglement known to the club gossips or the +people of the neighbourhood between Lord Loudwater and a lady in London. +It was not unlikely that he had talked of it to some one, for if they +quarrelled so furiously he must need sympathy; and if he had not talked, +the lady probably had, though it might very well be that she was not in +the circle in which the Loudwaters moved in London. He had some doubt, +however, that she was a London woman at all. She had shown too intimate a +knowledge of Lord Loudwater's habits at Loudwater and of the Castle +itself, for it was clear from William Roper's story that she had gone +straight to the library window and through it, in the evident expectation +of finding Lord Loudwater asleep as usual in his smoking-room. It was +this doubt which prevented him from appealing to Scotland Yard for help +in clearing up this particular point. He wished to make sure first that +the woman did not belong to the neighbourhood. On the other hand, she +might always be some one who had been a guest at the Castle. + +He was about to go in search of Lady Loudwater to question her about +their friends and acquaintances who might have this knowledge of the +Castle and the habits of her husband, when the sleuth from the _Wire_ and +the sleuth from the _Planet_ arrived together, in all amity and the same +vexation at being prevented by this errand from spending the afternoon at +the same bridge table. The sleuth of the _Wire_ was a very solemn-looking +young man, with a round, simple face. The sleuth of the _Planet_ was a +tall, dark man, with an impatient and slightly worried air, who looked +uncommonly like an irritable actor-manager. + +Both of them greeted Mr. Flexen with affectionate warmth, and Douglas, +the tall sleuth of the _Planet_, at once deplored, with considerable +bitterness, the fact that he had been robbed of his afternoon's bridge. +Gregg, the sleuth of the _Wire_, preserved a gently-blinking, +sympathetic silence. + +Mr. Flexen at once sent for whisky, soda and cigars, and over them took +his two friends into his confidence. He told them that it was very +doubtful whether it was a case of murder or suicide; that the jury's +verdict was not in accordance with the directions of the Coroner, but +just a piece of natural, pig-headed stupidity. This produced another +bitter outcry from Douglas about the loss of his afternoon. Mr. Flexen +did not soothe him at all by pointing out that he was in a beautiful +country on a beautiful day. Then he told them about the coming of the +mysterious woman and her violent quarrel with the Lord Loudwater just +about the probable time of his death. Douglas at once lost his irritated +air and displayed a lively interest in the matter; Gregg listened and +blinked. Mr. Flexen told them also of Hutchings, his threats, and his +visit to the Castle. That was as far as his confidences went. But they +were enough. He had given them the very things they wanted, and they both +assured him that they would at once inform him of any discoveries they +might make themselves. They left him feeling sure that he might safely +leave the servants and the villagers to them and the policemen. If any +one in the neighbourhood knew anything about the mysterious woman, they +would probably ferret it out. What was far more important was that +tomorrow's _Wire_ and _Planet_ would contain such an advertisement of her +that any one in London or the country who knew of her relations with the +dead man would learn at once the value of that knowledge. + +When they had gone he sent for Mrs. Carruthers, and learned, to his +annoyance, that none of the upper servants except Elizabeth Twitcher had +been in service at the Castle for more than four months. She could only +say that during the six weeks that she had been housekeeper there had +been very few visitors; and they had been merely callers, except when +Colonel Grey had been coming to the Castle and there had been small +tennis parties. She had heard nothing from the servants about his +lordship's being on particularly friendly terms with any lady in the +neighbourhood. Hutchings would be the most likely person to know a thing +like that. He had been in service at the Castle all his life. Of course, +her ladyship, too, she might know. + +Mr. Flexen made up his mind to seek out Hutchings at once and question +him on the matter; but Mrs. Carruthers had only just left him when he saw +Olivia come into the rose-garden with Colonel Grey. He watched them idly +and perceived that, for the time being at any rate, Olivia had lost her +strained and anxious air. She was plainly enough absorbed, wholly +absorbed, in Grey. She had eyes only for him, and Mr. Flexen suspected +that her ears were at the moment deaf to everything but the sound of his +voice. They did look a well-matched pair. + +It occurred to him that he might as well again question Olivia about her +husband's possible intrigue with another woman and be done with it. There +could be no harm in Colonel Grey's hearing the questions. As for +interrupting their pleasant converse, he thought that they would soon +recover from the interruption. Accordingly he went out to the +rose-garden. + +Absorbed in one another, they did not see him till he was right on them, +and then he saw a curious happening. At the sight of him a sudden, +simultaneous apprehension filled both their faces, and they drew closer +together. But he had an odd fancy that they did not draw together for +mutual protection, but mutually to protect. Then, almost on the instant, +they were gazing at him with politely inquiring eyes, Lady Loudwater +smiling. He felt that they were intensely on their guard. It was +uncommonly puzzling. + +He changed his mind about questioning Lady Loudwater in the presence of +Grey, and asked if she could spare him a minute or two to answer a few +questions. + +"Oh, yes. I'm sure Colonel Grey will excuse me," she said readily. + +"But why shouldn't you question Lady Loudwater before me?" said Colonel +Grey coolly; but he slapped his thigh nervously with the pair of gloves +he was carrying. "It's always as well for a woman to have a man at hand +in an awkward affair like this, which may lead to a good deal of +unpleasantness if anything goes wrong. I'm a friend of Lady Loudwater, +and I don't suppose you fear that anything you discuss before me will go +any further, Mr. Flexen." + +He was cool enough, but Mr. Flexen did not miss the note of anxiety in +his voice. + +"I don't mind at all if Lady Loudwater would like it," he said readily. +"But it's rather a delicate matter." + +"Oh, I should like Colonel Grey to hear everything," said Olivia quickly. + +"It's about the matter of an entanglement between Lord Loudwater and some +lady. Are you quite sure there was nothing of the kind before his +marriage, if not after it?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"I don't know for certain," said Olivia readily. "But two or three times +Lord Loudwater did talk about other women in a boasting sort of way. +Only it was when he was trying to annoy me; so I didn't pay much +attention to it." + +"And you never tried to find out whether it was the truth or not?" said +Mr. Flexen. + +"No, never. You see, I didn't particularly care," said Olivia, with +unexpected frankness. "If I'd cared, I expect it would have been very +different." + +"And did Lord Loudwater never mention the name of any lady when he was +boasting?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"No. Never. It was just general boasting. And he certainly gave me to +understand that it was two or three, not one," said Olivia. + +"Have you any suspicion that he had any particular lady in mind--any of +your common friends, for example--some one who has stayed at the Castle?" +said Mr. Flexen. + +"None at all. I haven't the slightest idea who it could have been. It +must have been some one I don't know, or I should have been nearly sure +to notice something," said Olivia. + +"Can you tell me any one who might know?" + +Olivia shook her head, and said: "No. I don't know any friend of my +husband well enough to say. He never told me who his chief friends were. +It never occurred to me that he had an intimate friend. I always thought +he hadn't, in fact." + +"I tell you what: you might inquire of Outhwaite, you know the man I +mean, the man who used always to be getting fined for furious driving. He +was a friend of Loudwater, the only friend I ever heard him mention, +indeed. If he ever confided in any one, that would be the most likely +man," said Colonel Grey. + +"Thank you. That's an idea. I'll certainly try him," said Mr. Flexen, and +he turned as if to go. + +But Olivia stopped him, saying: "Do you think, then, that a woman did it, +Mr. Flexen?" + +"Well, there is a certain amount of evidence which lends some colour to +that theory, but I don't want any one to know that," said Mr. Flexen. + +And then he could have sworn that he heard Olivia breathe a faint sigh +of relief. + +But Colonel Grey broke in in a tone of some acerbity and more anxiety: +"It's nonsense to talk of any one having done it in face of the +medical evidence--any one, that is, but Loudwater himself. He +committed suicide." + +"You think him a likely man to have committed suicide, do you?" said +Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes. A man of his utterly uncontrollable temper is the very man to +commit suicide," said Colonel Grey firmly. + +"It is, of course, always possible that he committed suicide," said Mr. +Flexen in a non-committal tone. + +"It's most probable," said Colonel Grey curtly. + +"What do you think, Lady Loudwater?" said Flexen. + +"Why, I haven't thought much about it. I always--I--but now I do think +about it, I--I--think it's not unlikely," said Olivia, in a tone of no +great conviction. "And he was so frightfully upset, too, that night--not +that he had any reason to be; but he was." + +"Ah, well; my duty is to investigate the matter till there isn't a shadow +of doubt left," said Mr. Flexen in a pleasant voice. "I daresay that I +shall get to the bottom of it." + +With that he left them and went back into the Castle. + +At the sight of his back Olivia breathed so deep a sigh of relief that +Grey winced at it. + +"If only it could be proved that Egbert did commit suicide!" she said +wistfully. + +"I don't see any chance of it," said Colonel Grey gloomily. Then he +added in a tone of but faint hope: "Unless he wrote to one of his friends +that he intended to commit suicide." + +Olivia shook her head and said: "Egbert wouldn't do that. He hated +letter-writing." + +"Besides, if he had, we should have heard of it by now," said Grey. + +"The friend might be away," said Olivia. "I know that Mr. Outhwaite was +in France." + +"That's hoping too much," said Grey. + +They strolled on in silence, his eyes on her thoughtful face, which under +Mr. Flexen's questioning had again grown anxious. Then he said: "This sun +is awfully hot. Let's stroll through the wood to the pavilion. It will be +delightful there." + +"Very well," said Olivia, smiling at him. + +Mr. Flexen went back to his room, rang for Holloway, and bade him find +Mr. Manley, if he were in, and ask him to come to him. Holloway went, and +presently returned to say that Mr. Manley had gone out to lunch, but left +word that he would be back to dinner. + +Mr. Flexen, therefore, gave his mind to the consideration of his talk +with Colonel Grey and Olivia, and the longer he considered it, the more +their attitude intrigued and puzzled him. They certainly knew something +about the murder, something of the first importance. What could it be? + +Again he asked himself could either, or both of them, have actually had +a hand in it? It seemed improbable; but he was used to the improbable +happening. He could not believe that either of them would have dreamt of +committing murder to gain a personal end--to save themselves, for +example, from the injuries with which Lord Loudwater had threatened them. +But would they commit murder to save some one else, one to save the +other, for example, from such an injury? Murder was, indeed, a violent +measure; but Mr. Flexen was inclined to think that either of them might +take it. Mr. Manley's confident declaration that they were both creatures +of strong emotions had impressed him. He felt that Colonel Grey, under +the impulse to save Lady Loudwater, would stick at very little; and he +was used to violence and to hold human life cheap. On the other hand, +Lady Loudwater would go a long way--a very long way--if any one she loved +were threatened. The fact that she had good Italian blood in her veins +was very present in his mind. + +Again, it would be a matter of sudden impulse, not of grave deliberation. +The irritating sound of Lord Loudwater's snores and the sight of the +gleaming knife-blade on the library table coming together after their +painful and moving discussion of their dangers might awake the impulse to +be rid of him, at any cost, in full strength. He was not disposed to +underrate the suggestion of that naked knife-blade on them when they +were strung to such a height of emotion. Again, he asked himself, had +either of them murdered Lord Loudwater to save the other? + +At any rate, they knew who had committed the murder. Of that he was sure. + +Could they be shielding a third person? If so, who was that third person? + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Mr. Flexen sat pondering this question of a third person for a good +twenty minutes. + +It could not be Hutchings. There would be no reason to shield Hutchings +unless they had instigated or employed him to commit the murder, and that +was out of the question. He was not sure, indeed, that Hutchings was not +the murderer; the snores and the knife were as likely to have excited the +murderous impulse in him as in them. He was quite sure that if Dr. +Thornhill had been able to swear that the wound was not self-inflicted, +he could have secured the conviction of Hutchings. But it was incredible +that Lady Loudwater or Colonel Grey had employed him to commit the +murder. No; if they were shielding a third person, it must be the +mysterious, unknown woman who had come with such swift secrecy and so +wholly disappeared. + +It grew clearer and clearer that there most probably lay that solution +of the problem. If that woman herself had not murdered Lord Loudwater, +as seemed most likely, she might very well give him the clue for which +he was groping. He must find her, and, of course, sooner or later he +would find her. But the sooner he found her, the sooner would the +problem be solved and his work done. Till he found her he would not find +its solution. + +It still seemed to him probable that somewhere among Lord Loudwater's +papers there was information which would lead to her discovery, and he +went into the library to confer again with Mr. Carrington on the matter. +He found him discussing the arrangements for tomorrow's funeral with Mrs. +Carruthers and Wilkins. + +When they had gone he said: "Did you come across any information about +that mysterious woman in the rest of the papers?" + +"Not a word," said Mr. Carrington. + +"I've been thinking that you might come across traces of her in his +pass-books--payments or an allowance." + +"I thought of that. But there's only one passbook, the one in use. Lord +Loudwater doesn't seem to have kept them after they were filled. And +Manley knows all about this one; he wrote out every cheque in it for +Loudwater, and he is quite sure that there were no cheques of any size +for a woman among them." + +"That's disappointing," said Mr. Flexen. "What about the cheques to +'Self'? Are there any large ones among them?" + +"No. They're all on the small side--distinctly on the small +side--cheques for ten pounds--and very few of them." + +"It is queer that it should be so difficult to find any information +about a woman who played such an important part in his life," said Mr. +Flexen gloomily. + +"It's not so very uncommon," said the lawyer. + +"Well, let's hope that the advertisement she'll get from my newspaper +friends will bring her to light," said Mr. Flexen. + +"It would be a pleasant surprise to me to find them serving some useful +purpose," said Mr. Carrington grimly. + +Mr. Flexen laughed and said: "You're prejudiced. It's about time to dress +for dinner." + +Mr. Carrington rose with alacrity and said anxiously, "I hope to goodness +Loudwater didn't quarrel with his chef!" + +"I've no reason to think so. The food's excellent," said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley joined them at dinner, wearing his best air of a discreet and +indulgent man of the world, and confident of making himself valued. He +was in very good spirits, for he had persuaded Helena to marry him that +day month, and was rejoicing in his success. He did not tell Mr. Flexen, +or Mr. Carrington, of his good fortune. He felt that it would hardly +interest them, since neither of them knew Helena or was intimate with +himself. But, inspired by this success, he took the lead in the +conversation, and showed himself inclined to be somewhat patronizing to +two men outside the sphere of imaginative literature. + +It was Mr. Flexen who broached the subject of the murder. + +After they had talked of the usual topics for a while, he said: "By the +way, Manley, did you hear Lord Loudwater snore after Hutchings went into +the library, or before?" + +"So you know that I saw Hutchings in the hall that night?" said Mr. +Manley. "It's wonderful how you find things out. I didn't tell you, and I +should have thought that I was the only person awake in the front part of +the Castle. I suppose that some one saw him getting his cigarettes from +the butler's pantry." + +"So that was the reason he gave you for being in the Castle," said Mr. +Flexen. "Well, was it after or before you spoke to him that you heard +Lord Loudwater snore?" + +Mr. Manley hesitated, thinking; then he said: "I can't remember at the +moment. You see, I was downstairs some little time. I found an evening +paper in the dining-room and looked through it there. I might have heard +him from there." + +"You can't remember?" said Mr. Flexen in a tone of disappointment. + +"Not at the moment," said Mr. Manley. "Is it important?" + +"Yes; very important. It would probably help me to fix the time of Lord +Loudwater's death." + +"I see. A lot may turn on that," said Mr. Manley thoughtfully. + +"Yes. You can see how immensely it helps to have a fact like that fixed," +said Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes: of course," said Mr. Manley. "Well, I must try to remember. I +daresay I shall, if I keep the fact in my mind gently, and do not try to +wrench the recollection out of it. You know how hard it is to remember a +thing, if it hasn't caught your attention fairly when it happened." + +"Yes," said Mr. Flexen. "But I hope to goodness you'll remember it +quickly. It may be of the greatest use to me." + +"Ah, yes; I must," said Mr. Manley, giving him a queer look. + +"I was forgetting," said Mr. Flexen, understanding the thought behind the +queer look. "You'd hardly believe it, Mr. Carrington, but Mr. Manley told +me at the very beginning of this business that he was not going to help +in any way to discover the murderer of Lord Loudwater, because he +considered that murderer a benefactor of society." + +"But I never heard of such a thing!" cried the lawyer in a tone of +astonished disapproval. "Such a course might be possible in the case of +some minor crime, or in a person intimately connected with the criminal +in the case of a major crime. But for an outsider to pursue such a +course in the case of a murder is unheard of--absolutely unheard of." + +"I daresay it isn't common," said Mr. Manley in a tone of modest +satisfaction. "But I am modern; I claim the right of private judgment in +all matters of morality." + +"Oh, that won't do--that won't do at all!" cried the shocked lawyer. +"There would be hopeless confusion--in fact, if everybody did that, the +law might easily become a dead letter--absolutely a dead letter." + +"But there's no fear of everybody doing anything of the kind. The ruck +of men have no private judgment to claim the right of. They take +whatever's given them in the way of morals by their pastors and masters. +Only exceptional people have ideas of their own to carry out; and there +are not enough exceptional people to make much difference," said Mr. +Manley calmly. + +"But, all the same, such principles are subversive of society--absolutely +subversive of society," said Mr. Carrington warmly, and his square, +massive face was growing redder. + +"I daresay," said Mr. Manley amiably. "But if any one chooses to have +them, and act on them, what are you going to do about it? For example, if +I happened to know who had murdered Lord Loudwater and did not choose to +tell, how could you make me?" + +"If there were many people with such principles about, society would +soon find out a way of protecting itself," said the lawyer, in the +accents of one whose tenderest sensibilities are being outraged. + +"It would have to have recourse to torture then," said Mr. Manley +cheerfully. + +"But let me remind you that it is a crime to be an accessory before, or +after, the fact to murder," said the lawyer in a tone of some triumph. + +"Oh, I'm not going as far as that," said Mr. Manley. "A man might very +well approve of a murder without being willing to further it." + +Mr. Flexen laughed and said: "I understand Mr. Manley's point +of view. Sometimes I have felt inclined to be judge as well as +investigator--especially in the East." + +"And you followed your inclination," said Mr. Manley with amiable +certainty. + +"Perhaps--perhaps not," said Mr. Flexen, smiling at him. + +"The war has upset everything. I never heard such ideas before the war," +grumbled the lawyer. + +There was a silence as Holloway brought in the coffee and cigars. + +When he had gone, Mr. Flexen said in an almost fretful tone: "It's an +extraordinary thing that Lord Loudwater kept so few papers." + +"I don't know," said Mr. Manley carelessly. "During the six months I've +been here we were never stuck for want of a paper. He seemed to me to +have kept all that were necessary." + +"It's the destroying of his pass-books that seems so odd to me," said +the lawyer. "A man must often want to know how he spent his money in a +given year." + +"I'm sure I never want to," said Mr. Manley. "And certainly pass-books +are unattractive-looking objects to have about." + +"All the same, they might have proved very useful in this case," said Mr. +Flexen. "Of course, they wouldn't tell us anything we shall not find out +eventually. But they might have saved us a lot of time and trouble. They +might put us on to the track of another firm of lawyers who did certain +business for Lord Loudwater." + +"Well, no one but Mr. Carrington's firm did any business for him during +the last six months," said Mr. Manley, rising. "I feel inclined to take +advantage of the moonlight and go for a stroll. So I will leave you to go +on working on the murder. Good-bye for the present." + +He sauntered out of the room, and when the door closed behind him, the +lawyer said earnestly: "I do hate a crank." + +The words came from his heart. + +"Oh, I don't think he's a crank," said Mr. Flexen in an indulgent tone. +"He's too intelligent; that's all." + +"There's nothing so dangerous as too much intelligence. It's always a +nuisance to other people," said the lawyer. "Do you think he really knows +anything?" + +"He knows something--nothing of real importance, I think," said Mr. +Flexen. "But, as I expect you've noticed, he likes to feel himself of +importance. And whatever knowledge he has helps him to feel important. +It's a harmless hobby. By the way, is there anything in the way of +insanity in Lady Loudwater's family?" + +"No, I never heard of any, and I should have been almost certain to hear +if there were any," said the lawyer in some surprise. + +"That's all right," said Mr. Flexen. + +"By the way, how did you get on with the newspaper men?" said the lawyer. + +"I put them in the way of making themselves very useful to me, and, at +the same time, I gave them exactly the kind of thing they wanted. I +think, too, that when they've run the story I gave them for all it's +worth, they'll very likely drop the case--unless, that is, we've really +got it cleared up. I was careful to point out to them that the verdict of +the coroner's jury was a piece of pig-headed idiocy, and they'll see the +unlikelihood of securing a conviction for murder with the medical +evidence as it is, unless we have an absolutely clear case." + +"But, all the same, there's going to be a tremendous fuss in the papers," +said Mr. Carrington, in the tone of dissatisfaction of the lawyer who is +always doing his best to keep tremendous fusses out of the papers. + +"Oh, yes. That was necessary. It's out of that fuss that I hope to get +the evidence which will settle once and for all, in my mind at any rate, +the question whether Lord Loudwater was murdered or not." + +"But surely you haven't any doubt about that?" said the lawyer sharply. + +"Just a trifle, and I may as well get rid of it," said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley took his hat and stick and went leisurely out of the front +door of the Castle. He paused on the steps for half a minute to admire +the moonlit night and murmur a few lines from Keats. Then he strolled +down the drive whistling the tune of an American coon song. But presently +the whistle died on his lips as he considered Mr. Flexen's keen desire to +discover the other firm of lawyers who had done business for Lord +Loudwater. He could not but think, when he put this keenness of Mr. +Flexen beside Helena's strange anxiety, that she had done something of +which she had not told him, something that might have drawn suspicion on +her. He did not see what she could have done; but there it was. He had a +feeling, an intuition that it was she whom Mr. Flexen was seeking, and he +prided himself on his intuition. Well, the longer they were finding +Shepherd, the lawyer who had handled the business of her allowance, the +better he would be pleased. He had certainly done his best to block their +way. At the same time, they might at any moment learn who he was. It was +fortunate, therefore, that Shepherd had a job in Mesopotamia, and that +his business was closed down for the present. If they did learn who he +was, they would still be a long while before they obtained any +information about Helena from him. Mr. Manley's keen desire was that the +first excitement about the murder should have died down before they did +get it. He was a firm believer in the soothing effect of time. The +discovery of Helena's allowance, if it were made now, might cause her +considerable annoyance, if not actual trouble. Coming in six weeks' time, +or even a month's time, it would be far less likely to make that trouble. + +He wondered what it could be that she had done to bring herself under +suspicion. Remembering what she had said of her determination to discuss +the halving of her allowance with the dead man, and her remark that she +had such a knowledge of his habits that she could make sure of having an +interview with him to discuss it, it seemed not unlikely that she had +gone to see him on the very night of his murder, and that some one had +seen her. If it were so, he hoped that she would tell him, so that they +might together devise some way of preventing harm coming from the +accident that the interview had occurred at such an unfortunate hour. He +felt sure that he would be able to devise such a way. He never blinked +the fact of his extreme ingenuity. + +He found her strolling in her garden with the anxious frown which had +awakened his uneasiness, still on her brow. Her face grew brighter at the +sight of him, and presently he had smoothed the frown quite away. Again +he realized that the murder of Lord Loudwater had had a softening effect +on her. Before it they had been much more on equality; now she rather +clung to him. He found it pleasing, much more the natural attitude of a +woman towards a man of his imagination and knowledge of life. He was +properly gracious and protective with her. + +The next morning the _Daily Wire_ opened his eyes and confirmed his +apprehensions. The murder of a nobleman is an uncommon occurrence, and +the editor of that paper showed every intention of making the most of it. +The visit of the unknown woman to Lord Loudwater and their quarrel, +treated with the nervous picturesqueness of which Mr. Gregg was so famous +a master, formed the main and interesting part of the article. When he +came to the end of it, Mr. Manley whistled ruefully. He had no difficulty +whatever in picturing to himself the indignant and violent wrath of +Helena, and he could not conceive for a moment that Lord Loudwater had +been able to withstand it. Of course, he would be violent, too, but with +a much less impressive violence. + +Lord Loudwater had been lavish in the matter of newspapers; he was a rich +man, and they had been his only reading. Mr. Manley read the report of +the inquest in all the chief London dailies, and found in the _Daily +Planet_ another nervously picturesque article on the visit of the +mysterious woman from the nervously picturesque pen of Mr. Douglas. + +Here was certainly a pretty kettle of fish. He could not doubt that the +woman was Helena. It explained Flexen's questioning him whether he had +any knowledge of an entanglement between Lord Loudwater and a woman, and +Flexen's keen desire to find some other firm of lawyers who might have +been called in to deal with such an entanglement. But he could not for a +moment bring himself to believe that there could have ever been any need +for Helena to have recourse to the knife. He could not see Lord +Loudwater resisting her when she became really angry; he must have given +way. None the less, he did not underestimate the awkwardness, the danger +even, of her having paid that visit and had that quarrel at such an +unfortunate hour. + +He had matter enough for earnest thought during the funeral. It was a +large funeral, though there were not many funeral guests. Five ladies, an +aunt and four cousins, of Lord Loudwater's own generation, came down from +London. The younger generation was either on its way back from the war, +or too busy with its work to find the time to attend the funeral of a +distant relation, whom, if they had chanced to meet him, they neither +liked nor respected. But there was a show of carriages from all the big +houses within a radius of nine miles, which more than made up for the +fewness of the guests. Also, there was a crowd of middle- and lower-class +spectators who considered the funeral of a murdered nobleman a spectacle +indeed worth attending. It was composed of women, children, old men, and +a few wounded private soldiers. + +Olivia attended the funeral, wearing a composed but rather pathetic air, +owing to the fact that her brow was most of the time knitted in a +pondering, troubled frown. Lady Croxley, Lord Loudwater's aged aunt, rode +with her in the first coach. She was a loquacious soul, and whiled away +the journey to and from the church, which is over a mile from the Castle, +with a panegyric on her dead nephew, and an astonished dissertation on +the strange fact that Olivia had not had a woman with her during this sad +time. She ascribed her abstinence from this stimulant to her desire to be +alone with her grief. Olivia encouraged her harmless babble by a vague +murmur at the right points, and continued to look pathetic. It was all +her aunt by marriage needed, and it left Olivia free to think her own +thoughts. She gave but few of them to her dead husband; the living +claimed her attention. + +Mr. Manley wore an air of gloom far deeper than his sense of the fitness +of things would in the ordinary course of events have demanded. It was +the result of the nervously picturesque English which had flowed with +such ease from the forceful pens of Mr. Douglas and Mr. Gregg. Mr. +Carrington, who rode with him, and from attending the funerals of many +clients had acquired as good a funeral air as any man in his profession, +found his gloom exaggerated. He was all the more scandalized, therefore, +when, as they were nearing the Castle, Mr. Manley suddenly cried, "By +Jove!" and rubbed his hands together with a face uncommonly radiant. + +He had had the cheering thought that he had the Loudwater case, if ever +it should come to a trial, wholly in his hands. He had but to remember +having heard Lord Loudwater snore at, say, a few minutes to twelve, to +break it down. He did not conceive that he would encounter any difficulty +in remembering that if it should be necessary. + +The solemnity of the funeral and Mr. Carrington's conversation in the +coach--he had talked about the weather--had not weakened his resolve +that, if he could help it, no one should swing for the murder. + +This realization of his position of vantage made him eager to go to +Helena to set her mind at rest, should she, as he thought most likely, +be greatly troubled by the fact that her untimely visit to the murdered +man was known. But he had to lunch at the Castle with the funeral guests. +They were interested beyond measure in the murder and full of questions. +He talked to them with a darkly mysterious air, and made a deep +impression of discreet sagacity on their simple minds. He observed that +Olivia appeared to have been afflicted more deeply by the funeral than he +had expected. She looked harassed and seemed to find the lunch rather a +strain. He observed also that she did not, as did her guests, who were so +slightly acquainted with him, pay any tribute to the character of her +dead husband. + +Mr. Flexen was not lunching with them. He had spent an expectant morning +waiting for the local effects of the story in the _Wire_ and _Planet_, +and in having that story spread far and wide by Inspector Perkins and his +two men among the villagers, who only saw a paper in the public-houses of +the neighbourhood on a Sunday. He hoped, if it had been a local affair, +to have information about it in the course of the day. Up to lunchtime +the newspaper advertisement of the mysterious woman had proved as +fruitless as the earlier private inquiries. But he remained hopeful. + +It was past three before Mr. Manley escaped from the funeral guests and +betook himself at a brisk pace to Helena's house. As he went he made up +his mind that the quality most fitting the occasion was discretion. He +had better not let it appear that he was sure that she was the mysterious +woman of the _Daily Wire._ He must make his announcement that, in the +event of any one being brought to trial for the murder of Lord Loudwater, +his evidence could break down any case for the prosecution, and that he +would see that it did break it down, appear as casual as possible. But, +at the same time, he must make it quite clear to her that he could secure +her safety. He felt that though she might think his firm resolve that no +one should swing for the murder quixotic, she would perceive that it was +only in keeping with his generous nature. + +He had expected to find her much more disturbed by the nervously +picturesque articles of Mr. Gregg and Mr. Douglas than she appeared. +Indeed, she seemed to him much less under a strain, much less nervous +than she had been the night before. None the less, he was careful to +reassure her wholly by the announcement of his discovery of the important +nature of the evidence he could give, before he said anything about those +articles. When he did tell her that he could break down any case for the +prosecution, she did not at once confess that she was the woman of whose +visit to Lord Loudwater those stories told; they did not even discuss the +question, which had seemed so important to the _Daily Wire_, who that +woman was. They contented themselves with discussing the question who +could have seen her. He admired her spirit in not telling him, her +readiness to forgo his comfort and support before the absolute need for +them was upon her. Her force of character was what he most admired in +her, and this was a striking example of it. His own character, he knew, +was rather subtile and delicate than strong. He was more than ever alive +to the advantage of having her to lean upon in the difficult career that +lay before him. + +Mr. Flexen was disappointed that the advertisement of the mysterious +woman in the _Wire_ and the _Planet_ brought no information about her +during the morning. After lunch Mr. Carrington returned to London. At +half-past three Mr. Flexen telegraphed to Scotland Yard to ask if any one +had given them information about the woman he was seeking. No one had. +Then he realized that he was unreasonably impatient. Whoever had the +information would probably think the matter over, and perhaps confer with +friends before coming forward. In the meantime, he would make inquiries +of James Hutchings. + +He drove to the gamekeeper's cottage to find James Hutchings sitting on a +chair outside it and reading the _Planet_. He perceived that he looked +puzzled. Also, he perceived that he still wore a strained, hunted air, +more strained and hunted by far than at their last talk. + +He walked briskly up to him and said: "Good afternoon. I see that you're +reading the story of Lord Loudwater's murder in the _Planet_. It occurred +to me that you might very likely be able to tell me who the lady who +visited Lord Loudwater on the night of his murder was. At any rate, you +can probably make a guess at who she was." + +Hutchings shook his head and said gloomily: "No, sir, I can't. I +don't know who it was and I can't guess. I wish I could. I'd tell you +like a shot." + +"That's odd," said Mr. Flexen, again disappointed. "I should have thought +it impossible for your master to have been on intimate terms with a lady +without your coming to hear of it. You've always been his butler." + +"Yes, sir. But this is the kind of thing as a valet gets to know about +more than a butler--letters left about, or in pockets, you know, sir. But +his lordship never could keep a valet long enough for him to learn +anything. He was worse with valets than with any one." + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen in a vexed tone. "But still, I should have +thought you'd have heard something from some one, even if the matter had +not come under your own eyes. Gossip moves pretty widely about the +countryside." + +"Oh, this didn't happen in the country, sir--not in this part of the +country, anyhow. It must have been a London woman," said Hutchings with +conviction. "If she'd lived about here, I must have heard about it." + +"It was a lady, you must know. The papers do not bring that fact out. My +informant is quite sure that it was a lady," said Mr. Flexen. + +"That's no 'elp, sir," said Hutchings despondently. "She must have come +down by train and gone away by train." + +"She would have probably been noticed at the station. But she wasn't. +Besides, she could not have walked back to the station in time to catch +the last train. I'm sure of it." + +"Then she must have come in a car, sir." + +"That is always possible," said Mr. Flexen. + +There was a pause. + +Then Hutchings burst out: "You may depend on it that she did it, sir. +There isn't a shadow of a doubt. You get her and you'll get the +murderess." + +He spoke with the feverish, unbalanced vehemence of a man whose nerves +are on edge. + +"You think so, do you?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"I'm sure of it--dead certain," cried Hutchings. + +"It's a long way from visiting a gentleman late at night and quarrelling +with him to murdering him," said Mr. Flexen. + +"And she went it. You mark my words, sir. She went it. I don't say that +she came to do it. But she saw that knife lying handy on the library +table and she did it," said Hutchings with the same vehemence. + +"Any one who passed through the library would see that knife," said Mr. +Flexen carelessly, but his eyes were very keen on Hutchings' face. + +Hutchings was pale, and he went paler. He tried to stammer something, but +his voice died in his throat. + +"Well, I'm sorry you can't give me any information about this lady. +Good afternoon," said Mr. Flexen, and he turned on his heel and went +back to the car. + +He was impressed by Hutchings' air and manner. Of course, believing +himself to be suspected, the man was under a strain. But would the strain +on him be so heavy as it plainly was, if he knew himself to be innocent? +And then his eagerness to fasten the crime on the mysterious woman. It +had been astonishingly intense, almost hysterical. + +When he reached the Castle he found Inspector Perkins awaiting him with a +small package which had come by special messenger from Scotland Yard. It +contained enlarged photographs of the fingerprints on the handle of the +knife. They were all curiously blurred. + +_The murderer had worn a glove._ + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +Mr. Flexen studied the photographs and the report which stated this fact +with a lively interest and a growing sense of its great importance. For +one thing, it settled the question of suicide for good and all. Lord +Loudwater had worn no glove. + +Also, it strengthened the case against the mysterious woman. She had +come, apparently, from a distance, and probably in a motor-car. If she +had driven herself down, she would be wearing gloves. Also, only a woman +would be likely to be wearing gloves on a warm summer night. Indeed, +coming from a distance by train, or car, she would certainly wear gloves. +She would not dream of coming to an interview, with a man with whom she +had been intimate and whom she wished to bend to her will, with hands +dirtied by a journey. + +If that gloved hand had not been the hand of the mysterious woman, then +the murder had been premeditated, and the murderer or murderess had put +on gloves with the deliberate purpose of leaving no finger-prints. + +It _was_ the woman. In all probability it was the woman. + +Then Mr. Flexen's sub-conscious mind began to jog his intellect. +Somewhere in his memory there was a fact he had noted about gloves, and +that fact was now important in its bearing on the case. He set about +trying to recall it to his mind. He was not long about it. Of a sudden he +remembered that he had been a trifle surprised to perceive that Colonel +Grey had been carrying gloves when he had found him in the rose-garden +with Lady Loudwater. + +His surprise had passed quickly enough. He had decided that the life in +the trenches had not weakened Colonel Grey's habit, as a fastidious man +about town, of taking care of his hands. He remembered, too, that at his +first interview with him he had observed that his hands were uncommonly +well shaped and well kept. + +He did not suppose that Colonel Grey had come to the Castle on the +night of the murder wearing gloves with the deliberate intention of +killing Lord Loudwater without leaving finger-prints. But suppose that, +as he came away from a distressing interview with Lady Loudwater, the +knife on the library table had caught his eye and his gloves had been +in his pocket? + +Mr. Flexen took out his pipe, lit it, and moved to an easy-chair to let +his brain work more easily. He tabulated his facts. + +Colonel Grey had gone through the library window at about twenty +minutes past ten. + +Hutchings had gone through the library window at half-past ten. + +The mysterious woman had gone through the library window at about ten +minutes to eleven. + +She came out of the library window at about a quarter-past eleven after a +violent quarrel with Lord Loudwater. + +Colonel Grey came out of the library window at about twenty-five minutes +past eleven, after a distressing interview with Lady Loudwater, +apparently in a very bad temper. + +James Hutchings had come out of the library window at about half-past +eleven, also, if William Roper might be believed, furious. + +Lady Loudwater had come through the library window at a quarter to +twelve, and gone back through it at five minutes to twelve. + +Each of the last three had passed within fifteen feet of Lord Loudwater, +dead or alive, both on entering and on coming out of the Castle. The +mysterious woman had actually been in the smoking-room with him. + +If Lady Loudwater's statement that she heard her husband snoring at five +minutes to twelve were to be accepted, neither Colonel Grey, Hutchings, +nor the mysterious woman could have committed the murder--unless always +one of them had returned later and committed it. That possibility must +be borne in mind. + +But Mr. Flexen did not accept her statement. If he were to accept it, she +herself at once became the most likely person to have committed the +crime. It was always possible that she had. She certainly had the best +reasons of any one, as far as he knew, for committing it. + +The evidence of Mr. Manley about the time at which he heard Lord +Loudwater snore was of the first importance. But how to get it out of +him? Mr. Flexen had a strong feeling that not only would Mr. Manley +afford no help to bring the murderer of Lord Loudwater to justice, but, +that owing to the vein of Quixotry in his nature, he was capable of +helping the murderer to escape. That he could do. He had only to declare +that he heard Lord Loudwater snore at twelve o'clock to break down the +case against any one of the four persons between whom the crime obviously +lay. Mr. Flexen had a shrewd suspicion that Mr. Manley would fail to +remember at what time he had last heard Lord Loudwater's snores till the +police had set about securing the conviction of one of the possible +murderers. Then, when the case of the police against the murderer was +revealed, he would come forward and break it down. He had decided that +Mr. Manley was a sentimentalist, and he knew well the difficulty of +dealing with sentimentalists. Moreover, Mr. Manley was animated by a +grudge against the murdered man. Mr. Flexen could quite conceive that he +might presently be regarding perjury as a duty; he had had experience of +the queer way in which the mind of the sentimentalist works. + +It appeared to him that everything depended on his finding the +mysterious woman. + +That afternoon Elizabeth Twitcher determined to go to see James +Hutchings. She had not seen him since their interview on the night of the +murder. In the ordinary course she would not have dreamt of going to him +after that interview, for it had left them on such a footing that further +advances, repentant advances, must come from him. But there were pressing +reasons why she should not wait for him to make the advances which he +would in ordinary circumstances have made after his sulkiness had abated. +All her fellow-servants and all the villagers, who were not members of +the Hutchings family, were assured that he had murdered Lord Loudwater. +Three of the maids, who were jealous of her greater prettiness, had with +ill-dissembled spitefulness congratulated her on having dismissed him +before the murder; her mother had also congratulated her on that fact. +Elizabeth Twitcher was the last girl in the world to desert a man in +misfortune, and, considering James Hutchings' temper, she could only +consider the murder a misfortune. Besides, she had been very fond of him; +she was very fond of him still, and the fact that he was in great +trouble was making him dearer to her. + +Moreover, every one who spoke to her about him told her that he was +looking miserable beyond words. Her heart went out to him. + +None the less, she did not go to see him without a struggle. She felt +that he ought to come to her. However, her pride had been beaten in that +struggle by her fondness and her pity--even more by her pity. + +When she knocked at the door of his father's cottage James Hutchings +himself opened it, and his harassed, hang-dog air settled in her mind for +good and all the question of his guilt. She was not daunted; indeed, a +sudden anger against Lord Loudwater for having brought about his own +murder flamed up in her. Like every one else who had known him, she could +feel no pity for him. + +James Hutchings showed no pleasure whatever at the sight of her. Indeed, +he scowled at her. + +"Come to gloat over me, have you?" he growled bitterly. + +"Don't be silly!" she said sharply. "What should I want to do a thing +like that for? Is your father in?" + +"No; he isn't," said James Hutchings sulkily, but his eyes gazed at +her hungrily. + +He showed no intention of inviting her to enter. Therefore she pushed +past him, walked across the kitchen, sat down in the window-seat, and +surveyed him. + +He shut the door, turned, and gazed at her, scowling uncertainly. + +Then she said gently: "You're looking very poorly, Jim." + +"I didn't think you'd be the one to tell of my being in the Castle that +night!" he cried bitterly. + +"It wasn't me," she said quietly. "It was that little beast, Jane +Pittaway. She heard us talking in the drawing-room." + +"Oh, that was it, was it?" he said more gently. Then, scowling again, he +cried fiercely: + +"I'll wring her neck!" + +"That's enough of that!" she said sharply. "You've talked a lot too much +about wringing people's necks. And a lot of good it's done you." + +"Oh, I know you believe I did it, just like everybody else. But I tell +you I didn't. I swear I didn't!" he cried loudly, with a vehemence which +did not convince her. + +"Of course you didn't," she said in a soothing voice. "But what are you +going to do if they try to make out that you did? What are you going to +tell them?" + +He gazed at her with miserable eyes and said in a miserable voice: "God +knows what I'm to tell them. It isn't a matter of telling them. It's how +to make 'em believe it. These people never believe anything; the police +never do." + +She gazed at him thoughtfully, with eyes compassionate and full of +tenderness. They were a balm to his unhappy spirit. + +The hardness slowly vanished from his face. It became merely troubled. He +walked quickly across the room, dropped into the seat beside her and put +an arm round her. + +"You're a damned sight too good for me, Lizzie," he said in a gentler +voice than she had ever heard him use before, and he kissed her. + +"Poor Jim!" she said. And again: "Poor Jim!" + +He trembled, breathing quickly, and held her tight. + +After a while he regained control of himself, and sat upright. But he +still held her tightly to him with his right arm. + +They began to discuss his plight and how he might best defend himself. +She was fully as fearful as he. But she did not show it. She must cheer +him up, and she kept insisting that the police could not fix the murder +on him, that they had nothing to go upon. If they had, they would have +already arrested him. Certainly they knew what the servants and the +village people were saying. But that was just talk. There wasn't any +evidence; there couldn't be any evidence. + +Her support and encouragement put a new spirit into him. He had been so +alone against the world. His own family, though they had loudly and +fiercely protested his innocence to their friends and enemies in the +village, had not expressed this faith in him to him. + +Indeed, his father had expressed their real belief, when he said to him +gloomily: "I always told you that damned temper of yours would get you +into trouble, Jim." + +Then Elizabeth gave him his tea. After it they talked calmly with an +actual approach to cheerfulness till it was time for her to return to the +Castle to dress Olivia's hair for dinner. Then she would have it that he +should escort her back to the Castle. She declared, truly enough, that he +was doing himself no good by moping at the cottage, that people would say +that he dare not show himself. He _must_ hold his head up. + +She insisted also that they should take the long way round, through the +village; that people should see them together. She insisted that he +should look cheerful, and talk to her all the length of the village +street. The looking cheerful helped to lighten his spirit yet more. As +they went through the village she kept looking up at him in an +affectionate fashion and smiling. + +The village was, indeed, taken aback. It had made up its mind that James +Hutchings was a pariah to be shunned. It was not only taken aback, it was +annoyed. It had no wish that its belief that James Hutchings had +murdered Lord Loudwater should be in any way unsettled. + +Mrs. Roper, the mother of William Roper and a lifelong enemy of the +Hutchings family, summed up the feeling of her neighbours about the +behaviour of James Hutchings and Elizabeth. + +"Brazen, I call it," she said bitterly. + +Before they reached the Castle, Elizabeth had come to feel that during +the last three days James Hutchings had changed greatly, and for the +better. She had an odd fancy that murdering his master had improved his +character; the fear of the police had softened him. Not once did he try +to domineer over her. That domineering had been the source of their not +infrequent quarrels, for she was not at all of a temper to endure it. + +Olivia and Grey had again spent their afternoon in the pavilion in the +East wood. Their bearing at times had been oddly like that of Elizabeth +and James Hutchings. Now and again they had lapsed from their absorption +in one another into a like fearfulness. But, unlike Elizabeth and James +Hutchings, neither of them said a word about the murder of Lord +Loudwater. But both of them seemed a little less under a strain than they +had been. This new factor of a quarrel with an unknown woman seemed to +open a loophole. Olivia's colouring had lost some of its warmth; the +contours of her face were less rounded. Grey had manifestly taken a step +backwards in his convalescence; his face was thinner, even a little +haggard; there was a somewhat strained watchfulness in his eyes. + +They could not tear themselves away from the pavilion till the last +moment, and he walked back with her as far as the shrubbery on the edge +of the East lawn, and there they parted after she had promised to meet +him there that evening at nine. + +As Olivia came into her sitting-room Elizabeth and James Hutchings came +to the back door of the Castle. She did not say good-bye at once; of set +purpose, she lingered talking to him that the other servants might +understand clearly that her attitude to him was definitely fixed. + +But at last she held out her hand and said: "I must be getting along to +her ladyship, or she'll be waiting for me." + +James Hutchings looked round, considered the coast sufficiently clear, +caught her to him, kissed her, and said huskily: "You're just a +ministering angel, Lizzie, and there's more sense in your little finger +than in all my fat head. I'm feeling a different man, and I'll baulk +them yet." + +"Of course you will, Jim," said Elizabeth, and she opened the door. + +"Lord, how I wish I was coming in with you--back in my old place! I +should be seeing you most of the time," he said wistfully. + +Elizabeth stopped short, flushing, and looked at him with suddenly +excited eyes. + +At his words a great thought had come into her mind. + +"Wait a minute, Jim. Wait till I come back," she said somewhat +breathlessly, and, leaving the door open, she hurried down the passage. + +She hurried up to her room, took off her hat, and hurried to Olivia. She +found her in her sitting-room looking through an evening paper to learn +if any new fact about the murder had come to light. + +"If you please, your ladyship, James Hutchings has come to ask if your +ladyship would like him to come back for the time being till you've got +suited with another butler," said Elizabeth in a rather breathless voice. + +Olivia looked at Elizabeth's flushed, excited and hopeful face, +and smiled. + +"Why, have you and James made it up, Elizabeth?" she said. + +"Yes, m'lady," said Elizabeth, and the flush deepened in her cheeks. + +"Then go and tell him to come back, by all means," said Olivia. + +"Thank you, m'lady," said Elizabeth, in accents of profound gratitude, +and she ran out of the room. + +Olivia smiled and then she sighed. It was pleasant to have given +Elizabeth such obviously keen pleasure. She never dreamed that Elizabeth +and James Hutchings were under the same strain of fear and anxiety as +she herself, and that she had given them great help in their trouble, for +Elizabeth saw that the return of James Hutchings to his situation would +give the wagging tongues full pause. + +James Hutchings was dumbfounded on receiving the message. He stared at +Elizabeth with his mouth open. + +"Be quick, Jim. Get your clothes and be back in time to wait on her +ladyship at dinner," said Elizabeth. + +James Hutchings came out of his stupor. + +"Why, L-L-Lizzie, you must let me p-p-put up our b-b-banns tomorrow," he +stammered. + +"Be off!" said Elizabeth, stamping her foot. "We can talk about +that later." + +When she came from her bath Olivia sent Elizabeth to tell Holloway that +she would dine with Mr. Flexen and Mr. Manley that evening. She had a +sudden desire to see more of Mr. Flexen, to weigh him as an antagonist. + +Mr. Flexen was somewhat surprised to receive the information; then, +considering the terms on which Olivia had been with her husband, he found +her action natural enough. After all, she was not a woman of the middle +class, bound to make a pretence of grieving for a wholly unamiable bully. +Also, he was pleased: to dine with so charming a creature as Olivia would +be pleasant and stimulating. In the course of the evening his wits might +rise to the solution of his problem. Moreover, it would be odd if he did +not gain a further, valuable insight into her character. + +He was yet more surprised to find James Hutchings, still rather pale and +haggard, but quite cool and master of himself, superintending the +waiting of Wilkins and Holloway at dinner. Also, he liked the way in +which he spoke to Olivia and looked at her. To Mr. Flexen, James +Hutchings had the air of the authentic faithful dog. He was inclined to +a better opinion of him. + +Plainly, too, Olivia had learned that tongues were wagging against him, +and had taken this way of checking them. It was a generous act. At the +same time, he could very well believe that Olivia might, unconsciously of +course, be on the side of the murderer of such a husband. + +Thanks to Mr. Manley's invaluable sense of what was fitting, there was no +constraint about the dinner. He had decided that they were three people +of the world dining together, and the fact that there had been a murder +in the house three days before and a funeral in the morning should not be +allowed to impair their proper nonchalance. At the same time, decorum +must be preserved; there must be no laughter. + +Accordingly he took the conversation in hand, and kept it in hand. Mr. +Flexen was somewhat astonished at the ability with which he did it; now +and again he felt as if, personally, he were performing feats on the +loose wire, but that, thanks to Mr. Manley, he was not going to fall off. +They talked of the usual subjects on which people who have not a large +circle of common acquaintances fall back. They all three abused the +politicians with perfect sympathy; they abused the British drama with +perfect sympathy; with no less perfect sympathy they abused the Cubists +and the Vorticists and the New Poets. Mr. Flexen had an odd feeling that +they were behaving with entire naturalness and propriety; that their real +interest was in the politicians, the British drama, the Cubists, the +Vorticists and the New Poets, and not at all in the fate of the murderer +of the late Lord Loudwater. After a while he found himself vying +earnestly with Mr. Manley in an effort to display himself as a man of at +least equal insight and intelligence. + +Olivia did not talk much herself. She never did. But she displayed a +quickness of understanding and soundness of judgment which stimulated +them. All the while she was watching and weighing Mr. Flexen. He never +once perceived it. Plainly enough, the talk did her good. She had come +to dinner looking, Mr. Flexen thought, rather under the water. Before +long she was looking, as she had resolved to look, her usual self. When, +at a few minutes to nine, she left them, she was looking the most +charming and sympathetic creature in the world, and, what was more, a +creature without a care. + +When the door closed behind her, she seemed to have taken with her a good +deal of the brightness of the room. Mr. Flexen dropped back into his +chair and frowned. In the silence which fell he wondered. Plainly she was +free enough from care now. + +"But when the feast is finished and the lamps expire--" + +Then Mr. Manley said, in a tone almost insolent: "If you think she +murdered that red-eyed bull in a china shop, you're wrong. She didn't." + +Mr. Flexen did not resent his tone. Indeed, before he could speak, it +flashed on him that if she had done so, and Justice was depending on him +himself to bring her to it, it was depending on a somewhat frail reed. He +liked Mr. Manley for his readiness to fight for her cause. + +He laughed gently and said: "I wasn't thinking so. I was only wondering." +Then his eyes on Mr. Manley's face turned very keen, and he said: "I +believe you know a good deal more about the affair than I do, if you +liked to speak." + +It seemed to him that for a moment Mr. Manley's desire to make himself +valued struggled with his desire to be accurate. + +Then the young man shook his head and said in a tone of surprise: "But +what nonsense! You know so much more about it than I do. Why, you must +have all the threads in your hands by now. I never even dreamt of the +_Daily Wire's_ mysterious woman." + +"Not quite all--yet. But they're coming all right," said Mr. Flexen, with +a confidence he was far from feeling. + +James Hutchings, coming into the room to fetch cigarettes for Olivia, +interrupted them. + +"I'm glad to see you back again, Hutchings," said Mr. Manley in a tone of +hearty congratulation. "Your going away for a trifle after all the years +you've been here was a silly business." + +"Thank you, sir," said Hutchings gratefully. + +When Hutchings had gone, Mr. Flexen said: "It's all very well your +talking, but it was you who suggested that Lady Loudwater was a woman of +strong primitive emotions with a strain of Italian blood in her." + +"I never suggested for a moment that she was a woman of _primitive_ +emotions," Mr. Manley protested with some vehemence. + +"But the emotions of all women are primitive," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Not the emotion excited in them by beauty," said Mr. Manley with +chivalrous warmth. "And, hang it all! Does she look like a woman to +commit murder?" + +"Not on her own account, certainly," said Mr. Flexen. + +"And on whose account should she commit murder?" cried Mr. Manley. + +Mr. Flexen shrugged his shoulders. + +"I said you knew ten times as much about the business as I do," said Mr. +Manley in a tone of triumph. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Mr. Flexen awoke next morning hopeful of news of the mysterious woman. +But the letters addressed to him at the Castle and those brought over +from the office of the Chief Constable at Low Wycombe brought none. After +breakfast, still hopeful, he telephoned to Scotland Yard. No information +had reached it. + +He perceived clearly that the case was at a deadlock till he had that +information. He was sure that it would come sooner or later, possibly +from the neighbourhood, more probably from London. It was always possible +that Mr. Carrington might discover that some other lawyer had handled an +entanglement for Lord Loudwater. In the meantime, his work at the Castle +was done. He had exhausted its possibilities. There was no reason why he +should not return to his rooms at Low Wycombe. After having conferred +with Inspector Perkins, he decided to leave one of the two detectives to +continue making inquiries in the neighbourhood. He told James Hutchings +that he would like his clothes packed, and went to the rose-garden to +taken his leave of Olivia and thank her for her hospitality. + +He found her looking very charming in a light summer frock of white lace +with a few black bows set about it, and he thought that she seemed less +under a strain than she had seemed the day before. He told her that he +was returning to Low Wycombe; she expressed regret at his going, and +thanked him for his efforts to clear up the matter of Lord Loudwater's +death. They parted on the friendliest terms. + +As he came away, Mr. Flexen thought it significant that, though she had +thanked him for his efforts, she had made no inquiry about the result of +them. It might be that she dreaded to hear that they were on the way to +be successful. + +He observed that James Hutchings, who watched over his actual +departure, seemed less pale and haggard than he had been the night +before. He could well believe that he was glad to see him going without +having had him arrested. + +As he drove through the park he told himself that Lady Loudwater and Mr. +Manley between them would probably break down any case the police might +bring against any one but the mysterious woman, and they might break down +that. For his part, he was not going to give much time or attention to it +till the mysterious woman had been discovered, and he did not think that +he would be urged by Headquarters to do so after he had sent in his +report, for, mindful of what he had told them of the unsatisfactory +nature of Dr. Thornhill's evidence, Mr. Gregg in the _Daily Wire_ and +Mr. Douglas on the _Daily Planet_ were dealing with the case in a +half-hearted manner, though they were still clamouring with some vivacity +for the mysterious woman. + +As Mr. Flexen came out of the park gates he met William Roper on the edge +of the West wood, stopped the car, and walked a few yards down the road +to talk to him out of hearing of the chauffeur. + +"I gather that you haven't told any one of what you saw on the night of +Lord Loudwater's death; or I should have heard of it," he said. + +"Not a word, I haven't," said William Roper. + +"That's good," said Mr. Flexen in a tone of warm approval. "It might +spoil everything to put people on their guard." + +He was more strongly than ever resolved to prevent, if he could, the +gamekeeper from setting afoot a scandal about Lady Loudwater which could +be of no service to the police or any one else. + +"Everybody says as James Hutchings did it, sir," said William Roper. + +"H'm! And what do they say about the mysterious lady the papers are +talking about--the lady you saw?" + +"Oh, they don't pay no 'eed to 'er--not about 'ere, sir. They know Jim +Hutchings," said William Roper contemptuously. + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen. + +"'Er ladyship and Colonel Grey, they still spends a lot of their time in +the East wood pavilion. But now 'er ladyship's a widder, it's nobody's +business but their own, I reckon," said William Roper. + +"Of course not, of course not," said Mr. Flexen quickly, pleased to find +that the ferret-faced gamekeeper attached so little importance to it. "I +suppose people about here see that." + +"They don't know about it. Nobody knows about it but me, and I don't tell +everything I sees unless there's something to be got by it. A still +tongue makes a wise 'ead, I say," said William Roper, with a somewhat +vainglorious air. + +"Quite right--quite right," said Mr. Flexen heartily. "Many a man's +tongue has lost him a good job." + +"You're right there, sir. But not me it won't," said William Roper +with emphasis. + +"I can see that. You've too much sense. Well, I shall keep in touch with +you, and when the time comes you'll be called on. Drink my health. Good +day," said Mr. Flexen, giving him half-a-crown. + +He walked back to the car, pleased to have done Olivia the service of +closing William Roper's mouth, at any rate for a time. He would talk, of +course, sooner or later, probably sooner. But he might have closed his +mouth for a fortnight. + +William Roper walked on to the village and went into the "Bull and Gate." +The village was simmering in a very lively fashion. The return of James +Hutchings to his situation at the Castle was a fact with which it could +not grapple easily. It was bewildered and annoyed. + +William Roper had not, as he had assured Mr. Flexen, told what he had +seen on the night of the murder of Lord Loudwater, but he had been +dropping hints. He dropped more. He was a supporter of the theory that +James Hutchings was the murderer because he desired to oust the father of +James Hutchings from his post as head-gamekeeper. That was the reason +also of his belief in James Hutchings' guilt. He was beginning to enjoy +the interest he awakened as the storehouse of undivulged knowledge. When +Mr. Flexen had supposed that he would remain silent for a fortnight, he +had overestimated both his modesty and his reticence. + +Later in the day the village was further upset by the behaviour of James +Hutchings himself. He came into the "Bull and Gate" with an easy air, +showed himself but little more civil than usual, and told the landlord +that he had just arranged that the parson should publish the banns of his +marriage with Elizabeth Twitcher on the following Sunday. The village was +staggered. This was not the way in which it expected a man who would +presently be tried and hanged for murder to behave. + +In all fairness to James Hutchings, it must be said that he would not +have acted with this decision of his own accord. Elizabeth had bidden him +to it, urging that a bold front was half the battle. However grave her +own doubts of his innocence might be, she was resolved that such doubts +should, if possible, be banished from the minds of other people. Under +her influence he was already becoming his old self as far as looks went. +A shade of his usual ruddiness had come back; he was losing his +haggardness. + +With the going of Mr. Flexen there came a lull. His departure was a +relief to Olivia, to Colonel Grey, and to James Hutchings. Doubtless he +was still working on the case; but, working at a distance, he seemed less +of a menace. All three of them seemed less under a strain. Olivia and +Grey spent their hours together in a less feverish eagerness to make the +most of them. + +Even Helena Truslove, when Mr. Manley told her that Mr. Flexen had left +the Castle, said that she was very pleased to hear it. She looked very +pleased. Mr. Manley's sense of what was fitting restrained him from +asking her the reason of this pleasure. He had, indeed, no great desire +to hear the reason of it from her own lips. It was enough for him to +guess that she was the mysterious woman. He felt no need of her full +confidence. + +The Castle seemed to be settling down to its old round, the quieter for +the loss of Lord Loudwater. His heir in Mesopotamia had been informed of +his death by cable. But no cable in reply had come from him. Mr. Manley +remained at the Castle as secretary to Olivia, who was making +preparations leisurely to leave it and settle down in a flat in London. +Colonel Grey was recovering from his wound with a passable quickness. +James Hutchings had come to look very much his old self. Thanks to the +shock he had had and thanks to Elizabeth, he wore a more subdued air, and +was much more amiable with his fellow-servants. + +The _Daily Wire_, the _Daily Planet_, and the rest of the newspapers had +let the Loudwater mystery slip quietly out of their columns. Mr. Flexen +was waiting with quiet expectation for information about the unknown +woman. Since the advertisement the papers had given her had failed to +produce that information he had a London detective working on the life in +London, before his marriage, of the murdered man. Mr. Carrington had +found nothing among Lord Loudwater's papers in the office of his firm to +throw any light on the matter. + +The chief actors in the affair regarded the quiet turn it had taken with +a timorous satisfaction. Not so William Roper; William Roper was +thoroughly dissatisfied. He had been willing enough to hold his tongue, +because by so doing his unexpected and damning appearance at the trial +would be the more dramatic and impressive. But he was impatient to make +that appearance, and chafed at the delay. Also, his prestige was waning. +The village was losing interest in the mystery, and it no longer looked +to him to drop hints as the holder of the secret. That did not prevent +him from dropping them. He would bring up the subject of the murder in +order to drop them. His acquaintances who wished now to talk about other +things found this practice tiresome. They did not hide this feeling. +Matters came to a climax one evening in the bar of the "Bull and Gate." + +William Roper dragged the subject of the murder into a conversation on +the high price of groceries, and then, as usual, hinted at the things he +could say and he would. + +John Pittaway, who had been leading the conversation about the high price +of groceries, turned on him and said with asperity: "I don't believe as +there's anything you can tell us as we don't know, or you'd 'ave told it +afore this fast enough, William Roper." + +"That's what I've been thinking this long time," said old Bob Carter, who +had for over forty years made a point of agreeing with the most +disagreeable person at the moment in the bar of the "Bull and Gate." + +"Isn't there? You wait an' see. You wait till the trial," said +William Roper. + +"Trial? There won't be no trial. 'Oo's a goin' to be tried? They ain't +agoin' to try Jim 'Utchings. It's plain that 'er ladyship 'as set 'er +face against that. And, wot's more, they can't 'ave much to try 'im on, +or they'd 'ave to do it, in spite o' wot she said," said John Pittaway in +yet more disagreeable accents. + +William Roper was very angry. This was not to be borne. Indeed, if John +Pittaway were right, and there was to be no trial, where was his +dramatic and impressive appearance at it? He had better be dramatic and +impressive now. + +"Who said as they were goin' to try Jim 'Utchings? I never did," he +growled. "There was other people went to the Castle that night besides +Jim 'Utchings, and that mysterierse woman the papers talked about." + +"An' 'ow do you know?" said John Pittaway in a tone of most disagreeable +incredulity. + +"I know because I seed 'em," said William Roper. + +"Saw 'oo?" said John Pittaway. + +Then the whole story he had told Mr. Flexen burst forth from William +Roper's overcharged bosom, the story with the embellishments natural to +the lapse of time since its first telling. No less naturally in the +course of the discussion which followed, he told also the story of the +luckless kiss in the East wood, and the landlord pounced on that as the +cause of the quarrel between Lord Loudwater and Colonel Grey at +Bellingham. William Roper supported his contention with an embellished +account of the interview with Lord Loudwater in which he had informed him +of that kiss. + +It was, indeed, his great hour, not as great as the hour he had promised +himself at the trial, not so public, but a great hour. + +He left the "Bull and Gate" at closing time that night a man, in the +estimation of all there, whose evidence could hang four of his +fellow-creatures, the great man of the village. + +Next morning the village was indeed simmering, and the scandal rose and +spread from it like a stench. That very afternoon Mr. Manley heard it +from Helena Truslove, and the next morning Mr. Flexen received two +anonymous letters conveying the information to him, and suggesting that +Colonel Grey and the Lady Loudwater had between them made away with her +husband. It is hard to say whether Mr. Manley or Mr. Flexen was more +annoyed by William Roper's blabbing. + +But there was nothing to be done. The scandal must run its course. Mr. +Flexen did not think that it would find its way into the papers, local or +London. None the less, he was alive to the danger that a sudden heavy +pressure might be put on the police, and he might be forced to take +ill-advised action, start a prosecution which would do Lady Loudwater +infinite harm, and yet end in a fiasco which would leave the mystery just +where it was. The one bright spot in the affair was that Lord Loudwater +appeared to have left no friends behind him who would make it their +business to see that he was avenged. As long as that avenging was +everybody's business it was nobody's business. + +Elizabeth Twitcher was no less disturbed than Mr. Flexen. She felt that +Olivia ought to be informed of what was being said that she might be able +to take steps to meet the danger. She took counsel with James Hutchings, +who could not help feeling relieved by this diversion of suspicion, and +he agreed with her that Olivia should be informed of the scandal at once. +But it was an uncommonly unpleasant task, and she shrank from it. + +Then a happy thought came to James Hutchings, and he said: "Look here: +let Mr. Manley do it. He's her ladyship's secretary, and it's the kind of +thing he'll do very well. He's a tactful young fellow." + +"It would be a blessing if he did," said Elizabeth with a sigh. +She paused and added: "You do speak differently about him to what +you used to." + +"Yes. I made a mistake about him like as I did about some other people," +said James Hutchings, with a rather shame-faced air. "He behaved very +well about seeing me here the night the master was murdered and saying +nothing to the police about it. An' then he congratulated me very +handsomelike on coming back as butler before Mr. Flexen." + +"He would do it better than I should," said Elizabeth. + +"Then I'll speak to him about it," said James Hutchings. + +He paused a while to kiss Elizabeth, then went in search of Mr. Manley. +He learned from Holloway that he had come in about twenty minutes earlier +and was in his sitting-room. He went to him and found him looking through +the MS. of the play he was writing, with an unlighted pipe in his mouth. + +"If you please, sir, I thought I'd better come and tell you that they're +saying in the village that Colonel Grey kissed her ladyship in the East +wood on the afternoon of his lordship's death, and his lordship was +informed of it and quarrelled with Colonel Grey and then her ladyship, +and she and Colonel Grey made away with his lordship," said James +Hutchings. + +"I've heard something about it," said Mr. Manley, frowning, and he struck +a match. "Who set this absurd story going?" + +"William Roper, one of the under-gamekeepers, sir." + +"William Roper? Ah, I know--a ferret-faced young fellow." + +"Yes, sir. And we was thinking that her ladyship ought to know about it +so as she can put a stop to it at once, and you were the proper person to +tell her, sir," said James Hutchings. + +On the instant Mr. Manley saw himself discharging this unpleasant but +important duty with intelligence and tact, and he said readily: "I was +thinking of doing so, and now that I know the lying rascal's name I can +do it at once. The sooner this kind of thing is stopped the better." + +"Thank you, sir," said Hutchings, and with a sigh of relief he +left the room. + +He had reached the top of the stairs when the door of Mr. Manley's room +opened; he appeared on the threshold and said: "Will you send some one to +tell William Roper to be here at nine o'clock tonight? And it wouldn't be +a bad idea to drop a hint to any one you send that William Roper has got +himself into serious trouble." + +Mr. Manley thought quickly. + +"Very good, sir," said James Hutchings, and he hurried down the stairs. + +Mr. Manley did not see Olivia at once, for she was still in the pavilion +in the East wood. But as soon as she returned, he sent a message by +Holloway to her, that he wished to see her on important business. +Holloway brought word that she would see him at once. + +He found her in her sitting-room, gazing out of the window, and she +turned quickly at his entrance with inquiring eyes. + +"It's a rather unpleasant business, and the sooner it's dealt with the +better," said Mr. Manley in a brisk, businesslike voice. "One of the +under-gamekeepers has been spreading a scandalous and lying story about +you and Colonel Grey, something about his kissing you in the East wood on +the afternoon of Lord Loudwater's death, and he has gone on to suggest, +or assert--I don't know which--that you and Colonel Grey had a hand in +Lord Loudwater's death." + +The blow she had been expecting had fallen, and Olivia paled and her +mouth went dry. + +"Which of the under-gamekeepers is it?" she said calmly but with +difficulty, for her tongue kept sticking to the roof of her mouth. + +"A ferret-faced, rascally-looking fellow, called William Roper," said Mr. +Manley with some heat. Then, to save her the effort of speaking, he went +on: "Of course you'd like him discharged at once. The sooner these people +understand that their excitement about Lord Loudwater's death is not +going to be held an excuse for telling lying stories the better. You will +not be troubled by any more of them." + +Olivia looked at him with steady eyes. She had recovered herself and was +thinking hard. Mr. Manley's certainty about the right method of dealing +with the matter was catching. It was better to show a bold front and at +once. There was no time to consult Antony Grey. + +"Yes. You're quite right, Mr. Manley. Gentle measures are of no use with +this kind of scandal-monger. William Roper must be discharged at once," +she said quietly. + +"Perhaps you would like me to deal with him? It's rather a business for a +man," Mr. Manley suggested. + +"Yes, if you would," she said in a grateful tone. + +"I will, as soon as I can get hold of him," said Mr. Manley +cheerfully. "He'll make no more mischief about here," He went out of +the room briskly. + +His confidence was heartening. When the door closed behind him Olivia +sobbed twice in the reaction from the shock of his announcement. Then +she recovered herself and went quietly to her bath. She observed +Elizabeth's sympathetic manner as she dressed her hair. Evidently all +the servants as well as the villagers were talking about her. But for +its possible, dangerous consequences, she was indifferent to their talk. +She was now wholly absorbed in Grey; he was the only thing of any +importance in her life. + +Mr. Manley ate his dinner with an excellent appetite. He was pleased with +the brisk, almost brusque, manner in which he had dealt with the matter +of William Roper, in his interview with Olivia. If he had shilly-shallied +and hummed and hawed about the scandal, it would have been so much more +unpleasant for her. He thought, too, that his practical, common-sense +attitude to the business would probably help her to take it more easily, +and he was sure that he had advised the best measure to be taken with +William Roper. + +He was smoking a cigar in a great content, when at nine o'clock Holloway +brought him word that William Roper had come. Mr. Manley bade him bring +him to him at a quarter-past. He felt that suspense would make William +Roper malleable, and he intended to hammer him. At thirteen minutes past +nine he composed his face into a dour truculence, an expression to which +the heavy conformation of the lower part lent itself admirably. + +William Roper, looking uncommonly ill at ease, was ushered in by James +Hutchings himself, and the butler had improved the thirteen shining +minutes he had had with him by increasing to a considerable degree his +uneasiness and anxiety. + +Mr. Manley did not greet William Roper. He stood on the hearth-rug and +glowered at him with heavy truculence. William Roper shuffled his feet +and fumbled with his cap. + +Then Mr. Manley said: "Her ladyship has been informed that you have been +spreading scandalous reports in the village, and she has instructed me to +discharge you at once." He walked across to the table, took the sheet of +notepaper on which he had written the amount due to William Roper, dipped +a pen in the ink, and added: "Here are your wages up to date, and a +week's wages in lieu of notice. Sign this receipt." + +He dipped a pen in the ink and held it out to William Roper with very +much the air of Lady Macbeth presenting her husband with the dagger. + +William Roper was stupefied. Mr. Manley, truculent and dramatic, +cowed him. + +"I never done nothing, sir," he said feebly. + +"Sign--at once!" said Mr. Manley, gazing at him with the glare of +the basilisk. + +"I ain't agoing to sign. I ain't done nothing to be discharged. I ain't +said nothing but what I seed with my own eyes," William Roper protested. + +"Sign!" said Mr. Manley, tapping the receipt like an official in a spy +play. "Sign!" + +He was too much for William Roper. The conflict, such as it was, of wills +ceased abruptly. William Roper signed. + +Mr. Manley pushed the money towards him as towards a loathed pariah. +William Roper counted it, and put it in his pocket. He walked towards the +door with an air of stupefied dejection. + +"Also, you are to be off the estate by twelve o'clock tomorrow. Loudwater +is not the place for ungrateful and slanderous rogues," said Mr. Manley. + +William Roper stopped and turned; his face was working malignantly. + +"We'll see what Mr. Flexen's got to say about this," he snarled, went +through the door, and slammed it behind him. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +Olivia came that night to her tryst with Grey in a great dejection. She +perceived clearly enough that the instant discharge of William Roper +would not stop the scandal, and she was desperately afraid of the results +of it. The hope which had sprung up in her mind on reading in the _Daily +Wire_ the story of her husband's quarrel with an unknown woman died down. +This was a far more important matter, and she could not see how the +police could fail to act on William Roper's story. + +She found Grey waiting for her with his wonted impatience, and presently +told him about William Roper. + +"This is the very thing I've been fearing," he said with a sudden +heaviness. + +"It will certainly force Mr. Flexen's hand," she said. + +"I don't know--I don't know," he said more hopefully. "Flexen struck me +as being the kind of man to act just when it suited him, and I expect +that he had known all along anything William Roper had to tell." + +"Yes, he did. Twitcher told me that Roper had an interview with him on +the afternoon after Egbert's death," she said, catching a little of his +hopefulness. + +"Well, if he hasn't done anything about it so far, there's no reason why +he should act immediately the story becomes common property," he said in +a tone of relief. + +"No--no," she said slowly. Then she sobbed once and cried: "But, oh, this +waiting's so dreadful! Never knowing what's going to happen and +when--feeling that he's lying in wait all the time." + +"It is pretty awful," he said, drawing her more closely to him and +kissing her. + +She clung tightly to him, quivering. + +"The only thing to do is to stick it out, and when the time comes--if +it comes--put up a good fight. I think we shall," he said in a +cheering tone. + +"Of course we will," she said firmly, gave herself a little shake, and +relaxed her grip a little. + +He kissed her again, and they were silent a while, both of them +thinking hard. + +Then he said: "Look here: let's get married." + +"Get married?" she said. + +"Yes. The more we belong to one another the better we shall feel." + +"But--but won't there be rather an outcry at our marrying so +soon?" she said. + +"Oh, if people knew of it, yes. But I don't propose that they should. +We'll get married quite quietly. I'll get a special licence. The padre +of my regiment is in Town, and he'll marry us. I can find a couple of +witnesses who'll hold their tongues. We can get married in twenty-four +hours. Will you?" + +"Yes," she said firmly. + +His surprise at her ready assent was drowned in the joy it gave him. + +The next morning at half-past nine Mr. Manley rang up Mr. Flexen at his +office at Low Wycombe. + +When he heard his voice he said: "Good morning, Flexen. A young fellow of +the name of William Roper will be calling on you this morning. I expect +you know all he has to say already. But do you see anything to be gained +by his making a pestiferous, scandal-mongering nuisance of himself?" + +"I do not. I will say a few kind words to him," said Mr. Flexen grimly. + +Mr. Manley thanked him and rang off. Then he sent Hutchings down to the +village to let it be known that any one who let William Roper lodge in +his or her cottage would at once receive notice to quit it. He thought it +improbable, in view of the general unpleasantness of William Roper, that +he would be called on to carry out the threat. + +William Roper had already started to pay his visit to Mr. Flexen. Mr. +Flexen kept him dangling his heels in his office for three-quarters of an +hour before he saw him. This cold welcome allowed much of William +Roper's sense of his great importance in the district to ooze out of him. + +Mr. Flexen emptied him of the rest of it. He greeted him curtly, heard +his story with a deepening frown, and abused him at some length for a +babbling idiot, and sent him about his business. William Roper returned +to his mother's cottage to find that her only object in life was to get +him out of her cottage then and there. She had conceived the idea that +the whole affair was a plot to have a good excuse for giving her notice +to leave that cottage. She knew well that it was the opinion of all its +other inhabitants that the village would be much better without her and +that there were very good grounds for it. + +William Roper perceived with uncommon clearness the truth of Mr. Flexen's +assertion that he was a babbling idiot. His dream of outing William +Hutchings from the post of head-gamekeeper and filling it himself was for +ever shattered, and he had been the great man of the village for little +more than fourteen hours, ten of which he had spent in sleep. He cursed +the hour in which he had espied that luckless kiss, and too late +perceived the folly of a humble gamekeeper's meddling with the affairs of +those who own the game he keeps. + +The next morning Elizabeth observed that her mistress was another +creature, almost her old self indeed. The air of strain and oppression +had, for the time being at any rate, gone from her face. She moved with +her old alertness. She even smiled at Elizabeth's strictures on the +treacherous William Roper. + +After breakfast she bade Elizabeth pack a trunk for her, since she was +going to London that afternoon and would spend the night, perhaps two or +three days, there. Also, she chose, with frowning thoughtfulness and no +little changing of mind, the frocks she would take with her, and +discussed carefully with Elizabeth the changes necessary to give them a +sufficiently mourning character. + +Elizabeth was indeed pleased with the change in her mistress. She +ascribed it to the influence of Colonel Grey. + +In the afternoon Olivia went to London and drove from Paddington to +Grey's flat. She found him awaiting her with the most eager expectation. +He had bought the special licence; the chaplain of his regiment and a +wounded friend were coming at seven o'clock. After they were married, +they would all four dine together, and, later, he and she would return +to his flat. + +They had tea, and then he showed her some of the beautiful things, for +the most part ivory and jade, which were his most loved possessions. She +admitted frankly that she had to learn to appreciate and admire them as +they deserved. But she was sure that she would learn to do so. + +She found the flat of a somewhat spartan simplicity after Loudwater +Castle, Quainton Hall, and the houses to which she was used. But she also +found that it had been furnished with a keen regard for comfort. In +particular, she observed that the easy chairs, which were the chief +furniture of the sitting-room, were the most comfortable she had ever +taken her ease in. + +At seven o'clock the padre and Sir Charles Ross, Grey's wounded friend, +arrived. After they had talked for a few minutes, making Olivia's +acquaintance, the padre married them. Henderson, Grey's valet, a tall, +spare Scot with rugged features who in the course of his seven years' +service had acquired, in his manner and way of speaking, a curious and +striking likeness to his master, was the second witness. + +It was wholly characteristic of Olivia that she felt no slightest need of +the supporting presence of a woman. Yet, for all the unfamiliar +simplicity of the scene, the ceremony did not lack dignity, or +impressiveness. At the end of it Olivia felt herself very much more the +wife of Antony Grey than she had ever felt herself the wife of Lord +Loudwater. + +They dined in a private dining-room at the "Ritz," and Olivia found the +dinner delightful. The three men, after some desultory talk about common +friends and the ordinary London subjects, fell to talking about their +work and their fighting in France. She was most pleased by the evident +respect and admiration with which the other two regarded her husband. It +was a new experience for her to be married to a man for whom any one +showed respect. + +At a few minutes past ten she and Grey went home to his flat. They +preferred to walk. + +Olivia did not return to Loudwater for three days. Grey did not return +till the day after that. Then they again spent much of their time in the +pavilion in the East wood, and since Olivia was careful not to replace +William Roper, no one knew of their meetings. Every week they went to +London for two days. They lived in an absorption in one another which +left them little time to be troubled by fears of the danger which hung +over them. The scandal about them ran the usual nine days' course. Then, +since no new development of the Loudwater case arose to give it a fresh, +active life, it died down. + +About a fortnight after their marriage Mr. Manley retired from his post +of secretary and went to London. A few days later he married Helena +Truslove at the office of a registrar, and they established themselves in +a furnished flat at Clarence Gate, while they furnished a flat of their +own. Mr. Manley found himself, under the influence of domesticity, the +stimulation of life in London, and the society of the intelligent, +writing his new play with all the ease and vigour he had expected. + +Mr. Flexen was beginning, somewhat gloomily, to think it probable that +the problem of the death of Lord Loudwater would have to be set among +the unsolved problems which have at different times baffled the police. +Then, before he had quite lost hope, there came a letter from Mr. +Carrington. It ran: + +"Dear Mr. Flexen, + +"I received this morning a letter from Mrs. Marshall, of 3, Laburnum +Terrace, Low Wycombe, asking me, as the agent of the present Lord +Loudwater, to have some repairs made to the house in which she is his +lordship's tenant. We have never handled this property; we did not +even know that it belonged to the late Lord Loudwater. If you can find +the man who managed it for him, he may be able to give you the +information you want. + +"Yours faithfully, + +"C.R.W. CARRINGTON." + +In ten minutes Mr. Flexen was at 3, Laburnum Terrace; in a quarter of an +hour he had learned that Mrs. Marshall had paid her rent to Mr. Shepherd, +of 9, Bolton Street, Low Wycombe; in twenty minutes he had learned from +Mrs. Shepherd that her husband was in Mesopotamia, and that she had not +heard from him for two months. In half an hour from the time he read Mr. +Carrington's letter he was in the train on his way to London. To get in +touch with Captain Shepherd in that distant and backward land was a +matter for Scotland Yard. No acting Chief Constable would do so without +considerable delay. + +He drafted the telegram in consultation with one of the commissioners, +who himself set about the business of getting it through to Captain +Shepherd and receiving his answer to it. Then he returned to Low +Wycombe. Three days later came a letter from Scotland Yard to inform +him that Captain Shepherd was in an out-of-the-way district in the +north of Mesopotamia, and that there must be a delay of days before he +received the telegram and sent his answer to it. Mr. Flexen possessed +his soul in the patience of a man who was sure that he was going to get +what he wanted. + +A few days later, on a Saturday, his work took him to Loudwater, and he +called on Olivia. He found her a different creature. She had lost her air +of being under a strain, and save that her eyes were at first anxious, +she showed herself wholly at her ease with him. He came away assuring +himself that she was one of the most charming women he had ever met. He +took it that she still met Colonel Grey in the pavilion in the East wood, +and that after a decorous lapse of time they would marry. He thought +Colonel Grey uncommonly fortunate. + +Then he again wondered what had so perturbed them when he had been at +the Castle inquiring into the death of Lord Loudwater. What did they know +of the mystery? What part had they played in it? + +Soon after he had left her Olivia went to London to spend the week-end +with her husband. But she did not go in her wonted joyful mood. She tried +to thrust it out of her mind; but Mr. Flexen's visit had brought back her +old fear. Grey at once perceived that she was not in good spirits, and he +was a little alarmed. He had firmly kept his thought from the danger +which still hung over them. Now he caught from her something of her +uneasiness. But he would not yield to it, and by the end of dinner he +had, for the while at any rate, banished it from both their minds. + +Then when he awoke that night, quietly, at the turning hour, he heard +Olivia crying very softly. + +He put his arm round her and said seriously "What is it, darling? What's +the matter?" + +"Oh, why ever did you kill him?" she wailed. "He--he wasn't worth it. And +I'd have come to you without. And we might have been so happy!" + +Grey, with a start, sat bolt upright, and in a tone of the last +astonishment stammered: "K-K-Kill him? Me? B-B-But I thought you +k-k-killed him!" + +He had never been so taken aback in his life. + +Olivia sat bolt upright in her turn. + +"Me?" she said in an astonishment fully as great as his. "No, I didn't." + +Then with one accord they clung to one another and laughed tremulously in +an immeasurable relief. + +Then Olivia said: "And you didn't mind? You married me when you actually +thought I'd murdered Egbert?" + +"Oh, Egbert!" said Grey in a tone of contempt which placed the late Lord +Loudwater definitely as a person the murder of whom was neither here nor +there. Then he added: "But, hang it all! You married me when you actually +thought I'd murdered him." + +"I thought you did it for my sake," said Olivia. + +"I thought you did it for mine--to get me out of a mess. Though I'll be +shot if I believe I should have cared if you'd done it entirely on your +own account. Not that you could." + +"Oh, Antony, how very fond of one another we must be!" said Olivia in a +hushed voice. + +It was after breakfast next morning that Olivia, who stood before the +window, smoking a cigarette and watching the passers-by, turned and said: +"But if neither you nor I murdered Egbert, who did?" + +"The mysterious woman, I suppose," said Grey, with very little show of +interest in the matter. + +"But I never believed that there was any mysterious woman, I thought the +papers invented her," said Olivia. + +"So did I," said Grey. "But it's beginning to look to me as if there +might have been one." + +"I wonder who she can be?" said Olivia. + +"A barmaid, I should think," said Grey, in a tone which placed definitely +the late Lord Loudwater as a lover. + +"You certainly do dislike Egbert," said Olivia, in a dispassionate tone +of one stating a natural fact of little importance. + +"I do," said Grey. + +"It's odd how little I remember him," said Olivia thoughtfully. "But then +I was always trying to forget him unless he was actually in the room with +me. And then I was always trying not to see him." + +"I remember the way he treated you," said Grey sternly. + +Olivia smiled at him. + +"I hope to goodness the police never do find that wretched woman!" he +said. + +Olivia frowned thoughtfully. Then she smiled again. + +"I don't think it would be much use if they did," she said. "I told Mr. +Flexen that I heard Egbert snoring about twelve o'clock. I didn't; but I +thought that as you went away about half-past eleven, it would make it +safer for you. I could always stick to it, if we thought it right." + +"And I told Flexen that I didn't hear him snoring at about half-past +eleven, and I did. I thought it would make it safer for you." + +"Well, we are--" said Olivia, and she laughed. + +Then of a sudden her eyes sparkled and she cried: "But if you heard him +snore at half-past eleven that lets the mysterious woman out. She went +away at a quarter-past." + +"By Jove! so it does," said Grey. + +Three days later, driving back in the evening from Rickmansworth to Low +Wycombe, Mr. Flexen passed Grey on his way home from an afternoon's +fishing. He stopped the car, and as Grey came up to it he perceived that +he was looking uncommonly well, though his limp appeared to be as bad as +ever. He was not only looking well, he was also looking happy, wholly +free from care. + +They greeted one another and Mr. Flexen said: "By Jove! you are +looking fit!" + +"Yes, I'm all right again," said Grey. Then he frowned and added: "But +the nuisance of it is that I shall always have this confounded limp." + +"You get off more lightly than a good many men I know," said +Flexen sadly. + +"Yes. I'm not grousing much," said Grey. + +There came a pause, and then Grey said: "I've been rather hoping to come +across you. When you questioned me about my doings on the night of +Loudwater's death, you asked me whether I heard him snore as I went +through the library, going in and out of the Castle, and for reasons +which seemed quite good to me at the time I told you I didn't. As a +matter of fact, he was snoring like a pig when I came out." + +Mr. Flexen looked at him hard, thinking quickly. Then he said softly: "My +goodness! That would be half-past eleven!" + +"Close on it," said Grey. + +"Well as a matter of fact, I didn't believe you," said Mr. Flexen +frankly. "In my business, you know, one acquires a very good ear for +the truth." + +Grey laughed cheerfully and said: "I expect you do." + +"All the same, I'm glad to have it for certain," said Mr. Flexen, smiling +at him. "Well, I must be getting on; let me give you a lift as far as +Loudwater." + +Grey thanked him and stepped into the car. + +When he had set him down, Mr. Flexen drove on in frowning thought. +Colonel Grey was speaking the truth, and in that case neither James +Hutchings nor the mysterious woman had committed the murder, unless they +had deliberately returned for the purpose. He did not believe that James +Hutchings had returned; he thought it improbable that the mysterious +woman had returned. + +Even more important was the fact that this admission of Colonel Grey +assured him that neither he nor Lady Loudwater had committed the murder. +Grey had evidently lied to shield her. He had no less evidently learned +that she did not need shielding. That admission had not at all simplified +the problem. + +The next morning Scotland Yard telegraphed to him the reply to its cable +to Captain Shepherd. It ran: + +_Loudwater allowed Mrs. Helena Truslove Crest Loudwater six hundred a +year and gave her Crest_. + +He had the mysterious woman at last! + +He drove over to the Crest at once and learned from the caretaker that +Mrs. Truslove was now living in London in a flat at Clarence Gate. He +could not get away from his work till the afternoon, and it was past +half-past four when he knocked at the door of her flat. + +The maid led him down the passage, opened the door on the right, and +announced him. + +Helena was sitting beside a table on which afternoon tea for two was set. +She looked surprised to hear his name. + +"Mrs. Truslove?" he said. + +"I was Mrs. Truslove," she said, rising and holding out her hand. "But +now I am Mrs. Manley. You know my husband. He will be so pleased to see +you again. I'm expecting him every minute." + +Mr. Flexen was for a moment conscious of a slight sensation of vertigo. +The mysterious woman was the wife of Herbert Manley! + +He could not at once see the bearings of this fact, but ideas, fancies +and suspicions raced one another through his head. + +He checked them and said in a somewhat toneless voice: "I shall be +delighted to see him again. Have you been married long?" + +"Rather more than a fortnight." said Helena. "But do sit down. My husband +will be so pleased to see you again. He has a great admiration for you." + +Mr. Flexen sat down and unconsciously stared hard at her. Ideas were +jostling one another in his head. + +"We won't wait for him. I'll have the tea made at once," she said, +bending forward to press the bell-button. + +"One moment, please," he said in his crispest, most official voice. "I've +come to see you on a very important matter." + +"Oh?" she said quickly, frowning. Then she looked at him with +steady eyes. + +"Yes. You know that I am investigating the Loudwater case, and I have +received information that you are the mysterious lady who visited Lord +Loudwater on the night of his death and had a violent quarrel with him." + +"We began by quarrelling," she said quietly. + +"_Began_ by quarrelling?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes. I'd better tell you the whole story, and you'll understand," she +said in a matter-of-fact voice. "Rather more than two years ago I was +engaged to be married to Lord Loudwater. He broke off our engagement and +married Miss Quainton. I was not going to stand that, and I was going to +bring a breach of promise action against him. He didn't want that, of +course. It would most likely have stopped his marrying Miss Quainton. So +he agreed to make over the Crest, my house just beyond Loudwater, to me, +and pay me an allowance of six hundred a year." + +"This was two years ago?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes," said Helena. "But stupidly, though I had the house properly made +over to me, I didn't have a deed about the allowance. And a few days +before he committed suicide--" + +"Committed suicide?" Mr. Flexen interrupted. + +"Of course he committed suicide. Didn't Dr. Thornhill say that the wound +might have been self-inflicted? Besides, poor Egbert had a most +frightful temper." + +"But why should he commit suicide?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"He may have been upset about Lady Loudwater and Colonel Grey. Why, I'm +quite sure that it would drive him mad--absolutely mad for the time +being. I know him well enough to be sure of that." + +"Yes--yes," said Mr. Flexen slowly. "It's a tenable theory, doubtless. +But about your quarrel with him." + +"A few days before he died he talked about halving my allowance. And, of +course, I was frightfully annoyed about it. I wanted to have it out with +him--I meant to--but I knew that he'd never let me get near him, if he +could help it. But I knew, too, that he sat in the smoking-room every +evening after dinner, and generally went to sleep. You know everything +about every one in the country, you know. And I determined to take him by +surprise, and I did. We did have a row, for I was frightfully angry. It +seemed so mean. But he stopped it by telling me that he had instructed +his bankers--we have the same bankers--to pay twelve thousand pounds into +my account instead of allowing me six hundred a year." + +There was just the faintest change in her voice as she spoke the last +sentence, and it did not escape Mr. Flexen's sensitive ear. He thought +that the whole story had been rehearsed; it sounded so. But she spoke the +last sentence just a little more quickly. The rest of the story rang +true, or, at any rate, truer. + +"Twelve thousand pounds," he said slowly. "And did Lord Loudwater tell +you when he instructed his bankers?" + +"No. But it must have been that very day. The letter must have been in +the post, in fact, for two mornings later I received a letter from the +bank telling me that they had credited me with that amount--the morning +after the inquest, I think it was." + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen, and he paused, considering the story. Then he +said: "And were you surprised at all at his doing this?" + +"Yes, I was," she said frankly. "It didn't seem like him. But since I've +wondered whether he had made up his mind to commit suicide and wished to +leave things quite straight." + +It was a plausible theory, but Mr. Flexen did not believe that Lord +Loudwater had committed suicide. + +"I suppose that your husband knows all about it?" he said at random. + +"He may, and he may not. He hasn't said anything to me about it," she +said. + +"Then we may take it that he did not write the letter of instruction to +the bankers," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Oh, he might have done and still have said nothing about it. He has a +very sensitive delicacy and might have thought it my business and not +his. I haven't told him about the twelve thousand pounds yet. I don't +bother him about business matters. In fact, I'm going to manage his +business as well as my own." + +"And he didn't know about the allowance?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Oh, yes, he did. I told him all about that," said Helena quickly. + +Mr. Flexen paused, considering. He seemed to have learnt from her all she +had to tell. + +There came the sound of the opening of the door of the flat and of steps +in the hall. Then the door of the room opened, and Mr. Manley came in. +Mr. Flexen's eyes swept over him. He was looking cheerful, prosperous, +and rather sleek. His air had grown even more important and assured. + +He greeted Mr. Flexen warmly and beamed on him. Then he demanded tea. But +Mr. Flexen rose, declared that he must be going, and in spite of Mr. +Manley's protests went. It had flashed on him that he might just catch +Mr. Carrington at his office. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +Mr. Flexen did find Mr. Carrington at his office, and Mr. Carrington's +first words were: + +"Well, have you found the mysterious woman?" + +"I've found the mysterious woman, and she's now Mrs. Herbert Manley," +said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Carrington stared at him, then he said softly: "Well, I'm damned!" + +"It does explain several things," said Mr. Flexen dryly. "We know now why +she was so hard to find--why there was no trace of her relations with +Lord Loudwater, no trace of Shepherd's managing the Low Wycombe property +among his papers, why there were no pass-books." + +Mr. Carrington flushed and said: "The young scoundrel had us on toast all +the while." + +"Toast is the word," said Mr. Flexen. + +"I never did like the beggar. I couldn't stand his infernal manner. But +it never occurred to me that he was a bad hat. I merely thought him a +pretentious young ass who didn't know his place," said Mr. Carrington. + +"I'm not so sure about the ass," said Mr. Flexen. + +"No--perhaps not. He certainly brought it off for a time, and shielded +her as long as it lasted," said Mr. Carrington slowly. + +"She didn't need any shielding," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Do you mean to tell me that she didn't murder Loudwater?" + +"She did not. You don't murder a man who has just given you twelve +thousand pounds," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Twelve thousand pounds?" said Mr. Carrington slowly. Then he started +from his chair and almost howled: "Are you telling me that Lord Loudwater +gave this woman twelve thousand pounds! He never gave any one twelve +thousand pounds! He never gave any one a thousand pounds! He never gave +any one fifty pounds! He couldn't have done it! Never in his life!" + +His voice rose in a fine crescendo. + +"Well, perhaps it was hardly a gift," said Mr. Flexen, and he told him +Helena's story. + +At the end of it Mr. Carrington said with dogged, sullen conviction: "I +don't care, I don't believe it. Lord Loudwater couldn't have done it." + +"But there's the letter from her bankers," said Mr. Flexen. "And I +suppose you can trace the twelve thousand pounds." + +Mr. Carrington started and said sharply: "Why, that must be where the +rubber shares went to." + +"What rubber shares?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"We can't lay our hands on a block of rubber shares Lord Loudwater owned. +The certificate isn't among his scrip--he kept all his scrip at the +Castle--he wouldn't keep it at his bank. Those rubber shares were worth +just about twelve thousand pounds." + +"Well, there you are," said Mr. Flexen. + +"No, I'm not, I tell you I don't believe in that gift--not even in the +circumstances. Lord Loudwater would a thousand times rather have gone on +paying the allowance--as little of it as he could. There's something +fishy--very fishy--about it, I tell you," said Mr. Carrington vehemently. + +"And where did the fishiness come in?" said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Carrington was silent, frowning. Then he said: "I'll--I'll be hanged +if I can see." + +Mr. Flexen rose sharply and said: "There's only one point in the affair +where it could have come in as far as I can see. I should like to examine +Lord Loudwater's letter of instruction to his bankers." + +"By George! You've got it," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Well, can we get a look at it?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"We can. Harrison, the manager, will stretch a point for me. He knows +that I'm quite safe. Come along," said Mr. Carrington. + +"At this hour? The bank's been closed this two hours," said Flexen. + +"He'll be there. It's years since he got away before seven," said Mr. +Carrington confidently. + +He told a clerk to telephone to the bank that he was coming. They found a +taxicab quickly, drove to the bank, entered it by the side door, and were +taken straight to Mr. Harrison. + +He made no bones about showing them Lord Loudwater's letter of +instructions with regard to the twelve thousand pounds. Mr. Carrington +and Mr. Flexen read it together. It was quite short, and ran: + +"GENTLEMEN, + +"I shall be much obliged by your paying the enclosed cheque from Messrs. +Hanbury and Johnson for £12,046 into the account of Mrs. Helena Truslove. + +"Yours faithfully, + +"LOUDWATER." + +"Rather a curt way of disposing of such a large sum," said Mr. Flexen, +taking the letter and going to the window. + +"It was the way Lord Loudwater did things," said Mr. Harrison. + +"Yes, yes; I know," said Mr. Carrington. "Some things." + +They both looked at Mr. Flexen, who was examining the letter through a +magnifying glass. + +He studied it for a good two minutes, turned to them with a quiet smile +of triumph on his face and said: "I've never seen Lord Loudwater's +signature. But this is a forgery." + +"A forgery?" said the manager sharply, stepping quickly towards Mr. +Flexen with outstretched hand. + +"I'm not surprised to hear it," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Well, the signature is not written with the natural ease with which a +man signs his name," said Mr. Flexen, giving the letter to Mr. Harrison. + +Mr. Harrison studied it carefully. Then he pressed a button on his desk +and bade the clerk who came bring all the letters they had received +from Lord Loudwater during the last three months of his life and bring +them quickly. + +Then he turned to Mr. Flexen and said stiffly: "I'm bound to say that the +signature looks perfectly right to me." + +"I've no doubt that it's a good forgery. It was done by a very clever +man," said Mr. Flexen. + +"A first-class young scoundrel," Mr. Carrington amended. + +"We shall soon see," said Mr. Harrison, politely incredulous. + +The clerk came with the letters. There were eight of them, all written +by Mr. Manley and signed by Lord Loudwater. + +The manager compared the signatures of every one of them with the +signature in question, using a magnifying glass which lay on his desk. + +Then, triumphant in his turn, he said curtly: "It's no forgery." + +"Allow me," said Mr. Flexen, and in his turn he compared the signatures, +again every one of them. + +Then he said: "As I said, it's an uncommonly good forgery. You see that +the bodies of the letters are all written with the same pen, a +gold-nibbed fountain-pen; the signatures are written with a steel nib. It +cuts deeper into the paper, and the ink doesn't flow off it so evenly. +The forged signature is written with the same kind of nib as the genuine +ones. Also, the bodies of the letters are written in a fountain-pen +ink--the 'Swan,' I think. The signatures are written in Stephens' +blue-black ink. The forged signature is also written in Stephens' +blue-black ink. No error there, you see." + +"You seem to know a good deal about these things," said Mr. Harrison, +rather tartly. + +"Yes. I've been a partner in Punchard's Agency--you know it; we've done +some work for you--for the last two years. I didn't need this kind of +knowledge for my work in India. I only made a special study of forgery +after joining the agency. A private inquiry agency gets such a lot of +it," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Well, and if there's an error in these details, where is it? It's not in +the signature itself," said Mr. Harrison. + +"Indeed, it is," said Mr. Flexen. "It's an uncommonly good signature too. +The 'Loud' is perfect. But the 'water' gives it away. The forger had +evidently practised it a lot. In fact, he wrote the 'Loud' straight off. +But the 'water' has no less than five distinct pauses in it--under the +microscope, of course--where he paused to think, or perhaps to look at a +genuine signature, the endorsement on the cheque very likely." + +Mr. Harrison sniffed ever so faintly, and said: "Of course, I've had +experience of handwriting experts--not very much, thank goodness!--and +you differ among yourselves so. It's any odds that another expert will +find those pauses in quite different places from you, or even no +pauses at all." + +Mr. Flexen laughed gently and said: "Perhaps. But he ought not to." + +"There you are. And when it comes to a jury," said Mr. Harrison, and he +threw out his hands. "Besides, if you got your experts to agree, you'd +have to show a very strong motive." + +"Oh, we've got that--we've got that," said Mr. Carrington with +conviction. + +"Well, of course that will make it easier for you to get the jury to +believe your handwriting experts rather than those of the other side," +said Mr. Harrison, without any enthusiasm. Then he added, with rather +more cheerfulness: "But you never can tell with a jury." + +"No; that's true," said Mr. Flexen quickly. "I'm sure we're very much +obliged to you for showing us the letter." + +There was nothing more to be done at the bank, and having again thanked +Mr. Harrison, they took their leave of him. He showed no great cordiality +in his leave-taking, he was looking at the matter from the point of view +of the bank. The bank preferred to detect forgeries itself--in time. + +As they came into the street, Mr. Carrington rubbed his hands together +and said in a tone of deep satisfaction: "And now for the warrant." + +"Warrant for whom?" said Mr. Flexen in a tone of polite inquiry. + +"Manley. The sooner that young scoundrel is in gaol the better I shall +feel," said Mr. Carrington. + +"So should I," said Mr. Flexen. "But I'm very much afraid that for Mr. +Manley it's a far cry to Holloway. We have no case against him +whatever--not a scrap of a case that I can see." + +"Hang it all! It's as plain as a pikestaff! He's engaged to this +woman--this Mrs. Truslove--who has a nice little income. He hears that +her income is to be halved; and we know that if an allowance begins by +being halved, as likely as not it will be stopped altogether before long. +He saw that clearly enough. Then in the very nick of time this cheque +comes along. He sends it to the bank with this letter of instructions, +and murders Lord Loudwater so that he cannot disavow them. What more of a +case do you want?" + +"I don't want a better case. I only want some evidence. It's true enough +that Mrs. Manley told me that she told Manley that Lord Loudwater +proposed to halve her allowance. But where's the evidence that she talked +to him about it? She'd deny it if you put her into the witness-box, and +you can't put her into the witness-box." + +"Husband and wife, by Jove! Oh, the clever young scoundrel!" cried Mr. +Carrington. + +"And that halving of the allowance is the beginning of the whole +business. Manley had made up his mind to marry a lady with a fixed +income--indeed, they were probably already engaged. Loudwater upsets the +arrangement. Manley restores the _status quo_ by means of this cheque and +the murder of Loudwater. Of course, he hated Loudwater--he admitted as +much to me--more than once. But if Loudwater had played fair about that +allowance, he'd be alive now. Having established the _status quo,_ Manley +promptly marries the lady, and closes the mouth of the only person who +can bear witness that the allowance was in danger and he had any motive +for murdering Loudwater." + +Mr. Carrington ground his teeth and murmured: "The infernal young +scoundrel!" Then he broke out violently: "But we're not beaten yet. Now +that we know for a fact that he murdered Loudwater and why, there must be +some way of getting at him." + +"I very much doubt it," said Flexen sadly. "He's an uncommonly able +fellow. I don't believe that he's taken a chance. He wears a glove and +leaves the knife in the wound, so that there are no bloodstains. And +consider the cheque. The bank wouldn't have honoured Loudwater's own +cheque, the cheque of a dead man, but the stock-broker's cheque goes +through as a matter of course." + +"Of course," said Mr. Carrington. + +"And he has kept the business so entirely in his own hands. If we had run +in any one else, he'd have come forward and sworn that he heard Loudwater +snore after Roper had seen that person leave the Castle. I'm beginning to +think that he's one of the most able murderers I ever heard of. I +certainly never came across one in my own experience who was a patch on +him," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Don't be in such a hurry to lose hope. There must be some way of getting +at him--there must be," said Mr. Carrington obstinately. + +"I'm glad to hear it," said Mr. Flexen in a tone of utter scepticism. + +They walked on, Mr. Flexen reflecting on Mr. Manley's ability, Mr. +Carrington cudgelling his brains for a method of bringing his crime home +to him. At the door of his office Mr. Flexen held out his hand. + +"Come along in. I've got an idea," said Mr. Carrington. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +Mr. Flexen shrugged his shoulders with a sceptical air. He had not formed +a high opinion of Mr. Carrington's intelligence. However, he followed him +into his office and sat down, ready to give him his best attention. + +Mr. Carrington wore a really hopeful expression, and he said: "My idea is +that we should get at Manley through Mrs. Manley." + +"I'm not at all keen on getting at a man through his wife," said Mr. +Flexen rather dolefully. "But in this case it's manifestly our duty to +leave nothing untried. Murder for money is murder for money." + +"I should think it _was_ our duty!" cried Mr. Carrington with emphasis. + +"And there are three innocent people under suspicion of having committed +the murder. Fire away. How is it to be done?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"The new Lord Loudwater must bring an action against Mrs. Manley for the +return of that twelve thousand pounds on the ground that it was obtained +from the late Lord Loudwater by fraud--as it certainly was," said Mr. +Carrington, leaning forward with shining eyes and speaking very +distinctly. + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen. But his expression was not hopeful. + +"Once we get her in the witness-box we establish the fact that Lord +Loudwater had made up his mind to halve her allowance, for she'll have to +give the reason for her visiting him so late that night; and so we get +Manley's motive for committing the murder also established." + +"I see. But will you be able to use her evidence in the first trial at +the second?" said Mr. Flexen doubtfully. + +"That's the idea," said Mr. Carrington triumphantly. + +"You think it can be worked?" + +"We can have a jolly good try at it," said Mr. Carrington, rubbing his +hands together, and his square, massive face was rather malignant in +its triumph. + +Mr. Flexen did not look triumphant, or even hopeful. + +"But will you get the new Lord Loudwater to bring this action?" he said. + +"Why, of course. There's the money for one thing, and when he sees how +important it is from the point of view of getting at Manley, he can't +refuse," said Mr. Carrington confidently. + +"There isn't the money--not necessarily. He might get back the twelve +thousand pounds and have to pay Mrs. Manley six hundred a year for forty +or fifty years. She's a healthy-looking woman," said Mr. Flexen. "I take +it that the late Lord Loudwater had property of his own against which she +could claim." + +"Oh, of course, she could do that," said Mr. Carrington, and there was +some diminution of the triumphant expression. + +"She would," said Mr. Flexen. "Then you'll have to get over his objection +to incurring a considerable amount of odium. It will look bad for a man +of his wealth to try to recover from a lady a sum of money to which every +one will consider her entitled." + +"Oh, but it was obtained by fraud," said Mr. Carrington. + +"If you were sure of proving that, it would make a difference in the way +people would regard it. But you're not sure of proving it--not by a long +chalk. And you can't assure your client that you are. There'll be a lot +of conflicting evidence about that signature, as Harrison pretty clearly +showed. If you don't prove it, your client will be landed with the costs +of the case and incur still greater odium." + +"Ah, but he is bound to take the risk to bring his cousin's murderer to +justice," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Is he?" said Flexen dryly. "What kind of terms was he on with his +murdered cousin?" + +"Well, I must say I didn't expect you to ask that question," said Mr. +Carrington pettishly. "What kind of terms was the late Lord Loudwater +likely to be on with his heir? They hated one another like poison." + +"I thought as much," said Mr. Flexen. "And what kind of a man is the new +man--anything like his dead cousin?" + +"Oh, well, all the Loudwaters are pretty much of a muchness. But the +present man is a better man all round--better manners and better +brains," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Better brains, and you think he'll be willing to celebrate his +succession to the peerage by a first-class scandal of this kind, a +scandal which may bring him this money, but which will certainly bring +odium on him?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"When it's a case of bringing a murderer to justice," said Mr. Carrington +obstinately. + +"The murderer of a man he hated like poison? I should think that he'd +want to see his way pretty clear. And it isn't clear--not by any means. +For there's precious little chance of Mrs. Manley's giving Lord +Loudwater's threat to halve her allowance as the reason of her visit to +him that night. In fact, there's no chance at all. Manley will see to +that. Once attack the genuineness of that signature, and you open his +eyes to his danger. She'll come into the witness-box with quite another +reason for that visit, and a good reason too. Manley will find it for +her," said Mr. Flexen with conviction. "But there's the quarrel. She +can't get over that quarrel," said Mr. Carrington stubbornly. + +"She'll deny the quarrel. It's only Mrs. Carruthers' word against hers. +Besides, Mrs. Carruthers heard what she did hear through a closed door. +It will be so easy to make out that she made a mistake." + +"You seem to take it for granted that Mrs. Manley will commit perjury at +that young scoundrel's bidding," snapped Mr. Carrington. + +"I take it for granted that she'll be a woman fighting to save her +husband. And I'm also sure that there'll be precious few mistakes in +tactics made in the fight. I think that all you'll get out of the trial +will be a strong presumption that Lord Loudwater committed suicide. I'd +bet that that is the line Manley will take. And she'll make a thundering +good witness for him. She's a good-looking woman, with plenty of +intelligence." + +Mr. Carrington gazed at him with unhappy eyes. His square, massive face +had lost utterly its expression of triumph. + +"But hang it all!" he cried. "What are we going to do? Knowing what we +know, we can't sit still and do nothing." + +"I can't see _anything_ we can do," said Mr. Flexen frankly, and he rose. +"You have demonstrated that Manley's position is impregnable." + +He took his leave of the dejected lawyer. + +Outside Mr. Carrington's office he stood still, hesitating. He could have +caught a train back to Low Wycombe, but he could not bring himself to +take it. He could not at once tear himself away from London and Mr. +Manley. He must sleep on the new facts in the Loudwater case. He went to +his club, engaged a bedroom, and dined there. + +Mr. and Mrs. Manley dined at their flat. Mr. Manley talked during dinner +with elegance and vivacity. The maid brought in the coffee and went back +to the kitchen. + +As he lighted his wife's cigarette, Mr. Manley said in a careless tone: +"What did Flexen want to see you about?" + +Helena gave him a full account of her interview with Mr. Flexen, his +questions and her answers. + +"I guessed that you were the _Daily Wire's_ mysterious woman," he said. +"I saw how frightened you were when it came out. But, of course, as you +didn't say anything about it, I didn't." + +"That is so like you," she murmured. + +"One human being should never intrude on another," said Mr. Manley with a +noble air. + +"It might be your motto," she said, looking at him with admiring eyes. +She paused; then she added: "And I was frightened--horribly frightened. I +couldn't sleep. I was going to tell you about it, but I didn't like to. +You gave me no opening. Then the letter came from my bankers--about the +twelve thousand pounds--and it made it all right. It made it clear that I +had no reason to murder Loudwater." + +"Of course," said Mr. Manley. "But in the event of any new +developments, I should not admit that Lord Loudwater talked of halving +your allowance, or that you quarrelled with him. In fact, I shouldn't +let Flexen interview you again at all. In an affair of this kind you +can't be too careful." + +"I won't let him interview me again," said Helena with decision. + +Mr. Flexen did not try to interview her again. But at eleven the next +morning he called on Mr. Manley. He had very little hope of effecting +anything by the call, though he meant to try. But he had the keenest +desire to scrutinize him again and carefully in the light of the new +facts he had discovered. + +Mr. Manley kept him waiting awhile in the drawing-room; then the maid +ushered him into Mr. Manley's study. Mr. Manley was sitting at a +table, at work on his play. He greeted Mr. Flexen with a rather +absent-minded air. + +Mr. Flexen surveyed him with very intent, measuring eyes. At once he +perceived that he had rather missed Mr. Manley's jaw in giving attention +to his admirable forehead. It was, indeed, the jaw of a brute. He could +see him drive the knife into Lord Loudwater, and walk out of the +smoking-room with an ugly, contented smile on his face. + +He had little hopes of bringing off anything in the nature of a bluff; +but he said, in a rasping tone: "We've discovered that the signature of +Lord Loudwater's letter of instructions to his bankers to pay that cheque +for twelve thousand pounds into your wife's account was forged." + +Mr. Manley looked at him blankly for a moment. There was no expression at +all on his face. Then it filled slowly with an expression of surprise. + +"Rehearsed, by Jove!" murmured Mr. Flexen under his breath, and he could +not help admiring the skilful management of that expression of surprise. +It was so unhasty and natural. + +"My dear fellow, what on earth are you driving at? I saw him write it +myself," said Mr. Manley in an indulgent tone. + +"You forged it," snapped Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley looked at him with a new surprise which changed slowly to +pity. Then he said in such a tone as one might use to an unreasonable +child: "My good chap, what on earth should I forge it _for?_" + +"You knew that he was going to halve Mrs. Truslove's allowance. You were +bent on marrying a woman with money. You took this way of ensuring that +she had money, forged the letter, and murdered Lord Loudwater," said Mr. +Flexen on a rising inflexion. + +"By Jove! I see what you're after. It shows how infernally silly a +schoolboy joke can be! Lord Loudwater never talked of halving my wife's +allowance. That was an invention of mine. I told her that he was doing so +just to tease her," said Mr. Manley firmly, with a note of contrition in +his voice. + +Mr. Flexen opened his mouth a little way. It was a superb invention. It +left Mrs. Manley free to go into the witness-box to tell the story she +had told him. It knocked the bottom clean out of Carrington's case. + +"What really happened was that Lord Loudwater was grousing about the +allowance--at being reminded every six months that he had behaved like a +cad. I suggested that he should pay her a lump sum and be done with the +business. He jumped at the idea. The cheque had come from his +stockbrokers that morning; he directed me to write that letter of +instructions to his bankers; I wrote it, and he signed it. There you have +the whole business." + +"I don't believe a word of it!" cried Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley rose with an air of great dignity and said: "My good chap, I +can excuse your temper. It was an ingenious theory, and it must be very +annoying to have it upset. But I'm fed up with this Loudwater business. +I've got here"--he tapped the manuscript on the table--"a drama worth +fifty of it. Out of working hours I don't mind talking that affair over +with you; in them I won't." + +Mr. Flexen rose and said: "You're undoubtedly the most accomplished +scoundrel I've ever come across." + +"If you will have it so," said Mr. Manley patiently. Then he smiled and +added: "Praise from an expert--" + +They turned to see Mrs. Manley standing in the doorway, her lips parted, +her eyes dilated in a growing consternation. + +She stepped forward. Mr. Flexen slipped round her and fairly fled. + +She looked at Mr. Manley with horror-stricken eyes and said: "What--what +did he mean, Herbert?" + +"He meant what he said. But what it really means is that I won't let him +hang that wretched James Hutchings," said Mr. Manley with a noble air. + + * * * * * + +Three months later, on the first night of Mr. Manley's play, Colonel +Grey came upon Mr. Flexen in the lounge of the Haymarket, between the +second and third acts. Both of them praised the play warmly, and there +came a pause. + +Then Colonel Grey said: "I suppose you've given up all hope of solving +the problem of Loudwater's death." + +"Oh, I solved it three months ago. It was Manley," said Mr. Flexen. + +"By Jove!" said Colonel Grey softly. + +"Not a doubt of it. I'll tell you all about it one of these days," +said Mr. Flexen, for the bell rang to warn them that the third act was +about to begin. + +In the corridor Colonel Grey said: "Queer that he should have dropped +down dead in the street a week before this success." + +"Well, he was discharged from the Army for having a bad heart. But it is +a bit queer," said Mr. Flexen. + +"The mills of God," said Colonel Grey. + +"Looks like it," said Mr. Flexen. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Loudwater Mystery, by Edgar Jepson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOUDWATER MYSTERY *** + +***** This file should be named 9808-8.txt or 9808-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/8/0/9808/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/9808-8.zip b/9808-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..957eb74 --- /dev/null +++ b/9808-8.zip diff --git a/9808.txt b/9808.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ac9279a --- /dev/null +++ b/9808.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7687 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Loudwater Mystery, by Edgar Jepson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Loudwater Mystery + +Author: Edgar Jepson + +Posting Date: December 15, 2009 [EBook #9808] +Release Date: February, 2006 +First Posted: October 19, 2003 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOUDWATER MYSTERY *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + + + + + + THE LOUDWATER MYSTERY + + BY EDGAR JEPSON + + 1920 + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Lord Loudwater was paying attention neither to his breakfast nor to the +cat Melchisidec. Absorbed in a leader in _The Times_ newspaper, now and +again he tugged at his red-brown beard in order to quicken his +comprehension of the weighty phrases of the leader-writer; now and again +he made noises, chiefly with his nose, expressive of disgust. Lady +Loudwater paid no attention to these noises. She did not even raise her +eyes to her husband's face. She ate her breakfast with a thoughtful air, +her brow puckered by a faint frown. + +She also paid no attention to her favourite, Melchisidec. Melchisidec, +unduly excited by the smell of grilled sole, came to Lord Loudwater, rose +on his hind legs, laid his paws on his trousers, and stuck some claws +into his thigh. It was no more than gentle, arresting pricks; but the +tender nobleman sprang from his chair with a short howl, kicked with +futile violence a portion of the empty air which Melchisidec had just +vacated, staggered, and nearly fell. + +Lady Loudwater did not laugh; but she did cough. + +Her husband, his face a furious crimson, glared at her with reddish eyes, +and swore violently at her and the cat. + +Lady Loudwater rose, her face flushed, her lips trembling, picked up +Melchisidec, and walked out of the room. Lord Loudwater scowled at the +closed door, sat down, and went on with his breakfast. + +James Hutchings, the butler, came quietly into the room, took one of the +smaller dishes from the sideboard and Lady Loudwater's teapot from the +table. He went quietly out of the room, pausing at the door to scowl at +his master's back. Lady Loudwater finished her breakfast in the +sitting-room of her suite of rooms on the first floor. She was no longer +inattentive to Melchisidec. + +During her breakfast she put all consideration of her husband's behaviour +out of her mind. As she smoked a cigarette after breakfast she considered +it for a little while. She often had to consider it. She came to the +conclusion to which she had often come before: that she owed him nothing +whatever. She came to the further conclusion that she detested him. She +had far too good a brow not to be able to see a fact clearly. She wished +more heartily than ever that she had never married him. It had been a +grievous mistake; and it seemed likely to last a life-time--her +life-time. The last five ancestors of her husband had lived to be eighty. +His father would doubtless have lived to be eighty too, had he not broken +his neck in the hunting-field at the age of fifty-four. On the other +hand, none of the Quaintons, her own family, had reached the age of +sixty. Lord Loudwater was thirty-five; she was twenty-two; he would +therefore survive her by at least seven years. She would certainly be +bowed down all her life under this grievous burden. + +It was an odd calculation for a young married woman to make; but Lady +Loudwater came of an uncommon family, which had produced more brilliant, +irresponsible, and passably unscrupulous men than any other of the +leading families in England. Her father had been one of them. She took +after him. Moreover, Lord Loudwater would have induced odd reveries in +any wife. He had been intolerable since the second week of their +honeymoon. Wholly without power of self-restraint, the furious outbursts +of his vile temper had been consistently revolting. She once more told +herself that something would have to be done about it--not on the +instant, however. At the moment there appeared to her to be months to do +it in. She dropped her cigarette end into the ash-tray, and with it any +further consideration of the manners and disposition of Lord Loudwater. + +She lit another cigarette and let her thoughts turn to that far more +appealing subject, Colonel Antony Grey. They turned to him readily and +wholly. In less than three minutes she was seeing his face and hearing +certain tones in his voice with amazing clearness. Once she looked at the +clock impatiently. It was half-past ten. She would not see him till +three--four and a half hours. It seemed a long while to her. However, +she could go on thinking about him. She did. + +While she considered her ill-tempered husband her eyes had been hard and +almost shallow. While she considered Colonel Grey, they grew soft and +deep. Her lips had been set and almost thin; now they grew most kissable. + +Lord Loudwater finished his breakfast, the scowl on his face fading +slowly to a frown. He lit a cigar and with a moody air went to his +smoking-room. The criminal carelessness of the cat Melchisidec +still rankled. + +As he entered the room, half office and half smoking-room, Mr. Herbert +Manley, his secretary, bade him good morning. Lord Loudwater returned his +greeting with a scowl. + +Mr. Herbert Manley had one of those faces which begin well and end badly. +He had a fine forehead, lofty and broad, a well-cut, gently-curving-nose, +a slack, thick-lipped mouth, always a little open, a heavy, animal jaw, +and the chin of an eagle. His fine, black hair was thin on the temples. +His moustache was thin and straggled. His black eyes were as good as his +brow, intelligent, observant, and alert. It was plain that had his lips +been thinner and his chin larger he would not have been the secretary of +Lord Loudwater--or of any one else. He would have been a masterless man. +The success of two one-act plays on the stage of the music-halls had +given him the firm hope of one day becoming a masterless man as a +successful dramatist. His post gave him the leisure to write plays. But +for the fact that it brought him into such frequent contact with the Lord +Loudwater it would have been a really pleasant post: the food was +excellent; the wine was good; the library was passable; and the servants, +with the exception of James Hutchings, liked and respected him. He had +the art of making himself valued (at far more than his real worth, said +his enemies), and his air of importance continuously impressed them. + +With a patient air he began to discuss the morning's letters, and ask for +instructions. Lord Loudwater was, as often happened, uncommonly captious +about the letters. He had not recovered from the shock the inconsiderate +Melchisidec had given his nerves. The instructions he gave were somewhat +muddled; and when Mr. Manley tried to get them clearer, his employer +swore at him for an idiot. Mr. Manley persisted firmly through much abuse +till he did get them clear. He had come to consider his employer's furies +an unfortunate weakness which had to be endured by the holder of the post +he found so advantageous. He endured them with what stoicism he might. + +Lord Loudwater in a bad temper always produced a strong impression of +redness for a man whose colouring was merely red-brown. Owing to the fact +that his fierce, protruding blue eyes were red-rimmed and somewhat +bloodshot, in moments of emotion they shone with a curious red glint, and +his florid face flushed a deeper red. In these moments Mr. Manley had a +feeling that he was dealing with a bad-tempered red bull. His employer +made very much the same impression on other people, but few of them had +the impression of bullness so clear and so complete as did Mr. Manley. +Lady Loudwater, on the other hand, felt always, whether her husband was +ramping or quiet, that she was dealing with a bad-tempered bull. + +Presently they came to the end of the letters. Lord Loudwater lit another +cigar, and scowled thoughtfully. Mr. Manley gazed at his scowling face +and wondered idly whether he would ever light on another human being whom +he would detest so heartily as he detested his employer. He thought it +indeed unlikely. Still, when he became a successful dramatist there might +be an actor-manager-- + +Then Lord Loudwater said: "Did you tell Mrs. Truslove that after +September her allowance would be reduced to three hundred a year?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Manley. + +"What did she say?" + +Mr. Manley hesitated; then he said diplomatically: "She did not seem +to like it." + +"What did she _say_?" cried Lord Loudwater in a sudden, startling bellow, +and his eyes shone red. + +Mr. Manley winced and said quickly: "She said it was just like you." + +"Just like me? Hey? And what did she mean by that?" cried Lord Loudwater +loudly and angrily. + +Mr. Manley expressed utter ignorance by looking blank and shrugging his +shoulders. + +"The jade! She's had six hundred a year for more than two years. Did she +think it would go on for ever?" cried his employer. + +"No," said Mr. Manley. + +"And why didn't she think it would go on for ever? Hey?" said Lord +Loudwater in a challenging tone. + +"Because there wasn't an actual deed of settlement," said Mr. Manley. + +"The ungrateful jade! I've a good mind to stop it altogether!" cried +his employer. + +Mr. Manley said nothing. His face was blank; it neither approved nor +disapproved the suggestion. + +Lord Loudwater scowled at him and said: "I expect she said she wished +she'd never had anything to do with me." + +"No," said Mr. Manley. + +"I'll bet that's what she thinks," growled Lord Loudwater. + +Mr. Manley let the suggestion pass without comment. His face was blank. + +"And what's she going to do about it?" said Lord Loudwater in a tone of +challenge. + +"She's going to see you about it." + +"I'm damned if she is!" cried Lord Loudwater hastily, in a much less +assured tone. + +Mr. Manley permitted a faint, sceptical smile to wreathe his lips. + +"What are you grinning at? If you think she'll gain anything by doing +that, she won't," said Lord Loudwater, with a blustering truculence. + +Mr. Manley wondered. Helena Truslove was a lady of considerable force of +character. He suspected that if Lord Loudwater had ever been afraid of a +fellow-creature, he must at times have been afraid of Helena Truslove. +He fancied that now he was not nearly as fearless as he sounded. He did +not say so. + +His employer was silent, buried in scowling reflection. Mr. Manley gazed +at him without any great intentness, and came to the conclusion that he +did not merely detest him, he loathed him. + +Presently he said: "There's a cheque from Hanbury and Johnson for twelve +thousand and forty-six pounds for the rubber shares your lordship sold. +It wants endorsing." + +He handed the cheque across the table to Lord Loudwater. Lord +Loudwater dipped his pen in the ink, transfixed a struggling +bluebottle, and drew it out. + +"Why the devil don't you see that the ink is fresh?" he roared. + +"It is fresh. The bluebottle must have just fallen into it," said Mr. +Manley in an unruffled tone. + +Lord Loudwater cursed the bluebottle, restored it to the ink-pot, +endorsed the cheque, and tossed it across the table to Mr. Manley. + +"By the way," said Mr. Manley, with some hesitation, "there's another +anonymous letter." + +"Why didn't you burn it? I told you to burn 'em all," snapped his +employer. + +"This one is not about you. It's about Hutchings," said Mr. Manley in an +explanatory tone. + +"Hutchings? What about Hutchings?" + +"You'd better read it," said Mr. Manley, handing him the letter. "It +seems to be from some spiteful woman." + +The letter was indeed written in female handwriting, and it accused the +butler, wordily enough, of having received a commission from Lord +Loudwater's wine merchants on a purchase of fifty dozen of champagne +which he had bought from them a month before. It further stated that he +had received a like commission on many other such purchases. + +Lord Loudwater read it, scowling, sprang up from his chair with his eyes +protruding further than usual, and cried: "The scoundrel! The blackguard! +I'll teach him! I'll gaol him!" + +He dashed at the electric bell by the fireplace, set his thumb on it, and +kept it there. + +Holloway, the second footman, came running. The servants knew their +master's ring. They always ran to answer it, after some discussion as to +which of them should go. + +He entered and said: "Yes, m'lord?" + +"Send that scoundrel Hutchings to me! Send him at once!" roared +his master. + +"Yes, m'lord," said Holloway, and hurried away. + +He found James Hutchings in his pantry, told him that their master wanted +him, and added that he was in a tearing rage. + +Hutchings, who never expected his sanguine and irascible master to be in +any other mood, finished the paragraph of the article in the _Daily +Telegraph_ he was reading, put on his coat, and went to the study. His +delay gave Lord Loudwater's wrath full time to mature. + +When the butler entered his master shook his fist at him and roared: "You +scoundrel! You infernal scoundrel! You've been robbing me! You've been +robbing me for years, you blackguard!" + +James Hutchings met the charge with complete calm. He shook his head and +said in a surly tone: "No; I haven't done anything of the kind, m'lord." + +The flat denial infuriated his master yet more. He spluttered and was for +a while incoherent. Then he became again articulate and said: "You have, +you rogue! You took a commission--a secret commission on that fifty dozen +of champagne I bought last month. You've been doing it for years." + +James Hutchings' surly face was transformed. It grew malignant; his +fierce, protruding, red-rimmed blue eyes sparkled balefully, and he +flushed to a redness as deep as that of his master. He knew at once who +had betrayed him, and he was furious--at the betrayal. At the same time, +he was not greatly alarmed; he had never received a cheque from the wine +merchants; all their payments to him had been in cash, and he had always +cherished a warm contempt for his master. + +"I haven't," he said fiercely. "And if I had it would be quite +regular--only a perquisite." + +For the hundredth time Mr. Manley remarked the likeness between Lord +Loudwater and his butler. They had the same fierce, protruding, +red-rimmed blue eyes, the same narrow, low forehead, the same large ears. +Hutchings' hair was a darker brown than Lord Loudwater's, and his lips +were thinner. But Mr. Manley was sure that, had he worn a beard instead +of whiskers, it would have been difficult for many people to be sure +which was Lord Loudwater and which his butler. + +Lord Loudwater again spluttered; then he roared: "A perquisite! What +about the Corrupt Practices Act? It was passed for rogues like you! +I'll show you all about perquisites! You'll find yourself in gaol +inside of a month." + +"I shan't. There isn't a word of truth in it, or a scrap of evidence," +said Hutchings fiercely. + +"Evidence? I'll find evidence all right!" cried his master. "And if I +don't, I'll, anyhow, discharge you without a character. I'll get you one +way or another, my fine fellow! I'll teach you to rob me!" + +"I haven't robbed your lordship," said Hutchings in a less surly tone. + +He was much more moved by the threat of discharge than the threat of +prosecution. + +"I tell you you have. And you can clear out of this. I'll wire to town at +once for another butler--an honest butler. You'll clear out the moment he +comes. Pack up and be ready to go. And when you do go, I'll give you +twenty-four hours to clear out of the country before I put the police on +your track," cried Lord Loudwater. + +Mr. Manley observed that it was exactly like him to take no risk, in +spite of his fury, of any loss of comfort from the lack of a butler. The +instinct of self-protection was indeed strong in him. + +"Not a bit of it. You've told me to go, and I'm going at once--this very +day. The police will find me at my father's for the next fortnight," said +Hutchings with a sneer. "And when I go to London I'll leave my address." + +"A lot of good your going to London will do you. I'll see you never get +another place in this country," snarled Lord Loudwater. + +Hutchings gave him a look of vindictive malignity so intense that it +made Mr. Manley quite uncomfortable, turned, and went out of the room. + +Lord Loudwater said: "I'll teach the scoundrel to rob me! Write at once +for a new butler." + +He took some lumps of sugar from a jar on the mantelpiece, and went +through the door which opened into the library. + +In the library he stopped and shouted back: "If Morton comes about the +timber, I shall be in the stables." + +Then he went through one of the long windows of the library into the +garden and took his way to the stables. As he drew near them the scowl +cleared from his face. But it remained a formidable face; it did not grow +pleasant. None the less, he spent a pleasant hour in the stables, petting +his horses. He was fond of horses, not of cats, and he never bullied and +seldom abused his horses as he abused and bullied his fellow men and +women. This was the result of his experience. He had learnt from it that +he might bully and abuse his human dependents with impunity. As a boy he +had also bullied and abused his horses. But in his eighteenth year he had +been savaged by a young horse he had maltreated, and the lesson had stuck +in his mind. It was a simple, obtuse mind, but it had formed the theory +that he got more out of human beings, more deference and service, by +bullying them and more out of horses by treating them kindly. Besides, he +liked horses. + +Mr. Manley did not set about answering the letters at once. He reflected +for a while on the likeness between Hutchings and his master. He thought +the physical likeness of little interest. There was a whole clan of +Hutchingses in the villages and woods round the castle, the bulk of them +gamekeepers; and there had been for generations. Mr. Manley was much more +interested in the resemblance in character between Hutchings and Lord +Loudwater. Hutchings, probably under the pressure of circumstances, was +much less of a bore than his master, but quite as much of a bully. Also, +he was more intelligent, and consequently more dangerous. Mr. Manley +would on no account have had him look at him with the intense malignity +with which he had looked at his master. Doubtless the butler had far +greater self-control than Lord Loudwater; but if ever he did lose it it +would be uncommonly bad for Lord Loudwater. + +It would be interesting to find in the Loudwater archives the common +ancestor to whom they both cast so directly back. He fancied that it must +be the third Baron. At any rate, both had his protruding blue eyes, +softened in his portrait doubtless by the natural politeness of the +fashionable painter. Was it worth his while to look up the record of the +third Lord Loudwater? He decided that, if he found himself at sufficient +leisure, he would. Then he decided that he was glad that Hutchins was +going; the butler had shown him but little civility. Then he set about +answering the letters. + +When he had finished them he took up the stockbroker's cheque and +considered it with a thoughtful frown. He had never before seen a cheque +for so large a sum; and it interested him. Then he wrote a short note of +instructions to Lord Loudwater's bankers. The ink in his fountain-pen ran +out as he came to the end of it, and he signed it with the pen with which +Lord Loudwater had endorsed the cheque. He put the cheque into the +envelope he had already addressed, put stamps on all the letters, carried +them to the post-box on a table in the hall, went through the library out +into the garden, and smoked a cigarette with a somewhat languid air. Then +he went into the library and took up his task of cataloguing the books at +the point at which he had stopped the day before. He often paused to dip +at length into a book before entering it in the catalogue. He did not +believe in hasty work. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Lord Loudwater came to lunch in a better temper than that in which he had +left the breakfast-table. He had ridden eight miles round and about his +estate, and the ride had soothed that seat of the evil humours--his +liver. Lady Loudwater had been careful to shut Melchisidec in her +boudoir; James Hutchings had no desire in the world to see his master's +florid face or square back, and had instructed Wilkins and Holloway, the +first and second footmen, to wait at table. Lord Loudwater therefore +could, without any ruffling of his sensibilities, give all his thought to +his food, and he did. The cooking at the castle was always excellent. If +it was not, he sent for the chef and spoke to him about it. + +There was little conversation at lunch. Lady Loudwater never spoke to her +husband first, save on rare occasions about a matter of importance. It +was not that she perceived any glamour of royalty about him; she did not +wish to hear his voice. Besides, she had never found a conversational +opening so harmless that he could not contrive, were it his whim, to be +offensive about it. Besides, she had at the moment nothing to say to him. + +In truth, owing to the fact that she took so many practically silent +meals with him, she was becoming rather a gourmet. The food, naturally +the most important fact, had become really the most important fact at the +meals they took together. She had come to realize this. It was the only +advantage she had ever derived from her intercourse with her husband. + +At this lunch, however, she did not pay as much attention to the food as +usual, not indeed as much as it deserved. Her mind would stray from it to +Colonel Grey. She wondered what he would tell her about herself that +afternoon. He was always discovering possibilities in her which she had +never discovered for herself. She only perceived their existence when he +pointed them out to her. Then they became obvious. Also, he was always +discovering fresh facts, attractive facts, about her--about her eyes and +lips and hair and figure. He imparted each discovery to her as he made +it, without delay, and with the genuine enthusiasm of a discoverer. Of +course, he should not have done this. It was, indeed, wrong. But he had +assured her that he could not help it, that he was always blurting things +out. Since it was a habit of long standing, now probably ingrained, it +was useless to reproach him with any great severity for his frankness. +She did not do so. + +For his part, the Lord Loudwater had but little to say to his wife. She +was fond of Melchisidec and indifferent to horses. For the greater part +of the meal he was hardly aware that she was at the other end of the +table. Immersed in his food and its deglutition, he was hardly sensible +of the outside world at all. Once, disturbed by Holloway's removing his +empty plate, he told her that he had seen a dog-fox on Windy Ridge; +again, when Holloway handed the cheese-straws to him, he told her that +Merry Belle's black colt had a cold. Her two replies, "Oh, did you?" and +"Has he?" appeared to fall on deaf ears. He did not continue either +conversation. + +Then Lord Loudwater broke into an eloquent monologue. Wilkins had poured +out a glass of port for both of them to drink with their cheese-straws. +Lord Loudwater finished his cheese-straws, took a long sip from his +glass, rolled it lovingly over his tongue, gulped it down with a hideous +grimace, banged down his fist on the table, and roared in a terrible, +anguished voice: + +"It's corked! It's corked! It's that scoundrel Hutchings! This is his way +of taking it out of me for sacking him. He's done it on purpose, the +scoundrel! Now I will gaol him! Hanged if I don't!" + +"I'll get another bottle, m'lord," said Wilkins, catching up the +decanter, and hurrying towards the door. + +"Get it! And be quick about it! And tell that scoundrel I'll gaol him!" +cried Lord Loudwater. + +Wilkins rushed from the room bearing in his hand the decanter of +offending port; Holloway followed him to help. + +Lady Loudwater sipped a little port from her glass. She was rather +inclined to take no one's word for anything which she could herself +verify. Then she took another sip. + +Then she said; "Are you sure this wine's corked?" + +Corked wine at the end of a really good meal is a bitter blow to any man, +an exceedingly bitter blow to a man of Lord Loudwater's sensitiveness in +such matters. + +"Am I sure? Hey? Am I sure? Yes! I am sure, you little fool!" he +bellowed. "What do you know about wine? Talk about things you +understand!" + +Lady Loudwater's face was twisted by a faint spasm of hate which left it +flushed. She would never grow used to being bellowed at for a fool. Once +more her husband's refusal to let her take her meals apart from him +seemed monstrous. Hardly ever did she rise from one at which she had not +been abused and insulted. She realized indeed that she had been foolish +to ask the question. But why should she sit tongue-tied before the brute? + +She took another sip and said quietly: "It isn't corked." + +Then she turned cold with fright. + +Lord Loudwater could not believe his ears. It could not be that his wife +had contradicted him flatly. It--could--_not_--be. + +He was still incredulous, breathing heavily, when the door opened and +James Hutchings appeared on the threshold. In his right hand he held the +decanter of offending port, in his left a sound cork. + +He said firmly: "This wine isn't corked, m'lord. Its flavour is perfect. +Besides, a cork like this couldn't cork it." + +A less sensitive man than Lord Loudwater might have risen to the +double emergency. Lord Loudwater could not. He sat perfectly still. +But his eyes rolled so horribly that the Lady Loudwater started from +her chair, uttered a faint scream, and fairly ran through the long +window into the garden. + +James Hutchings advanced to the table, thumped the decanter down on +it--no way to treat an old vintage port--at Lord Loudwater's right hand, +walked out of the room, and shut the door firmly behind him. + +In the great hall he smiled a triumphant, malevolent smile. Then he +called Wilkins and Holloway, who stood together in the middle of it, +cowardly dogs and shirkers, and strode past them to the door to the +servants' quarters. + +A few moments later Lord Loudwater rose to his feet and staggered +dizzily along to the other end of the table. He picked up his wife's +half-emptied glass and sipped the port. It was _not_ corked. It was +incredible! He would never forgive her! + +He rang the bell. Both Wilkins and Holloway answered it. He bade them +tell Hutchings to pack his belongings and go at once. If he were not out +of the castle by four o'clock, they were to kick him out. Then he went, +still scowling, to the stables. + +Mr. Manley had already finished his lunch. Halfway through his +after-lunch pipe he rose, took his hat and stick, and set out to pay a +visit to Mrs. Truslove. + +As he came out of the park gates he came upon the Rev. George Stebbing, +the _locum tenens_ in charge of the parish, for the vicar was away on a +holiday, enjoying a respite from his perpetual struggle with the patron +of the living, Lord Loudwater. + +They fell into step and for a while discussed the local weather and local +affairs. Then Mr. Manley, who had been gifted by Heaven with a lively +imagination wholly untrammelled by any straining passion for exactitude, +entertained Mr. Stebbing with a vivid account of his experiences as +leader of the first Great Push. Mr. Manley was one of the many rather +stout, soft men who in different parts of Great Britain will till their +dying days entertain acquaintances with vivid accounts of their +experiences as leaders of the Great Pushes. Like that of most of them, +his war experience, before his weak heart had procured him his discharge +from the army, had consisted wholly of office work in England. His +account of his strenuous fighting lacked nothing of fire or +picturesqueness on that account. He was too modest to say in so many +words that but for his martial qualities there would have been no Great +Push at all, and that any success it had had was due to those martial +qualities, but that was the impression he left on Mr. Stebbing's simple +and rather plastic mind. When therefore they parted at the crossroads, +Mr. Manley went on his way in a pleasant content at having once more made +himself valued; and Mr. Stebbing went on his way feeling thankful that he +had been brought into friendly contact with a really able hero. Both of +them were the happier for their chance meeting. + +Mr. Manley found Helena Truslove in her drawing-room, and when the door +closed behind the maid who had ushered him into it, he embraced her with +affectionate warmth. Then he held her out at arm's-length, and for the +several hundredth time admired her handsome, clear-skinned, +high-coloured, gipsy face, her black, rather wild eyes, and the black +hair wreathed round her head in so heavy a mass. + +"It has been an awful long time between the kisses," he said. + +She sighed a sigh of content and laughed softly. Then she said: "I +sometimes think that you must have had a great deal of practice." + +"No," said Mr. Manley firmly. "I have never had occasion to be in +love before." + +He put her back into the chair from which he had lifted her, sat down +facing her, and gazed at her with adoring eyes. He was truly very much in +love with her. + +They were excellent complements the one of the other. If Mr. Manley had +the brains for two--indeed, he had the brains for half a dozen--she had +the character for two. Her chin was very unlike the chin of an eagle. She +was not, indeed, lacking in brains. Her brow forbade the supposition. But +hers was rather the practical intelligence, his the creative. That she +had the force of character, on occasion the fierceness, which he lacked, +was no small source of her attraction for him. + +"And how was the hog this morning?" she said, ready to be soothing. + +"The hog" was their pet name for Lord Loudwater. + +"Beastly. He's an utterly loathsome fellow," said Mr. Manley with +conviction. + +"Oh, no; not utterly--at any rate, not if you're independent of him," she +protested. + +"Does he ever come into contact with any one who is not dependent on him? +I believe he shuns them like the pest." + +"Not into close contact," she said--"at any rate, nowadays. But +I've known him to do good-natured things; and then he's very fond of +his horses." + +"That makes the way he treats every human being who is in any way +dependent on him all the more disgusting," said Mr. Manley firmly. + +"Oh, I don't know. It's something to be fond of animals," she said +tolerantly. + +"This morning he had a devil of a row with Hutchings, the butler, you +know, and discharged him." + +"That was a silly thing to do. Hutchings is not at all a good person to +have a row with," she said quickly. "I should say that he was a far more +dangerous brute than Loudwater and much more intelligent. Still, I don't +know what he could do. What was the row about?" + +"Some woman sent Loudwater an anonymous letter accusing Hutchings of +having received commissions from the wine merchants." + +"That would be Elizabeth Twitcher's mother. Elizabeth and Hutchings were +engaged, and about ten days ago he jilted her," said Mrs. Truslove. "I +suppose that when he was in love with her he bragged about these +commissions to her and she told her mother." + +"Her mother has certainly taken it out of him for jilting her daughter. +But what an unsavoury place the castle is!" said Mr. Manley. + +"With such a master--what can you expect?" said Mrs. Truslove. "Did the +hog say anything more about halving my allowance?" + +Mr. Manley frowned. A few days before he had been greatly surprised to +learn from Lord Loudwater that the bulk of Helena Truslove's income was +an allowance from him. The matter had greatly exercised his mind. Why +should his employer allow her six hundred a year? It was a matter which +should be cleared up. + +He said slowly: "Yes, he did. He asked what you said when I told you that +he was going to halve it, and he did not seem to like the idea of your +seeing him about it." + +"He'll like my seeing him about it even less than the idea of it," +said Mrs. Truslove firmly, and there was a sudden gleam in her wild +black eyes. + +Mr. Manley looked at her, frowning faintly. Then he said in a rather +hesitating manner: "I've never asked you about it. But why does the hog +make you this allowance?" + +"That's my dark past," she said in a teasing tone, smiling at him. "I +suppose that as we're going to be married so soon I ought to make a clean +breast of it, if you really want to know." + +"Just as you like," said Mr. Manley, his face clearing a little at her +careless tone. + +"Well, the hog treated me badly--not really badly, because I didn't care +enough about him to make it possible for him to treat me really badly, +but just as badly as he could. For when he and I first met I was on the +way to get engaged to a man, named Hardwicke--a rich city man, rather a +bore, but a man who would make an excellent husband. Loudwater knew that +Hardwicke was ready and eager to marry me, and I suppose that that helped +to make him keen on me. At any rate, he made love to me, not nearly so +badly as you'd think, and persuaded me to promise to marry him." + +"I can't think how you could have done it!" cried Mr. Manley. + +"How was I to know what a hog he was at home? At Trouville he was quite +nice, as I tell you. Besides, there was the title--I thought I should +like to be Lady Loudwater. You know, I do have strong impulses, and I +act on them." + +"Well, after all, you didn't marry him," said Mr. Manley in a tone of +relief. "What did happen?" + +"We were engaged for about two months. Then, about a month before the +date fixed for our marriage, he met Olivia Quainton, fell in love with +her, and broke off our engagement a week before our wedding-day." + +"Well, of all the caddish tricks!" cried Mr. Manley. + +"You can imagine how furious I was. And I wasn't going to stand it--not +from Loudwater, at any rate. I had learnt a good deal more about him in +the eleven weeks we were engaged, and, naturally, I wasn't pleased with +what I had learnt. I set out to make myself very disagreeable. I saw him +and did make myself very disagreeable. I told him a good many unpleasant +things about himself which made him much more furious than I was myself." + +"I'm glad some of it got through his thick skin," said Mr. Manley. + +"A good deal of it did. Then I made it clear to him that he had robbed me +of John Hardwicke and an excellent settlement in life, and told him that +I was going to bring an action for breach of promise against him. That +certainly got through his thick skin, for it's very painful to him to +spend money on any one but himself. But he made terms at once, gave me +this house furnished, and promised to allow me six hundred a year for +life. You don't think I was wrong to take it?" she added anxiously. + +"Certainly not," said Mr. Manley quickly and firmly. + +Her face cleared and she said: "So many people would say that it was not +nice my taking money for an injury like that." + +"Rubbish! It wasn't as if you'd been in love with him," said Mr. Manley +with the firmest conviction. + +"That's the exact point. You do see things," she said, smiling at him +gratefully. "If I had been, it would have been quite different." + +"And how else were you to score off him except by hitting him in the +pocket? That and his stomach are his only vulnerable points," said Mr. +Manley viciously. + +He was ignorant of Melchisidec's discovery of another. + +"They are. And he certainly had robbed me of an income. It was only fair +that he should make up for it," she said rather plaintively. + +"Absolutely fair." + +"Well, those were the terms. The house is mine all right; it was properly +made over to me. But, stupidly, I didn't have a proper deed drawn up +about the money. I had his promise. One supposes that one can take the +word of an English Peer. But I think that it's really all right. I have +his letters about it." + +"There's no saying. You'd better see a lawyer about it and find out. But +this isn't a very dark past," he said, and rose and came to her and +kissed her. + +He was, indeed, relieved and reassured. In these circumstances the six +hundred a year was not an allowance at all. It was merely the payment of +a debt--a just debt. + +"But it won't be nearly so nice for us, if the hog does manage to cut the +six hundred down to three hundred. My husband only left me a hundred a +year," she said, frowning. + +"To be with you will be perfection, whatever our income is," said Mr. +Manley, with ringing conviction, and he kissed her again. + +She smiled happily and said: "He shan't cut it down. I'll see that he +doesn't. When I've had a talk with him, he'll be glad enough to leave it +as it is." + +"It's very likely that he's only trying it on. It's the kind of thing he +would do. But you'll find it difficult to get that talk. He's bent on +shirking it," said Mr. Manley. + +"I'll see that he doesn't get the chance of shirking it," she said, and +her eyes gleamed again. + +"I believe you're the only person in the world he's afraid of," he said +in a tone of admiration. + +"I shouldn't wonder," she said. "At any rate, I seem to be the only +person in the world to whom he's always been civil. At least, I've never +heard of any one else." + +"I'm afraid he won't be civil when you get that talk with him--if ever +you do get it," said Mr. Manley, frowning rather anxiously. + +"That'll be all the worse for him," she said dauntlessly. "But, after +all, if I did fail to make him leave my income at six hundred, we should +still have this house and four hundred a year. We should still be quite +comfortable. Besides, you could keep on as his secretary, and that would +be another two hundred a year." + +"I can't do that! It's out of the question!" cried Mr. Manley. "I'm +getting so to loathe the brute that I shall soon be quite unable to stand +him. As it is, I sometimes have a violent desire to wring his neck. Now +that I know that he played this measly trick on you, it will be more +violent than ever. Besides, we must have a flat in town. It's really +necessary to my work! I can do my actual writing down here fairly well. +But what I really need is to get in touch with the right people, with the +people who are really stimulating. Besides, I'm gregarious; I like mixing +with people." + +"Yes. You're right. We must have a flat in town. Therefore, I must make +the hog keep to his bargain, and I will," she said firmly. + +"I believe you may," he said, gazing at her determined face with +admiring eyes. + +There was a pause. Then she said carelessly: "When are we going to tell +people that we're engaged?" + +"Not yet awhile," said Mr. Manley quickly. "At least I don't want the +people about here to know about it. And if you come to think of it, +things being as they are, Loudwater would probably make himself more +infernally disagreeable to me than he does at present. He'd not only try +to take it out of me to annoy you, but it's just as likely as not that he +would consider my getting engaged to you as poaching on his +preserves--infernal cheek. He's the most hopelessly vain and +unreasonable sweep in the British Isles." + +"I shouldn't be a bit surprised if he did. He couldn't possibly help +being a dog in the manger," she said thoughtfully. "And there's another +thing. It has just occurred to me that if he tries to halve my income for +nothing at all, he might try to stop it altogether if I got married. No; +I must get that matter settled for good and all. I'll have that talk with +him at once." + +"If you can get it," said Mr. Manley doubtfully. + +"I can get it," she said confidently. "You must remember that, having +lived here for nearly two years, I know all about his habits. I shall +take him by surprise. But we've talked enough about these dull things; +let's talk about something interesting. How's the play going?" + +They talked about the play he was writing, and then they talked about one +another. They had their afternoon tea soon after four, for Mr. Manley had +to return to the Castle to deal with any letters that the five o'clock +post might bring. + +At twenty minutes to five he left Mrs. Truslove and walked back to the +Castle. He was truly in love with Helena. She was intelligent and +appreciative. She was of his own class, with his own practical outlook on +life, born of having belonged to a middle-class family of moderate means +like himself. She was the daughter of a country architect. He could +nowhere have found a more suitable wife. He was relieved about the matter +of the reason why she received an allowance from Lord Loudwater; but he +was not relieved about the matter of its being halved. Seven hundred a +year had been an excellent income for the wife of a struggling playwright +to enjoy. It had promised him the full social life in which his genius +would most rapidly develop. He had regarded that income with great +pleasure. Ever since Lord Loudwater had bidden him inform Helena of his +intention of halving her allowance he had been bitterly angered by this +barefaced attempt to rob her and consequently her future husband. In the +light of her story the attempt had grown yet more disgraceful, and he +resented it yet more bitterly. + +The further danger that Lord Loudwater might attempt to stop her income +altogether if she married, though he perceived that it was a real, even +imminent danger, did not greatly trouble him. He was full of resentment, +not fear. He felt that he loathed his employer more than ever and with +more reason. + +Holloway brought the post-bag to the library, and waited while Mr. +Manley sorted the letters, that he might take those addressed to Lady +Loudwater to her rooms and those addressed to the servants to the +housekeeper's room. + +As Mr. Manley inverted the bag and poured its contents on to the table, +the footman said: "'Utchings 'as gone, sir." + +"We must bear up," said Mr. Manley, in a tone wholly void of any sympathy +with Hutchings in his misfortune. + +"He was that furious. The things 'e said 'e'd do to his lordship!" said +Holloway in a deeply-impressed tone. + +"Threatened men live long," said Mr. Manley carelessly. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +There is in the collection of the Earl of Ellesmere a picture of the head +of a girl which the connoisseurs of the nineteenth century ascribed to +Leonardo da Vinci. The connoisseurs of the twentieth century ascribe it +to Luini. But for the colour of the hair it might have been a portrait of +Lady Loudwater, a faded portrait. It might also very well be a portrait +of one of her actual ancestresses, for her grandmother was a lady of an +old Tuscan family. + +Be that as it may, Lady Loudwater had the soft, dark, dreamy eyes, set +rather wide apart, the straight, delicate nose, the alluring lips, +promising all the kisses, the broad, well-moulded forehead, and the +faint, exactly curving eyebrows of the girl in the picture. Above all, +when Lord Loudwater was not present, the mysterious, enchanting, +lingering smile, which is perhaps the chief charm of Luini's women, +rested nearly always on her face. But while the hair of the girl in the +picture is a deep, dull red, the hair of Olivia was dark brown with +glimmers of gold in it. Also, her colouring was warmer than that of the +girl in the picture, and her alluring charm stronger. + +At a quarter to three that afternoon she came out on to the East lawn in +a silk frock and hat of a green rather sombre for the summer day. She had +been bidden by a fashionable fortune-teller never to wear green, for it +was her unlucky colour. But that tint had so given her colouring its full +values and her dark, liquid eyes so deep a depth, that she had paid no +heed to the warning. There was a bright light of expectation in her eyes, +and the alluring smile lingered on her face. + +She walked quickly across the lawn with the easy, graceful gait proper to +the accomplished golfer she was, into the shrubbery on the other side of +it. A few feet along the path through it she looked sharply back over her +shoulder. She saw no one at those windows of the East wing which looked +on to the lawn and shrubbery, but a movement on the lawn itself caught +her eye. The cat Melchisidec was following her. She did not slacken her +pace, but for a moment the smile faded from her face at the remembrance +of her husband's outburst at breakfast. Then the smile returned, subtile +and expectant. + +She did not wait for Melchisidec. She knew his way of pretending to +follow her like a dog; she knew that if she displayed any interest in +him, even showed that she was aware of his presence, he would probably +come no further. She went on at the same brisk pace till she came to the +gate in the East wood. She went through it, shut it gently, paused, and +again looked back. All of the path through the shrubbery that she could +see was empty. She turned and walked briskly along the narrow path +through the wood, and came into the long, turf-paved aisle which ran at +right angles to it. + +The middle of the aisle was deeply rutted by the wheels of the carts +which had carried away the timber from the spring thinning of the wood. +She turned to the left and sauntered slowly up the smooth turf along the +side of the aisle, a brighter light of expectation in her eyes, her smile +even more mysterious and alluring. + +She had not gone fifty yards up the aisle when Colonel Grey came limping +out of the entrance of a path on the other side of it, and quickened his +pace as he crossed it. + +She stood still, flushing faintly, gazing at him with her lips parted a +little. He looked, as he was, very young to be a Lieutenant-Colonel, and +uncommonly fragile for a V. C. At any time he would look delicate, and +he was the paler for the fact that at times he still suffered +considerable pain from his wound. But there was force in his delicate, +distinguished face. His sensitive lips could set very firm; his chin was +square; his nose had a rather heavy bridge, and usually his grey eyes +were cold and very keen. He gave the impression of being wrought of +finely-tempered steel. + +His eyes were shining so brightly at the moment that they had lost their +keenness with their coldness. He marked joyfully the flush on her face, +and did not know that he was flushing himself. + +About five feet away he stopped, gazing, or rather staring, at her, and +said in a tone of fervent conviction: "Heavens, Olivia! What a beautiful +and entrancing creature you are!" + +She smiled, flushing more deeply. He stepped forward, took her hand, and +held it very tightly. + +"Goodness! But I have been impatient for you to come!" he cried. + +"I'm not late," she said in her low, sweet, rather drawling voice. + +He let go of her hand and said: "I don't know how it is, but I've been as +restless as a cat all the morning. I'm never sure that you will be able +to come; and the uncertainty worries me." + +"But you saw me for three hours yesterday," she said, moving forward. + +"Yesterday?" he said, falling into step with her. "Yesterday is a +thousand years away. I wasn't sure that you'd come today." + +"Why shouldn't I come?" she said. + +"Loudwater might have got to know of it and stopped you coming." + +"Fortunately he doesn't take enough interest in my doings. Of course, if +I didn't turn up at a meal, he'd make a fuss, though why he should make +such a point of our having all our meals together I can't conceive. I +should certainly enjoy mine much more if I had them in my sitting-room," +she said in a dispassionate tone, for all the world as if she were +discussing the case of some one else. + +"I _am_ so worried about you," he said with a harassed air. "Ever since +that evening I heard him bullying you I've been simply worried to death +about it." + +"It was nice of you to interfere, but it was a pity," she said gently. +"It didn't do any good as far as his behaviour is concerned, and we saw +so much more of one another when you could come to the Castle." + +"Then you do want to see more of me?" he said eagerly. + +Lady Loudwater lost her smiling air; she became demureness itself, and +she said: "Well, you see--thanks to Egbert's vile temper--we have so +few friends." + +Grey frowned; she was always quick to elude him. Then he growled: "What a +name! Egbert!" + +"He can't help that. It was given him. Besides, it's a family name," she +said in a tone of fine impartiality. + +"It would be. Hogbert!" said Grey contemptuously. + +Mrs. Truslove and Mr. Manley were not the only people to ignore the +essential bullness of Lord Loudwater. + +They went on a few steps in silence; then she said: "Besides, I don't +mind his outbursts. I'm used to them." + +"I don't believe it! You're much too delicate and sensitive!" he cried. + +"But I _am_ getting used to them," she protested. + +"You never will. Has he been bullying you again?" he said, looking +anxiously into her eyes. + +"Not more than usual," she said in a wholly indifferent tone. + +"Then it is usual! I was afraid it was," he said in a miserable voice. +"What on earth is to be done about it?" + +"Why, there's nothing to be done, except just grin and bear it," she said +bravely enough, and with the conviction of one who has thought a matter +out thoroughly. + +"Then it's monstrous! Just monstrous, that the most charming and +loveliest creature in the world should be bullied by that infernal +brute!" he cried, and put his arm around her. + +The Countess was on the very point of slipping out of it when the cat +Melchisidec came out of the bushes a dozen yards ahead of them, and +with Melchisidec came a very distinct vision of Lord Loudwater's +flushed, distorted, and revolting face as he swore at her at breakfast +that morning. + +She did not slip out of the encircling arm, and Grey bent his head and +kissed her lightly on the lips. + +It was the gentlest, lightest kiss, the kiss he might have given a +pretty child, just a natural tribute to beauty and charm. + +But the harm was done. The population of Great Britain cannot really be +more than one and a half persons to the acre, and the great majority of +them live, thousands to the acre, in towns; yet it is indeed difficult +to kiss a girl during the daytime in any given acre, however thickly +wooded, without being seen by some superfluous sojourner on that acre; +and whether, or no, it was that the green frock and hat brought the +Countess the bad luck the fortuneteller had foretold, there was a +witness to that kiss. + +Undoubtedly, too, it was not the right kind of witness. If it had been an +indulgent elder not given to gossip, or a chivalrous young man not averse +himself from kisses, all might have been well. But William Roper, +under-gamekeeper, was a young man without a spark of chivalry in him, and +he had been soured in the matter of kisses by the steadfast resolve of +the young women of the village to suffer none from him. He was an +unattractive young man, not unlike the ferrets he kept at his cottage. He +was the last young man in the world, or at any rate in the neighbourhood, +to keep silent about what he had seen. + +Even so, no great harm might have been done. He might have blabbed about +the matter in the village, and the whole village and the servants of the +Castle might have talked about it for weeks and months, or even years, +without it reaching the ears of Lord Loudwater. But William Roper saw in +that kiss his royal road to Fortune. Ambitious in the grain, he was not +content with his post of under-gamekeeper; he desired to oust William +Hutchings from the post of head-gamekeeper, and though there were two +under-gamekeepers senior to him with a greater claim on that post, occupy +it himself. Here was the way to it; his lordship could not but be +grateful to the man who informed him of such goings-on; he could not but +promote him to the post of his desire. + +He wholly misjudged his lordship. Ordinary gratitude was not one of his +attributes. + +Olivia slipped out of Grey's arm, and they walked on up the aisle. But +they walked on, changed creatures--trembling, a little bemused. + +William Roper, the ill-favoured minister of Nemesis, followed them. + +At the top of the aisle they came to the pavilion, a small white marble +building in the Classic style, standing in the middle of a broad glade. + +As they went into it, Olivia said wistfully: "It's a pity I couldn't have +tea sent here." + +"I did. At least I brought it," said Grey, waving his hand towards a +basket which stood on the table. "I knew you'd be happier for tea." + +"No one has ever been so thoughtful of me as you are," she said, gazing +at him with grateful, troubled eyes. + +"Let's hope that your luck is changing," he said gravely, gazing at her +with eyes no less troubled. + +Then Melchisidec scratched at the door and mewed. Olivia let him in. +Purring in the friendliest way, he rubbed his head against Grey's leg. He +never treated Lord Loudwater with such friendliness. + +William Roper chose a tree about forty yards from the pavilion and set +his gun against the trunk. Then he filled and lit his pipe, leaned back +comfortably against the trunk, hidden by the fringe of undergrowth, and, +with his eyes on the door of the pavilion, waited. For Grey and Olivia, +never dreaming of this patient watcher, the minutes flew; they had so +many things to tell one another, so many questions to ask. At least Grey +had; Olivia, for the most part, listened without comment, unless the +flush which waxed and waned should be considered comment, to the things +he told her about herself and the many ways in which she affected him. +For William Roper the minutes dragged; he was eager to start briskly up +the royal road to Fortune. He was a slow smoker and he smoked a strong, +slow-burning twist; but he had nearly emptied the screw of paper which +held it before they came out of the door of the pavilion. + +It was a still evening, but some drift of air had carried the rank smoke +from William Roper's pipe into the glade, and it hung there. Colonel Grey +had not taken five steps before his nostrils were assailed by it. + +"Damn!" he said softly. + +"What's the matter?" said Olivia. + +She was too deeply absorbed in Grey for her senses to be alert, and +the reek of William Roper's twist had reached her nostrils, but not +her brain. + +"There's some one about," he said. "Can't you smell his vile tobacco?" + +"Bother!" said Olivia softly, and she frowned. They walked quietly on. +Grey was careful not to look about him with any show of earnestness, for +there was nothing to be gained by letting the watcher know that they had +perceived his presence. Indeed, he would have seen nothing, for the +undergrowth between him and the glade was too thin to form a good screen, +and William Roper was now behind the tree-trunk. + +Thirty yards down the broad aisle Grey said in a low voice: "This is an +infernal nuisance!" + +"Why?" said Olivia. + +"If it comes to Loudwater's ears, he'll make himself devilishly +unpleasant to you." + +"He can't make himself more unpleasant than he does," she said, in a tone +of quiet certitude and utter indifference. "But why shouldn't I have tea +with you in the pavilion? It's what it's there for." + +"All the same, Loudwater will make an infernal fuss about it, if it gets +to his ears. He'll bully you worse than ever," he said in an unhappy +tone, frowning heavily. + +"What do I care about Loudwater--now?" she said, smiling at him, and she +brushed her fingertips across the back of his hand. + +He caught her fingers and held them for a moment, but the frown +did not lift. + +"The nuisance is that, whoever it was, he had been there a long time," he +said gravely. "The glade was full of the reek of his vile tobacco. +Suppose he saw me kiss you in the drive here and then followed us?" + +"Well, if you will do such wicked things in the open air--" she +said, smiling. + +"It isn't a laughing matter, I'm afraid," he said rather heavily, +and frowning. + +"Well, I should have to consider your reputation and say that you didn't. +It would be very bad for your career if it became known that you did such +things, and Egbert would never rest till he had done everything he could +do to injure you. I should certainly declare that you didn't, and you'd +have to do the same." + +"Oh, leave me out of it! Hogbert can't touch me. It's you I'm thinking +about," he said. + +"But there's no need to worry about me. I'm not afraid of Egbert any +longer," she said, and her eyes, full of confidence and courage, met his +steadily. Then, resolved to clear the anxiety away from his mind, she +went on: "It's no use meeting trouble half-way. If some one did see us, +Egbert may not get to hear of it for days, or weeks--perhaps never." + +She did not know that they had to reckon with the ambition of +William Roper. + +"Lord, how I want to kiss you again!" he cried. + +"You'll have to wait till tomorrow," she said. + +It was as well that he did not kiss her again, for fifty yards behind +them, stealing through the wood, came William Roper, all eyes. And he had +already quite enough to tell. + +Grey walked with her through the rest of the wood and nearly to the end +of the path through the shrubbery. She spared no effort to set his mind +at ease, protesting that she did not care a rap how furiously her husband +abused her. A few yards from the edge of the East lawn they stopped, but +they lingered over their parting. She promised to meet him in the East +wood at three on the morrow. + +She walked slowly across the lawn and up to her suite of rooms, thinking +of Grey. She changed into a _peignoir_, lit a cigarette, lay down on a +couch, and went on thinking about him. She gave no thought to the matter +of whether they had been watched. Lord Loudwater had become of less +interest than ever to her; his furies seemed trivial. She had a feeling +that he had become a mere shadow in her life. + +As she lay smoking that cigarette William Roper was telling his story to +Lord Loudwater. He had waited in the wood till Colonel Grey had gone +back through it; then he had walked briskly to the back door of the +Castle and asked to see his lordship. Mary Hutchings, the second +housemaid, who had answered his knock, took him to the servants' hall, +and told Holloway what he asked. Both of them regarded him curiously; +they themselves never wanted to see his lordship, though seeing him was +part of their jobs, and one who could go out of his way to see him must +indeed be remarkable. William Roper was hardly remarkable. He was merely +somewhat repulsive. Holloway said that he would inquire whether his +lordship would see him, and went. + +As he went out of the door William Roper said, with an air of great +importance: "Tell 'is lordship as it's very partic'ler." + +Mary Hutchings' curiosity was aroused, and she tried to discover what it +was. All she gained by doing so was an acute irritation of her curiosity. +William Roper grew mysterious to the very limits of aggravation, but he +told her nothing. + +Her irritation was not alleviated when he said darkly: "You'll 'ear all +about these goings-on in time." + +She wished to hear all about them then and there. + +Holloway came back presently, looking rather sulky, and said that his +lordship would see William Roper. + +"Though why 'e should curse me because you want to see 'im very +partic'ler, I can't see," he added, with an aggrieved air. + +He led the way, and for the first time in his life William Roper found +himself entering the presence of the head of the House of Loudwater +without any sense of trepidation. He carried himself unusually upright +with an air of conscious rectitude. + +Lord Loudwater was in the smoking-room in which he had that morning dealt +with his letters with Mr. Manley. It was his favourite room, his +smoking-room, his reading-room, and his office. He had been for a long +ride, and was now lying back in an easy chair, with a long +whisky-and-soda by his side, reading the _Pall Mall Gazette_. In +literature his taste was blameless. + +Holloway, ushering William Roper into the room, said: "William Roper, +m'lord," and withdrew. + +Lord Loudwater went on reading the paragraph he had just begun. William +Roper gazed at him without any weakening of his courage, so strong was +his conviction of the nobility of the duty he was discharging, and +cleared his throat. + +Lord Loudwater finished the paragraph, scowled at the interrupter, and +said: "Well, what is it? Hey? What do you want?" + +"It's about 'er ladyship, your lordship. I thought your lordship oughter +be told about it--its not being at all the sort of thing as your lordship +would be likely to 'old with." + +There are noblemen who would, on the instant, have bidden William Roper +go to the devil. Lord Loudwater was not of these. He set the newspaper +down beside the whisky-and-soda, leaned forward, and said in a hushed +voice: "What the devil are you talking about? Hey?" + +"I seed Colonel Grey--the gentleman as is staying at the 'Cart and +'Orses'--kiss 'er in the East wood," said William Roper. + +The first emotion of Lord Loudwater was incredulous amazement. It was his +very strong conviction that his wife was a cold-blooded, passionless +creature, incapable of inspiring or feeling any warm emotion. He had +forgotten that he had married her for love--violent love. + +"You infernal liar!" he said in a rather breathless voice. + +"It ain't no lie, your lordship. What for should I go telling lies about +'er?" said William Roper in an injured tone. + +Lord Loudwater stared at him. The fellow was telling the truth. + +"And what did she do? Hey? Did she smack his face for him?" he cried. + +"No. She let 'im do it, your lordship." + +"She did?" bellowed his lordship. + +"Yes. She didn't seem a bit put out, your lordship," said William +Roper simply. + +"And what happened then?" bellowed Lord Loudwater, and he got to his +feet. + +"They walked on to the pavilion, your lordship. An' they had their tea +there. Leastways, I seed'er ladyship come to the door an' empty hot water +out of a tea-pot." + +"Tea? Tea?" said Lord Loudwater in the tone of one saying: "Arson! +Arson!" + +Then, in all his black wrath, he perceived that he must have himself in +hand to deal with the matter. He took a long draught of whisky-and-soda, +rose, walked across the room and back again, grinding his teeth, rolling +his eyes, and snapping the middle finger and thumb of his right hand. +Never had the flush of rage been so deep in his face. It was almost +purple. Never had his eyes protruded so far from his head. + +He stopped and said thickly: "How long were they in the pavilion?" + +"In the pavilion, your lordship? They were there a longish while--an hour +and a half maybe," said William Roper, with quiet pride in the impression +his information had made on his employer. + +His employer looked at him as if it was the dearest wish of his heart to +shake the life out of him then and there. It _was_ the dearest wish of +his heart. But he refrained. It would be a senseless act to slay the +goose which lay these golden eggs of information. + +"All right. Get out! And keep your tongue between your teeth, or I'll cut +it out for you! Do you understand? Hey?" he roared, approaching William +Roper with an air so menacing that the conscientious fellow backed +against the door with his arm up to shield his face. + +"I ain't a-going to say a word to no one!" he cried. + +"You'd better not! Get out!" snarled his employer. + +William Roper got out. Trembling and perspiring freely, he walked +straight through the Castle and out of the back door without pausing to +say a word to any one, though he heard the voice of Holloway discussing +his mysterious errand with Mary Hutchings in the servants' hall. He had +walked nearly a mile before he succeeded in convincing himself that his +feet were firmly set on the royal road to Fortune. His conviction was +ill-founded. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +For a good three minutes after the departure of William Roper the Lord +Loudwater walked up and down the smoking-room. His redly-glinting eyes +still rolled in a terrifying fashion, and still every few seconds he +snapped his fingers in the throes of an effort to make up his raging mind +whether to begin by an attack on his wife or on Colonel Grey. He could +not remember ever having been so angry in his life; now and again his red +eyes saw red. + +Then of a sudden he made up his mind that he was at the moment +angrier with Colonel Grey. He would deal with him first. Olivia could +wait. He hurried out to the stables and bellowed for a horse with +such violence that two startled grooms saddled one for him in little +more than a minute. + +He made no attempt to think what he would say to Colonel Grey. He was +too angry. He galloped the two miles to the "Cart and Horses" at +Bellingham, where Colonel Grey was staying, in order to restore his +health and to fish. + +At the door of the inn he bellowed: "Ostler! Ostler!" Then without +waiting to see whether an ostler came, he threw the reins on his horse's +neck, left it to its own devices, strode into the tap-room, and bellowed +to the affrighted landlady, Mrs. Turnbull, to take him straight to +Colonel Grey. Trembling, she led him upstairs to Grey's sitting-room on +the first floor. Before she could knock, he opened the door, bounced +through it, and slammed it. + +Grey was sitting at the other side of the table, looking through a book +of flies. He appeared to be quite unmoved by the sudden entry of the +infuriated nobleman, or by his raucous bellow: + +"So here you are, you infernal scoundrel!" + +He looked at him with a cold, distasteful eye, and said in a clear, very +unpleasant voice: "Another time knock before you come into my room." + +Lord Loudwater had not expected to be received in this fashion; dimly he +had seen Grey cowering. + +He paused, then said less loudly: "Knock? Hey? Knock? Knock at the door +of an infernal scoundrel like you?" His voice began to gather volume +again. "Likely I should take the trouble! I know all about your +scoundrelly game." + +Colonel Grey remembered that Olivia had said that she proposed to deny +the kiss, and his course was quite clear to him. + +"I don't know whether you're drunk, or mad," he said in a quiet, +contemptuous voice. + +This again was not what Lord Loudwater had expected. But Grey was a +strong believer in the theory that the attacker has the advantage, and +he had an even stronger belief that an enemy in a fury is far less +dangerous than an enemy calm. + +"You're lying! You know I'm neither!" bellowed Lord Loudwater. "You +kissed Olivia--Lady Loudwater--in the East wood. You know you did. You +were seen doing it." + +"You're raving, man," said Colonel Grey quietly, in a yet more +unpleasant tone. + +The interview was not going as Lord Loudwater had seen it. He had to +swallow violently before he could say: "You were seen doing it! Seen! By +one of my gamekeepers!" + +"You must have paid him to say so," said Colonel Grey with quiet +conviction. + +Lord Loudwater was a little staggered by the accusation. He gasped and +stuttered: "D-D-Damn your impudence! P-P-Paid to say it!" + +"Yes, paid," said Colonel Grey, without raising his voice. "You happened +to hear that we had tea in the pavilion in the wood--probably from Lady +Loudwater herself--and you made up this stupid lie and paid your +gamekeeper to tell it in order to score off her. It's exactly the dog's +trick a bullying ruffian like you would play a woman." + +"D-D-Dog's trick? Me?" stammered Lord Loudwater, gasping. + +He was used to saying things of this kind to other people; not to have +them said to him. + +"Yes, you. You know that you're a wretched bully and cad," said Colonel +Grey, with just a little more warmth in his tone. + +Had Lord Loudwater's belief that William Roper had told him the truth +about the kiss been weaker, it might have been shaken by the +whole-hearted thoroughness of Grey's attack. But William Roper had +impressed that belief on him deeply. He was sure that Grey had kissed +Lady Loudwater. + +The certainty spurred him to a fresh effort, and he cried: "It's no good +your trying to humbug me--none at all. I've got evidence--plenty of +evidence! And I'm going to act on it, too. I'm going to hound you out of +the Army and that jade of a wife of mine out of decent society. Do you +think, because I don't spend four or five months every year in that +rotten hole, London, I haven't got any influence? Hey? If you do, you're +damn well wrong. I've got more than enough twice over to clear a +scoundrel like you out of the Army." + +"Don't talk absurd nonsense!" said Grey calmly. + +"Nonsense? Hey? Absurd nonsense?" howled Lord Loudwater on a new note of +exasperation. + +"Yes, nonsense. A disreputable cad like you can't hurt me in any way, and +well you know it," said Grey with painstaking distinctness. + +"Not hurt you? Hey? I can't hurt the corespondent in a divorce case? +Hey?" said Lord Loudwater rather breathlessly. + +"As if a man who has abused and bullied his wife as you have could get a +divorce!" said Grey, and he laughed a gentle, contemptuous laugh, galling +beyond words. + +It galled Lord Loudwater surely enough; he snapped his fingers four times +and gibbered. + +"I tell you what it is: I've had enough of your manners," said Grey. +"What you want is a lesson. And if I hear that you've been bullying Lady +Loudwater about this simple matter of my having had tea with her, I'll +give it you--with a horsewhip." + +"You'll give me a lesson? You?" whispered Lord Loudwater, and he danced a +little frantically. + +"Yes. I'll give you the soundest thrashing any man hereabouts has had for +the last twenty years, if I have to begin by knocking your ugly head off +your shoulders," said Grey, raising his clear voice, so that for the +first time Mrs. Turnbull, trembling, but thrilled, on the landing, heard +what was being said. + +The enunciation of Lord Loudwater had been thick, his words had +been slurred. + +"You? You thrash me?" he howled. + +"Yes, me. Now get out!" + +Lord Loudwater gnashed his teeth at him and again snapped his fingers. He +burned to rush round the table and hammer the life out of Grey, but he +could not do it; violent words, not violent deeds, were his +accomplishment. Moreover, there was something daunting in Grey's cold +and steady eye. He snapped his fingers again, and, pouring out a stream +of furious abuse, turned to the door and flung out of it. Mrs. Turnbull +scuttled aside into Grey's bedroom. + +Half-way down the stairs Lord Loudwater paused to bellow: "I'll ruin you +yet, you scoundrel! Mark my word! I _will_ hound you out of the Army!" + +He flung out of the house and found that the ostler had taken his horse +round to the stable, removed its bridle, and given it a feed of corn. He +cursed him heartily. + +Grey rose, shut the door, and laughed gently. Then he frowned. Of a +sudden he perceived that, natural as had been his manner of dealing with +Lord Loudwater, he had handled him badly. At least, it was possible that +he had handled him badly. It would have been wiser, perhaps, to have been +suave and firm rather than firm and provoking. But it was not likely that +suavity would have been of much use; the brute would probably have +regarded it as weakness. But for Olivia's sake he ought probably to have +tried to soothe him. As it was, the brute had gone raging off and would +vent his fury on her. + +What had he better do? + +He was not long perceiving that there was nothing that he could do. The +natural thing was to go to the Castle and prevent her husband--by force, +if need be--from abusing and bullying Olivia. That was what his +strongest instincts bade him do. It was quite impossible. It would +compromise her beyond repair. He had done her harm enough by his +impulsive indiscretion in the wood. His face slowly settled into a set +scowl as he cudgelled his brains to find a way of coming effectually to +her help. It seemed a vain effort, but a way had to be found. + +Lord Loudwater galloped half-way to the Castle in a furious haste to +punish Olivia for allowing Grey to make love to her, and even more for +the contemptuous way in which Grey had treated him. He had hopes also +of bullying her into a confession of the truth of William Roper's +story. But Grey had excited him to a height of fury at which not even +he could remain without exhaustion. In a reaction he reined in his +horse to a canter, then to a trot, and then to a walk. He found that he +was feeling tired. + +He continued, however, to chafe at his injuries, but with less vehemence, +and he was still resolved to make a strong effort to draw the confession +from Olivia. On reaching the Castle, he did not go to her at once. He sat +down in an easy chair in his smoking-room and drank two +whiskies-and-sodas. + +In the background of Olivia's mind, meditating pleasantly on her pleasant +afternoon, there had been a patient and resigned expectation that +presently her conscience would begin to reproach her for allowing Grey to +make love to her. But the minutes slipped by, and she did not begin to +feel that she had been wicked. The meditation remained pleasant. At last +she realized suddenly that she was not going to feel wicked. She was +surprised and even a trifle horror-stricken by her insensibility. Then, +fairly faced by it, she came to the conclusion that, in a woman cursed +with such a brute of a husband, such insensibility was not only natural, +it was even proper. + +Her woman's craving to be loved and to love was the strongest of her +emotions, and it had gone unsatisfied for so long. Her husband had +killed, or rather extirpated, her fondness for him before they had been +married a month. She was inclined to believe that she had never really +loved him at all. He had certainly ceased to love her before they had +been married a fortnight, if, indeed, he had ever loved her at all. She +had no child; she was an orphan without sisters or brothers. Her husband +let her see but little of the friends who were fond of her. She began to +suspect that her conscience did not reproach her because she had merely +acted on her natural right to love and be loved. This conclusion brought +her mind again to the consideration of Antony Grey, and again she let her +thoughts dwell on him. + +The gong, informing her that it was time to dress for dinner, interrupted +this pleasant occupation. She had her bath, put herself into the hands of +her maid, Elizabeth Twitcher, and resumed her meditation. She was at +once so deeply absorbed in it that she did not observe her maid's sullen +and depressed air. + +She was presently interrupted again, and in a manner far more violent and +startling than the summons of the gong. The door was jerked open, and her +refreshed husband strode into the room. + +"I know all about your little game, madam!" he cried. "You've been +letting that blackguard Grey make love to you! You kissed him in the East +wood this afternoon!" + +The mysterious smile faded from the face of Olivia, and an expression of +the most natural astonishment took its place. + +"I sometimes think that you are quite mad, Egbert," she said in her slow, +musical voice. + +Elizabeth Twitcher continued her deft manipulation of a thick strand of +hair without any change in her sullen and depressed air. To all seeming, +she was uninterested, or deaf. + +Lord Loudwater had expected, in the face of Olivia's gentleness, to have +to work himself up to a proper height of indignant fury by degrees. The +echo of Grey's accusation from the mouth of his wife raised him to it on +the instant and without an effort. + +"Don't lie to me!" he bellowed. "It's no good whatever! I tell +you, I know!" + +Olivia was surprised to find herself wholly free from her old fear of +him. The fact that she was in love with Grey and he with her had already +worked a change in her. These were the only things in the world of any +real importance. That clear knowledge gave her a new confidence and a new +strength. Her husband had been able to frighten her nearly out of her +wits. Now he could not; and she could use them. + +"I'm not lying at all. I really do believe you're mad--often," she said +very distinctly. + +Once more Lord Loudwater was compelled to grind his teeth. Then he +laughed a harsh, barking laugh, and cried: "It's no good! I've just had +a short interview with that scoundrel Grey. And I put the fear of God +into him, I can tell you. I made him admit that you'd kissed him in the +East wood." + +For a breath Olivia was taken aback. Then she perceived clearly that it +was a lie. He could not put the fear of God into Grey. Besides, Grey had +kissed her, not she him. + +"It's you who are lying," she said quickly and with spirit. "How could +Colonel Grey admit a thing that never happened?" + +Lord Loudwater perceived that it was going to be harder to wring the +confession from her than he had expected. Checked, he paused. Then +Elizabeth Twitcher caught his attention. + +"Here: you--clear out!" he said. + +Elizabeth Twitcher caught her mistress's eye in the glass. Olivia +made no sign. + +"I can't leave her ladyship's hair in this state, your lordship," said +Elizabeth Twitcher with sullen firmness. + +"You do as you're told and clear out!" bellowed his lordship. + +"I don't want to be half an hour late for dinner," said Olivia, accepting +the diversion and ready to make the most of it. + +Elizabeth Twitcher looked at Lord Loudwater, saw more clearly than +ever his likeness to the loathed James Hutchings, and made up her mind +to do nothing that he bade her do. She went on dressing her mistress's +hair sullenly. + +"Are you going? Or am I to throw you out of the room?" cried Lord +Loudwater in a blustering voice. + +"Don't be silly, Egbert!" said Olivia sharply. + +From the height of her new emotional experience she felt that her husband +was merely a noisy and obnoxious boy. This was, indeed, quite plain to +her. She felt years older than he and very much wiser. + +Lord Loudwater, with a quite unusual glimmer of intelligence, perceived +that bringing Elizabeth Twitcher into the matter had been a mistake. It +had weakened his main action. In a less violent but more malevolent +voice he said: + +"Silly? Hey? I'll show you all about that, you little jade! You clear +out of this first thing to-morrow morning. My lawyers will settle your +hash for you. I'll deal with that blackguard Grey myself. I'll hound him +out of the Army inside of a month. Perhaps it'll be a consolation to you +to know that you've done him in as well as yourself." + +He turned on his heel, left the room with a positively melodramatic +stride, and slammed the door behind him. + +Olivia was stricken by a sudden panic. She had lost all fear of her +husband as far as she herself was concerned. He had become a mere +offensive windbag. She did not care whether he did, or did not, try to +divorce her. Even on the terms of so great a scandal it would be a cheap +deliverance. But Antony was another matter.... She could not bear that he +should be ruined on her account.... It was intolerable ... not to be +thought of.... She must find some way of preventing it. + +She began to cudgel her brains for that way of preventing it, but in +vain. She could devise no plan. The more she considered the matter, the +worse it grew. She could not bear to be associated in Antony's mind with +disaster; she desired most keenly to stand for everything that was +pleasant and delightful in his life. She would not let her brute of a +husband spoil both their lives. He had already spoiled enough of hers. + +After his injunction to her to leave the Castle first thing next +morning, she took it that they would hardly dine together, and told +Elizabeth Twitcher to tell Wilkins to serve her dinner in her boudoir. +Also, she refused to put on an evening gown, saying that the _peignoir_ +she was wearing was more comfortable on such a hot night. Last of all, +she told her to pack some of her clothes that night. + +Elizabeth Twitcher, stirred somewhat out of her brooding on her own +troubles by this trouble of her mistress, looked at her thoughtfully and +said: "I shouldn't go, m'lady. It'll look as if you agreed with what his +lordship said. And it's only William Roper as has been telling these +lies. He asked to see his lordship about something very partic'ler before +his lordship went out. And who's going to pay any heed to William Roper?" + +"William Roper? Who is William Roper? What kind of a man is he?" said +Olivia quickly. + +"He's an under-gamekeeper, m'lady, and the biggest little beast on the +estate. Everybody hates William Roper," said Elizabeth with conviction. + +This was satisfactory as far as it went. The worse her husband's evidence +was the freer it left her to take her own course of action. But it was no +great comfort, for she was but little concerned about the harm he could +do her. Indeed, she was only concerned about the harm he could do Antony. +She returned to her search for a method of preventing that harm during +her dinner, and after her dinner she continued that search without any +success. This injury to Antony, for her the central fact of the +situation, weighed on her spirit more and more heavily. + +The longer she pondered it the more harassed she grew. The most fantastic +schemes for baulking her husband and saving Antony came thronging into +her mind. She rose and walked restlessly up and down the room, working +herself up into a veritable fever. + +Mr. Manley, having dealt with the letters which had come by the +five-o'clock post, read half a dozen chapters of the last published novel +of Artzybachev with the pleasure he never failed to draw from the works +of that author. Then he dressed and set forth, in a very cheerful spirit, +to dine with Helena Truslove. His cheerful expectations were wholly +fulfilled. She had divined that he was endowed, not only with a romantic +spirit, but with a hearty and discriminating appetite, and was careful to +give him good food and wine and plenty of both. With his coffee he smoked +one of Lord Loudwater's favourite cigars. Expanding naturally, he talked +with spirit and intelligence during dinner, and made love to her after +dinner with even more spirit and intelligence. As a rule, he stayed on +the nights he dined with her till a quarter to eleven. But that night she +dismissed him at ten o'clock, saying that she was feeling tired and +wished to go to bed early. Smoking another of Lord Loudwater's favourite +cigars, he walked briskly back to the Castle, more firmly convinced than +ever that every possible step must be taken to prevent any diminution of +the income of a woman of such excellent taste in food and wine. It would +be little short of a crime to discourage the exercise of her fine natural +gift for stimulating the genius of a promising dramatist. + +He was not in the habit of going to bed early, and having put on slippers +and an old and comfortable coat, he once more turned to the novel by +Artzybachev. He read two more chapters, smoking a pipe, and then he +became aware that he was thirsty. + +He could have mixed himself a whisky and soda then and there, for he had +both in the cupboard, in his sitting-room. But he was a stickler for the +proprieties: he had drunk red wine, Burgundy with his dinner and port +after it, and after red wine brandy is the proper spirit. There would be +brandy in the tantalus in the small dining-room. + +He went quietly down the stairs. The big hall, lighted by a single +electric bulb, was very dim, and he took it that, as was their habit, the +servants had already gone to bed. As he came to the bottom of the stairs +the door at the back of the hall opened; James Hutchings came through the +doorway and shut the door quietly behind him. + +Mr. Manley stood still. James Hutchings came very quietly down the hall, +saw him, and started. + +"Good evening, Hutchings. I thought you'd left us," said Mr. Manley, in a +rather unpleasant tone. + +"You may take your oath to it!" said James Hutchings truculently, in a +much more unpleasant tone than Mr. Manley had used. "I just came back to +get a box of cigarettes I left in the cupboard of my pantry. I don't want +any help in smoking them from any one here." + +He opened the library door gently, went quietly through it, and drew it +to behind him, leaving Mr. Manley frowning at it. It was a fact that +Hutchings carried a packet, which might very well have been cigarettes; +but Mr. Manley did not believe his story of his errand. He took it that +he was leaving the Castle by one of the library windows. Well, it was no +business of his. + +At a few minutes past eight the next morning he was roused from the +deep dreamless sleep which follows good food and good wine well +digested, by a loud knocking on his door. It was not the loud, steady +and prolonged knocking which the third housemaid found necessary to +wake him. It was more vigorous and more staccato and jerkier. Also, a +voice was calling loudly: + +"Mr. Manley, sir! Mr. Manley! Mr. Manley!" + +For all the noise and insistence of the calling Mr. Manley did not awake +quickly. It took him a good minute to realize that he was Herbert Manley +and in bed, and half a minute longer to gather that the knocking and +calling were unusual and uncommonly urgent. He sat up in bed and yawned +terrifically. + +Then he slipped out of bed--the knocking and calling still +continued--unlocked the door, and found Holloway, the second footman, on +the threshold looking scared and horror-stricken. + +"Please, sir, his lordship's dead!" he cried. "He's bin murdered! Stabbed +through the 'eart!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +"Murdered? Lord Loudwater?" said Mr. Manley with another terrific yawn, +and he rubbed his eyes. Then he awoke completely and said: "Send a groom +for Black the constable at once. Yes--and tell Wilkins to telephone the +news to the Chief Inspector at Low Wycombe. Hurry up! I'll get dressed +and be down in a few minutes. Hurry up!" + +Holloway turned to go. + +"Stop!" said Mr. Manley. "Tell Wilkins to see that no one disturbs Lady +Loudwater. I'll break the news myself when she is dressed." + +"Yes, sir," said Holloway, and ran down the corridor. + +Mr. Manley was much quicker than usual making his toilet, but thorough. +He foresaw a hard and trying day before him, and he wished to start it +fresh and clean. He would come into contact with new people; he saw +himself playing an important role in a most important affair; he would +naturally and as usual make himself valued. A slovenly air did not +conduce to that. It seemed fitting to put on his darkest tweed suit and a +black necktie. + +When he came--briskly for him--downstairs he found a group of women +servants in the hall, outside the door of the smoking-room, three of them +snivelling, and Wilkins and Holloway in the smoking-room itself, standing +and staring with a wholly helpless air at the body of Lord Loudwater, +huddled in the easy chair in which he had been wont to sleep after dinner +every evening. + +"He's been stabbed, sir. There's that knife which was in the inkstand on +the library table stickin' in 'is 'eart," said Wilkins in a dismal voice. + +Mr. Manley glanced at the dead man. He looked to have been stabbed as he +slept. His body had sagged down in the chair, and his head was sunk +between his shoulders, so that he appeared almost neckless. His once so +florid face was of an even, dead, yellowish pallor. + +Mr. Manley's glance at the dead man was brief. Then he saw that the door +between the smoking-room and the library was ajar. He could not see the +library windows without crossing the smoking-room. That he would not do. +He was a stickler for correctness in all matters, and he knew that the +scene of a crime must be left untrampled. + +He turned and said: "We will leave everything just as it is till the +police come. And telephone at once to Doctor Thornhill, and ask him to +come. If he is out, tell them to get word to him, Wilkins." + +Wilkins and Holloway filed out of the room before him; he followed them +out, locked the door and put the key in his pocket. Then he opened the +door from the hall into the library. The long window nearest the +smoking-room door was open. + +The group of servants were all watching him; never had he moved or +acted with an air of graver or greater importance. His portliness gave +it weight. + +"Has any of you opened the windows of the library this morning?" he said. + +No one answered. + +Then Mrs. Carruthers, the housekeeper, said: "Clarke does the library +every morning. Have you done it this morning, Clarke?" + +"No, mum. I hadn't finished the green droring-room when Mr. Holloway +brought the sad news," said one of the housemaids. + +Mr. Manley locked the library door and put that key also in his pocket. + +Then he said in a tone of authority: "I think, Mrs. Carruthers, that the +sooner we all have breakfast the better. I for one am going to have a +hard day, and I shall need all my strength. We all shall." + +"Certainly, Mr. Manley. You're quite right. We shall all need our +strength. You shall have your breakfast at once. I'll have it sent to +the little dining-room. You would like to be on the spot. Come along, +girls. Wilkins, and you, Holloway, get on with your work as quickly as +you can," said Mrs. Carruthers, driving her flock before her towards the +servants' quarters. + +"Thank you. And will you see that no one wakes Lady Loudwater before +her usual hour, or tells her what has happened? I will tell her myself +and try to break the news with as little of a shock as possible," said +Mr. Manley. + +"Twitcher hasn't bin downstairs yet. She doesn't know anything about it," +said one of the maids. + +"Send her straight to me--to the terrace when she does come down," said +Mr. Manley, walking towards the hall door. + +He felt that after the sight of the dead man's face the fresh morning air +would do him good. + +There came a sudden burst of excited chatter from the women as they +passed beyond the door into the back of the Castle. All their tongues +seemed to be loosed at once. Mr. Manley went out of the Castle door, +crossed the drive, and walked up and down the lawn. He took long breaths +through his nostrils; the sight of the dead man's yellowish face had been +unpleasant indeed to a man of his sensibility. + +In about five minutes Elizabeth Twitcher came out of the big door and +across the lawn to him. She was looking startled and scared. + +"Mrs. Carruthers said you wished to speak to me, sir?" she said quickly. + +"Yes. I propose to break the news of this very shocking affair to Lady +Loudwater myself. She's rather fragile, I fancy. And I think that it +needs doing with the greatest possible tact--so as to lessen the shock," +said Mr. Manley in an impressive voice. + +Elizabeth Twitcher gazed at him with a growing suspicion in her eyes. +Then she said: "It isn't--it isn't a trap?" + +"A trap? What kind of a trap? What on earth do you mean?" said Mr. +Manley, in a not unnatural bewilderment at the odd suggestion. + +"You might be trying to take her off her guard," said Elizabeth Twitcher +in a tone of deep suspicion. + +"Her guard against what?" said Mr. Manley, still bewildered. + +Elizabeth's Twitcher's eyes lost some of their suspicion, and he heard +her breathe a faint sigh of relief. + +"I thought as 'ow--as how some of them might have told you what his +lordship was going to do to her, and that she--she stuck that knife into +him so as to stop it," she said. + +"What on earth are you talking about? What was his lordship going to do +to her?" cried Mr. Manley, in a tone of yet greater bewilderment. + +"He was going to divorce her ladyship. He told her so last night when I +was doing her hair for dinner," said Elizabeth Twitcher. + +She paused and stared at him, frowning. Then she went on: "And, like a +fool, I went and talked about it--to some one else." + +Mr. Manley glared at her in a momentary speechlessness; then found his +voice and cried: "But, gracious heavens! You don't suspect her ladyship +of having murdered Lord Loudwater?" + +"No, I don't. But there'll be plenty as will," said Elizabeth Twitcher +with conviction. + +"It's absurd!" cried Mr. Manley. + +Elizabeth Twitcher shook her head. + +"You must allow as she had reason enough--for a lady, that is. He was +always swearing at her and abusing her, and it isn't at all the kind of +thing a lady can stand. And this divorce coming on the top of it all," +she said in a dispassionate tone. + +"You mustn't talk like this! There's no saying what trouble you may +make!" cried Mr. Manley in a tone of stern severity. + +"I'm not going to talk like that--only to you, sir. You're a gentleman, +and it's safe. What I'm afraid of is that I've talked too much +already--last night that is," she said despondently. + +"Well, don't make it worse by talking any more. And let me know when your +mistress is dressed, and I'll come up and break the news of this shocking +affair to her." + +"Very good, sir," said Elizabeth, and with a gloomy face and depressed +air she went back into the Castle. + +She had scarcely disappeared, when Holloway came out to tell Mr. Manley +that his breakfast was ready for him in the little dining-room. Mr. +Manley set about it with the firmness of a man preparing himself against +a strenuous day. The frown with which Elizabeth Twitcher's suggestion had +puckered his brow faded from it slowly, as the excellence of the chop he +was eating soothed him. Holloway waited on him, and Mr. Manley asked him +whether any of the servants had heard anything suspicious in the night. +Holloway assured him that none of them had. + +Mr. Manley had just helped himself a second time to eggs and bacon when +Wilkins brought in Robert Black, the village constable. Mr. Manley had +seen him in the village often enough, a portly, grave man, who regarded +his position and work with the proper official seriousness. Mr. Manley +told him that he had locked the door of the smoking-room and of the +library, in order that the scene of the crime might be left undisturbed +for examination by the Low Wycombe police. Robert Black did not appear +pleased by this precaution. He would have liked to demonstrate his +importance by making some preliminary investigations himself. Mr. Manley +did not offer to hand the keys over to him. He intended to have the +credit of the precautions he had taken with the constable's superiors. + +He said: "I suppose you would like to question the servants to begin +with. Take the constable to the servants' hall, give him a glass of beer, +and let him get to work, Wilkins." + +He spoke in the imperative tone proper to a man in charge of such an +important affair, and Robert Black went. Mr. Manley could not see that +the grave fellow could do any harm by his questions, or, for that +matter, any good. + +He finished his breakfast and lighted his pipe. Elizabeth Twitcher came +to tell him that Lady Loudwater was dressed. He told her to tell her that +he would like to see her, and followed her up the stairs. The maid went +into Lady Loudwater's sitting-room, came out, and ushered him into it. + +His strong sense of the fitness of things caused him to enter the room +slowly, with an air grave to solemnity. Olivia greeted him with a faint, +rather forced smile. + +He thought that she was paler than usual, and lacked something of her +wonted charm. She seemed rather nervous. She thought that he had come +from her husband with an unpleasant and probably most insulting message. + +He cleared his throat and said in the deep, grave voice he felt +appropriate: "I've come on a very painful errand, Lady Loudwater--a very +painful errand." + +"Indeed?" she said, and looked at him with uneasy, anxious eyes. + +"I'm sorry to tell you that Lord Loudwater has had an accident, a very +bad accident," he said. + +"An accident? Egbert?" she cried, in a tone of surprise that sounded +genuine enough. + +It gave Mr. Manley to understand that she had expected some other kind of +painful communication--doubtless about the divorce Lord Loudwater had +threatened. But he had composed a series of phrases leading up by a nice +gradation to the final announcement, and he went on: "Yes. There is very +little likelihood of his recovering from it." + +Olivia looked at him queerly, hesitating. Then she said: "Do you mean +that he's going to be a cripple for life?" + +"I mean that he will not live to be a cripple," said Mr. Manley, pleased +to insert a further phrase into his series. + +"Is it as bad as that?" she said, in a tone which again gave Mr. Manley +the impression that she was thinking of something else and had not +realized the seriousness of his words. + +"I'm sorry to say that it's worse than that. Lord Loudwater is dead," he +said, in his deepest, most sympathetic voice. + +"Dead?" she said, in a shocked tone which sounded to him rather forced. + +"Murdered," he said. + +"Murdered?" cried Olivia, and Mr. Manley had the feeling that there was +less surprise than relief in her tone. + +"I have sent for Dr. Thornhill and the police from Low Wycombe," he said. +"They ought to have been here before this. And I am going to telegraph to +Lord Loudwater's solicitors. You would like to have their help as soon as +possible, I suppose. There seems nothing else to be done at the moment." + +"Then you don't know who did it?" said Olivia. + +Her tone did not display a very lively interest in the matter or any +great dismay, and Mr. Manley felt somewhat disappointed. He had expected +much more emotion from her than she was displaying, even though the death +of her ill-tempered husband must be a considerable relief. He had +expected her to be shocked and horror-stricken at first, before she +realized that she had been relieved of a painful burden. But she seemed +to him to be really less moved by the murder of her husband than she +would have been, had the Lord Loudwater carried out his not infrequent +threat of shooting, or hanging, or drowning the cat Melchisidec. + +"No one so far seems to be able to throw any light at all on the crime," +said Mr. Manley. + +Olivia frowned thoughtfully, but seemed to have no more to say on +the matter. + +"Well, then, I'll telegraph to Paley and Carrington, and ask Mr. +Carrington to come down," said Mr. Manley. + +"Please," said Olivia. + +Mr. Manley hesitated; then he said: "And I suppose that I'd better be +getting some one to make arrangements about the funeral?" + +"Please do everything you think necessary," said Olivia. "In fact, you'd +better manage everything till Mr. Carrington comes. A man is much better +at arranging important matters like this than a woman." + +"You may rely on me," said Mr. Manley, with a reassuring air, and greatly +pleased by this recognition of his capacity. "And allow me to assure you +of my sincerest sympathy." + +"Thank you," said Olivia, and then with more animation and interest she +added: "And I suppose I shall want some black clothes." + +"Shall I write to your dressmaker?" said Mr. Manley. + +"No, thank you. I shall be able to tell her what I want better myself." + +Mr. Manley withdrew in a pleasant temper. It was true that as a student +of dramatic emotion he had been disappointed by the calmness with which +Olivia had received the news of the murder; but she had instructed him to +do everything he thought fit. He saw his way to controlling the +situation, and ruling the Castle till some one with a better right should +supersede him. He was halfway along the corridor before he realized that +Olivia had asked no single question about the circumstance of the crime. +Indifference could go no further. But--he paused, considering--was it +indifference? Could she--could she have known already? + +As he came down the stairs Wilkins opened the door of the big hall, and a +man of medium height, wearing a tweed suit and carrying a soft hat and a +heavy malacca cane, entered briskly. He looked about thirty. On his heels +came a tall, thin police inspector in uniform. + +Mr. Manley came forward, and the man in the tweed suit said: "My name is +Flexen, George Flexen. I'm acting as Chief Constable. Major Arbuthnot is +away for a month. I happened to be at the police station at Low Wycombe +when your news came, and I thought it best to come myself. This is +Inspector Perkins." + +Mr. Manley introduced himself as the secretary of the murdered man, and +with an air of quiet importance told Mr. Flexen that Lady Loudwater had +put him in charge of the Castle till her lawyer came. Then he took the +keys of the smoking-room and the library door from his pocket and said: + +"I locked up the room in which the dead body is, and the library through +which there is also access to it, leaving everything just as it was when +the body was found. I do not think that any traces which the criminal has +left, if, that is, he has left any, can have been obliterated." + +He spoke with the quiet pride of a man who has done the right thing in +an emergency. + +"That's good," said Mr. Flexen, in a tone of warm approval. "It +isn't often that we get a clear start like that. We'll examine these +rooms at once." + +Mr. Manley went to the door of the smoking-room and was about to unlock +it, when Dr. Thornhill, a big, bluff man of fifty-five, bustled in. Mr. +Manley introduced him to Mr. Flexen; then he unlocked the door and +opened it. + +The doctor was leading the way into the smoking-room when Mr. Flexen +stepped smartly in front of him and said: "Please stay outside all of +you. I'll make the examination myself first." + +He spoke quietly, but in the tone of a man used to command. + +"But, for anything we know, his lordship may still be alive," said Dr. +Thornhill in a somewhat blustering tone, and pushing forward. "As his +medical adviser, it's my duty to make sure at once." + +"I'll tell you whether Lord Loudwater is alive or not. Don't let any one +cross the threshold, Perkins," said Mr. Flexen, with quiet decision. + +Perkins laid a hand on the doctor's arm, and the doctor said: "A nice way +of doing things! Arbuthnot would have given his first attention to his +lordship!" + +"I'm going to," said Mr. Flexen quietly. + +He went to the dead man, looked in his pale face, lifted his hand, let +it fall, and said: "Been dead hours." + +Then he examined carefully the position of the knife. He was more than a +minute over it. Then he drew it gingerly from the wound by the ring at +the end of it. It was one of these Swedish knives, the blades of which +are slipped into the handle when they are not being used. + +"I think that's the knife that lay, open, in the big ink-stand in the +library. We used it as a paper-knife, and to cut string with," said Mr. +Manley, who was watching him with most careful attention. + +"It may have some evidence on the handle," said Mr. Flexen, still holding +it by the ring, and he drove the point of it into the pad of blotting +paper on which Mr. Manley had been wont to write letters at the murdered +man's dictation. + +"And how am I to tell whether the wound was self-inflicted, or not?" +cried the doctor in an aggrieved tone. + +"If you will get some of the servants, you can remove the body to any +room convenient and make your examination. It's a clean stab into the +heart, and it looks to me as if the person who used that knife had some +knowledge of anatomy. Most people who strike for the heart get the middle +of the left lung," said Mr. Flexen. + +So saying, he gently drew the easy chair, in which the body was huddled, +nearer the door by its back. Mr. Manley bade Holloway fetch Wilkins and +two of the grooms, and then, eager for hints of the actions of a +detective, so useful to a dramatist, gave all his attention again to the +proceedings of Mr. Flexen, who was down on one knee on the spot in which +the chair had stood, studying the carpet round it. He rose and walked +slowly towards the door which opened into the library, paused on the +threshold to bid Perkins examine the chair and the clothes of the +murdered man, and went into the library. + +He was still in it when the footman and the grooms lifted the body of +Lord Loudwater out of the chair, and carried it up to his bedroom. Mr. +Manley stayed on the threshold of the smoking-room. His interest in the +doings of Mr. Flexen forbade him leaving it to superintend decorously the +removal of the body. + +Presently Mr. Flexen came back, and as he walked round the room, +examining the rest of it, especially the carpet, Mr. Manley studied the +man himself, the detective type. He was about five feet eight, +broad-shouldered out of proportion to that height, but thin. He had an +uncommonly good forehead, a square, strong chin, a hooked nose and thin, +set lips, which gave him a rather predatory air, belied rather by his +pleasant blue eyes. The sun wrinkles round their corners and his sallow +complexion gave Mr. Manley the impression that he had spent some years in +the tropics and suffered for it. + +When Mr. Flexen had examined the room, though Inspector Perkins had +already done so, he felt round the cushions of the easy chair in which +Lord Loudwater had been stabbed, found nothing, and stood beside it in +quiet thought. + +Then he looked at Mr. Manley and said: "The murderer must have been some +one with whom Lord Loudwater was so familiar that he took no notice of +his or her movements, for he came up to him from the front, or walked +round the chair to the front of him, and stabbed him with a quite +straightforward thrust. Lord Loudwater should have actually seen the +knife--unless by any chance he was asleep." + +"He was sure to be asleep," said Mr. Manley quickly. "He always did sleep +in the evening--generally from the time he finished his cigar till he +went to bed. I think he acquired the habit from coming back from hunting, +tired and sleepy. Besides, I came down for a drink between eleven and +twelve, and I'm almost sure I heard him snore. He snored like the devil." + +"Slept every evening, did he? That puts a different complexion on the +business," said Mr. Flexen. "The murderer need _not_ have been any one +with whom he was familiar." + +"No. He need not. But are you quite sure that the wound wasn't +self-inflicted--that it wasn't a case of suicide?" said Mr. Manley. + +"No, I'm not; and I don't think that that doctor--what's his name? +Thornhill--can be sure either. But why should Lord Loudwater have +committed suicide?" + +"Well, he had found out, or thought he had found out, something about +Lady Loudwater, and was threatening to start an action against her for +divorce. At least, so her maid told me this morning. And as he wholly +lacked balance, he might in a fury of jealousy have made away with +himself," said Mr. Manley thoughtfully. + +"Was he so fond of Lady Loudwater?" said Mr. Flexen in a somewhat +doubtful tone. + +He had heard stories about Lord Loudwater's treatment of his wife. + +"He didn't show any great fondness for her, I'm bound to say. In fact, +he was always bullying her. But he wouldn't need to be very fond of any +one to go crazy with jealousy about her. He was a man of strong passions +and quite unbalanced. I suppose he had been so utterly spoilt as a +child, a boy, and a young man, that he never acquired any power of +self-control at all." + +"M'm, I should have thought that in that case he'd have been more likely +to murder the man," said Mr. Flexen. + +"He was," said Mr. Manley in ready agreement. "But the other's always +possible." + +"Yes; one has to bear every possibility in mind," said Mr. Flexen. "I've +heard that he was a bad-tempered man." + +"He was the most unpleasant brute I ever came across in my life," said +Mr. Manley with heartfelt conviction. + +"Then he had enemies?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Scores, I should think. But, of course, I don't know. Only I can't +conceive his having had a friend," said Mr. Manley in a tone of some +bitterness. + +"Then it's certainly a case with possibilities," said Mr. Flexen in a +pleased tone. "But I expect that the solution will be quite simple. It +generally is." + +He said it rather sadly, as if he would have much preferred the solution +to be difficult. + +"Let's hope so. A big newspaper fuss will be detestable for Lady +Loudwater. She's a charming creature," said Mr. Manley. + +"So I've heard. Do you know who the man was that Loudwater was making a +fuss about?" + +"I haven't the slightest idea. Probably the maid, Elizabeth Twitcher, +will be able to tell you," said Mr. Manley. + +Mr. Flexen walked across the room and drew the knife out of the pad of +blotting-paper by the ring in its handle, and studied it. + +"I suppose this is the knife that was in the library? They're pretty +common," he said. + +Mr. Manley came to him, looked at it earnestly, and said: "That's it all +right. I tried to sharpen it a day or two ago, so that it would sharpen a +pencil. I generally leave my penknife in the waist-coat I'm not wearing. +But I couldn't get it sharp enough. It's rotten steel." + +"All of them are, but good enough for a stab," said Mr. Flexen. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Olivia had very little appetite for breakfast. It is to be doubted, +indeed, whether she was aware of what she was eating. Elizabeth Twitcher +hovered about her, solicitous, pressing her to eat more. She was fond of +her mistress, and very uneasy lest she should have harmed her seriously +by her careless gossiping the night before. But she was surprised by the +exceedingly anxious and worried expression which dwelt on Olivia's face. +Her air grew more and more harassed. The murder of her husband had +doubtless been a shock, but he had been such a husband. Elizabeth +Twitcher had expected her mistress to cry a little about his death, and +then grow serene as she realized what a good riddance it was. But Olivia +had not cried, and she showed no likelihood whatever of becoming serene. + +At the end of her short breakfast she lit a cigarette, and began to pace +up and down her sitting-room with a jerky, nervous gait, quite unlike her +wonted graceful, easy, swinging walk. She had to relight her cigarette, +and as she did so, Elizabeth Twitcher, who was clearing away the +breakfast, perceived that her hands were shaking. There was plainly more +in the matter than Elizabeth Twitcher had supposed, and she wondered, +growing more and more uneasy. + +When she went downstairs with the tray she learned that Dr. Thornhill was +examining the wound which had caused the Lord Loudwater's death, and that +Mr. Flexen and Inspector Perkins were questioning Wilkins. Talking to the +other servants, she found of a sudden that she had reason for anxiety +herself, and hurried back in a panic to her mistress's boudoir. She found +Olivia still walking nervously up and down. + +"The inspector and the gentleman who is acting Chief Constable are +questioning the servants, m'lady," said Elizabeth. + +Olivia stopped short and stared at her with rather scared eyes. + +Then she said sharply: "Go down and learn what the servants have told +them--all the servants--everything." + +Her mistress's plainly greater anxiety eased a little Elizabeth +Twitcher's own panic in the matter of James Hutchings, and she went down +again to the servants' quarters. + +Mr. Flexen and Inspector Perkins learnt nothing of importance from +Wilkins; but he made it clearer to Mr. Flexen that the temper of the +murdered man had indeed been abominable. Holloway, on the other hand, +proved far more enlightening. From him they learnt that Hutchings had +been discharged the day before without notice, and that he had uttered +violent threats against his employer before he went. Also they learnt +that Hutchings, who had left about four o'clock in the afternoon, had +come back to the Castle at night. Jane Pittaway, an under-house-maid, had +heard him talking to Elizabeth Twitcher in the blue drawing-room between +eleven and half-past. + +Mr. Flexen questioned Holloway at length, and learned that James +Hutchings was a man of uncommonly violent temper; that it had been a +matter of debate in the servants' hall whether his furies or those of +their dead master were the worse. Then he dismissed Holloway, and sent +for Jane Pittaway. A small, sharp-eyed, sharp-featured young woman, she +was quite clear in her story. About eleven the night before she had gone +into the great hall to bring away two vases full of flowers, to be +emptied and washed next morning, and coming past the door of the blue +drawing-room, had heard voices. She had listened and recognized the +voices of Hutchings and Elizabeth Twitcher. No; she had not heard what +they were saying. The door was too thick. But he seemed to be arguing +with her. Yes; she had been surprised to find him in the house after he +had gone off like that. Besides, everybody thought that he had jilted +Elizabeth Twitcher and was keeping company with Mabel Evans, who had come +home on a holiday from her place in London to her mother's in the +village. No; she did not know how long he stayed. She minded her own +business, but, if any one asked her, she must say that he was more likely +to murder some one than any one she knew, for he had a worse temper than +his lordship even, and bullied every one he came near worse than his +lordship. In fact, she had never been able to understand how Elizabeth +Twitcher could stand him, though of course every one knew that Elizabeth +could always give as good as she got. + +When Mr. Flexen thanked her and said that she might go, she displayed a +desire to remain and give them her further views on the matter. But +Inspector Perkins shooed her out of the room. + +Then Wilkins came to say that Dr. Thornhill had finished his examination +and would like to see them. + +He came in with a somewhat dissatisfied air, sat down heavily in the +chair the inspector pushed forward for him, and said in a +dissatisfied tone: + +"The blade pierced the left ventricle, about the middle, a good inch and +a half. Death was practically instantaneous, of course." + +"I took it that it must have been. The collapse had been so complete. I +suppose the blade stopped the heart dead," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Absolutely dead," said the doctor. "But the thing is that I can't swear +to it that the wound was not self-inflicted. Knowing Lord Loudwater, I +could swear to it morally. There isn't the ghost of a chance that he +took his own life. But physically, his right hand might have driven that +blade into his heart." + +"I thought so myself, though of course I'm no expert," said Mr. Flexen. +"And I agree with you when you say that you are morally certain that the +wound was not self-inflicted. Those bad-tempered brutes may murder other +people, but themselves never." + +"Well, I've not your experience in crime, but I should say that you were +right," said the doctor. + +"All the same, the fact that you cannot swear that the wound was not +self-inflicted will be of great help to the murderer, unless we get an +absolute case against him," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Well, I'm sure I hope you will. Lord Loudwater had a bad temper--an +infernal temper, in fact. But that's no excuse for murdering him," said +Dr. Thornhill. + +"None whatever," said Mr. Flexen. "What about the inquest? I suppose we'd +better have it as soon as possible." + +"Yes. Tomorrow morning, if you can," said the doctor, rising. + +"Very good. Send word to the coroner at once, Perkins. Don't go yourself. +I shall want you here," said Mr. Flexen. + +He shook hands with the doctor and bade him good-day. As Inspector +Perkins went out of the room to send word to the coroner, he bade him +send Elizabeth Twitcher to him. + +She was not long coming, for, in obedience to Olivia's injunction, she +was engaged in learning what the other servants knew, or thought they +knew, about the murder. + +When she came into the dining-room, Mr. Flexen's keen eyes examined her +with greater care than he had given to the other servants. On Jane +Pittaway's showing, she should prove an important witness. Now Elizabeth +Twitcher was an uncommonly pretty girl, dark-eyed and dark-haired, and +her forehead and chin and the way her eyes were set in her head showed +considerable character. Mr. Flexen made up his mind on the instant that +he was going to learn from Elizabeth Twitcher exactly what Elizabeth +Twitcher thought fit to tell him and no more, for all that he perceived +that she was badly scared. + +He did not beat about the bush; he said: "You had a conversation with +James Hutchings last night, about eleven o'clock, in the blue +drawing-room. Did you let him in?" + +Elizabeth Twitcher's cheeks lost some more of their colour while he was +speaking, and her eyes grew more scared. She hesitated for a moment; +then she said: + +"Yes. I let him in at the side door." + +He had not missed her hesitation; he was sure that she was not telling +the truth. + +"How did you know he was at the side door?" he said. + +She hesitated again. Then she said: "He whistled to me under my window +just as I was going to bed." + +Again he did not believe her. + +"Did you let him out of the Castle?" he said. + +"No, I didn't. He let himself out," she said quickly. + +"Out of the side door?" + +"How else would he go out?" she snapped. + +"You don't know that he went out by the side door?" said Mr. Flexen. + +Elizabeth hesitated again. Then she said sullenly: "No, I don't. I left +him in the blue drawing-room." + +"In a very bad temper?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"I don't know what kind of a temper he was in," she said. + +Mr. Flexen paused, looking at her thoughtfully. Then he said: "I'm told +that you and he were engaged to be married, and that he broke the +engagement off." + +"_I_ broke it off!" said Elizabeth angrily, and she drew herself up very +stiff and frowning. + +It was Mr. Flexen's turn to hesitate. Then he made a shot, and said: "I +see. He wanted you to become engaged to him again, and you wouldn't." + +Elizabeth looked at him with an air of surprise and respect, and said: +"It wasn't quite like that, sir. I didn't say as I wouldn't be his fioncy +again. I said I'd see how he behaved himself." + +"Then he wasn't in a good temper," said Mr. Flexen. + +"He was in a better temper than he'd any right to expect to be," said +Elizabeth with some heat. + +"That's true," said Mr. Flexen, smiling at her. "But after the trouble he +had had with Lord Loudwater he couldn't be in a very good temper." + +"He was too used to his lordship's tantrums to take much notice of them. +He was too much that way himself," said Elizabeth quickly. + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen. "What time was it when he left you?" + +"I can't rightly say. But it wasn't half-past eleven," she said. + +He perceived that that was true. At the moment there was no more to be +learned from her. If she could throw any more light on the doings of +James Hutchings, she was on her guard and would not. But he had learned +that James Hutchings had not entered the Castle by the side door. Had he +entered it and left it by the library window? + +He asked Elizabeth a few more unimportant questions and dismissed her. + +Inspector Perkins, having sent a groom to inform the coroner of the +murder, and of the need for an early inquest into it, came back to him. +They discussed the matter of James Hutchings, and decided to have him +watched and arrest him on suspicion should he try to leave the +neighbourhood. The inspector telephoned to Low Wycombe for two of his +detectives. + +Mr. Flexen questioned the rest of the servants and learned nothing new +from them. By the time he had finished the two detectives from Low +Wycombe arrived, and he sent them out to make inquiries in the village, +though he thought it unlikely that anything was to be learnt there, +unless Hutchings had been talking again. + +He had risen and was about to go to the smoking-room to look round it +again, on the chance that something had escaped his eye, when Mrs. +Carruthers, the housekeeper, entered the room. None of the servants had +mentioned her to him, and it had not occurred to him that there would of +course be a housekeeper. + +"Good morning, Mr. Flexen. I'm Mrs. Carruthers, the housekeeper," she +said. "You didn't send for me. But I thought I ought to see you, for +I know something which may be important, and I thought you ought to +know it, too." + +"Of course. I can't know too much about an affair like this," said Mr. +Flexen quickly. + +"Well, there was a woman, or rather I should say a lady, with his +lordship in the smoking-room last night--about eleven o'clock." + +"Indeed?" said Mr. Flexen. "Won't you sit down? A lady you say?" + +"Yes; she was a lady, though she seemed very angry and excited, and was +talking in a very high voice. I didn't recognize it, so I can't tell you +who it was. You see, I don't belong to the neighbourhood. I've only been +here six weeks." + +"And how long did this interview last?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"I can't tell you. It was no business of mine. I was making my round last +thing to see that the servants had left nothing about. I always do. You +know how careless they are. I went round the hall, and then I went to +bed. But, of course, I wondered about it," said Mrs. Carruthers. + +Mr. Flexen looked at her refined, rather delicate face, and he did not +wonder how she had repressed her natural curiosity. + +"Can you tell me whether the French window in the library, the end one, +was open at that time?" he said. + +"I can't," she said in a tone of regret. "I couldn't very well open the +library door. If the door between the library and the smoking-room was +open, I should have been certain to hear something that was not meant +for my ears. And it generally is open in summer time. But I should think +it very likely that the lady came in by that window. It's always open in +summer time. In fact, his lordship always went out into the garden +through it, going from his smoking-room." + +"And what time was it that you heard this?" he said. + +"A few minutes past eleven. I looked round the drawing-room and the two +dining-rooms, and it was a quarter-past eleven when I came into my room." + +"That's the first exact time I've got from any one yet," said Mr. Flexen +in a tone of satisfaction. "And that's all you heard?" + +She hesitated, and a look of distress came over her face. Then she said: +"You have questioned Elizabeth Twitcher. Did she tell you anything about +his lordship's last quarrel with her ladyship?" + +"She did not," said Mr. Flexen. "Mr. Manley told me that she had told +him about the quarrel. But I did not question her about it. I left it +till later." + +Mrs. Carruthers hesitated; then she said: "It's so difficult to see what +one's duty is in a case like this." + +"Well, one's obvious duty is to make no secret of anything that may throw +a light on the crime. Was it anything out of the way in the way of +quarrels? Wasn't Lord Loudwater always quarrelling with Lady Loudwater? +I've been told that he was always insulting and bullying her." + +"Well, this one was rather out of the common," said Mrs. Carruthers +reluctantly. "He accused her of having kissed Colonel Grey in the East +wood and declared that he would divorce her." + +"It was Colonel Grey, was it?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"That is what Elizabeth Twitcher told me after supper last night. It +seems that his lordship burst in upon them when she was dressing her +ladyship's hair for dinner and blurted it out before her. I've no doubt +she was telling the truth. Twitcher is a truthful girl." + +"Moderately truthful," said Mr. Flexen in a somewhat ironical tone. + +"Of course she may have exaggerated. Servants do," said Mrs. Carruthers. + +"And how did Lady Loudwater take it?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Twitcher said that she denied everything, and did not appear at all +upset about it. Of course, she was used to Lord Loudwater's making +scenes. He had a most dreadful temper." + +"M'm," said Mr. Flexen, and he played a tune on the table with his +finger-tips, frowning thoughtfully. "Was Colonel Grey--I suppose it is +Colonel Antony Grey--the V.C. who has been staying down here?" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Carruthers. "He's at the 'Cart and Horses' at +Bellingham." + +"Was he on good terms with Lord Loudwater?" + +"They were quite friendly up to about a fortnight ago. The Colonel used +to play billiards with his lordship and stay on to dinner two or three +times a week. Then they had a quarrel--about the way his lordship +treated her ladyship. Holloway, the footman, heard it, and the Colonel +told his lordship that he was a cad and a blackguard, and he hasn't been +here since." + +"But he met Lady Loudwater in the wood?" + +"So his lordship declared," said Mrs. Carruthers in a non-committal tone. + +"Do you know how Lord Loudwater came to hear of their meeting?" + +"Twitcher said that he must have had it from one of the +under-gamekeepers, a young fellow called William Roper. Roper asked to +see his lordship that evening and was very mysterious about his errand, +so that it looks as if she might be right. None of the servants ever went +near his lordship, if they could help it. It had to be something very +important to induce William Roper to go to him of his own accord." + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen thoughtfully. "Well, I'm glad you told me about +this. Do you suppose that this Twitcher girl has talked to any one but +you about it?" + +"That I can't say at all. But she has a bedroom to herself," said Mrs. +Carruthers. "Besides, if she had talked to any of the others, they would +have told you about it." + +"Yes; there is that. I think it would be a good thing if you were to +give her a hint to keep it to herself. It may have no bearing whatever +on the crime. It's not probable that it has. But it's the kind of +thing to set people talking and do both Lady Loudwater and Colonel +Grey a lot of harm." + +"I will give her a hint at once," said Mrs. Carruthers, rising. "But the +unfortunate thing is that if Twitcher doesn't talk, this young fellow +Roper will. And, really, Lord Loudwater gave her ladyship quite enough +trouble and unhappiness when he was alive without giving her more now +that he's dead." + +"I may be able to induce William Roper to hold his tongue," said Mr. +Flexen dryly. "Certainly his talking cannot do any good in any case. And +I have gathered that Lady Loudwater has suffered quite enough already +from her husband." + +"I'm sure she has; and I do hope you will be able to keep that young man +quiet," said Mrs. Carruthers, moving towards the door. As she opened it, +she paused and said: "Will you be here to lunch, Mr. Flexen?" + +"To lunch and probably all the afternoon." He hesitated and added: "It +would be rather an advantage if I could sleep here, too. I do not think +that I shall need to look much further than the Castle for the solution +of this problem, though there's no telling. At any rate, I should like to +have exhausted all the possibilities of the Castle before I leave it. And +if I'm on the spot, I shall probably exhaust them much more quickly." + +"Oh, that can easily be arranged. I'll see her ladyship about it at +once," said Mrs. Carruthers quickly. + +"And would you ask her if she feels equal to seeing me yet?" + +"Certainly, Mr. Flexen; and if she does, I'll let you know at once," she +said and went through the door. + +Mr. Flexen was considering the new facts she had given him, when about +three minutes later Inspector Perkins returned; and Mr. Flexen bade him +find William Roper and bring him to him without delay. The inspector +departed briskly. He was not used to having the inquiry into a crime +conducted by the Chief Constable himself; but Mr. Flexen had impressed +the conviction on him that it was work which he thoroughly understood. +Moreover, he had been appointed acting Chief Constable of the district +during the absence of Major Arbuthnot, on the ground of his many years' +experience in the Indian Police. Also, the inspector realized that this +was, indeed, an exceptional case worthy of the personal effort of any +Chief Constable. He could not remember a case of the murder of a peer; +they had always seemed to him a class immune from anything more serious +than ordinary assault. He was pleased that Mr. Flexen was conducting the +inquiry himself, for he did not wish Scotland Yard to deal with it. Not +only would that cast a slur on the capacity of the police of the +district, but he was sure that he himself would get much more credit for +his work, if he and Mr. Flexen were successful in discovering the +murderer, than he would get if a detective inspector from Scotland Yard +were in charge of the case. Such a detective inspector might or might not +earn all the credit, but he would certainly know how to get it and +probably insist on having it. + +He had not been gone a minute when Elizabeth Twitcher came into the +dining-room, said that her ladyship would be pleased to see Mr. Flexen, +and led him upstairs to her sitting-room. + +He found Olivia paler than her wont, but quite composed. She had lost her +nervous air, for she had perceived very clearly that it would be +dangerous, indeed, to display the anxiety which was harassing her. It was +only natural that she should appear upset by the shock, but not that she +should appear in any way fearful. + +Mr. Flexen had been told that Lady Loudwater was pretty, but he had not +been prepared to find her as charming a creature as Olivia. He made up +his mind at once to do the best he could to save her from the trouble +that the gossip about her and Colonel Grey would surely bring upon +her--if always he were satisfied that neither of them had a hand in the +crime. Looking at Olivia, nothing seemed more unlikely than that she +should be in any way connected with it. But he preserved an open mind. As +such reasons go, she was not without reasons, substantial reasons, for +getting rid of her husband, and she appeared to him to be a creature of +sufficiently delicate sensibilities to feel that husband's brutality more +than most women. At the same time he found it hard to conceive of her +using that fatal knife herself. Yet the knife is most frequently the +womanly weapon. + +For her part, Olivia liked his face; but she had an uneasy feeling that +he would go further than most men in solving any problem with which he +set his mind to grapple. + +They greeted one another; he sat down in a chair facing the light, though +he would have preferred that Olivia should have faced it, and expressed +his concern at the trouble which had befallen her. + +Then he said: "I came to see you, Lady Loudwater, in the hope that you +might be able to throw some light on this deplorable event." + +"I don't think I can," said Olivia gently. "But of course, if I can do +anything to help you find out about it I shall be very pleased to try." + +She looked at him with steady, candid eyes that deepened his feeling +that she had had no hand in the crime. + +"And, of course, I'll make it as little distressing for you as I can," +he said. "Do you know whether your husband had anything worrying +him--any serious trouble of any kind which would make him likely to +commit suicide?" + +"Suicide? Egbert?" cried Olivia, in a tone of such astonishment that, as +far as Mr. Flexen was concerned, the hypothesis of suicide received its +death-blow. "No. I don't know of anything which would have made him +commit suicide." + +"Of course he had no money troubles; but were there any domestic troubles +which might have unhinged his mind to that extent?" said Mr. Flexen. + +He wished to be able to deal with the hypothesis of suicide, should it be +put forward. + +Olivia did not answer immediately. She was thinking hard. The possibility +that her husband had committed suicide, or that any one could suppose +that he had committed suicide, had never entered her head. She perceived, +however, that it was a supposition worth encouraging. At the same time, +she must not seem eager to encourage it. + +"But they told me that he'd been murdered," she said. + +"We cannot exclude any possibility from a matter like this, and the +possibility of suicide must be taken into account," said Mr. Flexen +quickly. "You don't know of any domestic trouble which might have induced +Lord Loudwater to make an end of himself?" + +"No, I don't know of one," said Olivia firmly. "But, of course, he was +sometimes quite mad." + +"Mad?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes, quite. I told him so last night--just before dinner. He was quite +mad. He said that I had kissed a friend of ours--at least he was a friend +of both of us till he quarrelled with my husband some weeks ago--in the +East wood. He raged about it, and declared he was going to start a +divorce action. But I didn't take much notice of it. He was always +falling into dreadful rages. There was one at breakfast about my cat and +another at lunch about the wine. He fancied it was corked." + +Olivia had perceived clearly that since Elizabeth Twitcher had been a +witness of her husband's outburst about Grey, it would be merely foolish +not to be frank about it. + +"But the last matter was very much more serious than the matter of the +cat or the wine," said Mr. Flexen. "You don't think that your husband +brooded on it for the rest of the evening and worked himself up into a +dangerous frame of mind?" + +Olivia hesitated. She was quite sure that her husband had done nothing of +the kind, for if he had worked himself up into a dangerous frame of mind +he would assuredly have made some effort to get at her and give some +violent expression to it. But she said: + +"That I can't say. I wish I'd gone down to dinner--now. But I was too +much annoyed. I dined in my boudoir. I'd had quite enough unpleasantness +for one day. Perhaps one of the servants could tell you. They may have +noticed something unusual in him--perhaps that he was brooding." + +"Wilkins did say that Lord Loudwater seemed upset at dinner, and that he +was frowning most of the meal," said Mr. Flexen. + +"That wasn't unusual," said Olivia somewhat pathetically. "Besides--" + +She stopped short, on the very verge of saying that she was sure that +those frowns cleared from her husband's face before the sweets, for he +would never take afternoon tea, in order to have a better appetite for +dinner, and consequently was wont to begin that meal in a tetchy humour. +Such an explanation would have gone no way to support the hypothesis of +suicide. Instead of making it she said: + +"Of course, he did seem frightfully upset." + +"But you don't think that he was sufficiently upset to do himself an +injury?" said Mr. Flexen. + +Olivia had formed a strong impression that her husband would not in any +circumstance do himself an injury; it was his part to injure others. +But she said: + +"I can't say. He might have gone on working himself up all the evening. I +didn't see him after he left my dressing-room. It was there he made the +row--while I was dressing for dinner." + +Mr. Flexen paused; then he said: "Mr. Manley tells me that Lord Loudwater +used to sleep every evening after dinner. Do you think that he was too +upset to go to sleep last night?" + +"Oh, dear no! I've known him go to sleep in his smoking-room after a much +worse row than that!" cried Olivia. + +"With you?" said Mr. Flexen quickly. + +"No; with Hutchings--the butler," said Olivia. + +"But that wouldn't be such a serious matter--not one to brood upon," said +Mr. Flexen. + +"I suppose not," said Olivia readily. + +Mr. Flexen paused again; then he said in a somewhat reluctant tone: +"There's another matter I must go into. Have you any reason to believe +that there was any other woman in Lord Loudwater's life--anything in the +nature of an intrigue? It's not a pleasant question to have to ask, but +it's really important." + +"Oh, I don't expect any pleasantness where Lord Loudwater is concerned," +said Olivia, with a sudden almost petulant impatience, for this +inquisition was a much more severe strain on her than Mr. Flexen +perceived. "Do you mean now, or before we were married?" + +"Now," said Mr. Flexen. + +"I haven't the slightest idea," said Olivia. + +"Do you think it likely?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"No, I don't--not very. I don't see how he could have got another woman +in. He was always about--always. Of course, he rode a good deal, though." + +"He did, did he?" said Mr. Flexen quickly. + +"Every afternoon and most mornings." + +That was important. Mr. Flexen thought that he might not have to go very +far afield to find the woman who had been quarrelling with Lord Loudwater +at a few minutes past eleven the night before. She probably lived within +an easy ride of the Castle. + +"I'm very much obliged to you for helping me so readily in such +distressing circumstances," he said in a grateful voice as he rose. "If +anything further occurs to you that may throw any light on the matter, +you might let me hear it with as little delay as possible." + +"I will," said Olivia. "By the way, Mrs. Carruthers told me that you +would like to stay here while you were making your inquiry; please do; +and please make any use of the servants and the cars you like. My +husband's heir is still in Mesopotamia, and I expect that I shall have +to run the Castle till he comes back." + +"Thank you. To stay here will be very convenient and useful," said Mr. +Flexen gratefully, and left her. + +He came down the stairs thoughtfully. It seemed to him quite unlikely +that she had had anything to do with the crime, or knew anything more +about it than she had told him. Nevertheless, there was this business of +Colonel Grey and her murdered husband's threat to divorce her. They must +be borne in mind. + +He would have been surprised, intrigued, and somewhat shaken in his +conviction that she had been in no way connected with the murder, had he +heard the gasp of intense relief which burst from Olivia's lips when the +door closed behind him, and seen her huddle up in her chair and begin to +cry weakly in the reaction from the strain of his inquisition. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +Mr. Flexen found Inspector Perkins waiting for him in the dining-room +with the information that James Hutchings was at his father's cottage in +the West wood, and that he had set one of his detectives to watch him. +Also, he told him that he had learned that Hutchings was generally +disliked in the village as well as at the Castle, as a violent, +bad-tempered man, with a habit of fixing quarrels on any one who would +quarrel with him, and as often as not on mild and inoffensive persons, +quite incapable of bearing themselves in a quarrel with any unpleasant +effectiveness. + +Mr. Flexen discussed with the inspector the question of taking out a +warrant for the arrest of Hutchings, and they decided that there was no +need to take the step--at any rate, at the moment; it was enough to have +him watched. He would learn doubtless that it was known that he had been +in the Castle late the night before. If, on learning it, he took fright +and bolted, it would rather simplify the case. + +Then Mr. Flexen sent again for Elizabeth Twitcher and questioned her at +length about Lord Loudwater's onslaught on Lady Loudwater the night +before and about the condition in which he had been at the end of it. +Elizabeth was somewhat sulky in her manner, for she felt that she was to +blame for that onslaught having come to Mr. Flexen's ears. She was the +more careful to make it plain that however violently Lord Loudwater may +have been affected, Olivia had taken the business lightly enough, and +decided to ignore his injunction to her to leave the Castle. Mr. Flexen +did not miss the point that Lord Loudwater had threatened to hound +Colonel Grey out of the Army; but at the moment he did not attach +importance to it. It was the kind of threat that an angry man would be +pretty sure to make in the circumstances. + +Having dismissed Elizabeth Twitcher, he came to lunch with the impression +strong on him that he had made as much progress as could be expected in +one morning towards the solution of the problem. He was quite undecided +whether Hutchings' presence in the Castle at so late an hour, and the +probability that he had entered and left it by the library window, or the +matter of the woman who had had the stormy interview with the murdered +man, was the more important. It must be his early task to discover who +that woman was. + +He found Mr. Manley awaiting him in the little dining-room, ready to play +host. Over their soup and fish they talked about ordinary topics and a +little about themselves. Mr. Manley learned that Mr. Flexen had been in +the Indian Police for over seven years, and had been forced to resign his +post by the breaking down of his health; that during the war he had twice +acted as Chief Constable and three times as stipendiary magistrate in +different districts. Mr. Flexen gathered that Mr. Manley had fought in +France with a brilliant intrepidity which had not met with the public +recognition it deserved, and learned that he had been invalided out of +the Army owing to the weakness of his heart. This common failure of +health was a bond of sympathy between them, and made them well disposed +to one another. + +There came a pause in this personal talk, and either of them addressed +himself to the consumption of the wing of a chicken with a certain +absorption in the occupation. It was not uncharacteristic of Mr. Manley +that his high sense of the fitness of things had not prevailed on him to +accord the liver wing to the guest. He was firmly eating it himself. + +Then Mr. Flexen said: "I suppose you came across Hutchings, the butler, +pretty often. What kind of a fellow was he?" + +"He was rather more like his master than if he had been his twin brother, +except that he wore whiskers and not a beard," said Mr. Manley, in a tone +of hearty dislike. + +"He does not appear to have been at all popular with the other servants," +said Mr. Flexen. + +"He certainly wasn't popular with me," said Mr. Manley dryly. + +"What did Lord Loudwater discharge him for?" + +"A matter of a commission on the purchase of some wine," said Mr. Manley. +Then in a more earnest tone he added: "Look here: the trenches knock a +good deal of the nonsense out of one, and I tell you frankly that if I +could help you in any way to discover the criminal, I wouldn't. My +feeling is that if ever any one wanted putting out of the way, Lord +Loudwater did; and as he was put out of the way quite painlessly, +probably it was a valuble action, whatever its motive." + +"I expect that a good many people have come back from the trenches with +very different ideas about justice," said Mr. Flexen in an indulgent +tone. "The Indian Police also changes your ideas about it. But it's my +duty to see that justice is done, and I shall. Besides, I'm very keen on +solving this problem, if I can. It seems that Hutchings was in the Castle +last night about eleven o'clock, and as you said something about coming +down for a drink about that time, I thought you might possibly know +something about his movements." + +"Well, as it happens," said Mr. Manley and stopped short, paused, and +went on: "You seem to have made up your mind that it was a murder and not +a suicide." + +"So you do know something about the movements of Hutchings," said Mr. +Flexen, smiling. "You'll be subpoenaed, you know, if he is charged with +the murder." + +"That would, of course, be quite a different matter," said Mr. +Manley gravely. + +"As to its being a murder, I've pretty well made up my mind that it was," +said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley looked at him gravely: "You have, have you?" he said. Then he +added: "About that knife and the finger-prints on it, if it happens to +have recorded any: I've been thinking that you may find yourself +suffering from an embarrassment of riches. I know that mine will be on +it, and Lady Loudwater's, who used it to cut the leaves of a volume of +poetry the day before yesterday, and Hutchings', who cut the string of a +parcel of books with it yesterday, and very likely the fingerprints of +Lord Loudwater. You know how it is with a knife like that, which lies +open and handy. Every one uses it. I've seen Lady Loudwater use it to cut +flowers, and Lord Loudwater to cut the end off a cigar--cursing, of +course, because he couldn't lay his hands on a cigar-cutter, and the +knife was blunt--and I've cut all kinds of things with it myself." + +"Yes; but the finger-prints of the murderer, if it does record them, will +be on the top of all those others. I shall simply take prints from all of +you and eliminate them." + +"Of course; you can get at it that way," said Mr. Manley. + +They were silent while Holloway set the cheese-straws on the table. + +When he had left the room Mr. Flexen said in a casual tone: "You don't +happen to know whether Lord Loudwater was mixed up with any woman in the +neighbourhood?" + +Mr. Manley paused, then laughed and said: "It's no use at all. When I +told you that I would throw no light on the matter, if I could help it, I +really meant it. At the same time, I don't mind saying that, with his +reputation for brutality, I should think it very unlikely." + +"You can never tell about women. So many of them seem to prefer brutes. +And, after all, a peer is a peer," said Mr. Flexen. + +"There is that," said Mr. Manley in thoughtful agreement. + +But he was frowning faintly as he cudgelled his brains in the effort to +think what had set Mr. Flexen on the track of Helena Truslove, for it +must be Helena. + +"I expect I shall be able to find out from his lawyers," said Mr. Flexen. + +"This promises to be interesting--the intervention of Romance," said Mr. +Manley in a tone of livelier interest. "I took it that the murder, if it +was a murder, would be a sordid business, in keeping with Lord +Loudwater himself. But if you're going to introduce a lady into the +case, it promises to be more fruitful in interest for the dramatist. I'm +writing plays." + +But Mr. Flexen was not going to divulge the curious fact that about the +time of his murder Lord Loudwater had had a violent quarrel with a lady. +He had no doubt that Mrs. Carruthers would keep it to herself. + +"Oh, one has to look out for every possible factor in a problem like +this, you know," he said carelessly. + +The faint frown lingered on Mr. Manley's brow. Mr. Flexen supposed that +it was the result of his refraining from gratifying his appetite for the +dramatic. They were silent a while. + +"When are you going to take our finger-prints?" said Mr. Manley +presently. + +"Not till I've learned whether there are any on the handle of the knife," +said Mr. Flexen. "Perkins has already sent it off to Scotland Yard." + +"I never thought of that. It would be rather a waste of time to take them +before knowing that," said Mr. Manley. + +Holloway brought the coffee; Mr. Manley gave Mr. Flexen an excellent +cigar, and they talked about the war. Mr. Flexen drank his coffee +quickly, said that he must get back to his work, and added that he hoped +that he would enjoy the company of Mr. Manley at dinner. Mr. Manley had +been going to dine with Helena Truslove; but after Mr. Flexen's question +whether Lord Loudwater had been entangled with any woman in the +neighbourhood, he thought that he had better dine with him. He might +learn something useful, if he could induce Mr. Flexen to expand under the +relaxing influence of dinner. He resolved to use his authority to have +the most engaging wine the cellar held. He was determined to make every +endeavour to keep Helena's name out of the affair, and he thought that he +would succeed. + +Mr. Flexen left him. He finished his coffee, the second cup, slowly, +wondering about Mr. Flexen's question about Lord Loudwater and a woman. +Then, since he had done all the work he could think of, in the way of +making arrangements for the funeral, during the morning, he set out +briskly to Helena's house, hoping that she would be able to throw some +light on it. + +He greeted her with his usual warmth, and then, when he came to look at +her at his leisure, it was plain to him that the murder had been a much +greater shock to her than he had expected. He was surprised at it, for +she had assured him that she had never been really in love with Lord +Loudwater, and he had believed her. But there was no doubt that she had +been greatly upset by the news of his death. Her high colouring was +dimmed; she wore a harassed air, and she was uncommonly nervous and ill +at ease. He thought it strange that she should be so deeply affected by +the death of a man she had such good reason to detest. But, of course, +there was no telling how a woman would take anything; Lady Loudwater's +distress had fallen as far short of what he had expected as Helena's had +exceeded it. + +To Mr. Manley's credit it must be admitted that in less than twenty +minutes Helena Truslove was looking another creature; her face had +recovered all its colour; the harassed air had vanished from it, and she +was sitting on his knee in a condition of the most pleasant repose. It +was his theory that a woman was never too ill, or too ill at ease, or too +unhappy to be made love to. He had acted on it. + +When he had thus restored her peace of mind, he told her that Mr. Flexen +had asked him whether the late Lord Loudwater had been mixed up with any +lady in the neighbourhood, and asked her if she could suggest any reason +for his having asked the question. She appeared greatly startled to hear +of it. But she could not suggest any reason for his having asked the +question. He then asked her about the manner in which the allowance had +been paid to her, and was pleased to learn that there was little +likelihood of Mr. Flexen's learning that she had received such an +allowance from Lord Loudwater, for it had been paid her through a young +lawyer of the name of Shepherd, at Low Wycombe, the lawyer who had dealt +with the matter of the transference of the house they were in to her, +from the rents of some houses Lord Loudwater owned in that town, and that +lawyer was somewhere in Mesopotamia, his practice in abeyance. + +She was in entire accord with Mr. Manley about the advantage of her name +not being connected in any way with the tragedy at the Castle. She +pointed out that it was also an advantage that she had just been paid +her allowance for the present quarter, and there would not be another +payment for three months. By that time it was probable that the murder +would have passed out of people's minds and Mr. Flexen be busy with other +work. It seemed to Mr. Manley that Mr. Flexen would not easily learn +about the allowance unless Mr. Carrington also knew it, which seemed +unlikely, though it was always possible that there was some record of it +among the Lord Loudwater's papers at the Castle. Soon after seven he left +her to walk back to dine with Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Flexen had had a considerable surprise that afternoon. He had told +Robert Black to find William Roper and bring him to him. He wished to +hear the story he had told Lord Loudwater the evening before, for it +might be of a triviality to make the hypothesis that Lord Loudwater had +committed suicide yet less worthy of serious consideration. Black was a +long while finding William Roper, for he was at work in the woods. +Indeed, he had not yet heard that Lord Loudwater had been murdered, for +he had been up most of the night, risen late, got his own breakfast in +his out-of-the-way cottage in the depths of the West wood, and gone out +on his rounds. The constable found him at the cottage, in the act of +preparing his dinner, or rather his tea and dinner, at a quarter to four. + +William Roper was startled, indeed, to hear of the murder, and then +bitterly annoyed. All the while on his rounds he had been congratulating +himself on his coming promotion, and reckoning up the many advantages +which would accrue from it, not the least of which was a wider prospect +of finding a wife. The cup was dashed from his lips. He had acquired no +merit in the eyes of the new Lord Loudwater, and he had most probably +made the present Lady Loudwater his enemy, if the murdered man had +divulged the source of his knowledge of her goings-on with Colonel Grey. +He ate his mixed meal very sulkily, listening to the constable's account +of the circumstances of the crime. Slowly, however, his face grew +brighter as he listened; the new information he had obtained for his +murdered employer might very well have an important bearing on the crime +itself. He might yet establish himself as the benefactor of the family. + +On the way to the Castle he was so mysterious with Robert Black that the +stout constable became a prey to mingled curiosity and doubt. He could +not make up his mind whether William Roper really knew something of +importance or was merely vapouring. William Roper neither gratified his +curiosity, nor banished his doubt. He was alive to the advantage of +reserving his information for the most important ear, so as to gain the +greatest possible credit for it. + +At the first sight of him Mr. Flexen felt that he had before him an +important witness, for he took a violent dislike to him, and he had +observed, in the course of his many years' experience in the detection of +crime, that the most important witness in hounding down a criminal was +very often of a repulsive type, the nark type. William Roper was of that +type, but his story was indeed startling. + +He first told how he had seen Colonel Grey kiss Lady Loudwater in the +afternoon--Mr. Flexen noted that Lord Loudwater had accused her of +kissing Grey--and of their spending most of the afternoon in the pavilion +in the East wood. The time of his watching had already lengthened in +William Roper's memory. There was nothing new in these facts, and Mr. +Flexen saw no reason to suppose that they had any bearing on the crime. +But William Roper went on to say that soon after ten in the evening he +had been on his round in the East wood, when he saw Colonel Grey walking +in the direction of the Castle. His curiosity had been aroused by what he +had seen in the afternoon, and thinking it not unlikely that he was on +his way to another meeting with the Lady Loudwater, and that it was the +duty of a faithful retainer to make sure about it, with a view to +informing his master should his surmise prove correct, he followed him. + +The Colonel went straight through the wood into the Castle garden, walked +round the Castle, keeping in its shadow as he went, till he stood under +the window of Lady Loudwater's suite of rooms. + +There he appeared to suffer a check. There was a light in the room on the +ground floor under her boudoir. The Colonel had waited quite a while; +then he had walked round the Castle and into it by the library window. + +William, greatly surprised by the Colonel's audacity, had taken up his +position in a clump of tall rhododendrons, opposite the library window, +from which he could keep watch on it. + +"What time would this be?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"It couldn't have been more than twenty minutes past ten, sir," said +William Roper. + +"And what happened then?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Nothing 'appened for a good ten minutes. Then James Hutchings, the +butler, come across the gardens from the south gate, as if 'e'd come from +the village, and 'e went in through the libery winder--the same winder." + +Mr. Flexen had thought it not unlikely that Hutchings had entered the +Castle by that entrance. He was pleased to have his guess corroborated. + +"That would be about half-past ten," he said. "Could you see into the +library at all?" + +"Only a very little way, sir." + +"You couldn't see whether Colonel Grey and then James Hutchings went +straight through it into the hall, or whether either of them went into +the smoking-room?" + +"No; I couldn't see so far in as that, though there was a light burning +in the libery," said William Roper. + +That was a new fact. Any one passing through the library would be able to +see the open knife lying in the big inkstand. + +"Go on," said Mr. Flexen. "What happened next?" + +"Nothing 'appened for a long while--twenty minutes, I should think--and +then there come a woman round the right-'and corner of the Castle wall +and along it and into the libery winder. At first I thought it was Mrs. +Carruthers, or one of the maids--she were too tall for her ladyship--but +it warn't." + +"Are you quite sure?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Quite, sir. I should have known 'er if she had been. Besides, she was +all muffled up like. You couldn't see 'er face." + +"Did she hesitate before going through the library window?" said +Mr. Flexen. + +"Not as I noticed. She seemed to go straight in." + +"As if she were used to going into the Castle that way?" said Mr. Flexen. + +William Roper scratched his head. Then he said cautiously: "She seemed to +know that way in all right, sir." + +"And how was she dressed?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"She wasn't in black. It wasn't as dull as black, but it was dullish. It +might have been grey and again it might not. It might have been blue or +brown. You see, there was a fair moon, sir, but it was be'ind the Castle, +an' I never seed 'er in the full moonlight, as you may say, seeing as, +coming and going, she come along the wall and went round the right 'and +corner of it, in the shadder." + +"And which of these three people came away first?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"She did. She wasn't in the Castle more nor twenty minutes--if that." + +"Did she seem to be in a hurry when she came out? Did she run, or +walk quickly?" + +"No. I can't say as she did. She went away just about as she came--in no +purtic'ler 'urry," said William Roper. + +Mr. Flexen paused, considering; then he said: "And who was the next +to leave?" + +"The Colonel, 'e come out next--in about ten minutes." + +"Did he seem in a hurry?" + +"'E walked pretty brisk, and 'e was frowning, like as if 'e was in a +rage. 'E passed me close, so I 'ad a good look at 'im. Yes; I should say +'e was fair boilen', 'e was," said William Roper, in a solemn, pleased +tone of one giving damning evidence. + +Mr. Flexen did not press the matter. He said: "So James Hutchings came +away last?" + +"Yes; about five minutes after the Colonel. And 'e was in a pretty fair +to-do, too. Leastways, he was frowning and a-muttering of to 'imself. He +passed me close." + +"Did _he_ seem in any hurry?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"'E was walkin' fairly fast," said William Roper. + +Mr. Flexen paused again, pondering. He thought that William Roper had +thrown all the light on the matter he could; and he had certainly +revealed a number of facts which looked uncommonly important. + +"And that was all you saw?" he said. + +"That was all--except 'er ladyship," said William Roper. + +"Her ladyship?" said Mr. Flexen sharply. + +"Yes. You see, there was no 'urry for me to go back to the woods, sir; +an' I sat down on one of them garden seats along the edge of the +Wellin'tonia shrubbery to smoke a pipe and think it ou'. I felt it was my +dooty like to let 'is lordship know about these goings-on, never thinking +as 'ow 'e was sitting there all the time with a knife in 'im. I should +think it was twenty minutes arter that I saw 'er ladyship come out. Of +course, I was farther away from the window, but I saw 'er quite plain." + +"And where did she go?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"She didn't go nowhere, so to speak. She just walked up an' down the +gravel path--like as if she'd come out for a breath of fresh air. +Then she went in. She wasn't out more nor ten minutes, or a quarter +of an hour." + +Mr. Flexen was silent in frowning thought; then he looked earnestly at +William Roper for a good minute; then he said: "Well, this may be +important, or it may not. But it is very important that you should keep +it to yourself." He looked hard again at William, decided that an appeal +to his vanity would be best, and added: "You're pretty shrewd, I fancy, +and you can see that it is most important not to put the criminal on his +guard--if it was a crime." + +"I suppose I shall 'ave to tell what I know at the inquest?" said William +Roper, with an air of importance. + +Mr. Flexen gazed at him thoughtfully, weighing the matter. Here were a +number of facts which might or might not have an important bearing on the +murder, but which would give rise to a great deal of painful and harmful +scandal if they were given to the world at this juncture. + +Besides the publication of them might force his hand, and he preferred to +have a free hand in this matter as he had been used to have a free hand +in India. There he had dealt with more than one case in such a manner as +to secure substantial justice rather than the exact execution of the law. +It might be that in this case justice would be best secured by leaving +the murderer to his, or her, conscience rather than by causing several +people great unhappiness by bringing about a conviction. He was inclined +to think, with Mr. Manley, that the murderer might have performed a +public service by removing Lord Loudwater from the world he had so ill +adorned. At any rate, he was resolved to have a free hand to deal with +the case, and most certainly he was not going to allow this noxious young +fellow to hamper his freedom of action and final decision. + +"Your evidence seems to me of much too great importance to be given at +the inquest. It must be reserved for the trial," he said in an impressive +tone. "But if it gets abroad that you have seen what you have told me, +the criminal will be prepared to upset your evidence; and it will +probably become quite worthless. You must not breathe a word about what +you saw to a soul till we have your evidence supported beyond all +possibility of its being refuted. Do you understand?" + +For a moment William Roper looked disappointed. He had looked to become +famous that very day. But he realized his great importance in the affair, +and his face cleared. + +"I understands, sir," he said with a dark solemnity. + +"Not a word," said Mr. Flexen yet more impressively. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +That morning Olivia went to meet Grey in a mood very different from that +of the afternoon before. Then she had moved on light feet, in high +spirits, expectant, even excited. She had not known what was coming, but +the prospect had been full of possibilities; and, thanks to the sudden +appearance of the cat Melchisidec at the crucial moment, she had not been +disappointed. Today she would have gone to meet the man who loved her in +yet higher spirits, for there is no blinking the fact that she was wholly +unable to grieve for her husband. He had with such thoroughness +extirpated the girlish fondness she had felt for him when she married +him, that she could not without hypocrisy make even a show of grieving +for him. His death had merely removed the barrier between her and the man +she loved. + +But today she did not go to her tryst in spirits higher for the removal +of that barrier. She went more slowly, on heavier, lingering feet. Her +eyes were downcast, and her forehead was furrowed by an anxious, +brooding frown. + +The sight of Colonel Grey, waiting for her at the door of the Pavilion, +smoothed the furrows from her forehead and quickened her steps. When the +door closed behind them he caught her in his arms and kissed her. It was +early in her widowhood to be kissed, but she made no protest. She did not +feel a widow; she felt a free woman again. It is even to be feared that +her lips were responsive. + +Antony, too, was changed. He was paler and almost careworn. There was no +doubt of his joy at her coming, no doubt that it was greater than the day +before. But it was qualified by some other troubling emotion. Now and +again he looked at her with different eyes--eyes from which the joy had +of a sudden faded, rather fearful eyes that looked a question which could +not be asked. Her eyes rather shrank from his, and when they did look +into them it was with a like question. + +But they were too deeply in love with one another for any other emotion +to hold them for long at a time. Presently in the joy of being together, +looking at one another, touching one another, the fearfulness and the +question passed from their eyes. + +There was nothing rustic about the Pavilion inside or out. It was of +white marble, brought from Carrara for the fifth Baron Loudwater at the +end of the eighteenth century; and a whim of her murdered husband had led +him to replace the original, delicate, rather severe furniture by a most +comfortable broad couch, two no less comfortable chairs with arms, a +small red lacquer table and a dozen cushions. He had hung on each wall a +drawing of dancing-girls by Degas. Since the coverings of the couch and +the cushions were of Chinese silken embroideries, the interior appeared a +somewhat bizarre mixture of the Oriental and the French. + +Antony had been in some doubt that Olivia would come. But he had thought +it natural that she should come to him in such an hour of distress, for +he knew the simple directness of her nature. Therefore he had taken no +chance. He had gone to High Wycombe, ransacked its simple provision +shops, and brought away a lunch basket. + +She was for returning to the Castle to lunch. But he persuaded her to +stay. She needed no great pressing; she had a feeling that every hour was +precious, that it was unsafe to lose a single one of them: a foreboding +that she and Antony might not be together long. It almost seemed that a +like foreboding weighed on him. At times they seemed almost feverish in +their desire to wring the last drop of sweetness out of the swiftly +flying hour. + +After lunch again the thought came to her that she ought to go back to +the Castle, that she might be needed, and missed; but it found no +expression. She could not tear herself away. She had been denied joy too +long, and it was intoxicating. + +It was five o'clock before she left the Pavilion. She walked briskly, +with her wonted, easy, swinging gait, back to the Castle, in a dream, her +anxiety and fear for the while forgotten. On her way up to her suite of +rooms she met no one. She was quick to take off her hat and ring for her +tea. Elizabeth Twitcher brought it to her, and from her Olivia learned +that only Mr. Manley had asked for her. She realized that, after all, +thanks to her dead husband, she was but an inconspicuous person in the +Castle. No one had been used to consult her in any matter. She was glad +of it. At the moment all she desired was freedom of action, freedom to be +with Antony; and the fact that the life of the Castle moved smoothly +along in the capable hands of Mrs. Carruthers and Mr. Manley gave her +that freedom. + +After her tea she went out into the rose-garden and was strolling up and +down it when Mr. Flexen, pondering the information which he had obtained +from William Roper, saw her and came out to her. He thought that she +shrank a little at the sight of him, but assured himself that it must be +fancy; surely there could be no reason why she should shrink from him. + +"I'm told, Lady Loudwater, that you went out through the library window +into the garden for a stroll about a quarter to twelve last night. Did +you by any chance, as you went in or came out, hear Lord Loudwater snore? +I want to fix the latest hour at which he was certainly alive. You see +how important it may prove." + +She hesitated, wrinkling her brow as she weighed the importance of her +answer. Then she looked at him with limpid eyes and said: + +"Yes." + +He knew--the sixth sense of the criminal investigator told him--that she +lied, and he was taken aback. Why should she lie? What did she know? What +had she to hide? + +"Did you hear him snore going out, or coming in?" he said. + +"Both," said Olivia firmly. + +Mr. Flexen hesitated. He did not believe her. Then he said: "How long did +Lord Loudwater sleep after dinner as a rule? What time did he go to bed?" + +"It varied a good deal. Generally he awoke and went to bed before twelve. +But sometimes it was nearer one, especially if he was disturbed and went +to sleep again." + +"Thank you," said Mr. Flexen, and he left her and went back into +the Castle. + +Lord Loudwater had certainly been disturbed by the woman with whom he +had quarrelled. He might have slept on late. But why had Lady Loudwater +lied about the snoring? What did she know? What on earth was she +hiding? Whom was she screening? Could it be Colonel Grey? Was he mixed +up in the actual murder? Mr. Flexen decided that he must have more +information about Colonel Grey, that he would get into touch with him, +and that soon. + +He had information about him sooner than he expected and without seeking +it. Inspector Perkins was awaiting him, with Mrs. Turnbull, the landlady +of the "Cart and Horses." The inspector had learned from her that the +Lord Loudwater had paid a visit to her lodger the evening before, and +that they had quarrelled fiercely. Mr. Flexen heard her story and +questioned her. The important point in it seemed to him to be Lord +Loudwater's threats to hound Colonel Grey out of the Army. + +Mrs. Turnbull left him plenty to ponder. Mr. Manley had told him that the +handle of the famous knife would probably provide him with an +embarrassment of riches in the way of finger-prints. It seemed to him +that the stories of William Roper, Mrs. Carruthers, and Mrs. Turnbull had +provided him with an embarrassment of riches in the way of possible +murderers. It grew clearer than ever to him that the inquest must be +conducted with the greatest discretion, that as few facts as possible +must be revealed at it. It was also clear to him that, unless the handle +of the knife told a plain story, he would get nothing but circumstantial +evidence, and so far he had gotten too much of it. + +He made up his mind that it would be best to see Colonel Grey at once and +form his impression as to the likelihood of his having had a hand in the +crime. He was loth to believe that a V.C. would murder in cold blood +even as detestable a bully as the Lord Loudwater appeared to have been. +But he had seen stranger things. Moreover, it depended on the type of +V.C. Colonel Grey was. V.C.s varied. + +Mr. Flexen lost no time. It was nearly six o'clock. It was likely that +the Colonel would be back at his inn after his fishing. Mrs. Turnbull was +sure that he had as usual gone fishing, for, when he set out in the +morning, he had taken his rod with him. Antony Grey was not the man to +omit a simple precaution like that. Therefore, Mr. Flexen ordered a car +to be brought round, and was at the "Cart and Horses" by twenty past six. + +He found that Colonel Grey had indeed returned. He sent up his card; +the maid came back and at once took him up to the Colonel's +sitting-room. Grey received him with an air of inquiry, which grew yet +more inquiring when Mr. Flexen told him that he was engaged in +investigating the affair of Lord Loudwater's death. Therefore, Mr. +Flexen came to the point at once. + +"I have been informed that Lord Loudwater paid you a visit last night, +and that a violent quarrel ensued, Colonel Grey," he said. + +"Pardon me; but the violence was all on Lord Loudwater's part," said +Colonel Grey in an exceedingly unpleasant tone. "I merely made myself +nasty in a quiet way. Violence is not in my line, unless I'm absolutely +driven to it; and any one less likely to drive any one to violence than +that obnoxious and noisy jackass I've never come across. The fellow was +all words--abusive words. He'd no fight in him. I gave him every reason I +could think of to go for me because I particularly wanted to hammer him. +But he hadn't got it in him." + +Grey spoke quietly, without raising his voice, but there was a rasp in +his tone that impressed Mr. Flexen. If a man could give such an +impression of dangerousness with his voice, what would he be like in +action? He realized that here was a quite uncommon type of V. C. He +realized, too, that Lord Loudwater had made the mistake of a lifetime in +his attempt to bully him. Moreover, he had a strong feeling that if it +had seemed to Colonel Grey that Lord Loudwater was better out of the +way, and a favourable opportunity had presented itself, he might very +well have displayed little hesitation in putting him out of the way. He +felt that the obnoxious peer would have been little more than a +dangerous dog to him. + +He did not speak at once. He looked into Colonel Grey's grey eyes, and +cold and hard they were, weighing him. Then he said: "Lord Loudwater +threatened to hound you out of the Army, I'm told." + +"Among other things," said Grey carelessly. + +Mr. Flexen guessed that the other things were threats to divorce Lady +Loudwater. + +"That would have been a very serious blow to you," he said. + +"You're quite--right," said Colonel Grey. + +Mr. Flexen could have sworn that he had started to say: "You're quite +wrong," and changed his mind. + +The Colonel seemed to hesitate for words; then he went on: "It would have +been a very heavy blow indeed. You can see that for a man who enlisted in +the Artists' Rifles in 1914, and fought his way up to the command of a +regiment, nothing could be more painful. It would have been +heartbreaking; I should have been years getting over it." + +The rasp had gone out of his voice. He was speaking in a pleasant, +confidential tone, and Mr. Flexen did not believe a word he said. At the +least he was exaggerating the distress he would have felt at leaving the +Army; but Mr. Flexen had the strongest feeling that he would have felt +next to no distress at all. Again he was astonished. Colonel Grey was +lying to him just as Lady Loudwater had lied. What could be their reason? +What on earth had they done? + +He kept his astonishment out of his face, and said in a sympathetic +voice: "Yes, I can see that. And then, again, it would have been painful +and very unpleasant to feel that your thoughtlessness had landed Lady +Loudwater in the Divorce Court." + +"Oh, Lord, no!" said Colonel Grey quickly. "There was no chance of any +divorce proceedings. Even for a divorce case, at any rate one brought by +the husband, there must be _some_ grounds; he must have _some_ evidence. +The cock-and-bull story of a gamekeeper is hardly enough to found a +divorce case on, is it?" + +"Oh, I don't know. The gamekeeper might convince a jury. You know what +juries are. You can never tell what form their stupidity will take," said +Mr. Flexen. + +"But apart from the lack of evidence, there was no chance of a divorce +case. I tell you, Loudwater hadn't got it in him," said Grey +confidently. "He'd have threatened and been abusive. He'd have gone on +throwing that cock-and-bull story at Lady Loudwater for as long as she +continued to stick to him; but it would have stopped at that. His +infernal temper never went any deeper than his lungs. Lady Loudwater had +nothing to fear." + +"Yet you think that he would have done his best to hound you out of the +Army?" said Mr. Flexen, finding this conception of Lord Loudwater as a +harmless, if violent, vapourer somewhat inconsistent. + +"That's quite another matter," said Grey quickly. "It merely meant using +his influence behind my back with some scurvy politician. There wouldn't +have been any publicity attached to that, any exposure of his bullying. +He'd have done that all right." + +"I should have thought that a man of Lord Loudwater's violent temper +would rather have sought an open row," Mr. Flexen persisted. + +"Of course--if he'd been really violent. But he wasn't, I tell you. He +was only a blustering bully where women and servants were +concerned--people he could cow. I tell you, I made it quite clear that he +crumpled up directly you stood up to him. Why, hang it all! Any man with +the soul of a mouse who really believed that I had been making love to +his wife, couldn't have taken the things I told him without going for me +at any risk. And as I'm still rather crocked up, and he knew it, there +must have seemed precious little risk about it. I tell you that he was +just a blustering ruffian." + +Mr. Flexen had a strong impression that Colonel Grey was unused to being +as expansive as this, that he was talking for talking's sake, possibly +to put him off asking some question which would be difficult or +dangerous to answer. He could not for the life of him think what that +question could be. + +"I daresay you're right," he said carelessly. "Bullies aren't over-fond +of a real scrap. But I am told that you paid a visit to the Castle last +night and came away about a quarter past eleven. Did you?" + +Colonel Grey showed no faintest disquiet on hearing that his visit to +Olivia the night before was known. But he did not give Mr. Flexen time to +finish the sentence. + +He interrupted him, saying quickly: "Yes. I went to see Lady Loudwater. I +thought it likely that she would attach a good deal more importance to +Loudwater's silly threats than they deserved and might be worrying. It +would have been quite natural. I wanted to talk it over with her and set +her mind at rest about it. It didn't take very long to do that, partly +because it was a long time since he had really frightened her. She had +got used to his tantrums and bullying; and even this new game had not +disturbed her very much. We both came to the conclusion that he was just +blustering again, and wouldn't do anything. As a matter of fact, I don't +think she cared very much what he did. She had got so fed up with him +that she didn't care whether they separated or not." + +Mr. Flexen felt more sure than ever that this garrulity was unusual in +Colonel Grey. He was talking with a purpose, apparently to induce him to +believe that both he and Lady Loudwater had taken her husband's threat of +divorce proceedings lightly. He began to think that they had not taken it +lightly at all, or, at any rate, one or other of them had not. + +"Yes," he said. "That's what always happens with those blustering +fellows. In the end no one takes them seriously. But what I came to ask +you was: Did you, as you came through the library or went out through it, +hear Lord Loudwater snore?" + +Colonel Grey hesitated, just as Lady Loudwater had hesitated over that +question. Plainly he was weighing the effect of his answer. + +Then he said: "No." + +Mr. Flexen's instinct assured him that Colonel Grey had lied just as Lady +Loudwater had lied. + +"Are you sure that nothing in the nature of a snore came to your ears as +you came out? Did you hear any sound from the room? You can see how +important it is to fix as near as we possibly can the hour of Lord +Loudwater's death," he said earnestly. + +"No, I heard nothing," said Colonel Grey firmly. + +"Bother!" said Mr. Flexen. "It's very important. Possibly I shall be able +to find out from some one else." + +"I hope you will," said Grey politely. + +Mr. Flexen bade him good-night cordially enough, and drove back to the +Castle in a considerable perplexity. Both Colonel Grey and Lady Loudwater +were behaving in an uncommonly odd, not to say suspicious manner. + +He was quite sure that both of them had lied about the dead man's +snoring. But it was plain that either had lied with a different object. +Lady Loudwater had lied to make it appear that her husband had been alive +at midnight. Colonel Grey had lied to make it appear that he was dead at +a quarter-past eleven. But Mr. Flexen was sure that Colonel Grey had +heard Lord Loudwater snore and that Lady Loudwater had not. + +What did they know? What had they done? Or what had one of them done? + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +When Mr. Flexen reached the Castle Wilkins took him to a bedroom in the +west wing. He found that his portmanteau had arrived, had been unpacked, +and that his dress clothes were laid out ready for him on the bed. + +As he dressed he cudgelled his brains for the reason why Lady +Loudwater and Colonel Grey had lied. Then an idea came to him: were +they lying to shield the unknown woman with whom Lord Loudwater had +had that violent quarrel? The longer he considered this hypothesis the +more possible it grew. + +He must find that unknown woman, and at once. Possibly Mr. Carrington, as +Lord Loudwater's legal adviser, would be able to put him on her track. + +He came to dinner, still perplexed, to find Mr. Manley waiting to +bear him company. They talked for a while about public affairs and +the weather. + +Then Mr. Flexen said: "Was Lord Loudwater the kind of man to confide in +his lawyers?" + +"Not if he could help it," said Mr. Manley with conviction. + +Mr. Flexen hoped that Lord Loudwater had not been able to help confiding +in his lawyers about this unknown woman. + +Then he said: "By the way, do you know Colonel Grey?" + +"Oh, yes. He was here a lot up to a little while ago. Then he had a row, +the inevitable row, with Lord Loudwater, and he hasn't been here since. +He dropped on to Lord Loudwater for bullying Lady Loudwater, and he +didn't drop on him lightly either. Hell, I fancy, was what he gave him." + +"Yes; I gathered that something of the kind had taken place. What kind of +a man is the Colonel?" said Mr. Flexen carelessly. + +"The best man in the world not to have a row with. He's a cold terror," +said Mr. Manley, in a tone of enthusiastic conviction. "He always seems +rather cooler than a cucumber. But my belief is that that coolness is +just the mask of really violent emotions. I saw them working once. I came +in on the end of his row with Loudwater--just the end of it--my goodness! +From my point of view, the dramatist's, you know, he's the most +interesting person in the county--bar Lady Loudwater, of course." + +"I should never have thought him a terror," said Mr. Flexen, in a tone of +somewhat incredulous surprise. "I had a talk with him this evening about +Lord Loudwater's death, and he seemed to me to be a pleasant enough +fellow and an excellent soldier. I take it that he's very keen on his +career in the Army?" + +"Not a bit of it. The war is merely a side issue with him," said Mr. +Manley in an assured tone. "I know from what he told me himself. We were +talking over our experiences." + +"But, hang it all! he's a V. C.!" cried Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes, he's a V. C. all right. But that's because he's one of those men +who have the knack of taking an interest in everything they turn their +hands to, and doing it well. But his two passions are Chinese art and +women," said Mr. Manley. + +"Women?" said Mr. Flexen. "He didn't strike me as being that kind of man +at all. He seemed a quite simple, straightforward soldier." + +"Simplicity and a passion for Chinese art don't go together--at least, +not what is usually called simplicity," said Mr. Manley dryly. "A friend +of mine, who knows all about him, told me that he had had more really +serious love affairs than any other man in London. He seems to be one of +those men who fall in love hard every time they fall in love. He said +that it was one of the mysteries of the polite world how he had kept out +of the Divorce Court." + +"Sounds an odd type," said Mr. Flexen, storing up the information, and +marking how little it agreed with his own observation of Colonel Grey. +"And you say that Lady Loudwater is interesting too?" + +"Oh, come! Are you pumping me or merely pulling my leg?" said Mr. Manley. +"Surely you can see that Lady Loudwater is pure Italian Renaissance. She +is one of those subtle, mysterious creatures that Leonardo and Luini were +always painting, compact of emotion." + +"It's so long since I was at Balliol, and then I was doing Indian Civil +work--the languages, you know. I've forgotten all I knew about the +Renaissance in Italy, and I don't look at many pictures. All the same, I +think you're wrong--your dramatic imagination, you know. My own idea is +that Lady Loudwater, at any rate, is a quite simple creature." + +"It isn't mine," said Mr. Manley firmly. "She's a great deal too +intelligent to be simple, and she comes of far too intelligent a family." + +"What family?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"She's a Quainton, with Italian blood in her veins." + +"The deuce she is!" cried Mr. Flexen, and half a dozen stories of the +Quaintons rose in his mind. + +He must amend his impressions of Lady Loudwater. + +"And she has a keener sense of humour than any woman I ever came across," +said Mr. Manley, driving his contention home. + +"Has she?" said Mr. Flexen. + +There was a pause. Then Mr. Manley said in a musing tone: "Do you suppose +that Colonel Grey finds her simple?" + +"What? You don't think that there is really anything serious between +them?" said Mr. Flexen quickly. + +"No, not really serious--at any rate, on Colonel Grey's part. You can +hardly expect a man, recovering very slowly from three bad wounds and +still crocked up, to fall in love, can you? Especially a man who, when he +does fall in love, falls in love with the violence with which Grey is +charged," said Mr. Manley. + +"There is that," said Mr. Flexen. "But that wouldn't prevent Lady +Loudwater from falling in love with Colonel Grey. And after the way her +husband treated her, she must have needed something in the way of +affection--badly." + +"It's no good a woman falling in love with a man unless he falls in love +with her," said Mr. Manley, in the tone of a philosopher. "Besides, women +don't fall in love with men who are so feeble from illness as the Colonel +seems to be. How can there be the attraction? She might, of course, want +to mother him very keenly. But that's quite a different thing." He +paused, then added in a tone of some anxiety: "I say, you're not trying +to mix her up with the murder--if it was a murder?" + +"I'm not trying to mix anybody up in it," said Mr. Flexen slowly. "But I +don't mind telling you that it is growing quite a pretty problem, and to +solve a problem you must have every factor in it. You see that the +strong point about both Lady Loudwater and Colonel Grey is, on your own +showing, that they are uncommonly clever; and only stupid people commit +murder--except, of course, once in a blue moon." + +"But what about these gangs of criminals we sometimes read about, with +extraordinarily clever men at the head of them? Don't they exist?" said +Mr. Manley, in a tone of surprise. + +"They exist; but they don't commit murders--not in Europe, at any rate," +said Mr. Flexen. "In the East and in the United States it's different +perhaps. Murder is always as much of a blunder as a crime. It makes +people so keen after the criminal. No: no really intelligent criminal +commits murder." + +"Of course, that's true," said Mr. Manley readily. He paused, then added +in a thoughtful tone: "I wonder whether the war has weakened our +conception of the sanctity of human life?" + +"I shouldn't wonder," said Mr. Flexen; and their talk drifted into a +discussion of generalities. + +He was glad that he was staying at the Castle. His talk with Mr. Manley +had been illuminating. + +Olivia dined in her sitting-room, and with a poor appetite. Away from +Grey, she had fallen back into her anxiety and fearfulness. Wilkins was +waiting on her, an insensible block of a fellow; but even he perceived +that she was very little aware of what she was eating, and now and again +paused, and in some worrying train of thought forgot that she was +dining at all. + +After dinner, however, her mood changed. The fearfulness and anxiety at +times vanished from her face, and a pleasant, eager expectancy took +their place. + +At a quarter to nine she took a dark wrap from her wardrobe, went quietly +down the stairs, and slipped out of the side door, across the east lawn, +and into the path through the shrubbery, unseen. Grey had suggested that +he should come to the Castle after dinner to spend the evening with her; +but they had decided that it would be wiser to meet in the pavilion. +There would be talk if he spent the evening with her so soon after her +husband's death, with his body still unburied in the house. This was the +only mention they made of him all the time they spent together. Besides, +both of them found the pavilion in the wood a far more delightful +meeting-place than the Castle. In the pavilion they felt that they were +out of the world. + +Grey, too anxious and restless to await her at the pavilion, had come +down the wood and into the end of the path through the shrubbery. It +startled her to come upon him so suddenly. But when they came out of the +shrubbery into the moonlit aisle of the wood, the fearfulness and +anxiety and restlessness had vanished utterly from their faces; both of +them were smiling. + +They walked slowly, saying little, touching now and again as they +swayed in their walk along the turf. It seemed wiser not to light the +candles in the pavilion. The moonlight, shining through the high +windows, gave them light enough to see one another's eyes. It was all +they needed. The time passed quickly in the ineffable confidences of +lovers. They had a hundred things to tell one another, a hundred things +to ask one another, in their effort to attain that oneness which is the +aim of all true love. But in their joy in being together, in the joy of +both of them, there was a feverishness, a sense that it was a menaced +joy which must needs be brief. Again they were striving to wring the +most out of the hour which was so swiftly passing. At times the sense of +danger which hung over them was so strong, that they clung to one +another like frightened children in the dark. + +Though Mr. Flexen had at the time shown himself somewhat unbelieving in +the matter of Mr. Manley's conclusions about the character and +temperament of Grey and Olivia, the impression they had made on him grew +stronger. He was too good a judge of men not to perceive that the budding +dramatist had the intelligent imagination which makes for real +shrewdness, and he was not disposed to underrate the value of the +imagination in forming judgments of men and women. Probably Colonel Grey +was a man of less intensity of emotion than Mr. Manley had declared, and +Lady Loudwater less subtile and intelligent. But, after making these +reductions, he had here possible actors in a drama of passion; and though +it was his experience that money, not passion, is the most frequent +motive of murder, he must take the probability of Lord Loudwater's murder +being a crime of passion into account, though, of course, the violent +Hutchings, threatened with ruin, would undoubtedly benefit from a +monetary point of view by the murder. At the same time, Hutchings had +just had an interview, which had gone better probably than he had +expected, with an uncommonly pretty girl. + +Mr. Carrington arrived soon after breakfast next morning, and Mr. Flexen +at once discussed the matter of the inquest with him and the Coroner. He +found the lawyer chiefly eager to have as little scandal as possible, and +the Coroner took his cue from the lawyer. This suited Mr. Flexen +admirably. He had no wish to show his hand so early. He foresaw that if +the story of William Roper were told, and the story of Lord Loudwater's +quarrel with Colonel Grey at the "Cart and Horses," there would be a +painful scandal. The majority of the people of the neighbourhood would at +once believe and declare that Lady Loudwater, or Colonel Grey, or both, +had murdered Lord Loudwater. Such a scandal would in no way serve his +purpose. It might rather hamper him. Pressure might be put on him which +might force him to take steps before the time was ripe for them. + +There was no difficulty in their having exactly the kind of inquest they +wanted, for it was wholly in the hands of Mr. Flexen and the Coroner. +After careful discussion they decided to limit it to Dr. Thornhill's +evidence, and that of the servants with regard to the dead nobleman's +mood on the night of his death. Mr. Carrington urged strongly that full +prominence should be given to the fact that the wound might have been +self-inflicted, and the Coroner promised that this should be done. + +When the Coroner had left them the lawyer said to Mr. Flexen: "In the +case of a man like the late Lord Loudwater, you can't be too careful, you +know. Really, it would be better if the jury brought in a verdict of +suicide. A suicide in a family is always better than a murder." + +"H'm! You could hardly expect me to rest content with such a verdict," +said Mr. Flexen. "Not, I mean, on the evidence." + +"Oh, no; I shouldn't," said Mr. Carrington. "All I want to avoid is a lot +of quite unnecessary painful scandal, which won't lead to anything of use +to you, about innocent people connected with my late client. You won't +act without something pretty definite to go upon, while the +scandalmongers will talk on no grounds at all. Lord Loudwater was a queer +customer, and goodness knows what will come to light, for, of course, +you'll investigate the affair thoroughly." + +The inquest accordingly was conducted on these lines. Only Dr. Thornhill, +Wilkins and Holloway were called as witnesses; and the Coroner directed +the jury to bring in a verdict to the effect that Lord Loudwater had died +of a knife-wound, and that there was no evidence to show whether it was +self-inflicted or not. + +But in this he failed. The jury, muddle-headed, obstinate country folk, +had made up their minds that Lord Loudwater was the kind of man to be +murdered, and that, therefore, he had been murdered. They brought in +the verdict that Lord Loudwater had been murdered by some person or +persons unknown. + +Mr. Flexen, Mr. Carrington and the Coroner were annoyed, but they had had +too wide an experience of juries to be surprised. + +"This will let loose a horde of reporters on us," said Mr. Carrington +very gloomily. + +"It will," said Mr. Flexen. "The pet sleuths of the _Wire_ and the +_Planet_ will leave London in about an hour." + +"Well, they'll have to be dealt with," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Oh, they're all right. I probably know them. I'll get them to work with +me. They must be treated very nicely," said Mr. Flexen cheerfully. + +"They're always a confounded nuisance," said Mr. Carrington, frowning. + +"Not if they're kindly treated. Indeed, I shall very likely find them +really useful," said Mr. Flexen. "But you might give the servants a +hint to be careful of what they say. The hint will come best from you, +and be much more effective than if it came from any one else. You +represent the family." + +"I'll see about it," said Mr. Carrington, and he went to Olivia's boudoir +to confer with her about the invitations to the funeral. + +Mr. Flexen was, indeed, little disturbed by the prospect of the coming of +the newspaper men. A popular member of the chief literary and +journalistic club in London, he would probably know them, or they would +know of him; and he would find them ready enough to work with him. +Besides, even if they discovered that the quarrel between Colonel Grey +and Lord Loudwater had its origin in Lady Loudwater, in the present state +of mind of the country, they would have to move very cautiously indeed in +the case of a V.C. + +He did not, indeed, think it likely that they would discover the cause of +the quarrel for some time--possibly not before their papers had tired of +the business and sent them on other errands. Mrs. Turnbull only knew of +Lord Loudwater's threat to hound Colonel Grey out of the Army; she did +not know the reason of his fury and his threat. Elizabeth Twitcher would +certainly hold her tongue about Lord Loudwater's subsequent quarrel with +Lady Loudwater, and his accusations and threats; Mrs. Carruthers was even +more unlikely to tell of it. It was unlikely that William Roper would +come within the ken of the newspaper men. No one could tell them that he +was the great repository of facts in the case, and Mr. Flexen believed +that he had given him good cause to keep his mouth shut till he called on +him to open it. + +Taking one thing with another, he thought it more than likely that the +newspaper men would not hinder him in his purpose of dealing with the +affair in his own way. + +On the other hand, they might very well be used to help him discover the +unknown woman who had had the furious quarrel with Lord Loudwater at +about eleven o'clock. Indeed, he regarded the information about that +quarrel as a sop to be thrown to them. She afforded just the element of +melodrama in the case which would be most grateful to their different +newspapers, and provide them with plenty of the kind of headlines which +best sold them. It was certain that James Hutchings would also occupy +their attention. The fact that he had been discharged with contumely and +threats, that he had departed uttering violent threats against the dead +man, and that he had returned to visit Elizabeth Twitcher late that +night, were doubtless being discussed by the whole neighbourhood. +However, only himself and William Roper knew, at present, that James +Hutchings had come and gone by the library window, had actually passed +twice within a few feet of his sleeping, or dead, master. That fact, +also, Mr. Flexen proposed to keep to himself till he saw reason to +divulge it. His next business must be to question Hutchings. + +It was quite likely that there lay the solution of the mystery. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +It would have been easy enough for Mr. Flexen to send for Hutchings to +the Castle and question him there. But he did not. In the first place, he +did not think it fair to a man who had already prejudiced himself so +seriously by his threats against the murdered man. Besides, he would be +at a disadvantage, under a greater strain at the Castle, and Mr. Flexen +wanted him where he would be at his best, for he wished to be able to +form an exact judgment of the likelihood of his being the murderer. +Indeed, it must be a very careful and exact judgment, for he felt that he +was moving in deep waters; that it was a case in which it was possible, +even easy, to go hopelessly wrong. Also, he was fully alive to the fact +that if threatened men live long, the men who threaten are to blame for +it, and that threats such as Hutchings' are the commonest things in the +world, and, as a rule, of very little importance. But there was always +the chance that Hutchings was the unusual threatener; and, if he were, he +had assuredly been in circumstances most favourable to the carrying out +of his threats. + +Accordingly he learnt from Inspector Perkins the way to the gamekeeper's +cottage in the West Wood, where Hutchings was staying with his father, +and drove the car to it himself. Hutchings was alone in the cottage, for +his father was out on his rounds. He invited Mr. Flexen to come in. Mr. +Flexen came in, sat down in an arm-chair, and examined Hutchings' face. +He saw that the man was plainly very anxious and ill at ease. It was +natural enough. He must perceive quite clearly how black against him +things looked. + +He was forced also to admit to himself that Hutchings had not a pleasant +face. It was choleric and truculent, and in spite of the man's evident +anxiety, there was a sullen fierceness on it which gave him no little of +the air of a wild beast trapped. + +Mr. Flexen wasted no time beating about the bush, but said to him: "When +you visited Elizabeth Twitcher last night you entered and left the Castle +by the library window." + +"You got that from that young blighter Manley," said Hutchings bitterly. + +"Not at all. I did not know that Mr. Manley knew it," said Mr. Flexen. +"So you did?" + +"Yes, sir, I did. I always went to the village that way in the +summer-time. It's the shortest. Besides, his lordship was nearly always +asleep; and if he wasn't and did 'ear me, there was always something I +could be doing in the library, sir." + +He spoke with eager, rather humble civility. + +"Well, did you, as you went through the library, coming or going, hear +Lord Loudwater snore?" + +Hutchings knitted his brow, thinking; then he said: "I can't call to mind +as I did, sir. But, then, I wasn't giving him any attention. I was +thinking about other things altogether. Of course, I went out quietly +enough. But that was habit." + +"That sounds as if you had not heard him snore--as if you thought that he +was awake," said Mr. Flexen. + +"I don't think I thought about him at all, sir, at the moment. I was +thinking about other things," said Hutchings. + +"You say that Mr. Manley saw you go out?" + +"Yes, sir. I passed him in the hall and went into the library. We had a +few words, and I told him I had come to fetch some cigarettes as I'd +left behind." + +"Do you know what the time was?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"No, sir--not exactly. But it must have been nearly half-past eleven, I +should think." + +"It is very important to fix the time at which Lord Loudwater died," said +Mr. Flexen. "You can't tell me nearer than that?" + +"No, sir. It was nearly ten to twelve when I got home, and I reckon it's +about twenty minutes' walk from the Castle to the cottage here." + +"And all you went to the Castle for was to speak to Elizabeth Twitcher?" +said Mr. Flexen. + +"That was all I went for--every single thing. And it was all I did +there--every mortal thing I did there, sir," Hutchings asseverated, and +he wiped his brow. + +"H'm!" said Mr. Flexen. "As you passed through the library, did you +happen to notice whether the knife was in its place in the big inkstand?" + +Hutchings hesitated, and his lips twitched. Then he said: "Yes, I did, +sir. It was in the big inkstand." + +Mr. Flexen could not make up his mind whether he was telling the truth or +not. He thought that he was not. But he did not attach much importance to +the matter. People who knew themselves to be suspected of a crime had +often told him quite stupid and unnecessary lies and been proved innocent +after all. + +"I should have thought that your mind was too full of other things to +notice a thing like that," he said in a somewhat incredulous tone. + +Then there came an outburst. Mr. Flexen had thought that Hutchings was +worked up to a high degree of nervous tension, and he was. He cried out +that he knew that every one believed that he had done it; but he hadn't. +He'd never thought of it. He was damned if he didn't wish he had done it. +He might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, anyhow. He broke off to +curse Lord Loudwater at length. He had been a curse to every one who came +into contact with him while he was alive, and now he was getting people +into trouble when he was dead. Yes: he wished it had occurred to him to +stick that knife into him. He'd have done it like a shot, and he'd have +done the right thing. The world was well rid of a swine like that! + +His face was contorted, and his eyes kept gleaming red as he talked, and +he came to the end of his outburst, trembling and panting. + +Mr. Flexen was unmoved and unenlightened. It was merely the outburst +of a badly-frightened man lacking in self-control, and told him +nothing. It left it equally likely that Hutchings had, or had not, +committed the crime. + +"There's nothing to get so frantic about," he said quietly to the panting +man. "It doesn't do any good." + +"It's all very well to talk like that, sir," said Hutchings in a shaky +voice. "But I know what people are saying. It's enough to make any one +lose their temper." + +"I should think that yours was pretty easy to lose," said Mr. +Flexen dryly. + +"I know it. It is very short, sir. It always was; and I can't help it," +said Hutchings in an apologetic voice. + +"Then you'd better set about learning to help it, my man," said +Mr. Flexen. + +He took out his pipe and filled it slowly. The flush faded a little from +Hutchings' face. Mr. Flexen lighted his pipe and rose. + +Then as he went to the door he said: "I should advise you to get that +stupid temper well in hand. It makes a bad impression. Good afternoon." + +Mr. Flexen drove back to the Castle, considering Hutchings carefully. +There was no doubt that he was, indeed, badly frightened; but he had +reason to be. Mr. Flexen could not decide whether he had worn the air of +a guilty man or an innocent. He could not decide whether the butler had +been too deeply absorbed in his own affairs to hear the snoring of Lord +Loudwater as he went through the library. It was possible that Lord +Loudwater was alive, asleep, and yet not snoring at the time. Snoring is +often intermittent. + +He considered Hutchings' violent outburst. Certainly such an outburst +showed the man uncommonly unbalanced; it might, indeed, on occasion take +the form of uncontrollable murderous fury. But it seemed to him that an +actual meeting with Lord Loudwater would have been necessary to provoke +that. But Lord Loudwater had been sitting in his chair when he died; and +if he had not killed himself, he had been killed in his sleep. At any +rate, there was probably sufficient evidence, seeing what juries are, to +convict Hutchings. If he had been one of those not uncommon ministers of +the law, whose only desire is to secure a conviction, he would doubtless +arrest him at once. But it was not his only desire to secure a +conviction; it was his very keen desire to find the right solution of the +problem. He could not see where any more evidence against Hutchings was +to come from. What Mr. Manley had told him about the knife, that it had +been in general use, and that he had seen Hutchings cut string with it +the day before the murder, greatly lessened its value as evidence, even +if Hutchings' finger-prints were thick on it. He decided to dismiss +Hutchings from his mind for the time being, and devote all his energies +to discovering the mysterious woman with whom Lord Loudwater had had the +furious quarrel between eleven and a quarter-past. + +With this end in view, on his return to the Castle, he went straight to +the library, where Mr. Carrington was engaged, along with Mr. Manley, in +an examination of the murdered man's papers. They were uncommonly few, +and Mr. Manley had already set them in order. Lord Loudwater seemed to +have kept but few letters, and the papers consisted chiefly of receipted +and unreceipted bills. + +When he found that Mr. Flexen had come to confer with the lawyer, Mr. +Manley assumed an air of extraordinary discretion and softly withdrew. + +"I want to know--it is most important--whether there was any +entanglement between Lord Loudwater and a woman," said Mr. Flexen. + +"I should think it very unlikely," said Mr. Carrington without +hesitation. "At least, I have never heard of anything of the kind, +and so far I have come across no trace of anything of the kind among +his papers." + +Mr. Flexen frowned, considering; then he said: "Do you happen to know +whether he employed any one besides your firm to do legal work for him?" + +"As to that I can't say. But I should not think it likely. It was always +a business to get him to attend to anything that wanted doing, and he +always made a fuss about it. I can't see him employing another firm too. +But he may have done. The only thing is that I ought to have found either +their bills or the receipts for them among those papers--except that my +late client does not appear to have taken the trouble to keep many +receipts." + +"The thing is that I've learnt that Lord Loudwater had a furious quarrel +with some unknown woman between eleven and a quarter-past on the night of +his death, and I want to find her. You can see how important it is. It +may be that she stabbed him, or it may be that she provided him with the +motive to commit suicide--not that that seems likely. But you can't tell: +she might have been able to threaten him with some exposure. Those people +without any self-control are always doing the most senseless +things--bigamy, for instance, is often one of their weaknesses." + +"Loudwater was certainly without self-control; but I hardly think that he +was the man to commit bigamy," said the lawyer. + +"It would very much simplify matters if he had," said Mr. Flexen in +a dissatisfied tone. "I wonder whether Manley would know anything +about it?" + +"He might," said Mr. Carrington. + +Mr. Flexen went through the library window to find Mr. Manley strolling +up and down the lawn with every appearance of enjoying his pipe and the +respite from perusing papers. + +"Mr. Carrington tells me that you were in Lord Loudwater's confidence," +said Mr. Flexen. + +"Wholly," said Mr. Manley, with more promptness than his actual knowledge +of the facts warranted. + +It seemed to him fitting that a secretary of his intelligence and +discretion should have been wholly in the confidence of any nobleman who +employed him. Therefore he himself must have been. + +"Then perhaps you can tell me whether he was entangled with a woman," +said Mr. Flexen. + +"Entangled? In what way?" said Mr. Manley in a tone of surprise. + +"In the usual way, I suppose. Was he engaged in a love-affair with any +woman, or had he been?" + +"He certainly did not tell me anything about it if he was," said Mr. +Manley. "But that is the kind of thing he might very well _not_ confide +to his secretary." + +"You don't happen to know if he was making any payments to a woman--an +allowance, for example?" said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley was well on his guard by now. These questions must surely +refer to Helena. + +"He never told me anything about it," he said with perfect readiness. +"Not, of course, that I would tell you if he had," he added, in his most +amiable voice. "I've told you that I thought that he made enough trouble +while he was alive. I won't help him to make trouble now that he's dead." + +Mr. Flexen thought that the asseveration was unnecessary, since Mr. +Manley had not the knowledge which would make the trouble. He returned to +the lawyer and told him that Mr. Manley had no information to give. + +"It seems a very important point in the affair," said the lawyer. + +"It is," said Mr. Flexen, frowning. "I wonder if there was an intrigue +with a country girl or woman, some one in the neighbourhood?" + +"There might have been. Lord Loudwater rode a great deal. He was +hours in the saddle every day. He had time and opportunity for that +kind of thing." + +"On the other hand, there's no need for it to have been any one in the +neighbourhood at all. To say nothing of the train, it's a short enough +motor drive from London; and it was a moonlight night," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Then you may be able to find traces of the car. The woman must have left +it somewhere while she had the interview with Lord Loudwater," said Mr. +Carrington. + +"I'll try," said Mr. Flexen, not very hopefully, "But there are so few +people about at night nowadays. Five out of the eight gamekeepers are +still abroad. In ordinary times there would have been four at least of +them about the roads and woods. On that night there was only one." + +"There's the further difficulty that Lord Loudwater had so few friends. +That will make it harder to find out anything about an affair of this +kind--if he had one," said Mr. Carrington. + +"It will, indeed," said Mr. Flexen, and paused, frowning. Then he +added gravely: "I'm sure that there was such an affair, and I've got +to find the woman." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +Mr. Manley did not lunch with Mr. Flexen and the lawyer. In cultivating +Mr. Flexen he had been forced to see less than usual of Helena, and, +interesting a companion as Mr. Flexen was, Mr. Manley very much preferred +her society. He found her less nervous than she had been the day before, +but she still wore a sufficiently anxious air, and was still restless. +She seemed more pleased to see him than usual, and the warmth of her +welcome gave him a sudden sense that she was even fonder of him than he +had thought, or hoped. It stirred him to an admirable response. + +At lunch she questioned him with uncommon particularity about the +proceedings of Mr. Flexen, the discoveries he had made, the lines on +which he was making his investigation. Her interest seemed natural +enough, and he told her all that he knew, which was little. She seemed +much disappointed by his lack of information. He was careful not to tell +her that Mr. Flexen had inquired of him whether he knew of any +entanglement between Lord Loudwater and a woman. Thanks to his +imagination he was a young man of uncommon discretion, and it was plain +that she was suffering anxiety enough. + +At the end of her fruitless questioning she sighed and said: "Of course, +the whole affair is of no great interest to you really." + +"It isn't of very great interest to me," said Mr. Manley. "You see, the +victim of the crime, if it was a crime, was such an uninteresting +creature. Nature, as I've told you before, intended him for a bull, +changed her mind when it was too late to make a satisfactory alteration, +and botched it. You must admit that the bull man is a very dull kind of +creature, unless he can make things lively for you by prodding you with +his horns. When he is dead, he is certainly done with." + +"I wish he was done with," she said, with a sigh. + +"Well, as far as you are concerned, he is done with, surely," he said, in +some surprise. + +"Of course, of course," she said quickly. "But still, he seems likely to +give a great deal of trouble to somebody; and if there is a trial, how am +I to know that my name won't be brought up?" + +"I don't think there's a chance of it," he said. "How should it be +brought up?" + +"One never knows," she said, with a note of nervous dread in her voice. + +"Well, as far as I'm concerned, he'll get no help in making a posthumous +nuisance of himself from me; and I'm inclined to think that, as things +are going, he'll need my help to do that," he said in a tone of quiet +satisfaction. + +"A posthumous nuisance--you do have phrases! And how you do dislike +him!" she said. + +"The moderately civilized man, with a gentle disposition like mine, +always does hate the bull man. Also, he despises him," said Mr. +Manley calmly. + +She was silent a while, thinking; then she said: "What did you mean by +saying: 'If it was a crime.' What else could it have been?" + +"A suicide. The evidence was that the wound might have been +self-inflicted," said Mr. Manley. + +"Absurd! Lord Loudwater was the last man in the world to commit suicide!" +she cried. + +"That's purely a matter of individual opinion. I am of the opinion that a +man of his uncontrollable temper was quite likely to commit suicide," he +said firmly. "As for its being absurd, if there is any attempt to prove +any one guilty of murdering him on purely circumstantial evidence, that +person won't find anything absurd in the theory at all. In fact, he'll +work it for all it's worth. I think myself that, with Dr. Thornhill's +evidence in mind, the police, or the Public Prosecutor, or the Treasury, +or whoever it is that decides those things, will never attempt in this +case to bring any one to trial for the murder on merely circumstantial +evidence." + +"Do you think not?" she said in a tone of relief. + +"I'm sure of it," said Mr. Manley. "But why do we waste our time talking +about the tiresome fellow when there are things a thousand times more +interesting to talk about? Your eyes, now--" + +Mr. Flexen instructed Inspector Perkins and his men to make inquiries +about the rides of Lord Loudwater and to try to learn whether any one had +seen a strange car, or, indeed, a car of any kind, in the neighbourhood +of the Castle about eleven o'clock on the night of the murder. Also, he +could see his way to using the newspaper men to help him to discover +whether there had been any entanglement known to the club gossips or the +people of the neighbourhood between Lord Loudwater and a lady in London. +It was not unlikely that he had talked of it to some one, for if they +quarrelled so furiously he must need sympathy; and if he had not talked, +the lady probably had, though it might very well be that she was not in +the circle in which the Loudwaters moved in London. He had some doubt, +however, that she was a London woman at all. She had shown too intimate a +knowledge of Lord Loudwater's habits at Loudwater and of the Castle +itself, for it was clear from William Roper's story that she had gone +straight to the library window and through it, in the evident expectation +of finding Lord Loudwater asleep as usual in his smoking-room. It was +this doubt which prevented him from appealing to Scotland Yard for help +in clearing up this particular point. He wished to make sure first that +the woman did not belong to the neighbourhood. On the other hand, she +might always be some one who had been a guest at the Castle. + +He was about to go in search of Lady Loudwater to question her about +their friends and acquaintances who might have this knowledge of the +Castle and the habits of her husband, when the sleuth from the _Wire_ and +the sleuth from the _Planet_ arrived together, in all amity and the same +vexation at being prevented by this errand from spending the afternoon at +the same bridge table. The sleuth of the _Wire_ was a very solemn-looking +young man, with a round, simple face. The sleuth of the _Planet_ was a +tall, dark man, with an impatient and slightly worried air, who looked +uncommonly like an irritable actor-manager. + +Both of them greeted Mr. Flexen with affectionate warmth, and Douglas, +the tall sleuth of the _Planet_, at once deplored, with considerable +bitterness, the fact that he had been robbed of his afternoon's bridge. +Gregg, the sleuth of the _Wire_, preserved a gently-blinking, +sympathetic silence. + +Mr. Flexen at once sent for whisky, soda and cigars, and over them took +his two friends into his confidence. He told them that it was very +doubtful whether it was a case of murder or suicide; that the jury's +verdict was not in accordance with the directions of the Coroner, but +just a piece of natural, pig-headed stupidity. This produced another +bitter outcry from Douglas about the loss of his afternoon. Mr. Flexen +did not soothe him at all by pointing out that he was in a beautiful +country on a beautiful day. Then he told them about the coming of the +mysterious woman and her violent quarrel with the Lord Loudwater just +about the probable time of his death. Douglas at once lost his irritated +air and displayed a lively interest in the matter; Gregg listened and +blinked. Mr. Flexen told them also of Hutchings, his threats, and his +visit to the Castle. That was as far as his confidences went. But they +were enough. He had given them the very things they wanted, and they both +assured him that they would at once inform him of any discoveries they +might make themselves. They left him feeling sure that he might safely +leave the servants and the villagers to them and the policemen. If any +one in the neighbourhood knew anything about the mysterious woman, they +would probably ferret it out. What was far more important was that +tomorrow's _Wire_ and _Planet_ would contain such an advertisement of her +that any one in London or the country who knew of her relations with the +dead man would learn at once the value of that knowledge. + +When they had gone he sent for Mrs. Carruthers, and learned, to his +annoyance, that none of the upper servants except Elizabeth Twitcher had +been in service at the Castle for more than four months. She could only +say that during the six weeks that she had been housekeeper there had +been very few visitors; and they had been merely callers, except when +Colonel Grey had been coming to the Castle and there had been small +tennis parties. She had heard nothing from the servants about his +lordship's being on particularly friendly terms with any lady in the +neighbourhood. Hutchings would be the most likely person to know a thing +like that. He had been in service at the Castle all his life. Of course, +her ladyship, too, she might know. + +Mr. Flexen made up his mind to seek out Hutchings at once and question +him on the matter; but Mrs. Carruthers had only just left him when he saw +Olivia come into the rose-garden with Colonel Grey. He watched them idly +and perceived that, for the time being at any rate, Olivia had lost her +strained and anxious air. She was plainly enough absorbed, wholly +absorbed, in Grey. She had eyes only for him, and Mr. Flexen suspected +that her ears were at the moment deaf to everything but the sound of his +voice. They did look a well-matched pair. + +It occurred to him that he might as well again question Olivia about her +husband's possible intrigue with another woman and be done with it. There +could be no harm in Colonel Grey's hearing the questions. As for +interrupting their pleasant converse, he thought that they would soon +recover from the interruption. Accordingly he went out to the +rose-garden. + +Absorbed in one another, they did not see him till he was right on them, +and then he saw a curious happening. At the sight of him a sudden, +simultaneous apprehension filled both their faces, and they drew closer +together. But he had an odd fancy that they did not draw together for +mutual protection, but mutually to protect. Then, almost on the instant, +they were gazing at him with politely inquiring eyes, Lady Loudwater +smiling. He felt that they were intensely on their guard. It was +uncommonly puzzling. + +He changed his mind about questioning Lady Loudwater in the presence of +Grey, and asked if she could spare him a minute or two to answer a few +questions. + +"Oh, yes. I'm sure Colonel Grey will excuse me," she said readily. + +"But why shouldn't you question Lady Loudwater before me?" said Colonel +Grey coolly; but he slapped his thigh nervously with the pair of gloves +he was carrying. "It's always as well for a woman to have a man at hand +in an awkward affair like this, which may lead to a good deal of +unpleasantness if anything goes wrong. I'm a friend of Lady Loudwater, +and I don't suppose you fear that anything you discuss before me will go +any further, Mr. Flexen." + +He was cool enough, but Mr. Flexen did not miss the note of anxiety in +his voice. + +"I don't mind at all if Lady Loudwater would like it," he said readily. +"But it's rather a delicate matter." + +"Oh, I should like Colonel Grey to hear everything," said Olivia quickly. + +"It's about the matter of an entanglement between Lord Loudwater and some +lady. Are you quite sure there was nothing of the kind before his +marriage, if not after it?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"I don't know for certain," said Olivia readily. "But two or three times +Lord Loudwater did talk about other women in a boasting sort of way. +Only it was when he was trying to annoy me; so I didn't pay much +attention to it." + +"And you never tried to find out whether it was the truth or not?" said +Mr. Flexen. + +"No, never. You see, I didn't particularly care," said Olivia, with +unexpected frankness. "If I'd cared, I expect it would have been very +different." + +"And did Lord Loudwater never mention the name of any lady when he was +boasting?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"No. Never. It was just general boasting. And he certainly gave me to +understand that it was two or three, not one," said Olivia. + +"Have you any suspicion that he had any particular lady in mind--any of +your common friends, for example--some one who has stayed at the Castle?" +said Mr. Flexen. + +"None at all. I haven't the slightest idea who it could have been. It +must have been some one I don't know, or I should have been nearly sure +to notice something," said Olivia. + +"Can you tell me any one who might know?" + +Olivia shook her head, and said: "No. I don't know any friend of my +husband well enough to say. He never told me who his chief friends were. +It never occurred to me that he had an intimate friend. I always thought +he hadn't, in fact." + +"I tell you what: you might inquire of Outhwaite, you know the man I +mean, the man who used always to be getting fined for furious driving. He +was a friend of Loudwater, the only friend I ever heard him mention, +indeed. If he ever confided in any one, that would be the most likely +man," said Colonel Grey. + +"Thank you. That's an idea. I'll certainly try him," said Mr. Flexen, and +he turned as if to go. + +But Olivia stopped him, saying: "Do you think, then, that a woman did it, +Mr. Flexen?" + +"Well, there is a certain amount of evidence which lends some colour to +that theory, but I don't want any one to know that," said Mr. Flexen. + +And then he could have sworn that he heard Olivia breathe a faint sigh +of relief. + +But Colonel Grey broke in in a tone of some acerbity and more anxiety: +"It's nonsense to talk of any one having done it in face of the +medical evidence--any one, that is, but Loudwater himself. He +committed suicide." + +"You think him a likely man to have committed suicide, do you?" said +Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes. A man of his utterly uncontrollable temper is the very man to +commit suicide," said Colonel Grey firmly. + +"It is, of course, always possible that he committed suicide," said Mr. +Flexen in a non-committal tone. + +"It's most probable," said Colonel Grey curtly. + +"What do you think, Lady Loudwater?" said Flexen. + +"Why, I haven't thought much about it. I always--I--but now I do think +about it, I--I--think it's not unlikely," said Olivia, in a tone of no +great conviction. "And he was so frightfully upset, too, that night--not +that he had any reason to be; but he was." + +"Ah, well; my duty is to investigate the matter till there isn't a shadow +of doubt left," said Mr. Flexen in a pleasant voice. "I daresay that I +shall get to the bottom of it." + +With that he left them and went back into the Castle. + +At the sight of his back Olivia breathed so deep a sigh of relief that +Grey winced at it. + +"If only it could be proved that Egbert did commit suicide!" she said +wistfully. + +"I don't see any chance of it," said Colonel Grey gloomily. Then he +added in a tone of but faint hope: "Unless he wrote to one of his friends +that he intended to commit suicide." + +Olivia shook her head and said: "Egbert wouldn't do that. He hated +letter-writing." + +"Besides, if he had, we should have heard of it by now," said Grey. + +"The friend might be away," said Olivia. "I know that Mr. Outhwaite was +in France." + +"That's hoping too much," said Grey. + +They strolled on in silence, his eyes on her thoughtful face, which under +Mr. Flexen's questioning had again grown anxious. Then he said: "This sun +is awfully hot. Let's stroll through the wood to the pavilion. It will be +delightful there." + +"Very well," said Olivia, smiling at him. + +Mr. Flexen went back to his room, rang for Holloway, and bade him find +Mr. Manley, if he were in, and ask him to come to him. Holloway went, and +presently returned to say that Mr. Manley had gone out to lunch, but left +word that he would be back to dinner. + +Mr. Flexen, therefore, gave his mind to the consideration of his talk +with Colonel Grey and Olivia, and the longer he considered it, the more +their attitude intrigued and puzzled him. They certainly knew something +about the murder, something of the first importance. What could it be? + +Again he asked himself could either, or both of them, have actually had +a hand in it? It seemed improbable; but he was used to the improbable +happening. He could not believe that either of them would have dreamt of +committing murder to gain a personal end--to save themselves, for +example, from the injuries with which Lord Loudwater had threatened them. +But would they commit murder to save some one else, one to save the +other, for example, from such an injury? Murder was, indeed, a violent +measure; but Mr. Flexen was inclined to think that either of them might +take it. Mr. Manley's confident declaration that they were both creatures +of strong emotions had impressed him. He felt that Colonel Grey, under +the impulse to save Lady Loudwater, would stick at very little; and he +was used to violence and to hold human life cheap. On the other hand, +Lady Loudwater would go a long way--a very long way--if any one she loved +were threatened. The fact that she had good Italian blood in her veins +was very present in his mind. + +Again, it would be a matter of sudden impulse, not of grave deliberation. +The irritating sound of Lord Loudwater's snores and the sight of the +gleaming knife-blade on the library table coming together after their +painful and moving discussion of their dangers might awake the impulse to +be rid of him, at any cost, in full strength. He was not disposed to +underrate the suggestion of that naked knife-blade on them when they +were strung to such a height of emotion. Again, he asked himself, had +either of them murdered Lord Loudwater to save the other? + +At any rate, they knew who had committed the murder. Of that he was sure. + +Could they be shielding a third person? If so, who was that third person? + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Mr. Flexen sat pondering this question of a third person for a good +twenty minutes. + +It could not be Hutchings. There would be no reason to shield Hutchings +unless they had instigated or employed him to commit the murder, and that +was out of the question. He was not sure, indeed, that Hutchings was not +the murderer; the snores and the knife were as likely to have excited the +murderous impulse in him as in them. He was quite sure that if Dr. +Thornhill had been able to swear that the wound was not self-inflicted, +he could have secured the conviction of Hutchings. But it was incredible +that Lady Loudwater or Colonel Grey had employed him to commit the +murder. No; if they were shielding a third person, it must be the +mysterious, unknown woman who had come with such swift secrecy and so +wholly disappeared. + +It grew clearer and clearer that there most probably lay that solution +of the problem. If that woman herself had not murdered Lord Loudwater, +as seemed most likely, she might very well give him the clue for which +he was groping. He must find her, and, of course, sooner or later he +would find her. But the sooner he found her, the sooner would the +problem be solved and his work done. Till he found her he would not find +its solution. + +It still seemed to him probable that somewhere among Lord Loudwater's +papers there was information which would lead to her discovery, and he +went into the library to confer again with Mr. Carrington on the matter. +He found him discussing the arrangements for tomorrow's funeral with Mrs. +Carruthers and Wilkins. + +When they had gone he said: "Did you come across any information about +that mysterious woman in the rest of the papers?" + +"Not a word," said Mr. Carrington. + +"I've been thinking that you might come across traces of her in his +pass-books--payments or an allowance." + +"I thought of that. But there's only one passbook, the one in use. Lord +Loudwater doesn't seem to have kept them after they were filled. And +Manley knows all about this one; he wrote out every cheque in it for +Loudwater, and he is quite sure that there were no cheques of any size +for a woman among them." + +"That's disappointing," said Mr. Flexen. "What about the cheques to +'Self'? Are there any large ones among them?" + +"No. They're all on the small side--distinctly on the small +side--cheques for ten pounds--and very few of them." + +"It is queer that it should be so difficult to find any information +about a woman who played such an important part in his life," said Mr. +Flexen gloomily. + +"It's not so very uncommon," said the lawyer. + +"Well, let's hope that the advertisement she'll get from my newspaper +friends will bring her to light," said Mr. Flexen. + +"It would be a pleasant surprise to me to find them serving some useful +purpose," said Mr. Carrington grimly. + +Mr. Flexen laughed and said: "You're prejudiced. It's about time to dress +for dinner." + +Mr. Carrington rose with alacrity and said anxiously, "I hope to goodness +Loudwater didn't quarrel with his chef!" + +"I've no reason to think so. The food's excellent," said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley joined them at dinner, wearing his best air of a discreet and +indulgent man of the world, and confident of making himself valued. He +was in very good spirits, for he had persuaded Helena to marry him that +day month, and was rejoicing in his success. He did not tell Mr. Flexen, +or Mr. Carrington, of his good fortune. He felt that it would hardly +interest them, since neither of them knew Helena or was intimate with +himself. But, inspired by this success, he took the lead in the +conversation, and showed himself inclined to be somewhat patronizing to +two men outside the sphere of imaginative literature. + +It was Mr. Flexen who broached the subject of the murder. + +After they had talked of the usual topics for a while, he said: "By the +way, Manley, did you hear Lord Loudwater snore after Hutchings went into +the library, or before?" + +"So you know that I saw Hutchings in the hall that night?" said Mr. +Manley. "It's wonderful how you find things out. I didn't tell you, and I +should have thought that I was the only person awake in the front part of +the Castle. I suppose that some one saw him getting his cigarettes from +the butler's pantry." + +"So that was the reason he gave you for being in the Castle," said Mr. +Flexen. "Well, was it after or before you spoke to him that you heard +Lord Loudwater snore?" + +Mr. Manley hesitated, thinking; then he said: "I can't remember at the +moment. You see, I was downstairs some little time. I found an evening +paper in the dining-room and looked through it there. I might have heard +him from there." + +"You can't remember?" said Mr. Flexen in a tone of disappointment. + +"Not at the moment," said Mr. Manley. "Is it important?" + +"Yes; very important. It would probably help me to fix the time of Lord +Loudwater's death." + +"I see. A lot may turn on that," said Mr. Manley thoughtfully. + +"Yes. You can see how immensely it helps to have a fact like that fixed," +said Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes: of course," said Mr. Manley. "Well, I must try to remember. I +daresay I shall, if I keep the fact in my mind gently, and do not try to +wrench the recollection out of it. You know how hard it is to remember a +thing, if it hasn't caught your attention fairly when it happened." + +"Yes," said Mr. Flexen. "But I hope to goodness you'll remember it +quickly. It may be of the greatest use to me." + +"Ah, yes; I must," said Mr. Manley, giving him a queer look. + +"I was forgetting," said Mr. Flexen, understanding the thought behind the +queer look. "You'd hardly believe it, Mr. Carrington, but Mr. Manley told +me at the very beginning of this business that he was not going to help +in any way to discover the murderer of Lord Loudwater, because he +considered that murderer a benefactor of society." + +"But I never heard of such a thing!" cried the lawyer in a tone of +astonished disapproval. "Such a course might be possible in the case of +some minor crime, or in a person intimately connected with the criminal +in the case of a major crime. But for an outsider to pursue such a +course in the case of a murder is unheard of--absolutely unheard of." + +"I daresay it isn't common," said Mr. Manley in a tone of modest +satisfaction. "But I am modern; I claim the right of private judgment in +all matters of morality." + +"Oh, that won't do--that won't do at all!" cried the shocked lawyer. +"There would be hopeless confusion--in fact, if everybody did that, the +law might easily become a dead letter--absolutely a dead letter." + +"But there's no fear of everybody doing anything of the kind. The ruck +of men have no private judgment to claim the right of. They take +whatever's given them in the way of morals by their pastors and masters. +Only exceptional people have ideas of their own to carry out; and there +are not enough exceptional people to make much difference," said Mr. +Manley calmly. + +"But, all the same, such principles are subversive of society--absolutely +subversive of society," said Mr. Carrington warmly, and his square, +massive face was growing redder. + +"I daresay," said Mr. Manley amiably. "But if any one chooses to have +them, and act on them, what are you going to do about it? For example, if +I happened to know who had murdered Lord Loudwater and did not choose to +tell, how could you make me?" + +"If there were many people with such principles about, society would +soon find out a way of protecting itself," said the lawyer, in the +accents of one whose tenderest sensibilities are being outraged. + +"It would have to have recourse to torture then," said Mr. Manley +cheerfully. + +"But let me remind you that it is a crime to be an accessory before, or +after, the fact to murder," said the lawyer in a tone of some triumph. + +"Oh, I'm not going as far as that," said Mr. Manley. "A man might very +well approve of a murder without being willing to further it." + +Mr. Flexen laughed and said: "I understand Mr. Manley's point +of view. Sometimes I have felt inclined to be judge as well as +investigator--especially in the East." + +"And you followed your inclination," said Mr. Manley with amiable +certainty. + +"Perhaps--perhaps not," said Mr. Flexen, smiling at him. + +"The war has upset everything. I never heard such ideas before the war," +grumbled the lawyer. + +There was a silence as Holloway brought in the coffee and cigars. + +When he had gone, Mr. Flexen said in an almost fretful tone: "It's an +extraordinary thing that Lord Loudwater kept so few papers." + +"I don't know," said Mr. Manley carelessly. "During the six months I've +been here we were never stuck for want of a paper. He seemed to me to +have kept all that were necessary." + +"It's the destroying of his pass-books that seems so odd to me," said +the lawyer. "A man must often want to know how he spent his money in a +given year." + +"I'm sure I never want to," said Mr. Manley. "And certainly pass-books +are unattractive-looking objects to have about." + +"All the same, they might have proved very useful in this case," said Mr. +Flexen. "Of course, they wouldn't tell us anything we shall not find out +eventually. But they might have saved us a lot of time and trouble. They +might put us on to the track of another firm of lawyers who did certain +business for Lord Loudwater." + +"Well, no one but Mr. Carrington's firm did any business for him during +the last six months," said Mr. Manley, rising. "I feel inclined to take +advantage of the moonlight and go for a stroll. So I will leave you to go +on working on the murder. Good-bye for the present." + +He sauntered out of the room, and when the door closed behind him, the +lawyer said earnestly: "I do hate a crank." + +The words came from his heart. + +"Oh, I don't think he's a crank," said Mr. Flexen in an indulgent tone. +"He's too intelligent; that's all." + +"There's nothing so dangerous as too much intelligence. It's always a +nuisance to other people," said the lawyer. "Do you think he really knows +anything?" + +"He knows something--nothing of real importance, I think," said Mr. +Flexen. "But, as I expect you've noticed, he likes to feel himself of +importance. And whatever knowledge he has helps him to feel important. +It's a harmless hobby. By the way, is there anything in the way of +insanity in Lady Loudwater's family?" + +"No, I never heard of any, and I should have been almost certain to hear +if there were any," said the lawyer in some surprise. + +"That's all right," said Mr. Flexen. + +"By the way, how did you get on with the newspaper men?" said the lawyer. + +"I put them in the way of making themselves very useful to me, and, at +the same time, I gave them exactly the kind of thing they wanted. I +think, too, that when they've run the story I gave them for all it's +worth, they'll very likely drop the case--unless, that is, we've really +got it cleared up. I was careful to point out to them that the verdict of +the coroner's jury was a piece of pig-headed idiocy, and they'll see the +unlikelihood of securing a conviction for murder with the medical +evidence as it is, unless we have an absolutely clear case." + +"But, all the same, there's going to be a tremendous fuss in the papers," +said Mr. Carrington, in the tone of dissatisfaction of the lawyer who is +always doing his best to keep tremendous fusses out of the papers. + +"Oh, yes. That was necessary. It's out of that fuss that I hope to get +the evidence which will settle once and for all, in my mind at any rate, +the question whether Lord Loudwater was murdered or not." + +"But surely you haven't any doubt about that?" said the lawyer sharply. + +"Just a trifle, and I may as well get rid of it," said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley took his hat and stick and went leisurely out of the front +door of the Castle. He paused on the steps for half a minute to admire +the moonlit night and murmur a few lines from Keats. Then he strolled +down the drive whistling the tune of an American coon song. But presently +the whistle died on his lips as he considered Mr. Flexen's keen desire to +discover the other firm of lawyers who had done business for Lord +Loudwater. He could not but think, when he put this keenness of Mr. +Flexen beside Helena's strange anxiety, that she had done something of +which she had not told him, something that might have drawn suspicion on +her. He did not see what she could have done; but there it was. He had a +feeling, an intuition that it was she whom Mr. Flexen was seeking, and he +prided himself on his intuition. Well, the longer they were finding +Shepherd, the lawyer who had handled the business of her allowance, the +better he would be pleased. He had certainly done his best to block their +way. At the same time, they might at any moment learn who he was. It was +fortunate, therefore, that Shepherd had a job in Mesopotamia, and that +his business was closed down for the present. If they did learn who he +was, they would still be a long while before they obtained any +information about Helena from him. Mr. Manley's keen desire was that the +first excitement about the murder should have died down before they did +get it. He was a firm believer in the soothing effect of time. The +discovery of Helena's allowance, if it were made now, might cause her +considerable annoyance, if not actual trouble. Coming in six weeks' time, +or even a month's time, it would be far less likely to make that trouble. + +He wondered what it could be that she had done to bring herself under +suspicion. Remembering what she had said of her determination to discuss +the halving of her allowance with the dead man, and her remark that she +had such a knowledge of his habits that she could make sure of having an +interview with him to discuss it, it seemed not unlikely that she had +gone to see him on the very night of his murder, and that some one had +seen her. If it were so, he hoped that she would tell him, so that they +might together devise some way of preventing harm coming from the +accident that the interview had occurred at such an unfortunate hour. He +felt sure that he would be able to devise such a way. He never blinked +the fact of his extreme ingenuity. + +He found her strolling in her garden with the anxious frown which had +awakened his uneasiness, still on her brow. Her face grew brighter at the +sight of him, and presently he had smoothed the frown quite away. Again +he realized that the murder of Lord Loudwater had had a softening effect +on her. Before it they had been much more on equality; now she rather +clung to him. He found it pleasing, much more the natural attitude of a +woman towards a man of his imagination and knowledge of life. He was +properly gracious and protective with her. + +The next morning the _Daily Wire_ opened his eyes and confirmed his +apprehensions. The murder of a nobleman is an uncommon occurrence, and +the editor of that paper showed every intention of making the most of it. +The visit of the unknown woman to Lord Loudwater and their quarrel, +treated with the nervous picturesqueness of which Mr. Gregg was so famous +a master, formed the main and interesting part of the article. When he +came to the end of it, Mr. Manley whistled ruefully. He had no difficulty +whatever in picturing to himself the indignant and violent wrath of +Helena, and he could not conceive for a moment that Lord Loudwater had +been able to withstand it. Of course, he would be violent, too, but with +a much less impressive violence. + +Lord Loudwater had been lavish in the matter of newspapers; he was a rich +man, and they had been his only reading. Mr. Manley read the report of +the inquest in all the chief London dailies, and found in the _Daily +Planet_ another nervously picturesque article on the visit of the +mysterious woman from the nervously picturesque pen of Mr. Douglas. + +Here was certainly a pretty kettle of fish. He could not doubt that the +woman was Helena. It explained Flexen's questioning him whether he had +any knowledge of an entanglement between Lord Loudwater and a woman, and +Flexen's keen desire to find some other firm of lawyers who might have +been called in to deal with such an entanglement. But he could not for a +moment bring himself to believe that there could have ever been any need +for Helena to have recourse to the knife. He could not see Lord +Loudwater resisting her when she became really angry; he must have given +way. None the less, he did not underestimate the awkwardness, the danger +even, of her having paid that visit and had that quarrel at such an +unfortunate hour. + +He had matter enough for earnest thought during the funeral. It was a +large funeral, though there were not many funeral guests. Five ladies, an +aunt and four cousins, of Lord Loudwater's own generation, came down from +London. The younger generation was either on its way back from the war, +or too busy with its work to find the time to attend the funeral of a +distant relation, whom, if they had chanced to meet him, they neither +liked nor respected. But there was a show of carriages from all the big +houses within a radius of nine miles, which more than made up for the +fewness of the guests. Also, there was a crowd of middle- and lower-class +spectators who considered the funeral of a murdered nobleman a spectacle +indeed worth attending. It was composed of women, children, old men, and +a few wounded private soldiers. + +Olivia attended the funeral, wearing a composed but rather pathetic air, +owing to the fact that her brow was most of the time knitted in a +pondering, troubled frown. Lady Croxley, Lord Loudwater's aged aunt, rode +with her in the first coach. She was a loquacious soul, and whiled away +the journey to and from the church, which is over a mile from the Castle, +with a panegyric on her dead nephew, and an astonished dissertation on +the strange fact that Olivia had not had a woman with her during this sad +time. She ascribed her abstinence from this stimulant to her desire to be +alone with her grief. Olivia encouraged her harmless babble by a vague +murmur at the right points, and continued to look pathetic. It was all +her aunt by marriage needed, and it left Olivia free to think her own +thoughts. She gave but few of them to her dead husband; the living +claimed her attention. + +Mr. Manley wore an air of gloom far deeper than his sense of the fitness +of things would in the ordinary course of events have demanded. It was +the result of the nervously picturesque English which had flowed with +such ease from the forceful pens of Mr. Douglas and Mr. Gregg. Mr. +Carrington, who rode with him, and from attending the funerals of many +clients had acquired as good a funeral air as any man in his profession, +found his gloom exaggerated. He was all the more scandalized, therefore, +when, as they were nearing the Castle, Mr. Manley suddenly cried, "By +Jove!" and rubbed his hands together with a face uncommonly radiant. + +He had had the cheering thought that he had the Loudwater case, if ever +it should come to a trial, wholly in his hands. He had but to remember +having heard Lord Loudwater snore at, say, a few minutes to twelve, to +break it down. He did not conceive that he would encounter any difficulty +in remembering that if it should be necessary. + +The solemnity of the funeral and Mr. Carrington's conversation in the +coach--he had talked about the weather--had not weakened his resolve +that, if he could help it, no one should swing for the murder. + +This realization of his position of vantage made him eager to go to +Helena to set her mind at rest, should she, as he thought most likely, +be greatly troubled by the fact that her untimely visit to the murdered +man was known. But he had to lunch at the Castle with the funeral guests. +They were interested beyond measure in the murder and full of questions. +He talked to them with a darkly mysterious air, and made a deep +impression of discreet sagacity on their simple minds. He observed that +Olivia appeared to have been afflicted more deeply by the funeral than he +had expected. She looked harassed and seemed to find the lunch rather a +strain. He observed also that she did not, as did her guests, who were so +slightly acquainted with him, pay any tribute to the character of her +dead husband. + +Mr. Flexen was not lunching with them. He had spent an expectant morning +waiting for the local effects of the story in the _Wire_ and _Planet_, +and in having that story spread far and wide by Inspector Perkins and his +two men among the villagers, who only saw a paper in the public-houses of +the neighbourhood on a Sunday. He hoped, if it had been a local affair, +to have information about it in the course of the day. Up to lunchtime +the newspaper advertisement of the mysterious woman had proved as +fruitless as the earlier private inquiries. But he remained hopeful. + +It was past three before Mr. Manley escaped from the funeral guests and +betook himself at a brisk pace to Helena's house. As he went he made up +his mind that the quality most fitting the occasion was discretion. He +had better not let it appear that he was sure that she was the mysterious +woman of the _Daily Wire._ He must make his announcement that, in the +event of any one being brought to trial for the murder of Lord Loudwater, +his evidence could break down any case for the prosecution, and that he +would see that it did break it down, appear as casual as possible. But, +at the same time, he must make it quite clear to her that he could secure +her safety. He felt that though she might think his firm resolve that no +one should swing for the murder quixotic, she would perceive that it was +only in keeping with his generous nature. + +He had expected to find her much more disturbed by the nervously +picturesque articles of Mr. Gregg and Mr. Douglas than she appeared. +Indeed, she seemed to him much less under a strain, much less nervous +than she had been the night before. None the less, he was careful to +reassure her wholly by the announcement of his discovery of the important +nature of the evidence he could give, before he said anything about those +articles. When he did tell her that he could break down any case for the +prosecution, she did not at once confess that she was the woman of whose +visit to Lord Loudwater those stories told; they did not even discuss the +question, which had seemed so important to the _Daily Wire_, who that +woman was. They contented themselves with discussing the question who +could have seen her. He admired her spirit in not telling him, her +readiness to forgo his comfort and support before the absolute need for +them was upon her. Her force of character was what he most admired in +her, and this was a striking example of it. His own character, he knew, +was rather subtile and delicate than strong. He was more than ever alive +to the advantage of having her to lean upon in the difficult career that +lay before him. + +Mr. Flexen was disappointed that the advertisement of the mysterious +woman in the _Wire_ and the _Planet_ brought no information about her +during the morning. After lunch Mr. Carrington returned to London. At +half-past three Mr. Flexen telegraphed to Scotland Yard to ask if any one +had given them information about the woman he was seeking. No one had. +Then he realized that he was unreasonably impatient. Whoever had the +information would probably think the matter over, and perhaps confer with +friends before coming forward. In the meantime, he would make inquiries +of James Hutchings. + +He drove to the gamekeeper's cottage to find James Hutchings sitting on a +chair outside it and reading the _Planet_. He perceived that he looked +puzzled. Also, he perceived that he still wore a strained, hunted air, +more strained and hunted by far than at their last talk. + +He walked briskly up to him and said: "Good afternoon. I see that you're +reading the story of Lord Loudwater's murder in the _Planet_. It occurred +to me that you might very likely be able to tell me who the lady who +visited Lord Loudwater on the night of his murder was. At any rate, you +can probably make a guess at who she was." + +Hutchings shook his head and said gloomily: "No, sir, I can't. I +don't know who it was and I can't guess. I wish I could. I'd tell you +like a shot." + +"That's odd," said Mr. Flexen, again disappointed. "I should have thought +it impossible for your master to have been on intimate terms with a lady +without your coming to hear of it. You've always been his butler." + +"Yes, sir. But this is the kind of thing as a valet gets to know about +more than a butler--letters left about, or in pockets, you know, sir. But +his lordship never could keep a valet long enough for him to learn +anything. He was worse with valets than with any one." + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen in a vexed tone. "But still, I should have +thought you'd have heard something from some one, even if the matter had +not come under your own eyes. Gossip moves pretty widely about the +countryside." + +"Oh, this didn't happen in the country, sir--not in this part of the +country, anyhow. It must have been a London woman," said Hutchings with +conviction. "If she'd lived about here, I must have heard about it." + +"It was a lady, you must know. The papers do not bring that fact out. My +informant is quite sure that it was a lady," said Mr. Flexen. + +"That's no 'elp, sir," said Hutchings despondently. "She must have come +down by train and gone away by train." + +"She would have probably been noticed at the station. But she wasn't. +Besides, she could not have walked back to the station in time to catch +the last train. I'm sure of it." + +"Then she must have come in a car, sir." + +"That is always possible," said Mr. Flexen. + +There was a pause. + +Then Hutchings burst out: "You may depend on it that she did it, sir. +There isn't a shadow of a doubt. You get her and you'll get the +murderess." + +He spoke with the feverish, unbalanced vehemence of a man whose nerves +are on edge. + +"You think so, do you?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"I'm sure of it--dead certain," cried Hutchings. + +"It's a long way from visiting a gentleman late at night and quarrelling +with him to murdering him," said Mr. Flexen. + +"And she went it. You mark my words, sir. She went it. I don't say that +she came to do it. But she saw that knife lying handy on the library +table and she did it," said Hutchings with the same vehemence. + +"Any one who passed through the library would see that knife," said Mr. +Flexen carelessly, but his eyes were very keen on Hutchings' face. + +Hutchings was pale, and he went paler. He tried to stammer something, but +his voice died in his throat. + +"Well, I'm sorry you can't give me any information about this lady. +Good afternoon," said Mr. Flexen, and he turned on his heel and went +back to the car. + +He was impressed by Hutchings' air and manner. Of course, believing +himself to be suspected, the man was under a strain. But would the strain +on him be so heavy as it plainly was, if he knew himself to be innocent? +And then his eagerness to fasten the crime on the mysterious woman. It +had been astonishingly intense, almost hysterical. + +When he reached the Castle he found Inspector Perkins awaiting him with a +small package which had come by special messenger from Scotland Yard. It +contained enlarged photographs of the fingerprints on the handle of the +knife. They were all curiously blurred. + +_The murderer had worn a glove._ + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +Mr. Flexen studied the photographs and the report which stated this fact +with a lively interest and a growing sense of its great importance. For +one thing, it settled the question of suicide for good and all. Lord +Loudwater had worn no glove. + +Also, it strengthened the case against the mysterious woman. She had +come, apparently, from a distance, and probably in a motor-car. If she +had driven herself down, she would be wearing gloves. Also, only a woman +would be likely to be wearing gloves on a warm summer night. Indeed, +coming from a distance by train, or car, she would certainly wear gloves. +She would not dream of coming to an interview, with a man with whom she +had been intimate and whom she wished to bend to her will, with hands +dirtied by a journey. + +If that gloved hand had not been the hand of the mysterious woman, then +the murder had been premeditated, and the murderer or murderess had put +on gloves with the deliberate purpose of leaving no finger-prints. + +It _was_ the woman. In all probability it was the woman. + +Then Mr. Flexen's sub-conscious mind began to jog his intellect. +Somewhere in his memory there was a fact he had noted about gloves, and +that fact was now important in its bearing on the case. He set about +trying to recall it to his mind. He was not long about it. Of a sudden he +remembered that he had been a trifle surprised to perceive that Colonel +Grey had been carrying gloves when he had found him in the rose-garden +with Lady Loudwater. + +His surprise had passed quickly enough. He had decided that the life in +the trenches had not weakened Colonel Grey's habit, as a fastidious man +about town, of taking care of his hands. He remembered, too, that at his +first interview with him he had observed that his hands were uncommonly +well shaped and well kept. + +He did not suppose that Colonel Grey had come to the Castle on the +night of the murder wearing gloves with the deliberate intention of +killing Lord Loudwater without leaving finger-prints. But suppose that, +as he came away from a distressing interview with Lady Loudwater, the +knife on the library table had caught his eye and his gloves had been +in his pocket? + +Mr. Flexen took out his pipe, lit it, and moved to an easy-chair to let +his brain work more easily. He tabulated his facts. + +Colonel Grey had gone through the library window at about twenty +minutes past ten. + +Hutchings had gone through the library window at half-past ten. + +The mysterious woman had gone through the library window at about ten +minutes to eleven. + +She came out of the library window at about a quarter-past eleven after a +violent quarrel with Lord Loudwater. + +Colonel Grey came out of the library window at about twenty-five minutes +past eleven, after a distressing interview with Lady Loudwater, +apparently in a very bad temper. + +James Hutchings had come out of the library window at about half-past +eleven, also, if William Roper might be believed, furious. + +Lady Loudwater had come through the library window at a quarter to +twelve, and gone back through it at five minutes to twelve. + +Each of the last three had passed within fifteen feet of Lord Loudwater, +dead or alive, both on entering and on coming out of the Castle. The +mysterious woman had actually been in the smoking-room with him. + +If Lady Loudwater's statement that she heard her husband snoring at five +minutes to twelve were to be accepted, neither Colonel Grey, Hutchings, +nor the mysterious woman could have committed the murder--unless always +one of them had returned later and committed it. That possibility must +be borne in mind. + +But Mr. Flexen did not accept her statement. If he were to accept it, she +herself at once became the most likely person to have committed the +crime. It was always possible that she had. She certainly had the best +reasons of any one, as far as he knew, for committing it. + +The evidence of Mr. Manley about the time at which he heard Lord +Loudwater snore was of the first importance. But how to get it out of +him? Mr. Flexen had a strong feeling that not only would Mr. Manley +afford no help to bring the murderer of Lord Loudwater to justice, but, +that owing to the vein of Quixotry in his nature, he was capable of +helping the murderer to escape. That he could do. He had only to declare +that he heard Lord Loudwater snore at twelve o'clock to break down the +case against any one of the four persons between whom the crime obviously +lay. Mr. Flexen had a shrewd suspicion that Mr. Manley would fail to +remember at what time he had last heard Lord Loudwater's snores till the +police had set about securing the conviction of one of the possible +murderers. Then, when the case of the police against the murderer was +revealed, he would come forward and break it down. He had decided that +Mr. Manley was a sentimentalist, and he knew well the difficulty of +dealing with sentimentalists. Moreover, Mr. Manley was animated by a +grudge against the murdered man. Mr. Flexen could quite conceive that he +might presently be regarding perjury as a duty; he had had experience of +the queer way in which the mind of the sentimentalist works. + +It appeared to him that everything depended on his finding the +mysterious woman. + +That afternoon Elizabeth Twitcher determined to go to see James +Hutchings. She had not seen him since their interview on the night of the +murder. In the ordinary course she would not have dreamt of going to him +after that interview, for it had left them on such a footing that further +advances, repentant advances, must come from him. But there were pressing +reasons why she should not wait for him to make the advances which he +would in ordinary circumstances have made after his sulkiness had abated. +All her fellow-servants and all the villagers, who were not members of +the Hutchings family, were assured that he had murdered Lord Loudwater. +Three of the maids, who were jealous of her greater prettiness, had with +ill-dissembled spitefulness congratulated her on having dismissed him +before the murder; her mother had also congratulated her on that fact. +Elizabeth Twitcher was the last girl in the world to desert a man in +misfortune, and, considering James Hutchings' temper, she could only +consider the murder a misfortune. Besides, she had been very fond of him; +she was very fond of him still, and the fact that he was in great +trouble was making him dearer to her. + +Moreover, every one who spoke to her about him told her that he was +looking miserable beyond words. Her heart went out to him. + +None the less, she did not go to see him without a struggle. She felt +that he ought to come to her. However, her pride had been beaten in that +struggle by her fondness and her pity--even more by her pity. + +When she knocked at the door of his father's cottage James Hutchings +himself opened it, and his harassed, hang-dog air settled in her mind for +good and all the question of his guilt. She was not daunted; indeed, a +sudden anger against Lord Loudwater for having brought about his own +murder flamed up in her. Like every one else who had known him, she could +feel no pity for him. + +James Hutchings showed no pleasure whatever at the sight of her. Indeed, +he scowled at her. + +"Come to gloat over me, have you?" he growled bitterly. + +"Don't be silly!" she said sharply. "What should I want to do a thing +like that for? Is your father in?" + +"No; he isn't," said James Hutchings sulkily, but his eyes gazed at +her hungrily. + +He showed no intention of inviting her to enter. Therefore she pushed +past him, walked across the kitchen, sat down in the window-seat, and +surveyed him. + +He shut the door, turned, and gazed at her, scowling uncertainly. + +Then she said gently: "You're looking very poorly, Jim." + +"I didn't think you'd be the one to tell of my being in the Castle that +night!" he cried bitterly. + +"It wasn't me," she said quietly. "It was that little beast, Jane +Pittaway. She heard us talking in the drawing-room." + +"Oh, that was it, was it?" he said more gently. Then, scowling again, he +cried fiercely: + +"I'll wring her neck!" + +"That's enough of that!" she said sharply. "You've talked a lot too much +about wringing people's necks. And a lot of good it's done you." + +"Oh, I know you believe I did it, just like everybody else. But I tell +you I didn't. I swear I didn't!" he cried loudly, with a vehemence which +did not convince her. + +"Of course you didn't," she said in a soothing voice. "But what are you +going to do if they try to make out that you did? What are you going to +tell them?" + +He gazed at her with miserable eyes and said in a miserable voice: "God +knows what I'm to tell them. It isn't a matter of telling them. It's how +to make 'em believe it. These people never believe anything; the police +never do." + +She gazed at him thoughtfully, with eyes compassionate and full of +tenderness. They were a balm to his unhappy spirit. + +The hardness slowly vanished from his face. It became merely troubled. He +walked quickly across the room, dropped into the seat beside her and put +an arm round her. + +"You're a damned sight too good for me, Lizzie," he said in a gentler +voice than she had ever heard him use before, and he kissed her. + +"Poor Jim!" she said. And again: "Poor Jim!" + +He trembled, breathing quickly, and held her tight. + +After a while he regained control of himself, and sat upright. But he +still held her tightly to him with his right arm. + +They began to discuss his plight and how he might best defend himself. +She was fully as fearful as he. But she did not show it. She must cheer +him up, and she kept insisting that the police could not fix the murder +on him, that they had nothing to go upon. If they had, they would have +already arrested him. Certainly they knew what the servants and the +village people were saying. But that was just talk. There wasn't any +evidence; there couldn't be any evidence. + +Her support and encouragement put a new spirit into him. He had been so +alone against the world. His own family, though they had loudly and +fiercely protested his innocence to their friends and enemies in the +village, had not expressed this faith in him to him. + +Indeed, his father had expressed their real belief, when he said to him +gloomily: "I always told you that damned temper of yours would get you +into trouble, Jim." + +Then Elizabeth gave him his tea. After it they talked calmly with an +actual approach to cheerfulness till it was time for her to return to the +Castle to dress Olivia's hair for dinner. Then she would have it that he +should escort her back to the Castle. She declared, truly enough, that he +was doing himself no good by moping at the cottage, that people would say +that he dare not show himself. He _must_ hold his head up. + +She insisted also that they should take the long way round, through the +village; that people should see them together. She insisted that he +should look cheerful, and talk to her all the length of the village +street. The looking cheerful helped to lighten his spirit yet more. As +they went through the village she kept looking up at him in an +affectionate fashion and smiling. + +The village was, indeed, taken aback. It had made up its mind that James +Hutchings was a pariah to be shunned. It was not only taken aback, it was +annoyed. It had no wish that its belief that James Hutchings had +murdered Lord Loudwater should be in any way unsettled. + +Mrs. Roper, the mother of William Roper and a lifelong enemy of the +Hutchings family, summed up the feeling of her neighbours about the +behaviour of James Hutchings and Elizabeth. + +"Brazen, I call it," she said bitterly. + +Before they reached the Castle, Elizabeth had come to feel that during +the last three days James Hutchings had changed greatly, and for the +better. She had an odd fancy that murdering his master had improved his +character; the fear of the police had softened him. Not once did he try +to domineer over her. That domineering had been the source of their not +infrequent quarrels, for she was not at all of a temper to endure it. + +Olivia and Grey had again spent their afternoon in the pavilion in the +East wood. Their bearing at times had been oddly like that of Elizabeth +and James Hutchings. Now and again they had lapsed from their absorption +in one another into a like fearfulness. But, unlike Elizabeth and James +Hutchings, neither of them said a word about the murder of Lord +Loudwater. But both of them seemed a little less under a strain than they +had been. This new factor of a quarrel with an unknown woman seemed to +open a loophole. Olivia's colouring had lost some of its warmth; the +contours of her face were less rounded. Grey had manifestly taken a step +backwards in his convalescence; his face was thinner, even a little +haggard; there was a somewhat strained watchfulness in his eyes. + +They could not tear themselves away from the pavilion till the last +moment, and he walked back with her as far as the shrubbery on the edge +of the East lawn, and there they parted after she had promised to meet +him there that evening at nine. + +As Olivia came into her sitting-room Elizabeth and James Hutchings came +to the back door of the Castle. She did not say good-bye at once; of set +purpose, she lingered talking to him that the other servants might +understand clearly that her attitude to him was definitely fixed. + +But at last she held out her hand and said: "I must be getting along to +her ladyship, or she'll be waiting for me." + +James Hutchings looked round, considered the coast sufficiently clear, +caught her to him, kissed her, and said huskily: "You're just a +ministering angel, Lizzie, and there's more sense in your little finger +than in all my fat head. I'm feeling a different man, and I'll baulk +them yet." + +"Of course you will, Jim," said Elizabeth, and she opened the door. + +"Lord, how I wish I was coming in with you--back in my old place! I +should be seeing you most of the time," he said wistfully. + +Elizabeth stopped short, flushing, and looked at him with suddenly +excited eyes. + +At his words a great thought had come into her mind. + +"Wait a minute, Jim. Wait till I come back," she said somewhat +breathlessly, and, leaving the door open, she hurried down the passage. + +She hurried up to her room, took off her hat, and hurried to Olivia. She +found her in her sitting-room looking through an evening paper to learn +if any new fact about the murder had come to light. + +"If you please, your ladyship, James Hutchings has come to ask if your +ladyship would like him to come back for the time being till you've got +suited with another butler," said Elizabeth in a rather breathless voice. + +Olivia looked at Elizabeth's flushed, excited and hopeful face, +and smiled. + +"Why, have you and James made it up, Elizabeth?" she said. + +"Yes, m'lady," said Elizabeth, and the flush deepened in her cheeks. + +"Then go and tell him to come back, by all means," said Olivia. + +"Thank you, m'lady," said Elizabeth, in accents of profound gratitude, +and she ran out of the room. + +Olivia smiled and then she sighed. It was pleasant to have given +Elizabeth such obviously keen pleasure. She never dreamed that Elizabeth +and James Hutchings were under the same strain of fear and anxiety as +she herself, and that she had given them great help in their trouble, for +Elizabeth saw that the return of James Hutchings to his situation would +give the wagging tongues full pause. + +James Hutchings was dumbfounded on receiving the message. He stared at +Elizabeth with his mouth open. + +"Be quick, Jim. Get your clothes and be back in time to wait on her +ladyship at dinner," said Elizabeth. + +James Hutchings came out of his stupor. + +"Why, L-L-Lizzie, you must let me p-p-put up our b-b-banns tomorrow," he +stammered. + +"Be off!" said Elizabeth, stamping her foot. "We can talk about +that later." + +When she came from her bath Olivia sent Elizabeth to tell Holloway that +she would dine with Mr. Flexen and Mr. Manley that evening. She had a +sudden desire to see more of Mr. Flexen, to weigh him as an antagonist. + +Mr. Flexen was somewhat surprised to receive the information; then, +considering the terms on which Olivia had been with her husband, he found +her action natural enough. After all, she was not a woman of the middle +class, bound to make a pretence of grieving for a wholly unamiable bully. +Also, he was pleased: to dine with so charming a creature as Olivia would +be pleasant and stimulating. In the course of the evening his wits might +rise to the solution of his problem. Moreover, it would be odd if he did +not gain a further, valuable insight into her character. + +He was yet more surprised to find James Hutchings, still rather pale and +haggard, but quite cool and master of himself, superintending the +waiting of Wilkins and Holloway at dinner. Also, he liked the way in +which he spoke to Olivia and looked at her. To Mr. Flexen, James +Hutchings had the air of the authentic faithful dog. He was inclined to +a better opinion of him. + +Plainly, too, Olivia had learned that tongues were wagging against him, +and had taken this way of checking them. It was a generous act. At the +same time, he could very well believe that Olivia might, unconsciously of +course, be on the side of the murderer of such a husband. + +Thanks to Mr. Manley's invaluable sense of what was fitting, there was no +constraint about the dinner. He had decided that they were three people +of the world dining together, and the fact that there had been a murder +in the house three days before and a funeral in the morning should not be +allowed to impair their proper nonchalance. At the same time, decorum +must be preserved; there must be no laughter. + +Accordingly he took the conversation in hand, and kept it in hand. Mr. +Flexen was somewhat astonished at the ability with which he did it; now +and again he felt as if, personally, he were performing feats on the +loose wire, but that, thanks to Mr. Manley, he was not going to fall off. +They talked of the usual subjects on which people who have not a large +circle of common acquaintances fall back. They all three abused the +politicians with perfect sympathy; they abused the British drama with +perfect sympathy; with no less perfect sympathy they abused the Cubists +and the Vorticists and the New Poets. Mr. Flexen had an odd feeling that +they were behaving with entire naturalness and propriety; that their real +interest was in the politicians, the British drama, the Cubists, the +Vorticists and the New Poets, and not at all in the fate of the murderer +of the late Lord Loudwater. After a while he found himself vying +earnestly with Mr. Manley in an effort to display himself as a man of at +least equal insight and intelligence. + +Olivia did not talk much herself. She never did. But she displayed a +quickness of understanding and soundness of judgment which stimulated +them. All the while she was watching and weighing Mr. Flexen. He never +once perceived it. Plainly enough, the talk did her good. She had come +to dinner looking, Mr. Flexen thought, rather under the water. Before +long she was looking, as she had resolved to look, her usual self. When, +at a few minutes to nine, she left them, she was looking the most +charming and sympathetic creature in the world, and, what was more, a +creature without a care. + +When the door closed behind her, she seemed to have taken with her a good +deal of the brightness of the room. Mr. Flexen dropped back into his +chair and frowned. In the silence which fell he wondered. Plainly she was +free enough from care now. + +"But when the feast is finished and the lamps expire--" + +Then Mr. Manley said, in a tone almost insolent: "If you think she +murdered that red-eyed bull in a china shop, you're wrong. She didn't." + +Mr. Flexen did not resent his tone. Indeed, before he could speak, it +flashed on him that if she had done so, and Justice was depending on him +himself to bring her to it, it was depending on a somewhat frail reed. He +liked Mr. Manley for his readiness to fight for her cause. + +He laughed gently and said: "I wasn't thinking so. I was only wondering." +Then his eyes on Mr. Manley's face turned very keen, and he said: "I +believe you know a good deal more about the affair than I do, if you +liked to speak." + +It seemed to him that for a moment Mr. Manley's desire to make himself +valued struggled with his desire to be accurate. + +Then the young man shook his head and said in a tone of surprise: "But +what nonsense! You know so much more about it than I do. Why, you must +have all the threads in your hands by now. I never even dreamt of the +_Daily Wire's_ mysterious woman." + +"Not quite all--yet. But they're coming all right," said Mr. Flexen, with +a confidence he was far from feeling. + +James Hutchings, coming into the room to fetch cigarettes for Olivia, +interrupted them. + +"I'm glad to see you back again, Hutchings," said Mr. Manley in a tone of +hearty congratulation. "Your going away for a trifle after all the years +you've been here was a silly business." + +"Thank you, sir," said Hutchings gratefully. + +When Hutchings had gone, Mr. Flexen said: "It's all very well your +talking, but it was you who suggested that Lady Loudwater was a woman of +strong primitive emotions with a strain of Italian blood in her." + +"I never suggested for a moment that she was a woman of _primitive_ +emotions," Mr. Manley protested with some vehemence. + +"But the emotions of all women are primitive," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Not the emotion excited in them by beauty," said Mr. Manley with +chivalrous warmth. "And, hang it all! Does she look like a woman to +commit murder?" + +"Not on her own account, certainly," said Mr. Flexen. + +"And on whose account should she commit murder?" cried Mr. Manley. + +Mr. Flexen shrugged his shoulders. + +"I said you knew ten times as much about the business as I do," said Mr. +Manley in a tone of triumph. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Mr. Flexen awoke next morning hopeful of news of the mysterious woman. +But the letters addressed to him at the Castle and those brought over +from the office of the Chief Constable at Low Wycombe brought none. After +breakfast, still hopeful, he telephoned to Scotland Yard. No information +had reached it. + +He perceived clearly that the case was at a deadlock till he had that +information. He was sure that it would come sooner or later, possibly +from the neighbourhood, more probably from London. It was always possible +that Mr. Carrington might discover that some other lawyer had handled an +entanglement for Lord Loudwater. In the meantime, his work at the Castle +was done. He had exhausted its possibilities. There was no reason why he +should not return to his rooms at Low Wycombe. After having conferred +with Inspector Perkins, he decided to leave one of the two detectives to +continue making inquiries in the neighbourhood. He told James Hutchings +that he would like his clothes packed, and went to the rose-garden to +taken his leave of Olivia and thank her for her hospitality. + +He found her looking very charming in a light summer frock of white lace +with a few black bows set about it, and he thought that she seemed less +under a strain than she had seemed the day before. He told her that he +was returning to Low Wycombe; she expressed regret at his going, and +thanked him for his efforts to clear up the matter of Lord Loudwater's +death. They parted on the friendliest terms. + +As he came away, Mr. Flexen thought it significant that, though she had +thanked him for his efforts, she had made no inquiry about the result of +them. It might be that she dreaded to hear that they were on the way to +be successful. + +He observed that James Hutchings, who watched over his actual +departure, seemed less pale and haggard than he had been the night +before. He could well believe that he was glad to see him going without +having had him arrested. + +As he drove through the park he told himself that Lady Loudwater and Mr. +Manley between them would probably break down any case the police might +bring against any one but the mysterious woman, and they might break down +that. For his part, he was not going to give much time or attention to it +till the mysterious woman had been discovered, and he did not think that +he would be urged by Headquarters to do so after he had sent in his +report, for, mindful of what he had told them of the unsatisfactory +nature of Dr. Thornhill's evidence, Mr. Gregg in the _Daily Wire_ and +Mr. Douglas on the _Daily Planet_ were dealing with the case in a +half-hearted manner, though they were still clamouring with some vivacity +for the mysterious woman. + +As Mr. Flexen came out of the park gates he met William Roper on the edge +of the West wood, stopped the car, and walked a few yards down the road +to talk to him out of hearing of the chauffeur. + +"I gather that you haven't told any one of what you saw on the night of +Lord Loudwater's death; or I should have heard of it," he said. + +"Not a word, I haven't," said William Roper. + +"That's good," said Mr. Flexen in a tone of warm approval. "It might +spoil everything to put people on their guard." + +He was more strongly than ever resolved to prevent, if he could, the +gamekeeper from setting afoot a scandal about Lady Loudwater which could +be of no service to the police or any one else. + +"Everybody says as James Hutchings did it, sir," said William Roper. + +"H'm! And what do they say about the mysterious lady the papers are +talking about--the lady you saw?" + +"Oh, they don't pay no 'eed to 'er--not about 'ere, sir. They know Jim +Hutchings," said William Roper contemptuously. + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen. + +"'Er ladyship and Colonel Grey, they still spends a lot of their time in +the East wood pavilion. But now 'er ladyship's a widder, it's nobody's +business but their own, I reckon," said William Roper. + +"Of course not, of course not," said Mr. Flexen quickly, pleased to find +that the ferret-faced gamekeeper attached so little importance to it. "I +suppose people about here see that." + +"They don't know about it. Nobody knows about it but me, and I don't tell +everything I sees unless there's something to be got by it. A still +tongue makes a wise 'ead, I say," said William Roper, with a somewhat +vainglorious air. + +"Quite right--quite right," said Mr. Flexen heartily. "Many a man's +tongue has lost him a good job." + +"You're right there, sir. But not me it won't," said William Roper +with emphasis. + +"I can see that. You've too much sense. Well, I shall keep in touch with +you, and when the time comes you'll be called on. Drink my health. Good +day," said Mr. Flexen, giving him half-a-crown. + +He walked back to the car, pleased to have done Olivia the service of +closing William Roper's mouth, at any rate for a time. He would talk, of +course, sooner or later, probably sooner. But he might have closed his +mouth for a fortnight. + +William Roper walked on to the village and went into the "Bull and Gate." +The village was simmering in a very lively fashion. The return of James +Hutchings to his situation at the Castle was a fact with which it could +not grapple easily. It was bewildered and annoyed. + +William Roper had not, as he had assured Mr. Flexen, told what he had +seen on the night of the murder of Lord Loudwater, but he had been +dropping hints. He dropped more. He was a supporter of the theory that +James Hutchings was the murderer because he desired to oust the father of +James Hutchings from his post as head-gamekeeper. That was the reason +also of his belief in James Hutchings' guilt. He was beginning to enjoy +the interest he awakened as the storehouse of undivulged knowledge. When +Mr. Flexen had supposed that he would remain silent for a fortnight, he +had overestimated both his modesty and his reticence. + +Later in the day the village was further upset by the behaviour of James +Hutchings himself. He came into the "Bull and Gate" with an easy air, +showed himself but little more civil than usual, and told the landlord +that he had just arranged that the parson should publish the banns of his +marriage with Elizabeth Twitcher on the following Sunday. The village was +staggered. This was not the way in which it expected a man who would +presently be tried and hanged for murder to behave. + +In all fairness to James Hutchings, it must be said that he would not +have acted with this decision of his own accord. Elizabeth had bidden him +to it, urging that a bold front was half the battle. However grave her +own doubts of his innocence might be, she was resolved that such doubts +should, if possible, be banished from the minds of other people. Under +her influence he was already becoming his old self as far as looks went. +A shade of his usual ruddiness had come back; he was losing his +haggardness. + +With the going of Mr. Flexen there came a lull. His departure was a +relief to Olivia, to Colonel Grey, and to James Hutchings. Doubtless he +was still working on the case; but, working at a distance, he seemed less +of a menace. All three of them seemed less under a strain. Olivia and +Grey spent their hours together in a less feverish eagerness to make the +most of them. + +Even Helena Truslove, when Mr. Manley told her that Mr. Flexen had left +the Castle, said that she was very pleased to hear it. She looked very +pleased. Mr. Manley's sense of what was fitting restrained him from +asking her the reason of this pleasure. He had, indeed, no great desire +to hear the reason of it from her own lips. It was enough for him to +guess that she was the mysterious woman. He felt no need of her full +confidence. + +The Castle seemed to be settling down to its old round, the quieter for +the loss of Lord Loudwater. His heir in Mesopotamia had been informed of +his death by cable. But no cable in reply had come from him. Mr. Manley +remained at the Castle as secretary to Olivia, who was making +preparations leisurely to leave it and settle down in a flat in London. +Colonel Grey was recovering from his wound with a passable quickness. +James Hutchings had come to look very much his old self. Thanks to the +shock he had had and thanks to Elizabeth, he wore a more subdued air, and +was much more amiable with his fellow-servants. + +The _Daily Wire_, the _Daily Planet_, and the rest of the newspapers had +let the Loudwater mystery slip quietly out of their columns. Mr. Flexen +was waiting with quiet expectation for information about the unknown +woman. Since the advertisement the papers had given her had failed to +produce that information he had a London detective working on the life in +London, before his marriage, of the murdered man. Mr. Carrington had +found nothing among Lord Loudwater's papers in the office of his firm to +throw any light on the matter. + +The chief actors in the affair regarded the quiet turn it had taken with +a timorous satisfaction. Not so William Roper; William Roper was +thoroughly dissatisfied. He had been willing enough to hold his tongue, +because by so doing his unexpected and damning appearance at the trial +would be the more dramatic and impressive. But he was impatient to make +that appearance, and chafed at the delay. Also, his prestige was waning. +The village was losing interest in the mystery, and it no longer looked +to him to drop hints as the holder of the secret. That did not prevent +him from dropping them. He would bring up the subject of the murder in +order to drop them. His acquaintances who wished now to talk about other +things found this practice tiresome. They did not hide this feeling. +Matters came to a climax one evening in the bar of the "Bull and Gate." + +William Roper dragged the subject of the murder into a conversation on +the high price of groceries, and then, as usual, hinted at the things he +could say and he would. + +John Pittaway, who had been leading the conversation about the high price +of groceries, turned on him and said with asperity: "I don't believe as +there's anything you can tell us as we don't know, or you'd 'ave told it +afore this fast enough, William Roper." + +"That's what I've been thinking this long time," said old Bob Carter, who +had for over forty years made a point of agreeing with the most +disagreeable person at the moment in the bar of the "Bull and Gate." + +"Isn't there? You wait an' see. You wait till the trial," said +William Roper. + +"Trial? There won't be no trial. 'Oo's a goin' to be tried? They ain't +agoin' to try Jim 'Utchings. It's plain that 'er ladyship 'as set 'er +face against that. And, wot's more, they can't 'ave much to try 'im on, +or they'd 'ave to do it, in spite o' wot she said," said John Pittaway in +yet more disagreeable accents. + +William Roper was very angry. This was not to be borne. Indeed, if John +Pittaway were right, and there was to be no trial, where was his +dramatic and impressive appearance at it? He had better be dramatic and +impressive now. + +"Who said as they were goin' to try Jim 'Utchings? I never did," he +growled. "There was other people went to the Castle that night besides +Jim 'Utchings, and that mysterierse woman the papers talked about." + +"An' 'ow do you know?" said John Pittaway in a tone of most disagreeable +incredulity. + +"I know because I seed 'em," said William Roper. + +"Saw 'oo?" said John Pittaway. + +Then the whole story he had told Mr. Flexen burst forth from William +Roper's overcharged bosom, the story with the embellishments natural to +the lapse of time since its first telling. No less naturally in the +course of the discussion which followed, he told also the story of the +luckless kiss in the East wood, and the landlord pounced on that as the +cause of the quarrel between Lord Loudwater and Colonel Grey at +Bellingham. William Roper supported his contention with an embellished +account of the interview with Lord Loudwater in which he had informed him +of that kiss. + +It was, indeed, his great hour, not as great as the hour he had promised +himself at the trial, not so public, but a great hour. + +He left the "Bull and Gate" at closing time that night a man, in the +estimation of all there, whose evidence could hang four of his +fellow-creatures, the great man of the village. + +Next morning the village was indeed simmering, and the scandal rose and +spread from it like a stench. That very afternoon Mr. Manley heard it +from Helena Truslove, and the next morning Mr. Flexen received two +anonymous letters conveying the information to him, and suggesting that +Colonel Grey and the Lady Loudwater had between them made away with her +husband. It is hard to say whether Mr. Manley or Mr. Flexen was more +annoyed by William Roper's blabbing. + +But there was nothing to be done. The scandal must run its course. Mr. +Flexen did not think that it would find its way into the papers, local or +London. None the less, he was alive to the danger that a sudden heavy +pressure might be put on the police, and he might be forced to take +ill-advised action, start a prosecution which would do Lady Loudwater +infinite harm, and yet end in a fiasco which would leave the mystery just +where it was. The one bright spot in the affair was that Lord Loudwater +appeared to have left no friends behind him who would make it their +business to see that he was avenged. As long as that avenging was +everybody's business it was nobody's business. + +Elizabeth Twitcher was no less disturbed than Mr. Flexen. She felt that +Olivia ought to be informed of what was being said that she might be able +to take steps to meet the danger. She took counsel with James Hutchings, +who could not help feeling relieved by this diversion of suspicion, and +he agreed with her that Olivia should be informed of the scandal at once. +But it was an uncommonly unpleasant task, and she shrank from it. + +Then a happy thought came to James Hutchings, and he said: "Look here: +let Mr. Manley do it. He's her ladyship's secretary, and it's the kind of +thing he'll do very well. He's a tactful young fellow." + +"It would be a blessing if he did," said Elizabeth with a sigh. +She paused and added: "You do speak differently about him to what +you used to." + +"Yes. I made a mistake about him like as I did about some other people," +said James Hutchings, with a rather shame-faced air. "He behaved very +well about seeing me here the night the master was murdered and saying +nothing to the police about it. An' then he congratulated me very +handsomelike on coming back as butler before Mr. Flexen." + +"He would do it better than I should," said Elizabeth. + +"Then I'll speak to him about it," said James Hutchings. + +He paused a while to kiss Elizabeth, then went in search of Mr. Manley. +He learned from Holloway that he had come in about twenty minutes earlier +and was in his sitting-room. He went to him and found him looking through +the MS. of the play he was writing, with an unlighted pipe in his mouth. + +"If you please, sir, I thought I'd better come and tell you that they're +saying in the village that Colonel Grey kissed her ladyship in the East +wood on the afternoon of his lordship's death, and his lordship was +informed of it and quarrelled with Colonel Grey and then her ladyship, +and she and Colonel Grey made away with his lordship," said James +Hutchings. + +"I've heard something about it," said Mr. Manley, frowning, and he struck +a match. "Who set this absurd story going?" + +"William Roper, one of the under-gamekeepers, sir." + +"William Roper? Ah, I know--a ferret-faced young fellow." + +"Yes, sir. And we was thinking that her ladyship ought to know about it +so as she can put a stop to it at once, and you were the proper person to +tell her, sir," said James Hutchings. + +On the instant Mr. Manley saw himself discharging this unpleasant but +important duty with intelligence and tact, and he said readily: "I was +thinking of doing so, and now that I know the lying rascal's name I can +do it at once. The sooner this kind of thing is stopped the better." + +"Thank you, sir," said Hutchings, and with a sigh of relief he +left the room. + +He had reached the top of the stairs when the door of Mr. Manley's room +opened; he appeared on the threshold and said: "Will you send some one to +tell William Roper to be here at nine o'clock tonight? And it wouldn't be +a bad idea to drop a hint to any one you send that William Roper has got +himself into serious trouble." + +Mr. Manley thought quickly. + +"Very good, sir," said James Hutchings, and he hurried down the stairs. + +Mr. Manley did not see Olivia at once, for she was still in the pavilion +in the East wood. But as soon as she returned, he sent a message by +Holloway to her, that he wished to see her on important business. +Holloway brought word that she would see him at once. + +He found her in her sitting-room, gazing out of the window, and she +turned quickly at his entrance with inquiring eyes. + +"It's a rather unpleasant business, and the sooner it's dealt with the +better," said Mr. Manley in a brisk, businesslike voice. "One of the +under-gamekeepers has been spreading a scandalous and lying story about +you and Colonel Grey, something about his kissing you in the East wood on +the afternoon of Lord Loudwater's death, and he has gone on to suggest, +or assert--I don't know which--that you and Colonel Grey had a hand in +Lord Loudwater's death." + +The blow she had been expecting had fallen, and Olivia paled and her +mouth went dry. + +"Which of the under-gamekeepers is it?" she said calmly but with +difficulty, for her tongue kept sticking to the roof of her mouth. + +"A ferret-faced, rascally-looking fellow, called William Roper," said Mr. +Manley with some heat. Then, to save her the effort of speaking, he went +on: "Of course you'd like him discharged at once. The sooner these people +understand that their excitement about Lord Loudwater's death is not +going to be held an excuse for telling lying stories the better. You will +not be troubled by any more of them." + +Olivia looked at him with steady eyes. She had recovered herself and was +thinking hard. Mr. Manley's certainty about the right method of dealing +with the matter was catching. It was better to show a bold front and at +once. There was no time to consult Antony Grey. + +"Yes. You're quite right, Mr. Manley. Gentle measures are of no use with +this kind of scandal-monger. William Roper must be discharged at once," +she said quietly. + +"Perhaps you would like me to deal with him? It's rather a business for a +man," Mr. Manley suggested. + +"Yes, if you would," she said in a grateful tone. + +"I will, as soon as I can get hold of him," said Mr. Manley +cheerfully. "He'll make no more mischief about here," He went out of +the room briskly. + +His confidence was heartening. When the door closed behind him Olivia +sobbed twice in the reaction from the shock of his announcement. Then +she recovered herself and went quietly to her bath. She observed +Elizabeth's sympathetic manner as she dressed her hair. Evidently all +the servants as well as the villagers were talking about her. But for +its possible, dangerous consequences, she was indifferent to their talk. +She was now wholly absorbed in Grey; he was the only thing of any +importance in her life. + +Mr. Manley ate his dinner with an excellent appetite. He was pleased with +the brisk, almost brusque, manner in which he had dealt with the matter +of William Roper, in his interview with Olivia. If he had shilly-shallied +and hummed and hawed about the scandal, it would have been so much more +unpleasant for her. He thought, too, that his practical, common-sense +attitude to the business would probably help her to take it more easily, +and he was sure that he had advised the best measure to be taken with +William Roper. + +He was smoking a cigar in a great content, when at nine o'clock Holloway +brought him word that William Roper had come. Mr. Manley bade him bring +him to him at a quarter-past. He felt that suspense would make William +Roper malleable, and he intended to hammer him. At thirteen minutes past +nine he composed his face into a dour truculence, an expression to which +the heavy conformation of the lower part lent itself admirably. + +William Roper, looking uncommonly ill at ease, was ushered in by James +Hutchings himself, and the butler had improved the thirteen shining +minutes he had had with him by increasing to a considerable degree his +uneasiness and anxiety. + +Mr. Manley did not greet William Roper. He stood on the hearth-rug and +glowered at him with heavy truculence. William Roper shuffled his feet +and fumbled with his cap. + +Then Mr. Manley said: "Her ladyship has been informed that you have been +spreading scandalous reports in the village, and she has instructed me to +discharge you at once." He walked across to the table, took the sheet of +notepaper on which he had written the amount due to William Roper, dipped +a pen in the ink, and added: "Here are your wages up to date, and a +week's wages in lieu of notice. Sign this receipt." + +He dipped a pen in the ink and held it out to William Roper with very +much the air of Lady Macbeth presenting her husband with the dagger. + +William Roper was stupefied. Mr. Manley, truculent and dramatic, +cowed him. + +"I never done nothing, sir," he said feebly. + +"Sign--at once!" said Mr. Manley, gazing at him with the glare of +the basilisk. + +"I ain't agoing to sign. I ain't done nothing to be discharged. I ain't +said nothing but what I seed with my own eyes," William Roper protested. + +"Sign!" said Mr. Manley, tapping the receipt like an official in a spy +play. "Sign!" + +He was too much for William Roper. The conflict, such as it was, of wills +ceased abruptly. William Roper signed. + +Mr. Manley pushed the money towards him as towards a loathed pariah. +William Roper counted it, and put it in his pocket. He walked towards the +door with an air of stupefied dejection. + +"Also, you are to be off the estate by twelve o'clock tomorrow. Loudwater +is not the place for ungrateful and slanderous rogues," said Mr. Manley. + +William Roper stopped and turned; his face was working malignantly. + +"We'll see what Mr. Flexen's got to say about this," he snarled, went +through the door, and slammed it behind him. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +Olivia came that night to her tryst with Grey in a great dejection. She +perceived clearly enough that the instant discharge of William Roper +would not stop the scandal, and she was desperately afraid of the results +of it. The hope which had sprung up in her mind on reading in the _Daily +Wire_ the story of her husband's quarrel with an unknown woman died down. +This was a far more important matter, and she could not see how the +police could fail to act on William Roper's story. + +She found Grey waiting for her with his wonted impatience, and presently +told him about William Roper. + +"This is the very thing I've been fearing," he said with a sudden +heaviness. + +"It will certainly force Mr. Flexen's hand," she said. + +"I don't know--I don't know," he said more hopefully. "Flexen struck me +as being the kind of man to act just when it suited him, and I expect +that he had known all along anything William Roper had to tell." + +"Yes, he did. Twitcher told me that Roper had an interview with him on +the afternoon after Egbert's death," she said, catching a little of his +hopefulness. + +"Well, if he hasn't done anything about it so far, there's no reason why +he should act immediately the story becomes common property," he said in +a tone of relief. + +"No--no," she said slowly. Then she sobbed once and cried: "But, oh, this +waiting's so dreadful! Never knowing what's going to happen and +when--feeling that he's lying in wait all the time." + +"It is pretty awful," he said, drawing her more closely to him and +kissing her. + +She clung tightly to him, quivering. + +"The only thing to do is to stick it out, and when the time comes--if +it comes--put up a good fight. I think we shall," he said in a +cheering tone. + +"Of course we will," she said firmly, gave herself a little shake, and +relaxed her grip a little. + +He kissed her again, and they were silent a while, both of them +thinking hard. + +Then he said: "Look here: let's get married." + +"Get married?" she said. + +"Yes. The more we belong to one another the better we shall feel." + +"But--but won't there be rather an outcry at our marrying so +soon?" she said. + +"Oh, if people knew of it, yes. But I don't propose that they should. +We'll get married quite quietly. I'll get a special licence. The padre +of my regiment is in Town, and he'll marry us. I can find a couple of +witnesses who'll hold their tongues. We can get married in twenty-four +hours. Will you?" + +"Yes," she said firmly. + +His surprise at her ready assent was drowned in the joy it gave him. + +The next morning at half-past nine Mr. Manley rang up Mr. Flexen at his +office at Low Wycombe. + +When he heard his voice he said: "Good morning, Flexen. A young fellow of +the name of William Roper will be calling on you this morning. I expect +you know all he has to say already. But do you see anything to be gained +by his making a pestiferous, scandal-mongering nuisance of himself?" + +"I do not. I will say a few kind words to him," said Mr. Flexen grimly. + +Mr. Manley thanked him and rang off. Then he sent Hutchings down to the +village to let it be known that any one who let William Roper lodge in +his or her cottage would at once receive notice to quit it. He thought it +improbable, in view of the general unpleasantness of William Roper, that +he would be called on to carry out the threat. + +William Roper had already started to pay his visit to Mr. Flexen. Mr. +Flexen kept him dangling his heels in his office for three-quarters of an +hour before he saw him. This cold welcome allowed much of William +Roper's sense of his great importance in the district to ooze out of him. + +Mr. Flexen emptied him of the rest of it. He greeted him curtly, heard +his story with a deepening frown, and abused him at some length for a +babbling idiot, and sent him about his business. William Roper returned +to his mother's cottage to find that her only object in life was to get +him out of her cottage then and there. She had conceived the idea that +the whole affair was a plot to have a good excuse for giving her notice +to leave that cottage. She knew well that it was the opinion of all its +other inhabitants that the village would be much better without her and +that there were very good grounds for it. + +William Roper perceived with uncommon clearness the truth of Mr. Flexen's +assertion that he was a babbling idiot. His dream of outing William +Hutchings from the post of head-gamekeeper and filling it himself was for +ever shattered, and he had been the great man of the village for little +more than fourteen hours, ten of which he had spent in sleep. He cursed +the hour in which he had espied that luckless kiss, and too late +perceived the folly of a humble gamekeeper's meddling with the affairs of +those who own the game he keeps. + +The next morning Elizabeth observed that her mistress was another +creature, almost her old self indeed. The air of strain and oppression +had, for the time being at any rate, gone from her face. She moved with +her old alertness. She even smiled at Elizabeth's strictures on the +treacherous William Roper. + +After breakfast she bade Elizabeth pack a trunk for her, since she was +going to London that afternoon and would spend the night, perhaps two or +three days, there. Also, she chose, with frowning thoughtfulness and no +little changing of mind, the frocks she would take with her, and +discussed carefully with Elizabeth the changes necessary to give them a +sufficiently mourning character. + +Elizabeth was indeed pleased with the change in her mistress. She +ascribed it to the influence of Colonel Grey. + +In the afternoon Olivia went to London and drove from Paddington to +Grey's flat. She found him awaiting her with the most eager expectation. +He had bought the special licence; the chaplain of his regiment and a +wounded friend were coming at seven o'clock. After they were married, +they would all four dine together, and, later, he and she would return +to his flat. + +They had tea, and then he showed her some of the beautiful things, for +the most part ivory and jade, which were his most loved possessions. She +admitted frankly that she had to learn to appreciate and admire them as +they deserved. But she was sure that she would learn to do so. + +She found the flat of a somewhat spartan simplicity after Loudwater +Castle, Quainton Hall, and the houses to which she was used. But she also +found that it had been furnished with a keen regard for comfort. In +particular, she observed that the easy chairs, which were the chief +furniture of the sitting-room, were the most comfortable she had ever +taken her ease in. + +At seven o'clock the padre and Sir Charles Ross, Grey's wounded friend, +arrived. After they had talked for a few minutes, making Olivia's +acquaintance, the padre married them. Henderson, Grey's valet, a tall, +spare Scot with rugged features who in the course of his seven years' +service had acquired, in his manner and way of speaking, a curious and +striking likeness to his master, was the second witness. + +It was wholly characteristic of Olivia that she felt no slightest need of +the supporting presence of a woman. Yet, for all the unfamiliar +simplicity of the scene, the ceremony did not lack dignity, or +impressiveness. At the end of it Olivia felt herself very much more the +wife of Antony Grey than she had ever felt herself the wife of Lord +Loudwater. + +They dined in a private dining-room at the "Ritz," and Olivia found the +dinner delightful. The three men, after some desultory talk about common +friends and the ordinary London subjects, fell to talking about their +work and their fighting in France. She was most pleased by the evident +respect and admiration with which the other two regarded her husband. It +was a new experience for her to be married to a man for whom any one +showed respect. + +At a few minutes past ten she and Grey went home to his flat. They +preferred to walk. + +Olivia did not return to Loudwater for three days. Grey did not return +till the day after that. Then they again spent much of their time in the +pavilion in the East wood, and since Olivia was careful not to replace +William Roper, no one knew of their meetings. Every week they went to +London for two days. They lived in an absorption in one another which +left them little time to be troubled by fears of the danger which hung +over them. The scandal about them ran the usual nine days' course. Then, +since no new development of the Loudwater case arose to give it a fresh, +active life, it died down. + +About a fortnight after their marriage Mr. Manley retired from his post +of secretary and went to London. A few days later he married Helena +Truslove at the office of a registrar, and they established themselves in +a furnished flat at Clarence Gate, while they furnished a flat of their +own. Mr. Manley found himself, under the influence of domesticity, the +stimulation of life in London, and the society of the intelligent, +writing his new play with all the ease and vigour he had expected. + +Mr. Flexen was beginning, somewhat gloomily, to think it probable that +the problem of the death of Lord Loudwater would have to be set among +the unsolved problems which have at different times baffled the police. +Then, before he had quite lost hope, there came a letter from Mr. +Carrington. It ran: + +"Dear Mr. Flexen, + +"I received this morning a letter from Mrs. Marshall, of 3, Laburnum +Terrace, Low Wycombe, asking me, as the agent of the present Lord +Loudwater, to have some repairs made to the house in which she is his +lordship's tenant. We have never handled this property; we did not +even know that it belonged to the late Lord Loudwater. If you can find +the man who managed it for him, he may be able to give you the +information you want. + +"Yours faithfully, + +"C.R.W. CARRINGTON." + +In ten minutes Mr. Flexen was at 3, Laburnum Terrace; in a quarter of an +hour he had learned that Mrs. Marshall had paid her rent to Mr. Shepherd, +of 9, Bolton Street, Low Wycombe; in twenty minutes he had learned from +Mrs. Shepherd that her husband was in Mesopotamia, and that she had not +heard from him for two months. In half an hour from the time he read Mr. +Carrington's letter he was in the train on his way to London. To get in +touch with Captain Shepherd in that distant and backward land was a +matter for Scotland Yard. No acting Chief Constable would do so without +considerable delay. + +He drafted the telegram in consultation with one of the commissioners, +who himself set about the business of getting it through to Captain +Shepherd and receiving his answer to it. Then he returned to Low +Wycombe. Three days later came a letter from Scotland Yard to inform +him that Captain Shepherd was in an out-of-the-way district in the +north of Mesopotamia, and that there must be a delay of days before he +received the telegram and sent his answer to it. Mr. Flexen possessed +his soul in the patience of a man who was sure that he was going to get +what he wanted. + +A few days later, on a Saturday, his work took him to Loudwater, and he +called on Olivia. He found her a different creature. She had lost her air +of being under a strain, and save that her eyes were at first anxious, +she showed herself wholly at her ease with him. He came away assuring +himself that she was one of the most charming women he had ever met. He +took it that she still met Colonel Grey in the pavilion in the East wood, +and that after a decorous lapse of time they would marry. He thought +Colonel Grey uncommonly fortunate. + +Then he again wondered what had so perturbed them when he had been at +the Castle inquiring into the death of Lord Loudwater. What did they know +of the mystery? What part had they played in it? + +Soon after he had left her Olivia went to London to spend the week-end +with her husband. But she did not go in her wonted joyful mood. She tried +to thrust it out of her mind; but Mr. Flexen's visit had brought back her +old fear. Grey at once perceived that she was not in good spirits, and he +was a little alarmed. He had firmly kept his thought from the danger +which still hung over them. Now he caught from her something of her +uneasiness. But he would not yield to it, and by the end of dinner he +had, for the while at any rate, banished it from both their minds. + +Then when he awoke that night, quietly, at the turning hour, he heard +Olivia crying very softly. + +He put his arm round her and said seriously "What is it, darling? What's +the matter?" + +"Oh, why ever did you kill him?" she wailed. "He--he wasn't worth it. And +I'd have come to you without. And we might have been so happy!" + +Grey, with a start, sat bolt upright, and in a tone of the last +astonishment stammered: "K-K-Kill him? Me? B-B-But I thought you +k-k-killed him!" + +He had never been so taken aback in his life. + +Olivia sat bolt upright in her turn. + +"Me?" she said in an astonishment fully as great as his. "No, I didn't." + +Then with one accord they clung to one another and laughed tremulously in +an immeasurable relief. + +Then Olivia said: "And you didn't mind? You married me when you actually +thought I'd murdered Egbert?" + +"Oh, Egbert!" said Grey in a tone of contempt which placed the late Lord +Loudwater definitely as a person the murder of whom was neither here nor +there. Then he added: "But, hang it all! You married me when you actually +thought I'd murdered him." + +"I thought you did it for my sake," said Olivia. + +"I thought you did it for mine--to get me out of a mess. Though I'll be +shot if I believe I should have cared if you'd done it entirely on your +own account. Not that you could." + +"Oh, Antony, how very fond of one another we must be!" said Olivia in a +hushed voice. + +It was after breakfast next morning that Olivia, who stood before the +window, smoking a cigarette and watching the passers-by, turned and said: +"But if neither you nor I murdered Egbert, who did?" + +"The mysterious woman, I suppose," said Grey, with very little show of +interest in the matter. + +"But I never believed that there was any mysterious woman, I thought the +papers invented her," said Olivia. + +"So did I," said Grey. "But it's beginning to look to me as if there +might have been one." + +"I wonder who she can be?" said Olivia. + +"A barmaid, I should think," said Grey, in a tone which placed definitely +the late Lord Loudwater as a lover. + +"You certainly do dislike Egbert," said Olivia, in a dispassionate tone +of one stating a natural fact of little importance. + +"I do," said Grey. + +"It's odd how little I remember him," said Olivia thoughtfully. "But then +I was always trying to forget him unless he was actually in the room with +me. And then I was always trying not to see him." + +"I remember the way he treated you," said Grey sternly. + +Olivia smiled at him. + +"I hope to goodness the police never do find that wretched woman!" he +said. + +Olivia frowned thoughtfully. Then she smiled again. + +"I don't think it would be much use if they did," she said. "I told Mr. +Flexen that I heard Egbert snoring about twelve o'clock. I didn't; but I +thought that as you went away about half-past eleven, it would make it +safer for you. I could always stick to it, if we thought it right." + +"And I told Flexen that I didn't hear him snoring at about half-past +eleven, and I did. I thought it would make it safer for you." + +"Well, we are--" said Olivia, and she laughed. + +Then of a sudden her eyes sparkled and she cried: "But if you heard him +snore at half-past eleven that lets the mysterious woman out. She went +away at a quarter-past." + +"By Jove! so it does," said Grey. + +Three days later, driving back in the evening from Rickmansworth to Low +Wycombe, Mr. Flexen passed Grey on his way home from an afternoon's +fishing. He stopped the car, and as Grey came up to it he perceived that +he was looking uncommonly well, though his limp appeared to be as bad as +ever. He was not only looking well, he was also looking happy, wholly +free from care. + +They greeted one another and Mr. Flexen said: "By Jove! you are +looking fit!" + +"Yes, I'm all right again," said Grey. Then he frowned and added: "But +the nuisance of it is that I shall always have this confounded limp." + +"You get off more lightly than a good many men I know," said +Flexen sadly. + +"Yes. I'm not grousing much," said Grey. + +There came a pause, and then Grey said: "I've been rather hoping to come +across you. When you questioned me about my doings on the night of +Loudwater's death, you asked me whether I heard him snore as I went +through the library, going in and out of the Castle, and for reasons +which seemed quite good to me at the time I told you I didn't. As a +matter of fact, he was snoring like a pig when I came out." + +Mr. Flexen looked at him hard, thinking quickly. Then he said softly: "My +goodness! That would be half-past eleven!" + +"Close on it," said Grey. + +"Well as a matter of fact, I didn't believe you," said Mr. Flexen +frankly. "In my business, you know, one acquires a very good ear for +the truth." + +Grey laughed cheerfully and said: "I expect you do." + +"All the same, I'm glad to have it for certain," said Mr. Flexen, smiling +at him. "Well, I must be getting on; let me give you a lift as far as +Loudwater." + +Grey thanked him and stepped into the car. + +When he had set him down, Mr. Flexen drove on in frowning thought. +Colonel Grey was speaking the truth, and in that case neither James +Hutchings nor the mysterious woman had committed the murder, unless they +had deliberately returned for the purpose. He did not believe that James +Hutchings had returned; he thought it improbable that the mysterious +woman had returned. + +Even more important was the fact that this admission of Colonel Grey +assured him that neither he nor Lady Loudwater had committed the murder. +Grey had evidently lied to shield her. He had no less evidently learned +that she did not need shielding. That admission had not at all simplified +the problem. + +The next morning Scotland Yard telegraphed to him the reply to its cable +to Captain Shepherd. It ran: + +_Loudwater allowed Mrs. Helena Truslove Crest Loudwater six hundred a +year and gave her Crest_. + +He had the mysterious woman at last! + +He drove over to the Crest at once and learned from the caretaker that +Mrs. Truslove was now living in London in a flat at Clarence Gate. He +could not get away from his work till the afternoon, and it was past +half-past four when he knocked at the door of her flat. + +The maid led him down the passage, opened the door on the right, and +announced him. + +Helena was sitting beside a table on which afternoon tea for two was set. +She looked surprised to hear his name. + +"Mrs. Truslove?" he said. + +"I was Mrs. Truslove," she said, rising and holding out her hand. "But +now I am Mrs. Manley. You know my husband. He will be so pleased to see +you again. I'm expecting him every minute." + +Mr. Flexen was for a moment conscious of a slight sensation of vertigo. +The mysterious woman was the wife of Herbert Manley! + +He could not at once see the bearings of this fact, but ideas, fancies +and suspicions raced one another through his head. + +He checked them and said in a somewhat toneless voice: "I shall be +delighted to see him again. Have you been married long?" + +"Rather more than a fortnight." said Helena. "But do sit down. My husband +will be so pleased to see you again. He has a great admiration for you." + +Mr. Flexen sat down and unconsciously stared hard at her. Ideas were +jostling one another in his head. + +"We won't wait for him. I'll have the tea made at once," she said, +bending forward to press the bell-button. + +"One moment, please," he said in his crispest, most official voice. "I've +come to see you on a very important matter." + +"Oh?" she said quickly, frowning. Then she looked at him with +steady eyes. + +"Yes. You know that I am investigating the Loudwater case, and I have +received information that you are the mysterious lady who visited Lord +Loudwater on the night of his death and had a violent quarrel with him." + +"We began by quarrelling," she said quietly. + +"_Began_ by quarrelling?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes. I'd better tell you the whole story, and you'll understand," she +said in a matter-of-fact voice. "Rather more than two years ago I was +engaged to be married to Lord Loudwater. He broke off our engagement and +married Miss Quainton. I was not going to stand that, and I was going to +bring a breach of promise action against him. He didn't want that, of +course. It would most likely have stopped his marrying Miss Quainton. So +he agreed to make over the Crest, my house just beyond Loudwater, to me, +and pay me an allowance of six hundred a year." + +"This was two years ago?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes," said Helena. "But stupidly, though I had the house properly made +over to me, I didn't have a deed about the allowance. And a few days +before he committed suicide--" + +"Committed suicide?" Mr. Flexen interrupted. + +"Of course he committed suicide. Didn't Dr. Thornhill say that the wound +might have been self-inflicted? Besides, poor Egbert had a most +frightful temper." + +"But why should he commit suicide?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"He may have been upset about Lady Loudwater and Colonel Grey. Why, I'm +quite sure that it would drive him mad--absolutely mad for the time +being. I know him well enough to be sure of that." + +"Yes--yes," said Mr. Flexen slowly. "It's a tenable theory, doubtless. +But about your quarrel with him." + +"A few days before he died he talked about halving my allowance. And, of +course, I was frightfully annoyed about it. I wanted to have it out with +him--I meant to--but I knew that he'd never let me get near him, if he +could help it. But I knew, too, that he sat in the smoking-room every +evening after dinner, and generally went to sleep. You know everything +about every one in the country, you know. And I determined to take him by +surprise, and I did. We did have a row, for I was frightfully angry. It +seemed so mean. But he stopped it by telling me that he had instructed +his bankers--we have the same bankers--to pay twelve thousand pounds into +my account instead of allowing me six hundred a year." + +There was just the faintest change in her voice as she spoke the last +sentence, and it did not escape Mr. Flexen's sensitive ear. He thought +that the whole story had been rehearsed; it sounded so. But she spoke the +last sentence just a little more quickly. The rest of the story rang +true, or, at any rate, truer. + +"Twelve thousand pounds," he said slowly. "And did Lord Loudwater tell +you when he instructed his bankers?" + +"No. But it must have been that very day. The letter must have been in +the post, in fact, for two mornings later I received a letter from the +bank telling me that they had credited me with that amount--the morning +after the inquest, I think it was." + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen, and he paused, considering the story. Then he +said: "And were you surprised at all at his doing this?" + +"Yes, I was," she said frankly. "It didn't seem like him. But since I've +wondered whether he had made up his mind to commit suicide and wished to +leave things quite straight." + +It was a plausible theory, but Mr. Flexen did not believe that Lord +Loudwater had committed suicide. + +"I suppose that your husband knows all about it?" he said at random. + +"He may, and he may not. He hasn't said anything to me about it," she +said. + +"Then we may take it that he did not write the letter of instruction to +the bankers," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Oh, he might have done and still have said nothing about it. He has a +very sensitive delicacy and might have thought it my business and not +his. I haven't told him about the twelve thousand pounds yet. I don't +bother him about business matters. In fact, I'm going to manage his +business as well as my own." + +"And he didn't know about the allowance?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Oh, yes, he did. I told him all about that," said Helena quickly. + +Mr. Flexen paused, considering. He seemed to have learnt from her all she +had to tell. + +There came the sound of the opening of the door of the flat and of steps +in the hall. Then the door of the room opened, and Mr. Manley came in. +Mr. Flexen's eyes swept over him. He was looking cheerful, prosperous, +and rather sleek. His air had grown even more important and assured. + +He greeted Mr. Flexen warmly and beamed on him. Then he demanded tea. But +Mr. Flexen rose, declared that he must be going, and in spite of Mr. +Manley's protests went. It had flashed on him that he might just catch +Mr. Carrington at his office. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +Mr. Flexen did find Mr. Carrington at his office, and Mr. Carrington's +first words were: + +"Well, have you found the mysterious woman?" + +"I've found the mysterious woman, and she's now Mrs. Herbert Manley," +said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Carrington stared at him, then he said softly: "Well, I'm damned!" + +"It does explain several things," said Mr. Flexen dryly. "We know now why +she was so hard to find--why there was no trace of her relations with +Lord Loudwater, no trace of Shepherd's managing the Low Wycombe property +among his papers, why there were no pass-books." + +Mr. Carrington flushed and said: "The young scoundrel had us on toast all +the while." + +"Toast is the word," said Mr. Flexen. + +"I never did like the beggar. I couldn't stand his infernal manner. But +it never occurred to me that he was a bad hat. I merely thought him a +pretentious young ass who didn't know his place," said Mr. Carrington. + +"I'm not so sure about the ass," said Mr. Flexen. + +"No--perhaps not. He certainly brought it off for a time, and shielded +her as long as it lasted," said Mr. Carrington slowly. + +"She didn't need any shielding," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Do you mean to tell me that she didn't murder Loudwater?" + +"She did not. You don't murder a man who has just given you twelve +thousand pounds," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Twelve thousand pounds?" said Mr. Carrington slowly. Then he started +from his chair and almost howled: "Are you telling me that Lord Loudwater +gave this woman twelve thousand pounds! He never gave any one twelve +thousand pounds! He never gave any one a thousand pounds! He never gave +any one fifty pounds! He couldn't have done it! Never in his life!" + +His voice rose in a fine crescendo. + +"Well, perhaps it was hardly a gift," said Mr. Flexen, and he told him +Helena's story. + +At the end of it Mr. Carrington said with dogged, sullen conviction: "I +don't care, I don't believe it. Lord Loudwater couldn't have done it." + +"But there's the letter from her bankers," said Mr. Flexen. "And I +suppose you can trace the twelve thousand pounds." + +Mr. Carrington started and said sharply: "Why, that must be where the +rubber shares went to." + +"What rubber shares?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"We can't lay our hands on a block of rubber shares Lord Loudwater owned. +The certificate isn't among his scrip--he kept all his scrip at the +Castle--he wouldn't keep it at his bank. Those rubber shares were worth +just about twelve thousand pounds." + +"Well, there you are," said Mr. Flexen. + +"No, I'm not, I tell you I don't believe in that gift--not even in the +circumstances. Lord Loudwater would a thousand times rather have gone on +paying the allowance--as little of it as he could. There's something +fishy--very fishy--about it, I tell you," said Mr. Carrington vehemently. + +"And where did the fishiness come in?" said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Carrington was silent, frowning. Then he said: "I'll--I'll be hanged +if I can see." + +Mr. Flexen rose sharply and said: "There's only one point in the affair +where it could have come in as far as I can see. I should like to examine +Lord Loudwater's letter of instruction to his bankers." + +"By George! You've got it," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Well, can we get a look at it?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"We can. Harrison, the manager, will stretch a point for me. He knows +that I'm quite safe. Come along," said Mr. Carrington. + +"At this hour? The bank's been closed this two hours," said Flexen. + +"He'll be there. It's years since he got away before seven," said Mr. +Carrington confidently. + +He told a clerk to telephone to the bank that he was coming. They found a +taxicab quickly, drove to the bank, entered it by the side door, and were +taken straight to Mr. Harrison. + +He made no bones about showing them Lord Loudwater's letter of +instructions with regard to the twelve thousand pounds. Mr. Carrington +and Mr. Flexen read it together. It was quite short, and ran: + +"GENTLEMEN, + +"I shall be much obliged by your paying the enclosed cheque from Messrs. +Hanbury and Johnson for L12,046 into the account of Mrs. Helena Truslove. + +"Yours faithfully, + +"LOUDWATER." + +"Rather a curt way of disposing of such a large sum," said Mr. Flexen, +taking the letter and going to the window. + +"It was the way Lord Loudwater did things," said Mr. Harrison. + +"Yes, yes; I know," said Mr. Carrington. "Some things." + +They both looked at Mr. Flexen, who was examining the letter through a +magnifying glass. + +He studied it for a good two minutes, turned to them with a quiet smile +of triumph on his face and said: "I've never seen Lord Loudwater's +signature. But this is a forgery." + +"A forgery?" said the manager sharply, stepping quickly towards Mr. +Flexen with outstretched hand. + +"I'm not surprised to hear it," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Well, the signature is not written with the natural ease with which a +man signs his name," said Mr. Flexen, giving the letter to Mr. Harrison. + +Mr. Harrison studied it carefully. Then he pressed a button on his desk +and bade the clerk who came bring all the letters they had received +from Lord Loudwater during the last three months of his life and bring +them quickly. + +Then he turned to Mr. Flexen and said stiffly: "I'm bound to say that the +signature looks perfectly right to me." + +"I've no doubt that it's a good forgery. It was done by a very clever +man," said Mr. Flexen. + +"A first-class young scoundrel," Mr. Carrington amended. + +"We shall soon see," said Mr. Harrison, politely incredulous. + +The clerk came with the letters. There were eight of them, all written +by Mr. Manley and signed by Lord Loudwater. + +The manager compared the signatures of every one of them with the +signature in question, using a magnifying glass which lay on his desk. + +Then, triumphant in his turn, he said curtly: "It's no forgery." + +"Allow me," said Mr. Flexen, and in his turn he compared the signatures, +again every one of them. + +Then he said: "As I said, it's an uncommonly good forgery. You see that +the bodies of the letters are all written with the same pen, a +gold-nibbed fountain-pen; the signatures are written with a steel nib. It +cuts deeper into the paper, and the ink doesn't flow off it so evenly. +The forged signature is written with the same kind of nib as the genuine +ones. Also, the bodies of the letters are written in a fountain-pen +ink--the 'Swan,' I think. The signatures are written in Stephens' +blue-black ink. The forged signature is also written in Stephens' +blue-black ink. No error there, you see." + +"You seem to know a good deal about these things," said Mr. Harrison, +rather tartly. + +"Yes. I've been a partner in Punchard's Agency--you know it; we've done +some work for you--for the last two years. I didn't need this kind of +knowledge for my work in India. I only made a special study of forgery +after joining the agency. A private inquiry agency gets such a lot of +it," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Well, and if there's an error in these details, where is it? It's not in +the signature itself," said Mr. Harrison. + +"Indeed, it is," said Mr. Flexen. "It's an uncommonly good signature too. +The 'Loud' is perfect. But the 'water' gives it away. The forger had +evidently practised it a lot. In fact, he wrote the 'Loud' straight off. +But the 'water' has no less than five distinct pauses in it--under the +microscope, of course--where he paused to think, or perhaps to look at a +genuine signature, the endorsement on the cheque very likely." + +Mr. Harrison sniffed ever so faintly, and said: "Of course, I've had +experience of handwriting experts--not very much, thank goodness!--and +you differ among yourselves so. It's any odds that another expert will +find those pauses in quite different places from you, or even no +pauses at all." + +Mr. Flexen laughed gently and said: "Perhaps. But he ought not to." + +"There you are. And when it comes to a jury," said Mr. Harrison, and he +threw out his hands. "Besides, if you got your experts to agree, you'd +have to show a very strong motive." + +"Oh, we've got that--we've got that," said Mr. Carrington with +conviction. + +"Well, of course that will make it easier for you to get the jury to +believe your handwriting experts rather than those of the other side," +said Mr. Harrison, without any enthusiasm. Then he added, with rather +more cheerfulness: "But you never can tell with a jury." + +"No; that's true," said Mr. Flexen quickly. "I'm sure we're very much +obliged to you for showing us the letter." + +There was nothing more to be done at the bank, and having again thanked +Mr. Harrison, they took their leave of him. He showed no great cordiality +in his leave-taking, he was looking at the matter from the point of view +of the bank. The bank preferred to detect forgeries itself--in time. + +As they came into the street, Mr. Carrington rubbed his hands together +and said in a tone of deep satisfaction: "And now for the warrant." + +"Warrant for whom?" said Mr. Flexen in a tone of polite inquiry. + +"Manley. The sooner that young scoundrel is in gaol the better I shall +feel," said Mr. Carrington. + +"So should I," said Mr. Flexen. "But I'm very much afraid that for Mr. +Manley it's a far cry to Holloway. We have no case against him +whatever--not a scrap of a case that I can see." + +"Hang it all! It's as plain as a pikestaff! He's engaged to this +woman--this Mrs. Truslove--who has a nice little income. He hears that +her income is to be halved; and we know that if an allowance begins by +being halved, as likely as not it will be stopped altogether before long. +He saw that clearly enough. Then in the very nick of time this cheque +comes along. He sends it to the bank with this letter of instructions, +and murders Lord Loudwater so that he cannot disavow them. What more of a +case do you want?" + +"I don't want a better case. I only want some evidence. It's true enough +that Mrs. Manley told me that she told Manley that Lord Loudwater +proposed to halve her allowance. But where's the evidence that she talked +to him about it? She'd deny it if you put her into the witness-box, and +you can't put her into the witness-box." + +"Husband and wife, by Jove! Oh, the clever young scoundrel!" cried Mr. +Carrington. + +"And that halving of the allowance is the beginning of the whole +business. Manley had made up his mind to marry a lady with a fixed +income--indeed, they were probably already engaged. Loudwater upsets the +arrangement. Manley restores the _status quo_ by means of this cheque and +the murder of Loudwater. Of course, he hated Loudwater--he admitted as +much to me--more than once. But if Loudwater had played fair about that +allowance, he'd be alive now. Having established the _status quo,_ Manley +promptly marries the lady, and closes the mouth of the only person who +can bear witness that the allowance was in danger and he had any motive +for murdering Loudwater." + +Mr. Carrington ground his teeth and murmured: "The infernal young +scoundrel!" Then he broke out violently: "But we're not beaten yet. Now +that we know for a fact that he murdered Loudwater and why, there must be +some way of getting at him." + +"I very much doubt it," said Flexen sadly. "He's an uncommonly able +fellow. I don't believe that he's taken a chance. He wears a glove and +leaves the knife in the wound, so that there are no bloodstains. And +consider the cheque. The bank wouldn't have honoured Loudwater's own +cheque, the cheque of a dead man, but the stock-broker's cheque goes +through as a matter of course." + +"Of course," said Mr. Carrington. + +"And he has kept the business so entirely in his own hands. If we had run +in any one else, he'd have come forward and sworn that he heard Loudwater +snore after Roper had seen that person leave the Castle. I'm beginning to +think that he's one of the most able murderers I ever heard of. I +certainly never came across one in my own experience who was a patch on +him," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Don't be in such a hurry to lose hope. There must be some way of getting +at him--there must be," said Mr. Carrington obstinately. + +"I'm glad to hear it," said Mr. Flexen in a tone of utter scepticism. + +They walked on, Mr. Flexen reflecting on Mr. Manley's ability, Mr. +Carrington cudgelling his brains for a method of bringing his crime home +to him. At the door of his office Mr. Flexen held out his hand. + +"Come along in. I've got an idea," said Mr. Carrington. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +Mr. Flexen shrugged his shoulders with a sceptical air. He had not formed +a high opinion of Mr. Carrington's intelligence. However, he followed him +into his office and sat down, ready to give him his best attention. + +Mr. Carrington wore a really hopeful expression, and he said: "My idea is +that we should get at Manley through Mrs. Manley." + +"I'm not at all keen on getting at a man through his wife," said Mr. +Flexen rather dolefully. "But in this case it's manifestly our duty to +leave nothing untried. Murder for money is murder for money." + +"I should think it _was_ our duty!" cried Mr. Carrington with emphasis. + +"And there are three innocent people under suspicion of having committed +the murder. Fire away. How is it to be done?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"The new Lord Loudwater must bring an action against Mrs. Manley for the +return of that twelve thousand pounds on the ground that it was obtained +from the late Lord Loudwater by fraud--as it certainly was," said Mr. +Carrington, leaning forward with shining eyes and speaking very +distinctly. + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen. But his expression was not hopeful. + +"Once we get her in the witness-box we establish the fact that Lord +Loudwater had made up his mind to halve her allowance, for she'll have to +give the reason for her visiting him so late that night; and so we get +Manley's motive for committing the murder also established." + +"I see. But will you be able to use her evidence in the first trial at +the second?" said Mr. Flexen doubtfully. + +"That's the idea," said Mr. Carrington triumphantly. + +"You think it can be worked?" + +"We can have a jolly good try at it," said Mr. Carrington, rubbing his +hands together, and his square, massive face was rather malignant in +its triumph. + +Mr. Flexen did not look triumphant, or even hopeful. + +"But will you get the new Lord Loudwater to bring this action?" he said. + +"Why, of course. There's the money for one thing, and when he sees how +important it is from the point of view of getting at Manley, he can't +refuse," said Mr. Carrington confidently. + +"There isn't the money--not necessarily. He might get back the twelve +thousand pounds and have to pay Mrs. Manley six hundred a year for forty +or fifty years. She's a healthy-looking woman," said Mr. Flexen. "I take +it that the late Lord Loudwater had property of his own against which she +could claim." + +"Oh, of course, she could do that," said Mr. Carrington, and there was +some diminution of the triumphant expression. + +"She would," said Mr. Flexen. "Then you'll have to get over his objection +to incurring a considerable amount of odium. It will look bad for a man +of his wealth to try to recover from a lady a sum of money to which every +one will consider her entitled." + +"Oh, but it was obtained by fraud," said Mr. Carrington. + +"If you were sure of proving that, it would make a difference in the way +people would regard it. But you're not sure of proving it--not by a long +chalk. And you can't assure your client that you are. There'll be a lot +of conflicting evidence about that signature, as Harrison pretty clearly +showed. If you don't prove it, your client will be landed with the costs +of the case and incur still greater odium." + +"Ah, but he is bound to take the risk to bring his cousin's murderer to +justice," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Is he?" said Flexen dryly. "What kind of terms was he on with his +murdered cousin?" + +"Well, I must say I didn't expect you to ask that question," said Mr. +Carrington pettishly. "What kind of terms was the late Lord Loudwater +likely to be on with his heir? They hated one another like poison." + +"I thought as much," said Mr. Flexen. "And what kind of a man is the new +man--anything like his dead cousin?" + +"Oh, well, all the Loudwaters are pretty much of a muchness. But the +present man is a better man all round--better manners and better +brains," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Better brains, and you think he'll be willing to celebrate his +succession to the peerage by a first-class scandal of this kind, a +scandal which may bring him this money, but which will certainly bring +odium on him?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"When it's a case of bringing a murderer to justice," said Mr. Carrington +obstinately. + +"The murderer of a man he hated like poison? I should think that he'd +want to see his way pretty clear. And it isn't clear--not by any means. +For there's precious little chance of Mrs. Manley's giving Lord +Loudwater's threat to halve her allowance as the reason of her visit to +him that night. In fact, there's no chance at all. Manley will see to +that. Once attack the genuineness of that signature, and you open his +eyes to his danger. She'll come into the witness-box with quite another +reason for that visit, and a good reason too. Manley will find it for +her," said Mr. Flexen with conviction. "But there's the quarrel. She +can't get over that quarrel," said Mr. Carrington stubbornly. + +"She'll deny the quarrel. It's only Mrs. Carruthers' word against hers. +Besides, Mrs. Carruthers heard what she did hear through a closed door. +It will be so easy to make out that she made a mistake." + +"You seem to take it for granted that Mrs. Manley will commit perjury at +that young scoundrel's bidding," snapped Mr. Carrington. + +"I take it for granted that she'll be a woman fighting to save her +husband. And I'm also sure that there'll be precious few mistakes in +tactics made in the fight. I think that all you'll get out of the trial +will be a strong presumption that Lord Loudwater committed suicide. I'd +bet that that is the line Manley will take. And she'll make a thundering +good witness for him. She's a good-looking woman, with plenty of +intelligence." + +Mr. Carrington gazed at him with unhappy eyes. His square, massive face +had lost utterly its expression of triumph. + +"But hang it all!" he cried. "What are we going to do? Knowing what we +know, we can't sit still and do nothing." + +"I can't see _anything_ we can do," said Mr. Flexen frankly, and he rose. +"You have demonstrated that Manley's position is impregnable." + +He took his leave of the dejected lawyer. + +Outside Mr. Carrington's office he stood still, hesitating. He could have +caught a train back to Low Wycombe, but he could not bring himself to +take it. He could not at once tear himself away from London and Mr. +Manley. He must sleep on the new facts in the Loudwater case. He went to +his club, engaged a bedroom, and dined there. + +Mr. and Mrs. Manley dined at their flat. Mr. Manley talked during dinner +with elegance and vivacity. The maid brought in the coffee and went back +to the kitchen. + +As he lighted his wife's cigarette, Mr. Manley said in a careless tone: +"What did Flexen want to see you about?" + +Helena gave him a full account of her interview with Mr. Flexen, his +questions and her answers. + +"I guessed that you were the _Daily Wire's_ mysterious woman," he said. +"I saw how frightened you were when it came out. But, of course, as you +didn't say anything about it, I didn't." + +"That is so like you," she murmured. + +"One human being should never intrude on another," said Mr. Manley with a +noble air. + +"It might be your motto," she said, looking at him with admiring eyes. +She paused; then she added: "And I was frightened--horribly frightened. I +couldn't sleep. I was going to tell you about it, but I didn't like to. +You gave me no opening. Then the letter came from my bankers--about the +twelve thousand pounds--and it made it all right. It made it clear that I +had no reason to murder Loudwater." + +"Of course," said Mr. Manley. "But in the event of any new +developments, I should not admit that Lord Loudwater talked of halving +your allowance, or that you quarrelled with him. In fact, I shouldn't +let Flexen interview you again at all. In an affair of this kind you +can't be too careful." + +"I won't let him interview me again," said Helena with decision. + +Mr. Flexen did not try to interview her again. But at eleven the next +morning he called on Mr. Manley. He had very little hope of effecting +anything by the call, though he meant to try. But he had the keenest +desire to scrutinize him again and carefully in the light of the new +facts he had discovered. + +Mr. Manley kept him waiting awhile in the drawing-room; then the maid +ushered him into Mr. Manley's study. Mr. Manley was sitting at a +table, at work on his play. He greeted Mr. Flexen with a rather +absent-minded air. + +Mr. Flexen surveyed him with very intent, measuring eyes. At once he +perceived that he had rather missed Mr. Manley's jaw in giving attention +to his admirable forehead. It was, indeed, the jaw of a brute. He could +see him drive the knife into Lord Loudwater, and walk out of the +smoking-room with an ugly, contented smile on his face. + +He had little hopes of bringing off anything in the nature of a bluff; +but he said, in a rasping tone: "We've discovered that the signature of +Lord Loudwater's letter of instructions to his bankers to pay that cheque +for twelve thousand pounds into your wife's account was forged." + +Mr. Manley looked at him blankly for a moment. There was no expression at +all on his face. Then it filled slowly with an expression of surprise. + +"Rehearsed, by Jove!" murmured Mr. Flexen under his breath, and he could +not help admiring the skilful management of that expression of surprise. +It was so unhasty and natural. + +"My dear fellow, what on earth are you driving at? I saw him write it +myself," said Mr. Manley in an indulgent tone. + +"You forged it," snapped Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley looked at him with a new surprise which changed slowly to +pity. Then he said in such a tone as one might use to an unreasonable +child: "My good chap, what on earth should I forge it _for?_" + +"You knew that he was going to halve Mrs. Truslove's allowance. You were +bent on marrying a woman with money. You took this way of ensuring that +she had money, forged the letter, and murdered Lord Loudwater," said Mr. +Flexen on a rising inflexion. + +"By Jove! I see what you're after. It shows how infernally silly a +schoolboy joke can be! Lord Loudwater never talked of halving my wife's +allowance. That was an invention of mine. I told her that he was doing so +just to tease her," said Mr. Manley firmly, with a note of contrition in +his voice. + +Mr. Flexen opened his mouth a little way. It was a superb invention. It +left Mrs. Manley free to go into the witness-box to tell the story she +had told him. It knocked the bottom clean out of Carrington's case. + +"What really happened was that Lord Loudwater was grousing about the +allowance--at being reminded every six months that he had behaved like a +cad. I suggested that he should pay her a lump sum and be done with the +business. He jumped at the idea. The cheque had come from his +stockbrokers that morning; he directed me to write that letter of +instructions to his bankers; I wrote it, and he signed it. There you have +the whole business." + +"I don't believe a word of it!" cried Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley rose with an air of great dignity and said: "My good chap, I +can excuse your temper. It was an ingenious theory, and it must be very +annoying to have it upset. But I'm fed up with this Loudwater business. +I've got here"--he tapped the manuscript on the table--"a drama worth +fifty of it. Out of working hours I don't mind talking that affair over +with you; in them I won't." + +Mr. Flexen rose and said: "You're undoubtedly the most accomplished +scoundrel I've ever come across." + +"If you will have it so," said Mr. Manley patiently. Then he smiled and +added: "Praise from an expert--" + +They turned to see Mrs. Manley standing in the doorway, her lips parted, +her eyes dilated in a growing consternation. + +She stepped forward. Mr. Flexen slipped round her and fairly fled. + +She looked at Mr. Manley with horror-stricken eyes and said: "What--what +did he mean, Herbert?" + +"He meant what he said. But what it really means is that I won't let him +hang that wretched James Hutchings," said Mr. Manley with a noble air. + + * * * * * + +Three months later, on the first night of Mr. Manley's play, Colonel +Grey came upon Mr. Flexen in the lounge of the Haymarket, between the +second and third acts. Both of them praised the play warmly, and there +came a pause. + +Then Colonel Grey said: "I suppose you've given up all hope of solving +the problem of Loudwater's death." + +"Oh, I solved it three months ago. It was Manley," said Mr. Flexen. + +"By Jove!" said Colonel Grey softly. + +"Not a doubt of it. I'll tell you all about it one of these days," +said Mr. Flexen, for the bell rang to warn them that the third act was +about to begin. + +In the corridor Colonel Grey said: "Queer that he should have dropped +down dead in the street a week before this success." + +"Well, he was discharged from the Army for having a bad heart. But it is +a bit queer," said Mr. Flexen. + +"The mills of God," said Colonel Grey. + +"Looks like it," said Mr. Flexen. + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Loudwater Mystery, by Edgar Jepson + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOUDWATER MYSTERY *** + +***** This file should be named 9808.txt or 9808.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/9/8/0/9808/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Loudwater Mystery + +Author: Edgar Jepson + +Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9808] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 19, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOUDWATER MYSTERY *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan +and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + THE LOUDWATER MYSTERY + + BY EDGAR JEPSON + + 1920 + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Lord Loudwater was paying attention neither to his breakfast nor to the +cat Melchisidec. Absorbed in a leader in _The Times_ newspaper, now and +again he tugged at his red-brown beard in order to quicken his +comprehension of the weighty phrases of the leader-writer; now and again +he made noises, chiefly with his nose, expressive of disgust. Lady +Loudwater paid no attention to these noises. She did not even raise her +eyes to her husband's face. She ate her breakfast with a thoughtful air, +her brow puckered by a faint frown. + +She also paid no attention to her favourite, Melchisidec. Melchisidec, +unduly excited by the smell of grilled sole, came to Lord Loudwater, rose +on his hind legs, laid his paws on his trousers, and stuck some claws +into his thigh. It was no more than gentle, arresting pricks; but the +tender nobleman sprang from his chair with a short howl, kicked with +futile violence a portion of the empty air which Melchisidec had just +vacated, staggered, and nearly fell. + +Lady Loudwater did not laugh; but she did cough. + +Her husband, his face a furious crimson, glared at her with reddish eyes, +and swore violently at her and the cat. + +Lady Loudwater rose, her face flushed, her lips trembling, picked up +Melchisidec, and walked out of the room. Lord Loudwater scowled at the +closed door, sat down, and went on with his breakfast. + +James Hutchings, the butler, came quietly into the room, took one of the +smaller dishes from the sideboard and Lady Loudwater's teapot from the +table. He went quietly out of the room, pausing at the door to scowl at +his master's back. Lady Loudwater finished her breakfast in the +sitting-room of her suite of rooms on the first floor. She was no longer +inattentive to Melchisidec. + +During her breakfast she put all consideration of her husband's behaviour +out of her mind. As she smoked a cigarette after breakfast she considered +it for a little while. She often had to consider it. She came to the +conclusion to which she had often come before: that she owed him nothing +whatever. She came to the further conclusion that she detested him. She +had far too good a brow not to be able to see a fact clearly. She wished +more heartily than ever that she had never married him. It had been a +grievous mistake; and it seemed likely to last a life-time--her +life-time. The last five ancestors of her husband had lived to be eighty. +His father would doubtless have lived to be eighty too, had he not broken +his neck in the hunting-field at the age of fifty-four. On the other +hand, none of the Quaintons, her own family, had reached the age of +sixty. Lord Loudwater was thirty-five; she was twenty-two; he would +therefore survive her by at least seven years. She would certainly be +bowed down all her life under this grievous burden. + +It was an odd calculation for a young married woman to make; but Lady +Loudwater came of an uncommon family, which had produced more brilliant, +irresponsible, and passably unscrupulous men than any other of the +leading families in England. Her father had been one of them. She took +after him. Moreover, Lord Loudwater would have induced odd reveries in +any wife. He had been intolerable since the second week of their +honeymoon. Wholly without power of self-restraint, the furious outbursts +of his vile temper had been consistently revolting. She once more told +herself that something would have to be done about it--not on the +instant, however. At the moment there appeared to her to be months to do +it in. She dropped her cigarette end into the ash-tray, and with it any +further consideration of the manners and disposition of Lord Loudwater. + +She lit another cigarette and let her thoughts turn to that far more +appealing subject, Colonel Antony Grey. They turned to him readily and +wholly. In less than three minutes she was seeing his face and hearing +certain tones in his voice with amazing clearness. Once she looked at the +clock impatiently. It was half-past ten. She would not see him till +three--four and a half hours. It seemed a long while to her. However, +she could go on thinking about him. She did. + +While she considered her ill-tempered husband her eyes had been hard and +almost shallow. While she considered Colonel Grey, they grew soft and +deep. Her lips had been set and almost thin; now they grew most kissable. + +Lord Loudwater finished his breakfast, the scowl on his face fading +slowly to a frown. He lit a cigar and with a moody air went to his +smoking-room. The criminal carelessness of the cat Melchisidec +still rankled. + +As he entered the room, half office and half smoking-room, Mr. Herbert +Manley, his secretary, bade him good morning. Lord Loudwater returned his +greeting with a scowl. + +Mr. Herbert Manley had one of those faces which begin well and end badly. +He had a fine forehead, lofty and broad, a well-cut, gently-curving-nose, +a slack, thick-lipped mouth, always a little open, a heavy, animal jaw, +and the chin of an eagle. His fine, black hair was thin on the temples. +His moustache was thin and straggled. His black eyes were as good as his +brow, intelligent, observant, and alert. It was plain that had his lips +been thinner and his chin larger he would not have been the secretary of +Lord Loudwater--or of any one else. He would have been a masterless man. +The success of two one-act plays on the stage of the music-halls had +given him the firm hope of one day becoming a masterless man as a +successful dramatist. His post gave him the leisure to write plays. But +for the fact that it brought him into such frequent contact with the Lord +Loudwater it would have been a really pleasant post: the food was +excellent; the wine was good; the library was passable; and the servants, +with the exception of James Hutchings, liked and respected him. He had +the art of making himself valued (at far more than his real worth, said +his enemies), and his air of importance continuously impressed them. + +With a patient air he began to discuss the morning's letters, and ask for +instructions. Lord Loudwater was, as often happened, uncommonly captious +about the letters. He had not recovered from the shock the inconsiderate +Melchisidec had given his nerves. The instructions he gave were somewhat +muddled; and when Mr. Manley tried to get them clearer, his employer +swore at him for an idiot. Mr. Manley persisted firmly through much abuse +till he did get them clear. He had come to consider his employer's furies +an unfortunate weakness which had to be endured by the holder of the post +he found so advantageous. He endured them with what stoicism he might. + +Lord Loudwater in a bad temper always produced a strong impression of +redness for a man whose colouring was merely red-brown. Owing to the fact +that his fierce, protruding blue eyes were red-rimmed and somewhat +bloodshot, in moments of emotion they shone with a curious red glint, and +his florid face flushed a deeper red. In these moments Mr. Manley had a +feeling that he was dealing with a bad-tempered red bull. His employer +made very much the same impression on other people, but few of them had +the impression of bullness so clear and so complete as did Mr. Manley. +Lady Loudwater, on the other hand, felt always, whether her husband was +ramping or quiet, that she was dealing with a bad-tempered bull. + +Presently they came to the end of the letters. Lord Loudwater lit another +cigar, and scowled thoughtfully. Mr. Manley gazed at his scowling face +and wondered idly whether he would ever light on another human being whom +he would detest so heartily as he detested his employer. He thought it +indeed unlikely. Still, when he became a successful dramatist there might +be an actor-manager-- + +Then Lord Loudwater said: "Did you tell Mrs. Truslove that after +September her allowance would be reduced to three hundred a year?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Manley. + +"What did she say?" + +Mr. Manley hesitated; then he said diplomatically: "She did not seem +to like it." + +"What did she _say_?" cried Lord Loudwater in a sudden, startling bellow, +and his eyes shone red. + +Mr. Manley winced and said quickly: "She said it was just like you." + +"Just like me? Hey? And what did she mean by that?" cried Lord Loudwater +loudly and angrily. + +Mr. Manley expressed utter ignorance by looking blank and shrugging his +shoulders. + +"The jade! She's had six hundred a year for more than two years. Did she +think it would go on for ever?" cried his employer. + +"No," said Mr. Manley. + +"And why didn't she think it would go on for ever? Hey?" said Lord +Loudwater in a challenging tone. + +"Because there wasn't an actual deed of settlement," said Mr. Manley. + +"The ungrateful jade! I've a good mind to stop it altogether!" cried +his employer. + +Mr. Manley said nothing. His face was blank; it neither approved nor +disapproved the suggestion. + +Lord Loudwater scowled at him and said: "I expect she said she wished +she'd never had anything to do with me." + +"No," said Mr. Manley. + +"I'll bet that's what she thinks," growled Lord Loudwater. + +Mr. Manley let the suggestion pass without comment. His face was blank. + +"And what's she going to do about it?" said Lord Loudwater in a tone of +challenge. + +"She's going to see you about it." + +"I'm damned if she is!" cried Lord Loudwater hastily, in a much less +assured tone. + +Mr. Manley permitted a faint, sceptical smile to wreathe his lips. + +"What are you grinning at? If you think she'll gain anything by doing +that, she won't," said Lord Loudwater, with a blustering truculence. + +Mr. Manley wondered. Helena Truslove was a lady of considerable force of +character. He suspected that if Lord Loudwater had ever been afraid of a +fellow-creature, he must at times have been afraid of Helena Truslove. +He fancied that now he was not nearly as fearless as he sounded. He did +not say so. + +His employer was silent, buried in scowling reflection. Mr. Manley gazed +at him without any great intentness, and came to the conclusion that he +did not merely detest him, he loathed him. + +Presently he said: "There's a cheque from Hanbury and Johnson for twelve +thousand and forty-six pounds for the rubber shares your lordship sold. +It wants endorsing." + +He handed the cheque across the table to Lord Loudwater. Lord +Loudwater dipped his pen in the ink, transfixed a struggling +bluebottle, and drew it out. + +"Why the devil don't you see that the ink is fresh?" he roared. + +"It is fresh. The bluebottle must have just fallen into it," said Mr. +Manley in an unruffled tone. + +Lord Loudwater cursed the bluebottle, restored it to the ink-pot, +endorsed the cheque, and tossed it across the table to Mr. Manley. + +"By the way," said Mr. Manley, with some hesitation, "there's another +anonymous letter." + +"Why didn't you burn it? I told you to burn 'em all," snapped his +employer. + +"This one is not about you. It's about Hutchings," said Mr. Manley in an +explanatory tone. + +"Hutchings? What about Hutchings?" + +"You'd better read it," said Mr. Manley, handing him the letter. "It +seems to be from some spiteful woman." + +The letter was indeed written in female handwriting, and it accused the +butler, wordily enough, of having received a commission from Lord +Loudwater's wine merchants on a purchase of fifty dozen of champagne +which he had bought from them a month before. It further stated that he +had received a like commission on many other such purchases. + +Lord Loudwater read it, scowling, sprang up from his chair with his eyes +protruding further than usual, and cried: "The scoundrel! The blackguard! +I'll teach him! I'll gaol him!" + +He dashed at the electric bell by the fireplace, set his thumb on it, and +kept it there. + +Holloway, the second footman, came running. The servants knew their +master's ring. They always ran to answer it, after some discussion as to +which of them should go. + +He entered and said: "Yes, m'lord?" + +"Send that scoundrel Hutchings to me! Send him at once!" roared +his master. + +"Yes, m'lord," said Holloway, and hurried away. + +He found James Hutchings in his pantry, told him that their master wanted +him, and added that he was in a tearing rage. + +Hutchings, who never expected his sanguine and irascible master to be in +any other mood, finished the paragraph of the article in the _Daily +Telegraph_ he was reading, put on his coat, and went to the study. His +delay gave Lord Loudwater's wrath full time to mature. + +When the butler entered his master shook his fist at him and roared: "You +scoundrel! You infernal scoundrel! You've been robbing me! You've been +robbing me for years, you blackguard!" + +James Hutchings met the charge with complete calm. He shook his head and +said in a surly tone: "No; I haven't done anything of the kind, m'lord." + +The flat denial infuriated his master yet more. He spluttered and was for +a while incoherent. Then he became again articulate and said: "You have, +you rogue! You took a commission--a secret commission on that fifty dozen +of champagne I bought last month. You've been doing it for years." + +James Hutchings' surly face was transformed. It grew malignant; his +fierce, protruding, red-rimmed blue eyes sparkled balefully, and he +flushed to a redness as deep as that of his master. He knew at once who +had betrayed him, and he was furious--at the betrayal. At the same time, +he was not greatly alarmed; he had never received a cheque from the wine +merchants; all their payments to him had been in cash, and he had always +cherished a warm contempt for his master. + +"I haven't," he said fiercely. "And if I had it would be quite +regular--only a perquisite." + +For the hundredth time Mr. Manley remarked the likeness between Lord +Loudwater and his butler. They had the same fierce, protruding, +red-rimmed blue eyes, the same narrow, low forehead, the same large ears. +Hutchings' hair was a darker brown than Lord Loudwater's, and his lips +were thinner. But Mr. Manley was sure that, had he worn a beard instead +of whiskers, it would have been difficult for many people to be sure +which was Lord Loudwater and which his butler. + +Lord Loudwater again spluttered; then he roared: "A perquisite! What +about the Corrupt Practices Act? It was passed for rogues like you! +I'll show you all about perquisites! You'll find yourself in gaol +inside of a month." + +"I shan't. There isn't a word of truth in it, or a scrap of evidence," +said Hutchings fiercely. + +"Evidence? I'll find evidence all right!" cried his master. "And if I +don't, I'll, anyhow, discharge you without a character. I'll get you one +way or another, my fine fellow! I'll teach you to rob me!" + +"I haven't robbed your lordship," said Hutchings in a less surly tone. + +He was much more moved by the threat of discharge than the threat of +prosecution. + +"I tell you you have. And you can clear out of this. I'll wire to town at +once for another butler--an honest butler. You'll clear out the moment he +comes. Pack up and be ready to go. And when you do go, I'll give you +twenty-four hours to clear out of the country before I put the police on +your track," cried Lord Loudwater. + +Mr. Manley observed that it was exactly like him to take no risk, in +spite of his fury, of any loss of comfort from the lack of a butler. The +instinct of self-protection was indeed strong in him. + +"Not a bit of it. You've told me to go, and I'm going at once--this very +day. The police will find me at my father's for the next fortnight," said +Hutchings with a sneer. "And when I go to London I'll leave my address." + +"A lot of good your going to London will do you. I'll see you never get +another place in this country," snarled Lord Loudwater. + +Hutchings gave him a look of vindictive malignity so intense that it +made Mr. Manley quite uncomfortable, turned, and went out of the room. + +Lord Loudwater said: "I'll teach the scoundrel to rob me! Write at once +for a new butler." + +He took some lumps of sugar from a jar on the mantelpiece, and went +through the door which opened into the library. + +In the library he stopped and shouted back: "If Morton comes about the +timber, I shall be in the stables." + +Then he went through one of the long windows of the library into the +garden and took his way to the stables. As he drew near them the scowl +cleared from his face. But it remained a formidable face; it did not grow +pleasant. None the less, he spent a pleasant hour in the stables, petting +his horses. He was fond of horses, not of cats, and he never bullied and +seldom abused his horses as he abused and bullied his fellow men and +women. This was the result of his experience. He had learnt from it that +he might bully and abuse his human dependents with impunity. As a boy he +had also bullied and abused his horses. But in his eighteenth year he had +been savaged by a young horse he had maltreated, and the lesson had stuck +in his mind. It was a simple, obtuse mind, but it had formed the theory +that he got more out of human beings, more deference and service, by +bullying them and more out of horses by treating them kindly. Besides, he +liked horses. + +Mr. Manley did not set about answering the letters at once. He reflected +for a while on the likeness between Hutchings and his master. He thought +the physical likeness of little interest. There was a whole clan of +Hutchingses in the villages and woods round the castle, the bulk of them +gamekeepers; and there had been for generations. Mr. Manley was much more +interested in the resemblance in character between Hutchings and Lord +Loudwater. Hutchings, probably under the pressure of circumstances, was +much less of a bore than his master, but quite as much of a bully. Also, +he was more intelligent, and consequently more dangerous. Mr. Manley +would on no account have had him look at him with the intense malignity +with which he had looked at his master. Doubtless the butler had far +greater self-control than Lord Loudwater; but if ever he did lose it it +would be uncommonly bad for Lord Loudwater. + +It would be interesting to find in the Loudwater archives the common +ancestor to whom they both cast so directly back. He fancied that it must +be the third Baron. At any rate, both had his protruding blue eyes, +softened in his portrait doubtless by the natural politeness of the +fashionable painter. Was it worth his while to look up the record of the +third Lord Loudwater? He decided that, if he found himself at sufficient +leisure, he would. Then he decided that he was glad that Hutchins was +going; the butler had shown him but little civility. Then he set about +answering the letters. + +When he had finished them he took up the stockbroker's cheque and +considered it with a thoughtful frown. He had never before seen a cheque +for so large a sum; and it interested him. Then he wrote a short note of +instructions to Lord Loudwater's bankers. The ink in his fountain-pen ran +out as he came to the end of it, and he signed it with the pen with which +Lord Loudwater had endorsed the cheque. He put the cheque into the +envelope he had already addressed, put stamps on all the letters, carried +them to the post-box on a table in the hall, went through the library out +into the garden, and smoked a cigarette with a somewhat languid air. Then +he went into the library and took up his task of cataloguing the books at +the point at which he had stopped the day before. He often paused to dip +at length into a book before entering it in the catalogue. He did not +believe in hasty work. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Lord Loudwater came to lunch in a better temper than that in which he had +left the breakfast-table. He had ridden eight miles round and about his +estate, and the ride had soothed that seat of the evil humours--his +liver. Lady Loudwater had been careful to shut Melchisidec in her +boudoir; James Hutchings had no desire in the world to see his master's +florid face or square back, and had instructed Wilkins and Holloway, the +first and second footmen, to wait at table. Lord Loudwater therefore +could, without any ruffling of his sensibilities, give all his thought to +his food, and he did. The cooking at the castle was always excellent. If +it was not, he sent for the chef and spoke to him about it. + +There was little conversation at lunch. Lady Loudwater never spoke to her +husband first, save on rare occasions about a matter of importance. It +was not that she perceived any glamour of royalty about him; she did not +wish to hear his voice. Besides, she had never found a conversational +opening so harmless that he could not contrive, were it his whim, to be +offensive about it. Besides, she had at the moment nothing to say to him. + +In truth, owing to the fact that she took so many practically silent +meals with him, she was becoming rather a gourmet. The food, naturally +the most important fact, had become really the most important fact at the +meals they took together. She had come to realize this. It was the only +advantage she had ever derived from her intercourse with her husband. + +At this lunch, however, she did not pay as much attention to the food as +usual, not indeed as much as it deserved. Her mind would stray from it to +Colonel Grey. She wondered what he would tell her about herself that +afternoon. He was always discovering possibilities in her which she had +never discovered for herself. She only perceived their existence when he +pointed them out to her. Then they became obvious. Also, he was always +discovering fresh facts, attractive facts, about her--about her eyes and +lips and hair and figure. He imparted each discovery to her as he made +it, without delay, and with the genuine enthusiasm of a discoverer. Of +course, he should not have done this. It was, indeed, wrong. But he had +assured her that he could not help it, that he was always blurted things +out. Since it was a habit of long standing, now probably ingrained, it +was useless to reproach him with any great severity for his frankness. +She did not do so. + +For his part, the Lord Loudwater had but little to say to his wife. She +was fond of Melchisidec and indifferent to horses. For the greater part +of the meal he was hardly aware that she was at the other end of the +table. Immersed in his food and its deglutition, he was hardly sensible +of the outside world at all. Once, disturbed by Holloway's removing his +empty plate, he told her that he had seen a dog-fox on Windy Ridge; +again, when Holloway handed the cheese-straws to him, he told her that +Merry Belle's black colt had a cold. Her two replies, "Oh, did you?" and +"Has he?" appeared to fall on deaf ears. He did not continue either +conversation. + +Then Lord Loudwater broke into an eloquent monologue. Wilkins had poured +out a glass of port for both of them to drink with their cheese-straws. +Lord Loudwater finished his cheese-straws, took a long sip from his +glass, rolled it lovingly over his tongue, gulped it down with a hideous +grimace, banged down his fist on the table, and roared in a terrible, +anguished voice: + +"It's corked! It's corked! It's that scoundrel Hutchings! This is his way +of taking it out of me for sacking him. He's done it on purpose, the +scoundrel! Now I will gaol him! Hanged if I don't!" + +"I'll get another bottle, m'lord," said Wilkins, catching up the +decanter, and hurrying towards the door. + +"Get it! And be quick about it! And tell that scoundrel I'll gaol him!" +cried Lord Loudwater. + +Wilkins rushed from the room bearing in his hand the decanter of +offending port; Holloway followed him to help. + +Lady Loudwater sipped a little port from her glass. She was rather +inclined to take no one's word for anything which she could herself +verify. Then she took another sip. + +Then she said; "Are you sure this wine's corked?" + +Corked wine at the end of a really good meal is a bitter blow to any man, +an exceedingly bitter blow to a man of Lord Loudwater's sensitiveness in +such matters. + +"Am I sure? Hey? Am I sure? Yes! I am sure, you little fool!" he +bellowed. "What do you know about wine? Talk about things you +understand!" + +Lady Loudwater's face was twisted by a faint spasm of hate which left it +flushed. She would never grow used to being bellowed at for a fool. Once +more her husband's refusal to let her take her meals apart from him +seemed monstrous. Hardly ever did she rise from one at which she had not +been abused and insulted. She realized indeed that she had been foolish +to ask the question. But why should she sit tongue-tied before the brute? + +She took another sip and said quietly: "It isn't corked." + +Then she turned cold with fright. + +Lord Loudwater could not believe his ears. It could not be that his wife +had contradicted him flatly. It--could--_not_--be. + +He was still incredulous, breathing heavily, when the door opened and +James Hutchings appeared on the threshold. In his right hand he held the +decanter of offending port, in his left a sound cork. + +He said firmly: "This wine isn't corked, m'lord. Its flavour is perfect. +Besides, a cork like this couldn't cork it." + +A less sensitive man than Lord Loudwater might have risen to the +double emergency. Lord Loudwater could not. He sat perfectly still. +But his eyes rolled so horribly that the Lady Loudwater started from +her chair, uttered a faint scream, and fairly ran through the long +window into the garden. + +James Hutchings advanced to the table, thumped the decanter down on +it--no way to treat an old vintage port--at Lord Loudwater's right hand, +walked out of the room, and shut the door firmly behind him. + +In the great hall he smiled a triumphant, malevolent smile. Then he +called Wilkins and Holloway, who stood together in the middle of it, +cowardly dogs and shirkers, and strode past them to the door to the +servants' quarters. + +A few moments later Lord Loudwater rose to his feet and staggered +dizzily along to the other end of the table. He picked up his wife's +half-emptied glass and sipped the port. It was _not_ corked. It was +incredible! He would never forgive her! + +He rang the bell. Both Wilkins and Holloway answered it. He bade them +tell Hutchings to pack his belongings and go at once. If he were not out +of the castle by four o'clock, they were to kick him out. Then he went, +still scowling, to the stables. + +Mr. Manley had already finished his lunch. Halfway through his +after-lunch pipe he rose, took his hat and stick, and set out to pay a +visit to Mrs. Truslove. + +As he came out of the park gates he came upon the Rev. George Stebbing, +the _locum tenens_ in charge of the parish, for the vicar was away on a +holiday, enjoying a respite from his perpetual struggle with the patron +of the living, Lord Loudwater. + +They fell into step and for a while discussed the local weather and local +affairs. Then Mr. Manley, who had been gifted by Heaven with a lively +imagination wholly untrammelled by any straining passion for exactitude, +entertained Mr. Stebbing with a vivid account of his experiences as +leader of the first Great Push. Mr. Manley was one of the many rather +stout, soft men who in different parts of Great Britain will till their +dying days entertain acquaintances with vivid accounts of their +experiences as leaders of the Great Pushes. Like that of most of them, +his war experience, before his weak heart had procured him his discharge +from the army, had consisted wholly of office work in England. His +account of his strenuous fighting lacked nothing of fire or +picturesqueness on that account. He was too modest to say in so many +words that but for his martial qualities there would have been no Great +Push at all, and that any success it had had was due to those martial +qualities, but that was the impression he left on Mr. Stebbing's simple +and rather plastic mind. When therefore they parted at the crossroads, +Mr. Manley went on his way in a pleasant content at having once more made +himself valued; and Mr. Stebbing went on his way feeling thankful that he +had been brought into friendly contact with a really able hero. Both of +them were the happier for their chance meeting. + +Mr. Manley found Helena Truslove in her drawing-room, and when the door +closed behind the maid who had ushered him into it, he embraced her with +affectionate warmth. Then he held her out at arm's-length, and for the +several hundredth time admired her handsome, clear-skinned, +high-coloured, gipsy face, her black, rather wild eyes, and the black +hair wreathed round her head in so heavy a mass. + +"It has been an awful long time between the kisses," he said. + +She sighed a sigh of content and laughed softly. Then she said: "I +sometimes think that you must have had a great deal of practice." + +"No," said Mr. Manley firmly. "I have never had occasion to be in +love before." + +He put her back into the chair from which he had lifted her, sat down +facing her, and gazed at her with adoring eyes. He was truly very much in +love with her. + +They were excellent complements the one of the other. If Mr. Manley had +the brains for two--indeed, he had the brains for half a dozen--she had +the character for two. Her chin was very unlike the chin of an eagle. She +was not, indeed, lacking in brains. Her brow forbade the supposition. But +hers was rather the practical intelligence, his the creative. That she +had the force of character, on occasion the fierceness, which he lacked, +was no small source of her attraction for him. + +"And how was the hog this morning?" she said, ready to be soothing. + +"The hog" was their pet name for Lord Loudwater. + +"Beastly. He's an utterly loathsome fellow," said Mr. Manley with +conviction. + +"Oh, no; not utterly--at any rate, not if you're independent of him," she +protested. + +"Does he ever come into contact with any one who is not dependent on him? +I believe he shuns them like the pest." + +"Not into close contact," she said--"at any rate, nowadays. But +I've known him to do good-natured things; and then he's very fond of +his horses." + +"That makes the way he treats every human being who is in any way +dependent on him all the more disgusting," said Mr. Manley firmly. + +"Oh, I don't know. It's something to be fond of animals," she said +tolerantly. + +"This morning he had a devil of a row with Hutchings, the butler, you +know, and discharged him." + +"That was a silly thing to do. Hutchings is not at all a good person to +have a row with," she said quickly. "I should say that he was a far more +dangerous brute than Loudwater and much more intelligent. Still, I don't +know what he could do. What was the row about?" + +"Some woman sent Loudwater an anonymous letter accusing Hutchings of +having received commissions from the wine merchants." + +"That would be Elizabeth Twitcher's mother. Elizabeth and Hutchings were +engaged, and about ten days ago he jilted her," said Mrs. Truslove. "I +suppose that when he was in love with her he bragged about these +commissions to her and she told her mother." + +"Her mother has certainly taken it out of him for jilting her daughter. +But what an unsavoury place the castle is!" said Mr. Manley. + +"With such a master--what can you expect?" said Mrs. Truslove. "Did the +hog say anything more about halving my allowance?" + +Mr. Manley frowned. A few days before he had been greatly surprised to +learn from Lord Loudwater that the bulk of Helena Truslove's income was +an allowance from him. The matter had greatly exercised his mind. Why +should his employer allow her six hundred a year? It was a matter which +should be cleared up. + +He said slowly: "Yes, he did. He asked what you said when I told you that +he was going to halve it, and he did not seem to like the idea of your +seeing him about it." + +"He'll like my seeing him about it even less than the idea of it," +said Mrs. Truslove firmly, and there was a sudden gleam in her wild +black eyes. + +Mr. Manley looked at her, frowning faintly. Then he said in a rather +hesitating manner: "I've never asked you about it. But why does the hog +make you this allowance?" + +"That's my dark past," she said in a teasing tone, smiling at him. "I +suppose that as we're going to be married so soon I ought to make a clean +breast of it, if you really want to know." + +"Just as you like," said Mr. Manley, his face clearing a little at her +careless tone. + +"Well, the hog treated me badly--not really badly, because I didn't care +enough about him to make it possible for him to treat me really badly, +but just as badly as he could. For when he and I first met I was on the +way to get engaged to a man, named Hardwicke--a rich city man, rather a +bore, but a man who would make an excellent husband. Loudwater knew that +Hardwicke was ready and eager to marry me, and I suppose that that helped +to make him keen on me. At any rate, he made love to me, not nearly so +badly as you'd think, and persuaded me to promise to marry him." + +"I can't think how you could have done it!" cried Mr. Manley. + +"How was I to know what a hog he was at home? At Trouville he was quite +nice, as I tell you. Besides, there was the title--I thought I should +like to be Lady Loudwater. You know, I do have strong impulses, and I +act on them." + +"Well, after all, you didn't marry him," said Mr. Manley in a tone of +relief. "What did happen?" + +"We were engaged for about two months. Then, about a month before the +date fixed for our marriage, he met Olivia Quainton, fell in love with +her, and broke off our engagement a week before our wedding-day." + +"Well, of all the caddish tricks!" cried Mr. Manley. + +"You can imagine how furious I was. And I wasn't going to stand it--not +from Loudwater, at any rate. I had learnt a good deal more about him in +the eleven weeks we were engaged, and, naturally, I wasn't pleased with +what I had learnt. I set out to make myself very disagreeable. I saw him +and did make myself very disagreeable. I told him a good many unpleasant +things about himself which made him much more furious than I was myself." + +"I'm glad some of it got through his thick skin," said Mr. Manley. + +"A good deal of it did. Then I made it clear to him that he had robbed me +of John Hardwicke and an excellent settlement in life, and told him that +I was going to bring an action for breach of promise against him. That +certainly got through his thick skin, for it's very painful to him to +spend money on any one but himself. But he made terms at once, gave me +this house furnished, and promised to allow me six hundred a year for +life. You don't think I was wrong to take it?" she added anxiously. + +"Certainly not," said Mr. Manley quickly and firmly. + +Her face cleared and she said: "So many people would say that it was not +nice my taking money for an injury like that." + +"Rubbish! It wasn't as if you'd been in love with him," said Mr. Manley +with the firmest conviction. + +"That's the exact point. You do see things," she said, smiling at him +gratefully. "If I had been, it would have been quite different." + +"And how else were you to score off him except by hitting him in the +pocket? That and his stomach are his only vulnerable points," said Mr. +Manley viciously. + +He was ignorant of Melchisidec's discovery of another. + +"They are. And he certainly had robbed me of an income. It was only fair +that he should make up for it," she said rather plaintively. + +"Absolutely fair." + +"Well, those were the terms. The house is mine all right; it was properly +made over to me. But, stupidly, I didn't have a proper deed drawn up +about the money. I had his promise. One supposes that one can take the +word of an English Peer. But I think that it's really all right. I have +his letters about it." + +"There's no saying. You'd better see a lawyer about it and find out. But +this isn't a very dark past," he said, and rose and came to her and +kissed her. + +He was, indeed, relieved and reassured. In these circumstances the six +hundred a year was not an allowance at all. It was merely the payment of +a debt--a just debt. + +"But it won't be nearly so nice for us, if the hog does manage to cut the +six hundred down to three hundred. My husband only left me a hundred a +year," she said, frowning. + +"To be with you will be perfection, whatever our income is," said Mr. +Manley, with ringing conviction, and he kissed her again. + +She smiled happily and said: "He shan't cut it down. I'll see that he +doesn't. When I've had a talk with him, he'll be glad enough to leave it +as it is." + +"It's very likely that he's only trying it on. It's the kind of thing he +would do. But you'll find it difficult to get that talk. He's bent on +shirking it," said Mr. Manley. + +"I'll see that he doesn't get the chance of shirking it," she said, and +her eyes gleamed again. + +"I believe you're the only person in the world he's afraid of," he said +in a tone of admiration. + +"I shouldn't wonder," she said. "At any rate, I seem to be the only +person in the world to whom he's always been civil. At least, I've never +heard of any one else." + +"I'm afraid he won't be civil when you get that talk with him--if ever +you do get it," said Mr. Manley, frowning rather anxiously. + +"That'll be all the worse for him," she said dauntlessly. "But, after +all, if I did fail to make him leave my income at six hundred, we should +still have this house and four hundred a year. We should still be quite +comfortable. Besides, you could keep on as his secretary, and that would +be another two hundred a year." + +"I can't do that! It's out of the question!" cried Mr. Manley. "I'm +getting so to loathe the brute that I shall soon be quite unable to stand +him. As it is, I sometimes have a violent desire to wring his neck. Now +that I know that he played this measly trick on you, it will be more +violent than ever. Besides, we must have a flat in town. It's really +necessary to my work! I can do my actual writing down here fairly well. +But what I really need is to get in touch with the right people, with the +people who are really stimulating. Besides, I'm gregarious; I like mixing +with people." + +"Yes. You're right. We must have a flat in town. Therefore, I must make +the hog keep to his bargain, and I will," she said firmly. + +"I believe you may," he said, gazing at her determined face with +admiring eyes. + +There was a pause. Then she said carelessly: "When are we going to tell +people that we're engaged?" + +"Not yet awhile," said Mr. Manley quickly. "At least I don't want the +people about here to know about it. And if you come to think of it, +things being as they are, Loudwater would probably make himself more +infernally disagreeable to me than he does at present. He'd not only try +to take it out of me to annoy you, but it's just as likely as not that he +would consider my getting engaged to you as poaching on his +preserves--infernal cheek. He's the most hopelessly vain and +unreasonable sweep in the British Isles." + +"I shouldn't be a bit surprised if he did. He couldn't possibly help +being a dog in the manger," she said thoughtfully. "And there's another +thing. It has just occurred to me that if he tries to halve my income for +nothing at all, he might try to stop it altogether if I got married. No; +I must get that matter settled for good and all. I'll have that talk with +him at once." + +"If you can get it," said Mr. Manley doubtfully. + +"I can get it," she said confidently. "You must remember that, having +lived here for nearly two years, I know all about his habits. I shall +take him by surprise. But we've talked enough about these dull things; +let's talk about something interesting. How's the play going?" + +They talked about the play he was writing, and then they talked about one +another. They had their afternoon tea soon after four, for Mr. Manley had +to return to the Castle to deal with any letters that the five o'clock +post might bring. + +At twenty minutes to five he left Mrs. Truslove and walked back to the +Castle. He was truly in love with Helena. She was intelligent and +appreciative. She was of his own class, with his own practical outlook on +life, born of having belonged to a middle-class family of moderate means +like himself. She was the daughter of a country architect. He could +nowhere have found a more suitable wife. He was relieved about the matter +of the reason why she received an allowance from Lord Loudwater; but he +was not relieved about the matter of its being halved. Seven hundred a +year had been an excellent income for the wife of a struggling playwright +to enjoy. It had promised him the full social life in which his genius +would most rapidly develop. He had regarded that income with great +pleasure. Ever since Lord Loudwater had bidden him inform Helena of his +intention of halving her allowance he had been bitterly angered by this +barefaced attempt to rob her and consequently her future husband. In the +light of her story the attempt had grown yet more disgraceful, and he +resented it yet more bitterly. + +The further danger that Lord Loudwater might attempt to stop her income +altogether if she married, though he perceived that it was a real, even +imminent danger, did not greatly trouble him. He was full of resentment, +not fear. He felt that he loathed his employer more than ever and with +more reason. + +Holloway brought the post-bag to the library, and waited while Mr. +Manley sorted the letters, that he might take those addressed to Lady +Loudwater to her rooms and those addressed to the servants to the +housekeeper's room. + +As Mr. Manley inverted the bag and poured its contents on to the table, +the footman said: "'Utchings 'as gone, sir." + +"We must bear up," said Mr. Manley, in a tone wholly void of any sympathy +with Hutchings in his misfortune. + +"He was that furious. The things 'e said 'e'd do to his lordship!" said +Holloway in a deeply-impressed tone. + +"Threatened men live long," said Mr. Manley carelessly. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +There is in the collection of the Earl of Ellesmere a picture of the head +of a girl which the connoisseurs of the nineteenth century ascribed to +Leonardo da Vinci. The connoisseurs of the twentieth century ascribe it +to Luini. But for the colour of the hair it might have been a portrait of +Lady Loudwater, a faded portrait. It might also very well be a portrait +of one of her actual ancestresses, for her grandmother was a lady of an +old Tuscan family. + +Be that as it may, Lady Loudwater had the soft, dark, dreamy eyes, set +rather wide apart, the straight, delicate nose, the alluring lips, +promising all the kisses, the broad, well-moulded forehead, and the +faint, exactly curving eyebrows of the girl in the picture. Above all, +when Lord Loudwater was not present, the mysterious, enchanting, +lingering smile, which is perhaps the chief charm of Luini's women, +rested nearly always on her face. But while the hair of the girl in the +picture is a deep, dull red, the hair of Olivia was dark brown with +glimmers of gold in it. Also, her colouring was warmer than that of the +girl in the picture, and her alluring charm stronger. + +At a quarter to three that afternoon she came out on to the East lawn in +a silk frock and hat of a green rather sombre for the summer day. She had +been bidden by a fashionable fortune-teller never to wear green, for it +was her unlucky colour. But that tint had so given her colouring its full +values and her dark, liquid eyes so deep a depth, that she had paid no +heed to the warning. There was a bright light of expectation in her eyes, +and the alluring smile lingered on her face. + +She walked quickly across the lawn with the easy, graceful gait proper to +the accomplished golfer she was, into the shrubbery on the other side of +it. A few feet along the path through it she looked sharply back over her +shoulder. She saw no one at those windows of the East wing which looked +on to the lawn and shrubbery, but a movement on the lawn itself caught +her eye. The cat Melchisidec was following her. She did not slacken her +pace, but for a moment the smile faded from her face at the remembrance +of her husband's outburst at breakfast. Then the smile returned, subtile +and expectant. + +She did not wait for Melchisidec. She knew his way of pretending to +follow her like a dog; she knew that if she displayed any interest in +him, even showed that she was aware of his presence, he would probably +come no further. She went on at the same brisk pace till she came to the +gate in the East wood. She went through it, shut it gently, paused, and +again looked back. All of the path through the shrubbery that she could +see was empty. She turned and walked briskly along the narrow path +through the wood, and came into the long, turf-paved aisle which ran at +right angles to it. + +The middle of the aisle was deeply rutted by the wheels of the carts +which had carried away the timber from the spring thinning of the wood. +She turned to the left and sauntered slowly up the smooth turf along the +side of the aisle, a brighter light of expectation in her eyes, her smile +even more mysterious and alluring. + +She had not gone fifty yards up the aisle when Colonel Grey came limping +out of the entrance of a path on the other side of it, and quickened his +pace as he crossed it. + +She stood still, flushing faintly, gazing at him with her lips parted a +little. He looked, as he was, very young to be a Lieutenant-Colonel, and +uncommonly fragile for a V. C. At any time he would look delicate, and +he was the paler for the fact that at times he still suffered +considerable pain from his wound. But there was force in his delicate, +distinguished face. His sensitive lips could set very firm; his chin was +square; his nose had a rather heavy bridge, and usually his grey eyes +were cold and very keen. He gave the impression of being wrought of +finely-tempered steel. + +His eyes were shining so brightly at the moment that they had lost their +keenness with their coldness. He marked joyfully the flush on her face, +and did not know that he was flushing himself. + +About five feet away he stopped, gazing, or rather staring, at her, and +said in a tone of fervent conviction: "Heavens, Olivia! What a beautiful +and entrancing creature you are!" + +She smiled, flushing more deeply. He stepped forward, took her hand, and +held it very tightly. + +"Goodness! But I have been impatient for you to come!" he cried. + +"I'm not late," she said in her low, sweet, rather drawling voice. + +He let go of her hand and said: "I don't know how it is, but I've been as +restless as a cat all the morning. I'm never sure that you will be able +to come; and the uncertainty worries me." + +"But you saw me for three hours yesterday," she said, moving forward. + +"Yesterday?" he said, falling into step with her. "Yesterday is a +thousand years away. I wasn't sure that you'd come today." + +"Why shouldn't I come?" she said. + +"Loudwater might have got to know of it and stopped you coming." + +"Fortunately he doesn't take enough interest in my doings. Of course, if +I didn't turn up at a meal, he'd make a fuss, though why he should make +such a point of our having all our meals together I can't conceive. I +should certainly enjoy mine much more if I had them in my sitting-room," +she said in a dispassionate tone, for all the world as if she were +discussing the case of some one else. + +"I _am_ so worried about you," he said with a harassed air. "Ever since +that evening I heard him bullying you I've been simply worried to death +about it." + +"It was nice of you to interfere, but it was a pity," she said gently. +"It didn't do any good as far as his behaviour is concerned, and we saw +so much more of one another when you could come to the Castle." + +"Then you do want to see more of me?" he said eagerly. + +Lady Loudwater lost her smiling air; she became demureness itself, and +she said: "Well, you see--thanks to Egbert's vile temper--we have so +few friends." + +Grey frowned; she was always quick to elude him. Then he growled: "What a +name! Egbert!" + +"He can't help that. It was given him. Besides, it's a family name," she +said in a tone of fine impartiality. + +"It would be. Hogbert!" said Grey contemptuously. + +Mrs. Truslove and Mr. Manley were not the only people to ignore the +essential bullness of Lord Loudwater. + +They went on a few steps in silence; then she said: "Besides, I don't +mind his outbursts. I'm used to them." + +"I don't believe it! You're much too delicate and sensitive!" he cried. + +"But I _am_ getting used to them," she protested. + +"You never will. Has he been bullying you again?" he said, looking +anxiously into her eyes. + +"Not more than usual," she said in a wholly indifferent tone. + +"Then it is usual! I was afraid it was," he said in a miserable voice. +"What on earth is to be done about it?" + +"Why, there's nothing to be done, except just grin and bear it," she said +bravely enough, and with the conviction of one who has thought a matter +out thoroughly. + +"Then it's monstrous! Just monstrous, that the most charming and +loveliest creature in the world should be bullied by that infernal +brute!" he cried, and put his arm around her. + +The Countess was on the very point of slipping out of it when the cat +Melchisidec came out of the bushes a dozen yards ahead of them, and +with Melchisidec came a very distinct vision of Lord Loudwater's +flushed, distorted, and revolting face as he swore at her at breakfast +that morning. + +She did not slip out of the encircling arm, and Grey bent his head and +kissed her lightly on the lips. + +It was the gentlest, lightest kiss, the kiss he might have given a +pretty child, just a natural tribute to beauty and charm. + +But the harm was done. The population of Great Britain cannot really be +more than one and a half persons to the acre, and the great majority of +them live, thousands to the acre, in towns; yet it is indeed difficult +to kiss a girl during the daytime in any given acre, however thickly +wooded, without being seen by some superfluous sojourner on that acre; +and whether, or no, it was that the green frock and hat brought the +Countess the bad luck the fortuneteller had foretold, there was a +witness to that kiss. + +Undoubtedly, too, it was not the right kind of witness. If it had been an +indulgent elder not given to gossip, or a chivalrous young man not averse +himself from kisses, all might have been well. But William Roper, +under-gamekeeper, was a young man without a spark of chivalry in him, and +he had been soured in the matter of kisses by the steadfast resolve of +the young women of the village to suffer none from him. He was an +unattractive young man, not unlike the ferrets he kept at his cottage. He +was the last young man in the world, or at any rate in the neighbourhood, +to keep silent about what he had seen. + +Even so, no great harm might have been done. He might have blabbed about +the matter in the village, and the whole village and the servants of the +Castle might have talked about it for weeks and months, or even years, +without it reaching the ears of Lord Loudwater. But William Roper saw in +that kiss his royal road to Fortune. Ambitious in the grain, he was not +content with his post of under-gamekeeper; he desired to oust William +Hutchings from the post of head-gamekeeper, and though there were two +under-gamekeepers senior to him with a greater claim on that post, occupy +it himself. Here was the way to it; his lordship could not but be +grateful to the man who informed him of such goings-on; he could not but +promote him to the post of his desire. + +He wholly misjudged his lordship. Ordinary gratitude was not one of his +attributes. + +Olivia slipped out of Grey's arm, and they walked on up the aisle. But +they walked on, changed creatures--trembling, a little bemused. + +William Roper, the ill-favoured minister of Nemesis, followed them. + +At the top of the aisle they came to the pavilion, a small white marble +building in the Classic style, standing in the middle of a broad glade. + +As they went into it, Olivia said wistfully: "It's a pity I couldn't have +tea sent here." + +"I did. At least I brought it," said Grey, waving his hand towards a +basket which stood on the table. "I knew you'd be happier for tea." + +"No one has ever been so thoughtful of me as you are," she said, gazing +at him with grateful, troubled eyes. + +"Let's hope that your luck is changing," he said gravely, gazing at her +with eyes no less troubled. + +Then Melchisidec scratched at the door and mewed. Olivia let him in. +Purring in the friendliest way, he rubbed his head against Grey's leg. He +never treated Lord Loudwater with such friendliness. + +William Roper chose a tree about forty yards from the pavilion and set +his gun against the trunk. Then he filled and lit his pipe, leaned back +comfortably against the trunk, hidden by the fringe of undergrowth, and, +with his eyes on the door of the pavilion, waited. For Grey and Olivia, +never dreaming of this patient watcher, the minutes flew; they had so +many things to tell one another, so many questions to ask. At least Grey +had; Olivia, for the most part, listened without comment, unless the +flush which waxed and waned should be considered comment, to the things +he told her about herself and the many ways in which she affected him. +For William Roper the minutes dragged; he was eager to start briskly up +the royal road to Fortune. He was a slow smoker and he smoked a strong, +slow-burning twist; but he had nearly emptied the screw of paper which +held it before they came out of the door of the pavilion. + +It was a still evening, but some drift of air had carried the rank smoke +from William Roper's pipe into the glade, and it hung there. Colonel Grey +had not taken five steps before his nostrils were assailed by it. + +"Damn!" he said softly. + +"What's the matter?" said Olivia. + +She was too deeply absorbed in Grey for her senses to be alert, and +the reek of William Roper's twist had reached her nostrils, but not +her brain. + +"There's some one about," he said. "Can't you smell his vile tobacco?" + +"Bother!" said Olivia softly, and she frowned. They walked quietly on. +Grey was careful not to look about him with any show of earnestness, for +there was nothing to be gained by letting the watcher know that they had +perceived his presence. Indeed, he would have seen nothing, for the +undergrowth between him and the glade was too thin to form a good screen, +and William Roper was now behind the tree-trunk. + +Thirty yards down the broad aisle Grey said in a low voice: "This is an +infernal nuisance!" + +"Why?" said Olivia. + +"If it comes to Loudwater's ears, he'll make himself devilishly +unpleasant to you." + +"He can't make himself more unpleasant than he does," she said, in a tone +of quiet certitude and utter indifference. "But why shouldn't I have tea +with you in the pavilion? It's what it's there for." + +"All the same, Loudwater will make an infernal fuss about it, if it gets +to his ears. He'll bully you worse than ever," he said in an unhappy +tone, frowning heavily. + +"What do I care about Loudwater--now?" she said, smiling at him, and she +brushed her fingertips across the back of his hand. + +He caught her fingers and held them for a moment, but the frown +did not lift. + +"The nuisance is that, whoever it was, he had been there a long time," he +said gravely. "The glade was full of the reek of his vile tobacco. +Suppose he saw me kiss you in the drive here and then followed us?" + +"Well, if you will do such wicked things in the open air--" she +said, smiling. + +"It isn't a laughing matter, I'm afraid," he said rather heavily, +and frowning. + +"Well, I should have to consider your reputation and say that you didn't. +It would be very bad for your career if it became known that you did such +things, and Egbert would never rest till he had done everything he could +do to injure you. I should certainly declare that you didn't, and you'd +have to do the same." + +"Oh, leave me out of it! Hogbert can't touch me. It's you I'm thinking +about," he said. + +"But there's no need to worry about me. I'm not afraid of Egbert any +longer," she said, and her eyes, full of confidence and courage, met his +steadily. Then, resolved to clear the anxiety away from his mind, she +went on: "It's no use meeting trouble half-way. If some one did see us, +Egbert may not get to hear of it for days, or weeks--perhaps never." + +She did not know that they had to reckon with the ambition of +William Roper. + +"Lord, how I want to kiss you again!" he cried. + +"You'll have to wait till tomorrow," she said. + +It was as well that he did not kiss her again, for fifty yards behind +them, stealing through the wood, came William Roper, all eyes. And he had +already quite enough to tell. + +Grey walked with her through the rest of the wood and nearly to the end +of the path through the shrubbery. She spared no effort to set his mind +at ease, protesting that she did not care a rap how furiously her husband +abused her. A few yards from the edge of the East lawn they stopped, but +they lingered over their parting. She promised to meet him in the East +wood at three on the morrow. + +She walked slowly across the lawn and up to her suite of rooms, thinking +of Grey. She changed into a _peignoir_, lit a cigarette, lay down on a +couch, and went on thinking about him. She gave no thought to the matter +of whether they had been watched. Lord Loudwater had become of less +interest than ever to her; his furies seemed trivial. She had a feeling +that he had become a mere shadow in her life. + +As she lay smoking that cigarette William Roper was telling his story to +Lord Loudwater. He had waited in the wood till Colonel Grey had gone +back through it; then he had walked briskly to the back door of the +Castle and asked to see his lordship. Mary Hutchings, the second +housemaid, who had answered his knock, took him to the servants' hall, +and told Holloway what he asked. Both of them regarded him curiously; +they themselves never wanted to see his lordship, though seeing him was +part of their jobs, and one who could go oat of his way to see him must +indeed be remarkable. William Roper was hardly remarkable. He was merely +somewhat repulsive. Holloway said that he would inquire whether his +lordship would see him, and went. + +As he went out of the door William Roper said, with an air of great +importance: "Tell 'is lordship as it's very partic'ler." + +Mary Hutchings' curiosity was aroused, and she tried to discover what it +was. All she gained by doing so was an acute irritation of her curiosity. +William Roper grew mysterious to the very limits of aggravation, but he +told her nothing. + +Her irritation was not alleviated when he said darkly: "You'll 'ear all +about these goings-on in time." + +She wished to hear all about them then and there. + +Holloway came back presently, looking rather sulky, and said that his +lordship would see William Roper. + +"Though why 'e should curse me because you want to see 'im very +partic'ler, I can't see," he added, with an aggrieved air. + +He led the way, and for the first time in his life William Roper found +himself entering the presence of the head of the House of Loudwater +without any sense of trepidation. He carried himself unusually upright +with an air of conscious rectitude. + +Lord Loudwater was in the smoking-room in which he had that morning dealt +with his letters with Mr. Manley. It was his favourite room, his +smoking-room, his reading-room, and his office. He had been for a long +ride, and was now lying back in an easy chair, with a long +whisky-and-soda by his side, reading the _Pall Mall Gazette_. In +literature his taste was blameless. + +Holloway, ushering William Roper into the room, said: "William Roper, +m'lord," and withdrew. + +Lord Loudwater went on reading the paragraph he had just begun. William +Roper gazed at him without any weakening of his courage, so strong was +his conviction of the nobility of the duty he was discharging, and +cleared his throat. + +Lord Loudwater finished the paragraph, scowled at the interrupter, and +said: "Well, what is it? Hey? What do you want?" + +"It's about 'er ladyship, your lordship. I thought your lordship oughter +be told about it--its not being at all the sort of thing as your lordship +would be likely to 'old with." + +There are noblemen who would, on the instant, have bidden William Roper +go to the devil. Lord Loudwater was not of these. He set the newspaper +down beside the whisky-and-soda, leaned forward, and said in a hushed +voice: "What the devil are you talking about? Hey?" + +"I seed Colonel Grey--the gentleman as is staying at the 'Cart and +'Orses'--kiss 'er in the East wood," said William Roper. + +The first emotion of Lord Loudwater was incredulous amazement. It was his +very strong conviction that his wife was a cold-blooded, passionless +creature, incapable of inspiring or feeling any warm emotion. He had +forgotten that he had married her for love--violent love. + +"You infernal liar!" he said in a rather breathless voice. + +"It ain't no lie, your lordship. What for should I go telling lies about +'er?" said William Roper in an injured tone. + +Lord Loudwater stared at him. The fellow was telling the truth. + +"And what did she do? Hey? Did she smack his face for him?" he cried. + +"No. She let 'im do it, your lordship." + +"She did?" bellowed his lordship. + +"Yes. She didn't seem a bit put out, your lordship," said William +Roper simply. + +"And what happened then?" bellowed Lord Loudwater, and he got to his +feet. + +"They walked on to the pavilion, your lordship. An' they had their tea +there. Leastways, I seed'er ladyship come to the door an' empty hot water +out of a tea-pot." + +"Tea? Tea?" said Lord Loudwater in the tone of one saying: "Arson! +Arson!" + +Then, in all his black wrath, he perceived that he must have himself in +hand to deal with the matter. He took a long draught of whisky-and-soda, +rose, walked across the room and back again, grinding his teeth, rolling +his eyes, and snapping the middle finger and thumb of his right hand. +Never had the flush of rage been so deep in his face. It was almost +purple. Never had his eyes protruded so far from his head. + +He stopped and said thickly: "How long were they in the pavilion?" + +"In the pavilion, your lordship? They were there a longish while--an hour +and a half maybe," said William Roper, with quiet pride in the impression +his information had made on his employer. + +His employer looked at him as if it was the dearest wish of his heart to +shake the life out of him then and there. It _was_ the dearest wish of +his heart. But he refrained. It would be a senseless act to slay the +goose which lay these golden eggs of information. + +"All right. Get out! And keep your tongue between your teeth, or I'll cut +it out for you! Do you understand? Hey?" he roared, approaching William +Roper with an air so menacing that the conscientious fellow backed +against the door with his arm up to shield his face. + +"I ain't a-going to say a word to no one!" he cried. + +"You'd better not! Get out!" snarled his employer. + +William Roper got out. Trembling and perspiring freely, he walked +straight through the Castle and out of the back door without pausing to +say a word to any one, though he heard the voice of Holloway discussing +his mysterious errand with Mary Hutchings in the servants' hall. He had +walked nearly a mile before he succeeded in convincing himself that his +feet were firmly set on the royal road to Fortune. His conviction was +ill-founded. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +For a good three minutes after the departure of William Roper the Lord +Loudwater walked up and down the smoking-room. His redly-glinting eyes +still rolled in a terrifying fashion, and still every few seconds he +snapped his fingers in the throes of an effort to make up his raging mind +whether to begin by an attack on his wife or on Colonel Grey. He could +not remember ever having been so angry in his life; now and again his red +eyes saw red. + +Then of a sudden he made up his mind that he was at the moment +angrier with Colonel Grey. He would deal with him first. Olivia could +wait. He hurried out to the stables and bellowed for a horse with +such violence that two startled grooms saddled one for him in little +more than a minute. + +He made no attempt to think what he would say to Colonel Grey. He was +too angry. He galloped the two miles to the "Cart and Horses" at +Bellingham, where Colonel Grey was staying, in order to restore his +health and to fish. + +At the door of the inn he bellowed: "Ostler! Ostler!" Then without +waiting to see whether an ostler came, he threw the reins on his horse's +neck, left it to its own devices, strode into the tap-room, and bellowed +to the affrighted landlady, Mrs. Turnbull, to take him straight to +Colonel Grey. Trembling, she led him upstairs to Grey's sitting-room on +the first floor. Before she could knock, he opened the door, bounced +through it, and slammed it. + +Grey was sitting at the other side of the table, looking through a book +of flies. He appeared to be quite unmoved by the sudden entry of the +infuriated nobleman, or by his raucous bellow: + +"So here you are, you infernal scoundrel!" + +He looked at him with a cold, distasteful eye, and said in a clear, very +unpleasant voice: "Another time knock before you come into my room." + +Lord Loudwater had not expected to be received in this fashion; dimly he +had seen Grey cowering. + +He paused, then said less loudly: "Knock? Hey? Knock? Knock at the door +of an infernal scoundrel like you?" His voice began to gather volume +again. "Likely I should take the trouble! I know all about your +scoundrelly game." + +Colonel Grey remembered that Olivia had said that she proposed to deny +the kiss, and his course was quite clear to him. + +"I don't know whether you're drunk, or mad," he said in a quiet, +contemptuous voice. + +This again was not what Lord Loudwater had expected. But Grey was a +strong believer in the theory that the attacker has the advantage, and +he had an even stronger belief that an enemy in a fury is far less +dangerous than an enemy calm. + +"You're lying! You know I'm neither!" bellowed Lord Loudwater. "You +kissed Olivia--Lady Loudwater--in the East wood. You know you did. You +were seen doing it." + +"You're raving, man," said Colonel Grey quietly, in a yet more +unpleasant tone. + +The interview was not going as Lord Loudwater had seen it. He had to +swallow violently before he could say: "You were seen doing it! Seen! By +one of my gamekeepers!" + +"You must have paid him to say so," said Colonel Grey with quiet +conviction. + +Lord Loudwater was a little staggered by the accusation. He gasped and +stuttered: "D-D-Damn your impudence! P-P-Paid to say it!" + +"Yes, paid," said Colonel Grey, without raising his voice. "You happened +to hear that we had tea in the pavilion in the wood--probably from Lady +Loudwater herself--and you made up this stupid lie and paid your +gamekeeper to tell it in order to score off her. It's exactly the dog's +trick a bullying ruffian like you would play a woman." + +"D-D-Dog's trick? Me?" stammered Lord Loudwater, gasping. + +He was used to saying things of this kind to other people; not to have +them said to him. + +"Yes, you. You know that you're a wretched bully and cad," said Colonel +Grey, with just a little more warmth in his tone. + +Had Lord Loudwater's belief that William Roper had told him the truth +about the kiss been weaker, it might have been shaken by the +whole-hearted thoroughness of Grey's attack. But William Roper had +impressed that belief on him deeply. He was sure that Grey had kissed +Lady Loudwater. + +The certainty spurred him to a fresh effort, and he cried: "It's no good +your trying to humbug me--none at all. I've got evidence--plenty of +evidence! And I'm going to act on it, too. I'm going to hound you out of +the Army and that jade of a wife of mine out of decent society. Do you +think, because I don't spend four or five months every year in that +rotten hole, London, I haven't got any influence? Hey? If you do, you're +damn well wrong. I've got more than enough twice over to clear a +scoundrel like you out of the Army." + +"Don't talk absurd nonsense!" said Grey calmly. + +"Nonsense? Hey? Absurd nonsense?" howled Lord Loudwater on a new note of +exasperation. + +"Yes, nonsense. A disreputable cad like you can't hurt me in any way, and +well you know it," said Grey with painstaking distinctness. + +"Not hurt you? Hey? I can't hurt the corespondent in a divorce case? +Hey?" said Lord Loudwater rather breathlessly. + +"As if a man who has abused and bullied his wife as you have could get a +divorce!" said Grey, and he laughed a gentle, contemptuous laugh, galling +beyond words. + +It galled Lord Loudwater surely enough; he snapped his fingers four times +and gibbered. + +"I tell you what it is: I've had enough of your manners," said Grey. +"What you want is a lesson. And if I hear that you've been bullying Lady +Loudwater about this simple matter of my having had tea with her, I'll +give it you--with a horsewhip." + +"You'll give me a lesson? You?" whispered Lord Loudwater, and he danced a +little frantically. + +"Yes. I'll give you the soundest thrashing any man hereabouts has had for +the last twenty years, if I have to begin by knocking your ugly head off +your shoulders," said Grey, raising his clear voice, so that for the +first time Mrs. Turnbull, trembling, but thrilled, on the landing, heard +what was being said. + +The enunciation of Lord Loudwater had been thick, his words had +been slurred. + +"You? You thrash me?" he howled. + +"Yes, me. Now get out!" + +Lord Loudwater gnashed his teeth at him and again snapped his fingers. He +burned to rush round the table and hammer the life out of Grey, but he +could not do it; violent words, not violent deeds, were his +accomplishment. Moreover, there was something daunting in Grey's cold +and steady eye. He snapped his fingers again, and, pouring out a stream +of furious abuse, turned to the door and flung out of it. Mrs. Turnbull +scuttled aside into Grey's bedroom. + +Half-way down the stairs Lord Loudwater paused to bellow: "I'll ruin you +yet, you scoundrel! Mark my word! I _will_ hound you out of the Army!" + +He flung out of the house and found that the ostler had taken his horse +round to the stable, removed its bridle, and given it a feed of corn. He +cursed him heartily. + +Grey rose, shut the door, and laughed gently. Then he frowned. Of a +sudden he perceived that, natural as had been his manner of dealing with +Lord Loudwater, he had handled him badly. At least, it was possible that +he had handled him badly. It would have been wiser, perhaps, to have been +suave and firm rather than firm and provoking. But it was not likely that +suavity would have been of much use; the brute would probably have +regarded it as weakness. But for Olivia's sake he ought probably to have +tried to soothe him. As it was, the brute had gone raging off and would +vent his fury on her. + +What had he better do? + +He was not long perceiving that there was nothing that he could do. The +natural thing was to go to the Castle and prevent her husband--by force, +if need be--from abusing and bullying Olivia. That was what his +strongest instincts bade him do. It was quite impossible. It would +compromise her beyond repair. He had done her harm enough by his +impulsive indiscretion in the wood. His face slowly settled into a set +scowl as he cudgelled his brains to find a way of coming effectually to +her help. It seemed a vain effort, but a way had to be found. + +Lord Loudwater galloped half-way to the Castle in a furious haste to +punish Olivia for allowing Grey to make love to her, and even more for +the contemptuous way in which Grey had treated him. He had hopes also +of bullying her into a confession of the truth of William Roper's +story. But Grey had excited him to a height of fury at which not even +he could remain without exhaustion. In a reaction he reined in his +horse to a canter, then to a trot, and then to a walk. He found that he +was feeling tired. + +He continued, however, to chafe at his injuries, but with less vehemence, +and he was still resolved to make a strong effort to draw the confession +from Olivia. On reaching the Castle, he did not go to her at once. He sat +down in an easy chair in his smoking-room and drank two +whiskies-and-sodas. + +In the background of Olivia's mind, meditating pleasantly on her pleasant +afternoon, there had been a patient and resigned expectation that +presently her conscience would begin to reproach her for allowing Grey to +make love to her. But the minutes slipped by, and she did not begin to +feel that she had been wicked. The meditation remained pleasant. At last +she realized suddenly that she was not going to feel wicked. She was +surprised and even a trifle horror-stricken by her insensibility. Then, +fairly faced by it, she came to the conclusion that, in a woman cursed +with such a brute of a husband, such insensibility was not only natural, +it was even proper. + +Her woman's craving to be loved and to love was the strongest of her +emotions, and it had gone unsatisfied for so long. Her husband had +killed, or rather extirpated, her fondness for him before they had been +married a month. She was inclined to believe that she had never really +loved him at all. He had certainly ceased to love her before they had +been married a fortnight, if, indeed, he had ever loved her at all. She +had no child; she was an orphan without sisters or brothers. Her husband +let her see but little of the friends who were fond of her. She began to +suspect that her conscience did not reproach her because she had merely +acted on her natural right to love and be loved. This conclusion brought +her mind again to the consideration of Antony Grey, and again she let her +thoughts dwell on him. + +The gong, informing her that it was time to dress for dinner, interrupted +this pleasant occupation. She had her bath, put herself into the hands of +her maid, Elizabeth Twitcher, and resumed her meditation. She was at +once so deeply absorbed in it that she did not observe her maid's sullen +and depressed air. + +She was presently interrupted again, and in a manner far more violent and +startling than the summons of the gong. The door was jerked open, and her +refreshed husband strode into the room. + +"I know all about your little game, madam!" he cried. "You've been +letting that blackguard Grey make love to you! You kissed him in the East +wood this afternoon!" + +The mysterious smile faded from the face of Olivia, and an expression of +the most natural astonishment took its place. + +"I sometimes think that you are quite mad, Egbert," she said in her slow, +musical voice. + +Elizabeth Twitcher continued her deft manipulation of a thick strand of +hair without any change in her sullen and depressed air. To all seeming, +she was uninterested, or deaf. + +Lord Loudwater had expected, in the face of Olivia's gentleness, to have +to work himself up to a proper height of indignant fury by degrees. The +echo of Grey's accusation from the mouth of his wife raised him to it on +the instant and without an effort. + +"Don't lie to me!" he bellowed. "It's no good whatever! I tell +you, I know!" + +Olivia was surprised to find herself wholly free from her old fear of +him. The fact that she was in love with Grey and he with her had already +worked a change in her. These were the only things in the world of any +real importance. That clear knowledge gave her a new confidence and a new +strength. Her husband had been able to frighten her nearly out of her +wits. Now he could not; and she could use them. + +"I'm not lying at all. I really do believe you're mad--often," she said +very distinctly. + +Once more Lord Loudwater was compelled to grind his teeth. Then he +laughed a harsh, barking laugh, and cried: "It's no good! I've just had +a short interview with that scoundrel Grey. And I put the fear of God +into him, I can tell you. I made him admit that you'd kissed him in the +East wood." + +For a breath Olivia was taken aback. Then she perceived clearly that it +was a lie. He could not put the fear of God into Grey. Besides, Grey had +kissed her, not she him. + +"It's you who are lying," she said quickly and with spirit. "How could +Colonel Grey admit a thing that never happened?" + +Lord Loudwater perceived that it was going to be harder to wring the +confession from her than he had expected. Checked, he paused. Then +Elizabeth Twitcher caught his attention. + +"Here: you--clear out!" he said. + +Elizabeth Twitcher caught her mistress's eye in the glass. Olivia +made no sign. + +"I can't leave her ladyship's hair in this state, your lordship," said +Elizabeth Twitcher with sullen firmness. + +"You do as you're told and clear out!" bellowed his lordship. + +"I don't want to be half an hour late for dinner," said Olivia, accepting +the diversion and ready to make the most of it. + +Elizabeth Twitcher looked at Lord Loudwater, saw more clearly than +ever his likeness to the loathed James Hutchings, and made up her mind +to do nothing that he bade her do. She went on dressing her mistress's +hair sullenly. + +"Are you going? Or am I to throw you out of the room?" cried Lord +Loudwater in a blustering voice. + +"Don't be silly, Egbert!" said Olivia sharply. + +From the height of her new emotional experience she felt that her husband +was merely a noisy and obnoxious boy. This was, indeed, quite plain to +her. She felt years older than he and very much wiser. + +Lord Loudwater, with a quite unusual glimmer of intelligence, perceived +that bringing Elizabeth Twitcher into the matter had been a mistake. It +had weakened his main action. In a less violent but more malevolent +voice he said: + +"Silly? Hey? I'll show you all about that, you little jade! You clear +out of this first thing to-morrow morning. My lawyers will settle your +hash for you. I'll deal with that blackguard Grey myself. I'll hound him +out of the Army inside of a month. Perhaps it'll be a consolation to you +to know that you've done him in as well as yourself." + +He turned on his heel, left the room with a positively melodramatic +stride, and slammed the door behind him. + +Olivia was stricken by a sudden panic. She had lost all fear of her +husband as far as she herself was concerned. He had become a mere +offensive windbag. She did not care whether he did, or did not, try to +divorce her. Even on the terms of so great a scandal it would be a cheap +deliverance. But Antony was another matter.... She could not bear that he +should be ruined on her account.... It was intolerable ... not to be +thought of.... She must find some way of preventing it. + +She began to cudgel her brains for that way of preventing it, but in +vain. She could devise no plan. The more she considered the matter, the +worse it grew. She could not bear to be associated in Antony's mind with +disaster; she desired most keenly to stand for everything that was +pleasant and delightful in his life. She would not let her brute of a +husband spoil both their lives. He had already spoiled enough of hers. + +After his injunction to her to leave the Castle first thing next +morning, she took it that they would hardly dine together, and told +Elizabeth Twitcher to tell Wilkins to serve her dinner in her boudoir. +Also, she refused to put on an evening gown, saying that the _peignoir_ +she was wearing was more comfortable on such a hot night. Last of all, +she told her to pack some of her clothes that night. + +Elizabeth Twitcher, stirred somewhat out of her brooding on her own +troubles by this trouble of her mistress, looked at her thoughtfully and +said: "I shouldn't go, m'lady. It'll look as if you agreed with what his +lordship said. And it's only William Roper as has been telling these +lies. He asked to see his lordship about something very partic'ler before +his lordship went out. And who's going to pay any heed to William Roper?" + +"William Roper? Who is William Roper? What kind of a man is he?" said +Olivia quickly. + +"He's an under-gamekeeper, m'lady, and the biggest little beast on the +estate. Everybody hates William Roper," said Elizabeth with conviction. + +This was satisfactory as far as it went. The worse her husband's evidence +was the freer it left her to take her own course of action. But it was no +great comfort, for she was but little concerned about the harm he could +do her. Indeed, she was only concerned about the harm he could do Antony. +She returned to her search for a method of preventing that harm during +her dinner, and after her dinner she continued that search without any +success. This injury to Antony, for her the central fact of the +situation, weighed on her spirit more and more heavily. + +The longer she pondered it the more harassed she grew. The most fantastic +schemes for baulking her husband and saving Antony came thronging into +her mind. She rose and walked restlessly up and down the room, working +herself up into a veritable fever. + +Mr. Manley, having dealt with the letters which had come by the +five-o'clock post, read half a dozen chapters of the last published novel +of Artzybachev with the pleasure he never failed to draw from the works +of that author. Then he dressed and set forth, in a very cheerful spirit, +to dine with Helena Truslove. His cheerful expectations were wholly +fulfilled. She had divined that he was endowed, not only with a romantic +spirit, but with a hearty and discriminating appetite, and was careful to +give him good food and wine and plenty of both. With his coffee he smoked +one of Lord Loudwater's favourite cigars. Expanding naturally, he talked +with spirit and intelligence during dinner, and made love to her after +dinner with even more spirit and intelligence. As a rule, he stayed on +the nights he dined with her till a quarter to eleven. But that night she +dismissed him at ten o'clock, saying that she was feeling tired and +wished to go to bed early. Smoking another of Lord Loudwater's favourite +cigars, he walked briskly back to the Castle, more firmly convinced than +ever that every possible step must be taken to prevent any diminution of +the income of a woman of such excellent taste in food and wine. It would +be little short of a crime to discourage the exercise of her fine natural +gift for stimulating the genius of a promising dramatist. + +He was not in the habit of going to bed early, and having put on slippers +and an old and comfortable coat, he once more turned to the novel by +Artzybachev. He read two more chapters, smoking a pipe, and then he +became aware that he was thirsty. + +He could have mixed himself a whisky and soda then and there, for he had +both in the cupboard, in his sitting-room. But he was a stickler for the +proprieties: he had drunk red wine, Burgundy with his dinner and port +after it, and after red wine brandy is the proper spirit. There would be +brandy in the tantalus in the small dining-room. + +He went quietly down the stairs. The big hall, lighted by a single +electric bulb, was very dim, and he took it that, as was their habit, the +servants had already gone to bed. As he came to the bottom of the stairs +the door at the back of the hall opened; James Hutchings came through the +doorway and shut the door quietly behind him. + +Mr. Manley stood still. James Hutchings came very quietly down the hall, +saw him, and started. + +"Good evening, Hutchings. I thought you'd left us," said Mr. Manley, in a +rather unpleasant tone. + +"You may take your oath to it!" said James Hutchings truculently, in a +much more unpleasant tone than Mr. Manley had used. "I just came back to +get a box of cigarettes I left in the cupboard of my pantry. I don't want +any help in smoking them from any one here." + +He opened the library door gently, went quietly through it, and drew it +to behind him, leaving Mr. Manley frowning at it. It was a fact that +Hutchings carried a packet, which might very well have been cigarettes; +but Mr. Manley did not believe his story of his errand. He took it that +he was leaving the Castle by one of the library windows. Well, it was no +business of his. + +At a few minutes past eight the next morning he was roused from the +deep dreamless sleep which follows good food and good wine well +digested, by a loud knocking on his door. It was not the loud, steady +and prolonged knocking which the third housemaid found necessary to +wake him. It was more vigorous and more staccato and jerkier. Also, a +voice was calling loudly: + +"Mr. Manley, sir! Mr. Manley! Mr. Manley!" + +For all the noise and insistence of the calling Mr. Manley did not awake +quickly. It took him a good minute to realize that he was Herbert Manley +and in bed, and half a minute longer to gather that the knocking and +calling were unusual and uncommonly urgent. He sat up in bed and yawned +terrifically. + +Then he slipped out of bed--the knocking and calling still +continued--unlocked the door, and found Holloway, the second footman, on +the threshold looking scared and horror-stricken. + +"Please, sir, his lordship's dead!" he cried. "He's bin murdered! Stabbed +through the 'eart!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +"Murdered? Lord Loudwater?" said Mr. Manley with another terrific yawn, +and he rubbed his eyes. Then he awoke completely and said: "Send a groom +for Black the constable at once. Yes--and tell Wilkins to telephone the +news to the Chief Inspector at Low Wycombe. Hurry up! I'll get dressed +and be down in a few minutes. Hurry up!" + +Holloway turned to go. + +"Stop!" said Mr. Manley. "Tell Wilkins to see that no one disturbs Lady +Loudwater. I'll break the news myself when she is dressed." + +"Yes, sir," said Holloway, and ran down the corridor. + +Mr. Manley was much quicker than usual making his toilet, but thorough. +He foresaw a hard and trying day before him, and he wished to start it +fresh and clean. He would come into contact with new people; he saw +himself playing an important role in a most important affair; he would +naturally and as usual make himself valued. A slovenly air did not +conduce to that. It seemed fitting to put on his darkest tweed suit and a +black necktie. + +When he came--briskly for him--downstairs he found a group of women +servants in the hall, outside the door of the smoking-room, three of them +snivelling, and Wilkins and Holloway in the smoking-room itself, standing +and staring with a wholly helpless air at the body of Lord Loudwater, +huddled in the easy chair in which he had been wont to sleep after dinner +every evening. + +"He's been stabbed, sir. There's that knife which was in the inkstand on +the library table stickin' in 'is 'eart," said Wilkins in a dismal voice. + +Mr. Manley glanced at the dead man. He looked to have been stabbed as he +slept. His body had sagged down in the chair, and his head was sunk +between his shoulders, so that he appeared almost neckless. His once so +florid face was of an even, dead, yellowish pallor. + +Mr. Manley's glance at the dead man was brief. Then he saw that the door +between the smoking-room and the library was ajar. He could not see the +library windows without crossing the smoking-room. That he would not do. +He was a stickler for correctness in all matters, and he knew that the +scene of a crime must be left untrampled. + +He turned and said: "We will leave everything just as it is till the +police come. And telephone at once to Doctor Thornhill, and ask him to +come. If he is out, tell them to get word to him, Wilkins." + +Wilkins and Holloway filed out of the room before him; he followed them +out, locked the door and put the key in his pocket. Then he opened the +door from the hall into the library. The long window nearest the +smoking-room door was open. + +The group of servants were all watching him; never had he moved or +acted with an air of graver or greater importance. His portliness gave +it weight. + +"Has any of you opened the windows of the library this morning?" he said. + +No one answered. + +Then Mrs. Carruthers, the housekeeper, said: "Clarke does the library +every morning. Have you done it this morning, Clarke?" + +"No, mum. I hadn't finished the green droring-room when Mr. Holloway +brought the sad news," said one of the housemaids. + +Mr. Manley locked the library door and put that key also in his pocket. + +Then he said in a tone of authority: "I think, Mrs. Carruthers, that the +sooner we all have breakfast the better. I for one am going to have a +hard day, and I shall need all my strength. We all shall." + +"Certainly, Mr. Manley. You're quite right. We shall all need our +strength. You shall have your breakfast at once. I'll have it sent to +the little dining-room. You would like to be on the spot. Come along, +girls. Wilkins, and you, Holloway, get on with your work as quickly as +you can," said Mrs. Carruthers, driving her flock before her towards the +servants' quarters. + +"Thank you. And will you see that no one wakes Lady Loudwater before +her usual hour, or tells her what has happened? I will tell her myself +and try to break the news with as little of a shock as possible," said +Mr. Manley. + +"Twitcher hasn't bin downstairs yet. She doesn't know anything about it," +said one of the maids. + +"Send her straight to me--to the terrace when she does come down," said +Mr. Manley, walking towards the hall door. + +He felt that after the sight of the dead man's face the fresh morning air +would do him good. + +There came a sudden burst of excited chatter from the women as they +passed beyond the door into the back of the Castle. All their tongues +seemed to be loosed at once. Mr. Manley went out of the Castle door, +crossed the drive, and walked up and down the lawn. He took long breaths +through his nostrils; the sight of the dead man's yellowish face had been +unpleasant indeed to a man of his sensibility. + +In about five minutes Elizabeth Twitcher came out of the big door and +across the lawn to him. She was looking startled and scared. + +"Mrs. Carruthers said you wished to speak to me, sir?" she said quickly. + +"Yes. I propose to break the news of this very shocking affair to Lady +Loudwater myself. She's rather fragile, I fancy. And I think that it +needs doing with the greatest possible tact--so as to lessen the shock," +said Mr. Manley in an impressive voice. + +Elizabeth Twitcher gazed at him with a growing suspicion in her eyes. +Then she said: "It isn't--it isn't a trap?" + +"A trap? What kind of a trap? What on earth do you mean?" said Mr. +Manley, in a not unnatural bewilderment at the odd suggestion. + +"You might be trying to take her off her guard," said Elizabeth Twitcher +in a tone of deep suspicion. + +"Her guard against what?" said Mr. Manley, still bewildered. + +Elizabeth's Twitcher's eyes lost some of their suspicion, and he heard +her breathe a faint sigh of relief. + +"I thought as 'ow--as how some of them might have told you what his +lordship was going to do to her, and that she--she stuck that knife into +him so as to stop it," she said. + +"What on earth are you talking about? What was his lordship going to do +to her?" cried Mr. Manley, in a tone of yet greater bewilderment. + +"He was going to divorce her ladyship. He told her so last night when I +was doing her hair for dinner," said Elizabeth Twitcher. + +She paused and stared at him, frowning. Then she went on: "And, like a +fool, I went and talked about it--to some one else." + +Mr. Manley glared at her in a momentary speechlessness; then found his +voice and cried: "But, gracious heavens! You don't suspect her ladyship +of having murdered Lord Loudwater?" + +"No, I don't. But there'll be plenty as will," said Elizabeth Twitcher +with conviction. + +"It's absurd!" cried Mr. Manley. + +Elizabeth Twitcher shook her head. + +"You must allow as she had reason enough--for a lady, that is. He was +always swearing at her and abusing her, and it isn't at all the kind of +thing a lady can stand. And this divorce coming on the top of it all," +she said in a dispassionate tone. + +"You mustn't talk like this! There's no saying what trouble you may +make!" cried Mr. Manley in a tone of stern severity. + +"I'm not going to talk like that--only to you, sir. You're a gentleman, +and it's safe. What I'm afraid of is that I've talked too much +already--last night that is," she said despondently. + +"Well, don't make it worse by talking any more. And let me know when your +mistress is dressed, and I'll come up and break the news of this shocking +affair to her." + +"Very good, sir," said Elizabeth, and with a gloomy face and depressed +air she went back into the Castle. + +She had scarcely disappeared, when Holloway came out to tell Mr. Manley +that his breakfast was ready for him in the little dining-room. Mr. +Manley set about it with the firmness of a man preparing himself against +a strenuous day. The frown with which Elizabeth Twitcher's suggestion had +puckered his brow faded from it slowly, as the excellence of the chop he +was eating soothed him. Holloway waited on him, and Mr. Manley asked him +whether any of the servants had heard anything suspicious in the night. +Holloway assured him that none of them had. + +Mr. Manley had just helped himself a second time to eggs and bacon when +Wilkins brought in Robert Black, the village constable. Mr. Manley had +seen him in the village often enough, a portly, grave man, who regarded +his position and work with the proper official seriousness. Mr. Manley +told him that he had locked the door of the smoking-room and of the +library, in order that the scene of the crime might be left undisturbed +for examination by the Low Wycombe police. Robert Black did not appear +pleased by this precaution. He would have liked to demonstrate his +importance by making some preliminary investigations himself. Mr. Manley +did not offer to hand the keys over to him. He intended to have the +credit of the precautions he had taken with the constable's superiors. + +He said: "I suppose you would like to question the servants to begin +with. Take the constable to the servants' hall, give him a glass of beer, +and let him get to work, Wilkins." + +He spoke in the imperative tone proper to a man in charge of such an +important affair, and Robert Black went. Mr. Manley could not see that +the grave fellow could do any harm by his questions, or, for that +matter, any good. + +He finished his breakfast and lighted his pipe. Elizabeth Twitcher came +to tell him that Lady Loudwater was dressed. He told her to tell her that +he would like to see her, and followed her up the stairs. The maid went +into Lady Loudwater's sitting-room, came out, and ushered him into it. + +His strong sense of the fitness of things caused him to enter the room +slowly, with an air grave to solemnity. Olivia greeted him with a faint, +rather forced smile. + +He thought that she was paler than usual, and lacked something of her +wonted charm. She seemed rather nervous. She thought that he had come +from her husband with an unpleasant and probably most insulting message. + +He cleared his throat and said in the deep, grave voice he felt +appropriate: "I've come on a very painful errand, Lady Loudwater--a very +painful errand." + +"Indeed?" she said, and looked at him with uneasy, anxious eyes. + +"I'm sorry to tell you that Lord Loudwater has had an accident, a very +bad accident," he said. + +"An accident? Egbert?" she cried, in a tone of surprise that sounded +genuine enough. + +It gave Mr. Manley to understand that she had expected some other kind of +painful communication--doubtless about the divorce Lord Loudwater had +threatened. But he had composed a series of phrases leading up by a nice +gradation to the final announcement, and he went on: "Yes. There is very +little likelihood of his recovering from it." + +Olivia looked at him queerly, hesitating. Then she said: "Do you mean +that he's going to be a cripple for life?" + +"I mean that he will not live to be a cripple," said Mr. Manley, pleased +to insert a further phrase into his series. + +"Is it as bad as that?" she said, in a tone which again gave Mr. Manley +the impression that she was thinking of something else and had not +realized the seriousness of his words. + +"I'm sorry to say that it's worse than that. Lord Loudwater is dead," he +said, in his deepest, most sympathetic voice. + +"Dead?" she said, in a shocked tone which sounded to him rather forced. + +"Murdered," he said. + +"Murdered?" cried Olivia, and Mr. Manley had the feeling that there was +less surprise than relief in her tone. + +"I have sent for Dr. Thornhill and the police from Low Wycombe," he said. +"They ought to have been here before this. And I am going to telegraph to +Lord Loudwater's solicitors. You would like to have their help as soon as +possible, I suppose. There seems nothing else to be done at the moment." + +"Then you don't know who did it?" said Olivia. + +Her tone did not display a very lively interest in the matter or any +great dismay, and Mr. Manley felt somewhat disappointed. He had expected +much more emotion from her than she was displaying, even though the death +of her ill-tempered husband must be a considerable relief. He had +expected her to be shocked and horror-stricken at first, before she +realized that she had been relieved of a painful burden. But she seemed +to him to be really less moved by the murder of her husband than she +would have been, had the Lord Loudwater carried out his not infrequent +threat of shooting, or hanging, or drowning the cat Melchisidec. + +"No one so far seems to be able to throw any light at all on the crime," +said Mr. Manley. + +Olivia frowned thoughtfully, but seemed to have no more to say on +the matter. + +"Well, then, I'll telegraph to Paley and Carrington, and ask Mr. +Carrington to come down," said Mr. Manley. + +"Please," said Olivia. + +Mr. Manley hesitated; then he said: "And I suppose that I'd better be +getting some one to make arrangements about the funeral?" + +"Please do everything you think necessary," said Olivia. "In fact, you'd +better manage everything till Mr. Carrington comes. A man is much better +at arranging important matters like this than a woman." + +"You may rely on me," said Mr. Manley, with a reassuring air, and greatly +pleased by this recognition of his capacity. "And allow me to assure you +of my sincerest sympathy." + +"Thank you," said Olivia, and then with more animation and interest she +added: "And I suppose I shall want some black clothes." + +"Shall I write to your dressmaker?" said Mr. Manley. + +"No, thank you. I shall be able to tell her what I want better myself." + +Mr. Manley withdrew in a pleasant temper. It was true that as a student +of dramatic emotion he had been disappointed by the calmness with which +Olivia had received the news of the murder; but she had instructed him to +do everything he thought fit. He saw his way to controlling the +situation, and ruling the Castle till some one with a better right should +supersede him. He was halfway along the corridor before he realized that +Olivia had asked no single question about the circumstance of the crime. +Indifference could go no further. But--he paused, considering--was it +indifference? Could she--could she have known already? + +As he came down the stairs Wilkins opened the door of the big hall, and a +man of medium height, wearing a tweed suit and carrying a soft hat and a +heavy malacca cane, entered briskly. He looked about thirty. On his heels +came a tall, thin police inspector in uniform. + +Mr. Manley came forward, and the man in the tweed suit said: "My name is +Flexen, George Flexen. I'm acting as Chief Constable. Major Arbuthnot is +away for a month. I happened to be at the police station at Low Wycombe +when your news came, and I thought it best to come myself. This is +Inspector Perkins." + +Mr. Manley introduced himself as the secretary of the murdered man, and +with an air of quiet importance told Mr. Flexen that Lady Loudwater had +put him in charge of the Castle till her lawyer came. Then he took the +keys of the smoking-room and the library door from his pocket and said: + +"I locked up the room in which the dead body is, and the library through +which there is also access to it, leaving everything just as it was when +the body was found. I do not think that any traces which the criminal has +left, if, that is, he has left any, can have been obliterated." + +He spoke with the quiet pride of a man who has done the right thing in +an emergency. + +"That's good," said Mr. Flexen, in a tone of warm approval. "It +isn't often that we get a clear start like that. We'll examine these +rooms at once." + +Mr. Manley went to the door of the smoking-room and was about to unlock +it, when Dr. Thornhill, a big, bluff man of fifty-five, bustled in. Mr. +Manley introduced him to Mr. Flexen; then he unlocked the door and +opened it. + +The doctor was leading the way into the smoking-room when Mr. Flexen +stepped smartly in front of him and said: "Please stay outside all of +you. I'll make the examination myself first." + +He spoke quietly, but in the tone of a man used to command. + +"But, for anything we know, his lordship may still be alive," said Dr. +Thornhill in a somewhat blustering tone, and pushing forward. "As his +medical adviser, it's my duty to make sure at once." + +"I'll tell you whether Lord Loudwater is alive or not. Don't let any one +cross the threshold, Perkins," said Mr. Flexen, with quiet decision. + +Perkins laid a hand on the doctor's arm, and the doctor said: "A nice way +of doing things! Arbuthnot would have given his first attention to his +lordship!" + +"I'm going to," said Mr. Flexen quietly. + +He went to the dead man, looked in his pale face, lifted his hand, let +it fall, and said: "Been dead hours." + +Then he examined carefully the position of the knife. He was more than a +minute over it. Then he drew it gingerly from the wound by the ring at +the end of it. It was one of these Swedish knives, the blades of which +are slipped into the handle when they are not being used. + +"I think that's the knife that lay, open, in the big ink-stand in the +library. We used it as a paper-knife, and to cut string with," said Mr. +Manley, who was watching him with most careful attention. + +"It may have some evidence on the handle," said Mr. Flexen, still holding +it by the ring, and he drove the point of it into the pad of blotting +paper on which Mr. Manley had been wont to write letters at the murdered +man's dictation. + +"And how am I to tell whether the wound was self-inflicted, or not?" +cried the doctor in an aggrieved tone. + +"If you will get some of the servants, you can remove the body to any +room convenient and make your examination. It's a clean stab into the +heart, and it looks to me as if the person who used that knife had some +knowledge of anatomy. Most people who strike for the heart get the middle +of the left lung," said Mr. Flexen. + +So saying, he gently drew the easy chair, in which the body was huddled, +nearer the door by its back. Mr. Manley bade Holloway fetch Wilkins and +two of the grooms, and then, eager for hints of the actions of a +detective, so useful to a dramatist, gave all his attention again to the +proceedings of Mr. Flexen, who was down on one knee on the spot in which +the chair had stood, studying the carpet round it. He rose and walked +slowly towards the door which opened into the library, paused on the +threshold to bid Perkins examine the chair and the clothes of the +murdered man, and went into the library. + +He was still in it when the footman and the grooms lifted the body of +Lord Loudwater out of the chair, and carried it up to his bedroom. Mr. +Manley stayed on the threshold of the smoking-room. His interest in the +doings of Mr. Flexen forbade him leaving it to superintend decorously the +removal of the body. + +Presently Mr. Flexen came back, and as he walked round the room, +examining the rest of it, especially the carpet, Mr. Manley studied the +man himself, the detective type. He was about five feet eight, +broad-shouldered out of proportion to that height, but thin. He had an +uncommonly good forehead, a square, strong chin, a hooked nose and thin, +set lips, which gave him a rather predatory air, belied rather by his +pleasant blue eyes. The sun wrinkles round their corners and his sallow +complexion gave Mr. Manley the impression that he had spent some years in +the tropics and suffered for it. + +When Mr. Flexen had examined the room, though Inspector Perkins had +already done so, he felt round the cushions of the easy chair in which +Lord Loudwater had been stabbed, found nothing, and stood beside it in +quiet thought. + +Then he looked at Mr. Manley and said: "The murderer must have been some +one with whom Lord Loudwater was so familiar that he took no notice of +his or her movements, for he came up to him from the front, or walked +round the chair to the front of him, and stabbed him with a quite +straightforward thrust. Lord Loudwater should have actually seen the +knife--unless by any chance he was asleep." + +"He was sure to be asleep," said Mr. Manley quickly. "He always did sleep +in the evening--generally from the time he finished his cigar till he +went to bed. I think he acquired the habit from coming back from hunting, +tired and sleepy. Besides, I came down for a drink between eleven and +twelve, and I'm almost sure I heard him snore. He snored like the devil." + +"Slept every evening, did he? That puts a different complexion on the +business," said Mr. Flexen. "The murderer need _not_ have been any one +with whom he was familiar." + +"No. He need not. But are you quite sure that the wound wasn't +self-inflicted--that it wasn't a case of suicide?" said Mr. Manley. + +"No, I'm not; and I don't think that that doctor--what's his name? +Thornhill--can be sure either. But why should Lord Loudwater have +committed suicide?" + +"Well, he had found out, or thought he had found out, something about +Lady Loudwater, and was threatening to start an action against her for +divorce. At least, so her maid told me this morning. And as he wholly +lacked balance, he might in a fury of jealousy have made away with +himself," said Mr. Manley thoughtfully. + +"Was he so fond of Lady Loudwater?" said Mr. Flexen in a somewhat +doubtful tone. + +He had heard stories about Lord Loudwater's treatment of his wife. + +"He didn't show any great fondness for her, I'm bound to say. In fact, +he was always bullying her. But he wouldn't need to be very fond of any +one to go crazy with jealousy about her. He was a man of strong passions +and quite unbalanced. I suppose he had been so utterly spoilt as a +child, a boy, and a young man, that he never acquired any power of +self-control at all." + +"M'm, I should have thought that in that case he'd have been more likely +to murder the man," said Mr. Flexen. + +"He was," said Mr. Manley in ready agreement. "But the other's always +possible." + +"Yes; one has to bear every possibility in mind," said Mr. Flexen. "I've +heard that he was a bad-tempered man." + +"He was the most unpleasant brute I ever came across in my life," said +Mr. Manley with heartfelt conviction. + +"Then he had enemies?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Scores, I should think. But, of course, I don't know. Only I can't +conceive his having had a friend," said Mr. Manley in a tone of some +bitterness. + +"Then it's certainly a case with possibilities," said Mr. Flexen in a +pleased tone. "But I expect that the solution will be quite simple. It +generally is." + +He said it rather sadly, as if he would have much preferred the solution +to be difficult. + +"Let's hope so. A big newspaper fuss will be detestable for Lady +Loudwater. She's a charming creature," said Mr. Manley. + +"So I've heard. Do you know who the man was that Loudwater was making a +fuss about?" + +"I haven't the slightest idea. Probably the maid, Elizabeth Twitcher, +will be able to tell you," said Mr. Manley. + +Mr. Flexen walked across the room and drew the knife out of the pad of +blotting-paper by the ring in its handle, and studied it. + +"I suppose this is the knife that was in the library? They're pretty +common," he said. + +Mr. Manley came to him, looked at it earnestly, and said: "That's it all +right. I tried to sharpen it a day or two ago, so that it would sharpen a +pencil. I generally leave my penknife in the waist-coat I'm not wearing. +But I couldn't get it sharp enough. It's rotten steel." + +"All of them are, but good enough for a stab," said Mr. Flexen. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Olivia had very little appetite for breakfast. It is to be doubted, +indeed, whether she was aware of what she was eating. Elizabeth Twitcher +hovered about her, solicitous, pressing her to eat more. She was fond of +her mistress, and very uneasy lest she should have harmed her seriously +by her careless gossiping the night before. But she was surprised by the +exceedingly anxious and worried expression which dwelt on Olivia's face. +Her air grew more and more harassed. The murder of her husband had +doubtless been a shock, but he had been such a husband. Elizabeth +Twitcher had expected her mistress to cry a little about his death, and +then grow serene as she realized what a good riddance it was. But Olivia +had not cried, and she showed no likelihood whatever of becoming serene. + +At the end of her short breakfast she lit a cigarette, and began to pace +up and down her sitting-room with a jerky, nervous gait, quite unlike her +wonted graceful, easy, swinging walk. She had to relight her cigarette, +and as she did so, Elizabeth Twitcher, who was clearing away the +breakfast, perceived that her hands were shaking. There was plainly more +in the matter than Elizabeth Twitcher had supposed, and she wondered, +growing more and more uneasy. + +When she went downstairs with the tray she learned that Dr. Thornhill was +examining the wound which had caused the Lord Loudwater's death, and that +Mr. Flexen and Inspector Perkins were questioning Wilkins. Talking to the +other servants, she found of a sudden that she had reason for anxiety +herself, and hurried back in a panic to her mistress's boudoir. She found +Olivia still walking nervously up and down. + +"The inspector and the gentleman who is acting Chief Constable are +questioning the servants, m'lady," said Elizabeth. + +Olivia stopped short and stared at her with rather scared eyes. + +Then she said sharply: "Go down and learn what the servants have told +them--all the servants--everything." + +Her mistress's plainly greater anxiety eased a little Elizabeth +Twitcher's own panic in the matter of James Hutchings, and she went down +again to the servants' quarters. + +Mr. Flexen and Inspector Perkins learnt nothing of importance from +Wilkins; but he made it clearer to Mr. Flexen that the temper of the +murdered man had indeed been abominable. Holloway, on the other hand, +proved far more enlightening. From him they learnt that Hatchings had +been discharged the day before without notice, and that he had uttered +violent threats against his employer before he went. Also they learnt +that Hatchings, who had left about four o'clock in the afternoon, had +come back to the Castle at night. Jane Pittaway, an under-house-maid, had +heard him talking to Elizabeth Twitcher in the blue drawing-room between +eleven and half-past. + +Mr. Flexen questioned Holloway at length, and learned that James +Hatchings was a man of uncommonly violent temper; that it had been a +matter of debate in the servants' hall whether his furies or those of +their dead master were the worse. Then he dismissed Holloway, and sent +for Jane Pittaway. A small, sharp-eyed, sharp-featured young woman, she +was quite clear in her story. About eleven the night before she had gone +into the great hall to bring away two vases full of flowers, to be +emptied and washed next morning, and coming past the door of the blue +drawing-room, had heard voices. She had listened and recognized the +voices of Hutchings and Elizabeth Twitcher. No; she had not heard what +they were saying. The door was too thick. But he seemed to be arguing +with her. Yes; she had been surprised to find him in the house after he +had gone off like that. Besides, everybody thought that he had jilted +Elizabeth Twitcher and was keeping company with Mabel Evans, who had come +home on a holiday from her place in London to her mother's in the +village. No; she did not know how long he stayed. She minded her own +business, but, if any one asked her, she must say that he was more likely +to murder some one than any one she knew, for he had a worse temper than +his lordship even, and bullied every one he came near worse than his +lordship. In fact, she had never been able to understand how Elizabeth +Twitcher could stand him, though of course every one knew that Elizabeth +could always give as good as she got. + +When Mr. Flexen thanked her and said that she might go, she displayed a +desire to remain and give them her further views on the matter. But +Inspector Perkins shooed her out of the room. + +Then Wilkins came to say that Dr. Thornhill had finished his examination +and would like to see them. + +He came in with a somewhat dissatisfied air, sat down heavily in the +chair the inspector pushed forward for him, and said in a +dissatisfied tone: + +"The blade pierced the left ventricle, about the middle, a good inch and +a half. Death was practically instantaneous, of course." + +"I took it that it must have been. The collapse had been so complete. I +suppose the blade stopped the heart dead," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Absolutely dead," said the doctor. "But the thing is that I can't swear +to it that the wound was not self-inflicted. Knowing Lord Loudwater, I +could swear to it morally. There isn't the ghost of a chance that he +took his own life. But physically, his right hand might have driven that +blade into his heart." + +"I thought so myself, though of course I'm no expert," said Mr. Flexen. +"And I agree with you when you say that you are morally certain that the +wound was not self-inflicted. Those bad-tempered brutes may murder other +people, but themselves never." + +"Well, I've not your experience in crime, but I should say that you were +right," said the doctor. + +"All the same, the fact that you cannot swear that the wound was not +self-inflicted will be of great help to the murderer, unless we get an +absolute case against him," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Well, I'm sure I hope you will. Lord Loudwater had a bad temper--an +infernal temper, in fact. But that's no excuse for murdering him," said +Dr. Thornhill. + +"None whatever," said Mr. Flexen. "What about the inquest? I suppose we'd +better have it as soon as possible." + +"Yes. Tomorrow morning, if you can," said the doctor, rising. + +"Very good. Send word to the coroner at once, Perkins. Don't go yourself. +I shall want you here," said Mr. Flexen. + +He shook hands with the doctor and bade him good-day. As Inspector +Perkins went out of the room to send word to the coroner, he bade him +send Elizabeth Twitcher to him. + +She was not long coming, for, in obedience to Olivia's injunction, she +was engaged in learning what the other servants knew, or thought they +knew, about the murder. + +When she came into the dining-room, Mr. Flexen's keen eyes examined her +with greater care than he had given to the other servants. On Jane +Pittaway's showing, she should prove an important witness. Now Elizabeth +Twitcher was an uncommonly pretty girl, dark-eyed and dark-haired, and +her forehead and chin and the way her eyes were set in her head showed +considerable character. Mr. Flexen made up his mind on the instant that +he was going to learn from Elizabeth Twitcher exactly what Elizabeth +Twitcher thought fit to tell him and no more, for all that he perceived +that she was badly scared. + +He did not beat about the bush; he said: "You had a conversation with +James Hutchings last night, about eleven o'clock, in the blue +drawing-room. Did you let him in?" + +Elizabeth Twitcher's cheeks lost some more of their colour while he was +speaking, and her eyes grew more scared. She hesitated for a moment; +then she said: + +"Yes. I let him in at the side door." + +He had not missed her hesitation; he was sure that she was not telling +the truth. + +"How did you know he was at the side door?" he said. + +She hesitated again. Then she said: "He whistled to me under my window +just as I was going to bed." + +Again he did not believe her. + +"Did you let him out of the Castle?" he said. + +"No, I didn't. He let himself out," she said quickly. + +"Out of the side door?" + +"How else would he go out?" she snapped. + +"You don't know that he went out by the side door?" said Mr. Flexen. + +Elizabeth hesitated again. Then she said sullenly: "No, I don't. I left +him in the blue drawing-room." + +"In a very bad temper?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"I don't know what kind of a temper he was in," she said. + +Mr. Flexen paused, looking at her thoughtfully. Then he said: "I'm told +that you and he were engaged to be married, and that he broke the +engagement off." + +"_I_ broke it off!" said Elizabeth angrily, and she drew herself up very +stiff and frowning. + +It was Mr. Flexen's turn to hesitate. Then he made a shot, and said: "I +see. He wanted you to become engaged to him again, and you wouldn't." + +Elizabeth looked at him with an air of surprise and respect, and said: +"It wasn't quite like that, sir. I didn't say as I wouldn't be his fioncy +again. I said I'd see how he behaved himself." + +"Then he wasn't in a good temper," said Mr. Flexen. + +"He was in a better temper than he'd any right to expect to be," said +Elizabeth with some heat. + +"That's true," said Mr. Flexen, smiling at her. "But after the trouble he +had had with Lord Loudwater he couldn't be in a very good temper." + +"He was too used to his lordship's tantrums to take much notice of them. +He was too much that way himself," said Elizabeth quickly. + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen. "What time was it when he left you?" + +"I can't rightly say. But it wasn't half-past eleven," she said. + +He perceived that that was true. At the moment there was no more to be +learned from her. If she could throw any more light on the doings of +James Hutchings, she was on her guard and would not. But he had learned +that James Hutchings had not entered the Castle by the side door. Had he +entered it and left it by the library window? + +He asked Elizabeth a few more unimportant questions and dismissed her. + +Inspector Perkins, having sent a groom to inform the coroner of the +murder, and of the need for an early inquest into it, came back to him. +They discussed the matter of James Hutchings, and decided to have him +watched and arrest him on suspicion should he try to leave the +neighbourhood. The inspector telephoned to Low Wycombe for two of his +detectives. + +Mr. Flexen questioned the rest of the servants and learned nothing new +from them. By the time he had finished the two detectives from Low +Wycombe arrived, and he sent them out to make inquiries in the village, +though he thought it unlikely that anything was to be learnt there, +unless Hutchings had been talking again. + +He had risen and was about to go to the smoking-room to look round it +again, on the chance that something had escaped his eye, when Mrs. +Carruthers, the housekeeper, entered the room. None of the servants had +mentioned her to him, and it had not occurred to him that there would of +course be a housekeeper. + +"Good morning, Mr. Flexen. I'm Mrs. Carruthers, the housekeeper," she +said. "You didn't send for me. But I thought I ought to see you, for +I know something which may be important, and I thought you ought to +know it, too." + +"Of course. I can't know too much about an affair like this," said Mr. +Flexen quickly. + +"Well, there was a woman, or rather I should say a lady, with his +lordship in the smoking-room last night--about eleven o'clock." + +"Indeed?" said Mr. Flexen. "Won't you sit down? A lady you say?" + +"Yes; she was a lady, though she seemed very angry and excited, and was +talking in a very high voice. I didn't recognize it, so I can't tell you +who it was. You see, I don't belong to the neighbourhood. I've only been +here six weeks." + +"And how long did this interview last?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"I can't tell you. It was no business of mine. I was making my round last +thing to see that the servants had left nothing about. I always do. You +know how careless they are. I went round the hall, and then I went to +bed. But, of course, I wondered about it," said Mrs. Carruthers. + +Mr. Flexen looked at her refined, rather delicate face, and he did not +wonder how she had repressed her natural curiosity. + +"Can you tell me whether the French window in the library, the end one, +was open at that time?" he said. + +"I can't," she said in a tone of regret. "I couldn't very well open the +library door. If the door between the library and the smoking-room was +open, I should have been certain to hear something that was not meant +for my ears. And it generally is open in summer time. But I should think +it very likely that the lady came in by that window. It's always open in +summer time. In fact, his lordship always went out into the garden +through it, going from his smoking-room." + +"And what time was it that you heard this?" he said. + +"A few minutes past eleven. I looked round the drawing-room and the two +dining-rooms, and it was a quarter-past eleven when I came into my room." + +"That's the first exact time I've got from any one yet," said Mr. Flexen +in a tone of satisfaction. "And that's all you heard?" + +She hesitated, and a look of distress came over her face. Then she said: +"You have questioned Elizabeth Twitcher. Did she tell you anything about +his lordship's last quarrel with her ladyship?" + +"She did not," said Mr. Flexen. "Mr. Manley told me that she had told +him about the quarrel. But I did not question her about it. I left it +till later." + +Mrs. Carruthers hesitated; then she said: "It's so difficult to see what +one's duty is in a case like this." + +"Well, one's obvious duty is to make no secret of anything that may throw +a light on the crime. Was it anything out of the way in the way of +quarrels? Wasn't Lord Loudwater always quarrelling with Lady Loudwater? +I've been told that he was always insulting and bullying her." + +"Well, this one was rather out of the common," said Mrs. Carruthers +reluctantly. "He accused her of having kissed Colonel Grey in the East +wood and declared that he would divorce her." + +"It was Colonel Grey, was it?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"That is what Elizabeth Twitcher told me after supper last night. It +seems that his lordship burst in upon them when she was dressing her +ladyship's hair for dinner and blurted it out before her. I've no doubt +she was telling the truth. Twitcher is a truthful girl." + +"Moderately truthful," said Mr. Flexen in a somewhat ironical tone. + +"Of course she may have exaggerated. Servants do," said Mrs. Carruthers. + +"And how did Lady Loudwater take it?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Twitcher said that she denied everything, and did not appear at all +upset about it. Of course, she was used to Lord Loudwater's making +scenes. He had a most dreadful temper." + +"M'm," said Mr. Flexen, and he played a tune on the table with his +finger-tips, frowning thoughtfully. "Was Colonel Grey--I suppose it is +Colonel Antony Grey--the V.C. who has been staying down here?" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Carruthers. "He's at the 'Cart and Horses' at +Bellingham." + +"Was he on good terms with Lord Loudwater?" + +"They were quite friendly up to about a fortnight ago. The Colonel used +to play billiards with his lordship and stay on to dinner two or three +times a week. Then they had a quarrel--about the way his lordship +treated her ladyship. Holloway, the footman, heard it, and the Colonel +told his lordship that he was a cad and a blackguard, and he hasn't been +here since." + +"But he met Lady Loudwater in the wood?" + +"So his lordship declared," said Mrs. Carruthers in a non-committal tone. + +"Do you know how Lord Loudwater came to hear of their meeting?" + +"Twitcher said that he must have had it from one of the +under-gamekeepers, a young fellow called William Roper. Roper asked to +see his lordship that evening and was very mysterious about his errand, +so that it looks as if she might be right. None of the servants ever went +near his lordship, if they could help it. It had to be something very +important to induce William Roper to go to him of his own accord." + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen thoughtfully. "Well, I'm glad you told me about +this. Do you suppose that this Twitcher girl has talked to any one but +you about it?" + +"That I can't say at all. But she has a bedroom to herself," said Mrs. +Carruthers. "Besides, if she had talked to any of the others, they would +have told you about it." + +"Yes; there is that. I think it would be a good thing if you were to +give her a hint to keep it to herself. It may have no bearing whatever +on the crime. It's not probable that it has. But it's the kind of +thing to set people talking and do both Lady Loudwater and Colonel +Grey a lot of harm." + +"I will give her a hint at once," said Mrs. Carruthers, rising. "But the +unfortunate thing is that if Twitcher doesn't talk, this young fellow +Roper will. And, really, Lord Loudwater gave her ladyship quite enough +trouble and unhappiness when he was alive without giving her more now +that he's dead." + +"I may be able to induce William Roper to hold his tongue," said Mr. +Flexen dryly. "Certainly his talking cannot do any good in any case. And +I have gathered that Lady Loudwater has suffered quite enough already +from her husband." + +"I'm sure she has; and I do hope you will be able to keep that young man +quiet," said Mrs. Carruthers, moving towards the door. As she opened it, +she paused and said: "Will you be here to lunch, Mr. Flexen?" + +"To lunch and probably all the afternoon." He hesitated and added: "It +would be rather an advantage if I could sleep here, too. I do not think +that I shall need to look much further than the Castle for the solution +of this problem, though there's no telling. At any rate, I should like to +have exhausted all the possibilities of the Castle before I leave it. And +if I'm on the spot, I shall probably exhaust them much more quickly." + +"Oh, that can easily be arranged. I'll see her ladyship about it at +once," said Mrs. Carruthers quickly. + +"And would you ask her if she feels equal to seeing me yet?" + +"Certainly, Mr. Flexen; and if she does, I'll let you know at once," she +said and went through the door. + +Mr. Flexen was considering the new facts she had given him, when about +three minutes later Inspector Perkins returned; and Mr. Flexen bade him +find William Roper and bring him to him without delay. The inspector +departed briskly. He was not used to having the inquiry into a crime +conducted by the Chief Constable himself; but Mr. Flexen had impressed +the conviction on him that it was work which he thoroughly understood. +Moreover, he had been appointed acting Chief Constable of the district +during the absence of Major Arbuthnot, on the ground of his many years' +experience in the Indian Police. Also, the inspector realized that this +was, indeed, an exceptional case worthy of the personal effort of any +Chief Constable. He could not remember a case of the murder of a peer; +they had always seemed to him a class immune from anything more serious +than ordinary assault. He was pleased that Mr. Flexen was conducting the +inquiry himself, for he did not wish Scotland Yard to deal with it. Not +only would that cast a slur on the capacity of the police of the +district, but he was sure that he himself would get much more credit for +his work, if he and Mr. Flexen were successful in discovering the +murderer, than he would get if a detective inspector from Scotland Yard +were in charge of the case. Such a detective inspector might or might not +earn all the credit, but he would certainly know how to get it and +probably insist on having it. + +He had not been gone a minute when Elizabeth Twitcher came into the +dining-room, said that her ladyship would be pleased to see Mr. Flexen, +and led him upstairs to her sitting-room. + +He found Olivia paler than her wont, but quite composed. She had lost her +nervous air, for she had perceived very clearly that it would be +dangerous, indeed, to display the anxiety which was harassing her. It was +only natural that she should appear upset by the shock, but not that she +should appear in any way fearful. + +Mr. Flexen had been told that Lady Loudwater was pretty, but he had not +been prepared to find her as charming a creature as Olivia. He made up +his mind at once to do the best he could to save her from the trouble +that the gossip about her and Colonel Grey would surely bring upon +her--if always he were satisfied that neither of them had a hand in the +crime. Looking at Olivia, nothing seemed more unlikely than that she +should be in any way connected with it. But he preserved an open mind. As +such reasons go, she was not without reasons, substantial reasons, for +getting rid of her husband, and she appeared to him to be a creature of +sufficiently delicate sensibilities to feel that husband's brutality more +than most women. At the same time he found it hard to conceive of her +using that fatal knife herself. Yet the knife is most frequently the +womanly weapon. + +For her part, Olivia liked his face; but she had an uneasy feeling that +he would go further than most men in solving any problem with which he +set his mind to grapple. + +They greeted one another; he sat down in a chair facing the light, though +he would have preferred that Olivia should have faced it, and expressed +his concern at the trouble which had befallen her. + +Then he said: "I came to see you, Lady Loudwater, in the hope that you +might be able to throw some light on this deplorable event." + +"I don't think I can," said Olivia gently. "But of course, if I can do +anything to help you find out about it I shall be very pleased to try." + +She looked at him with steady, candid eyes that deepened his feeling +that she had had no hand in the crime. + +"And, of course, I'll make it as little distressing for you as I can," +he said. "Do you know whether your husband had anything worrying +him--any serious trouble of any kind which would make him likely to +commit suicide?" + +"Suicide? Egbert?" cried Olivia, in a tone of such astonishment that, as +far as Mr. Flexen was concerned, the hypothesis of suicide received its +death-blow. "No. I don't know of anything which would have made him +commit suicide." + +"Of course he had no money troubles; but were there any domestic troubles +which might have unhinged his mind to that extent?" said Mr. Flexen. + +He wished to be able to deal with the hypothesis of suicide, should it be +put forward. + +Olivia did not answer immediately. She was thinking hard. The possibility +that her husband had committed suicide, or that any one could suppose +that he had committed suicide, had never entered her head. She perceived, +however, that it was a supposition worth encouraging. At the same time, +she must not seem eager to encourage it. + +"But they told me that he'd been murdered," she said. + +"We cannot exclude any possibility from a matter like this, and the +possibility of suicide must be taken into account," said Mr. Flexen +quickly. "You don't know of any domestic trouble which might have induced +Lord Loudwater to make an end of himself?" + +"No, I don't know of one," said Olivia firmly. "But, of course, he was +sometimes quite mad." + +"Mad?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes, quite. I told him so last night--just before dinner. He was quite +mad. He said that I had kissed a friend of ours--at least he was a friend +of both of us till he quarrelled with my husband some weeks ago--in the +East wood. He raged about it, and declared he was going to start a +divorce action. But I didn't take much notice of it. He was always +falling into dreadful rages. There was one at breakfast about my cat and +another at lunch about the wine. He fancied it was corked." + +Olivia had perceived clearly that since Elizabeth Twitcher had been a +witness of her husband's outburst about Grey, it would be merely foolish +not to be frank about it. + +"But the last matter was very much more serious than the matter of the +cat or the wine," said Mr. Flexen. "You don't think that your husband +brooded on it for the rest of the evening and worked himself up into a +dangerous frame of mind?" + +Olivia hesitated. She was quite sure that her husband had done nothing of +the kind, for if he had worked himself up into a dangerous frame of mind +he would assuredly have made some effort to get at her and give some +violent expression to it. But she said: + +"That I can't say. I wish I'd gone down to dinner--now. But I was too +much annoyed. I dined in my boudoir. I'd had quite enough unpleasantness +for one day. Perhaps one of the servants could tell you. They may have +noticed something unusual in him--perhaps that he was brooding." + +"Wilkins did say that Lord Loudwater seemed upset at dinner, and that he +was frowning most of the meal," said Mr. Flexen. + +"That wasn't unusual," said Olivia somewhat pathetically. "Besides--" + +She stopped short, on the very verge of saying that she was sure that +those frowns cleared from her husband's face before the sweets, for he +would never take afternoon tea, in order to have a better appetite for +dinner, and consequently was wont to begin that meal in a tetchy humour. +Such an explanation would have gone no way to support the hypothesis of +suicide. Instead of making it she said: + +"Of course, he did seem frightfully upset." + +"But you don't think that he was sufficiently upset to do himself an +injury?" said Mr. Flexen. + +Olivia had formed a strong impression that her husband would not in any +circumstance do himself an injury; it was his part to injure others. +But she said: + +"I can't say. He might have gone on working himself up all the evening. I +didn't see him after he left my dressing-room. It was there he made the +row--while I was dressing for dinner." + +Mr. Flexen paused; then he said: "Mr. Manley tells me that Lord Loudwater +used to sleep every evening after dinner. Do you think that he was too +upset to go to sleep last night?" + +"Oh, dear no! I've known him go to sleep in his smoking-room after a much +worse row than that!" cried Olivia. + +"With you?" said Mr. Flexen quickly. + +"No; with Hutchings--the butler," said Olivia. + +"But that wouldn't be such a serious matter--not one to brood upon," said +Mr. Flexen. + +"I suppose not," said Olivia readily. + +Mr. Flexen paused again; then he said in a somewhat reluctant tone: +"There's another matter I must go into. Have you any reason to believe +that there was any other woman in Lord Loudwater's life--anything in the +nature of an intrigue? It's not a pleasant question to have to ask, but +it's really important." + +"Oh, I don't expect any pleasantness where Lord Loudwater is concerned," +said Olivia, with a sudden almost petulant impatience, for this +inquisition was a much more severe strain on her than Mr. Flexen +perceived. "Do you mean now, or before we were married?" + +"Now," said Mr. Flexen. + +"I haven't the slightest idea," said Olivia. + +"Do you think it likely?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"No, I don't--not very. I don't see how he could have got another woman +in. He was always about--always. Of course, he rode a good deal, though." + +"He did, did he?" said Mr. Flexen quickly. + +"Every afternoon and most mornings." + +That was important. Mr. Flexen thought that he might not have to go very +far afield to find the woman who had been quarrelling with Lord Loudwater +at a few minutes past eleven the night before. She probably lived within +an easy ride of the Castle. + +"I'm very much obliged to you for helping me so readily in such +distressing circumstances," he said in a grateful voice as he rose. "If +anything further occurs to you that may throw any light on the matter, +you might let me hear it with as little delay as possible." + +"I will," said Olivia. "By the way, Mrs. Carruthers told me that you +would like to stay here while you were making your inquiry; please do; +and please make any use of the servants and the cars you like. My +husband's heir is still in Mesopotamia, and I expect that I shall have +to run the Castle till he comes back." + +"Thank you. To stay here will be very convenient and useful," said Mr. +Flexen gratefully, and left her. + +He came down the stairs thoughtfully. It seemed to him quite unlikely +that she had had anything to do with the crime, or knew anything more +about it than she had told him. Nevertheless, there was this business of +Colonel Grey and her murdered husband's threat to divorce her. They must +be borne in mind. + +He would have been surprised, intrigued, and somewhat shaken in his +conviction that she had been in no way connected with the murder, had he +heard the gasp of intense relief which burst from Olivia's lips when the +door closed behind him, and seen her huddle up in her chair and begin to +cry weakly in the reaction from the strain of his inquisition. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +Mr. Flexen found Inspector Perkins waiting for him in the dining-room +with the information that James Hutchings was at his father's cottage in +the West wood, and that he had set one of his detectives to watch him. +Also, he told him that he had learned that Hutchings was generally +disliked in the village as well as at the Castle, as a violent, +bad-tempered man, with a habit of fixing quarrels on any one who would +quarrel with him, and as often as not on mild and inoffensive persons, +quite incapable of bearing themselves in a quarrel with any unpleasant +effectiveness. + +Mr. Flexen discussed with the inspector the question of taking out a +warrant for the arrest of Hutchings, and they decided that there was no +need to take the step--at any rate, at the moment; it was enough to have +him watched. He would learn doubtless that it was known that he had been +in the Castle late the night before. If, on learning it, he took fright +and bolted, it would rather simplify the case. + +Then Mr. Flexen sent again for Elizabeth Twitcher and questioned her at +length about Lord Loudwater's onslaught on Lady Loudwater the night +before and about the condition in which he had been at the end of it. +Elizabeth was somewhat sulky in her manner, for she felt that she was to +blame for that onslaught having come to Mr. Flexen's ears. She was the +more careful to make it plain that however violently Lord Loudwater may +have been affected, Olivia had taken the business lightly enough, and +decided to ignore his injunction to her to leave the Castle. Mr. Flexen +did not miss the point that Lord Loudwater had threatened to hound +Colonel Grey out of the Army; but at the moment he did not attach +importance to it. It was the kind of threat that an angry man would be +pretty sure to make in the circumstances. + +Having dismissed Elizabeth Twitcher, he came to lunch with the impression +strong on him that he had made as much progress as could be expected in +one morning towards the solution of the problem. He was quite undecided +whether Hutchings' presence in the Castle at so late an hour, and the +probability that he had entered and left it by the library window, or the +matter of the woman who had had the stormy interview with the murdered +man, was the more important. It must be his early task to discover who +that woman was. + +He found Mr. Manley awaiting him in the little dining-room, ready to play +host. Over their soup and fish they talked about ordinary topics and a +little about themselves. Mr. Manley learned that Mr. Flexen had been in +the Indian Police for over seven years, and had been forced to resign his +post by the breaking down of his health; that during the war he had twice +acted as Chief Constable and three times as stipendiary magistrate in +different districts. Mr. Flexen gathered that Mr. Manley had fought in +France with a brilliant intrepidity which had not met with the public +recognition it deserved, and learned that he had been invalided out of +the Army owing to the weakness of his heart. This common failure of +health was a bond of sympathy between them, and made them well disposed +to one another. + +There came a pause in this personal talk, and either of them addressed +himself to the consumption of the wing of a chicken with a certain +absorption in the occupation. It was not uncharacteristic of Mr. Manley +that his high sense of the fitness of things had not prevailed on him to +accord the liver wing to the guest. He was firmly eating it himself. + +Then Mr. Flexen said: "I suppose you came across Hutchings, the butler, +pretty often. What kind of a fellow was he?" + +"He was rather more like his master than if he had been his twin brother, +except that he wore whiskers and not a beard," said Mr. Manley, in a tone +of hearty dislike. + +"He does not appear to have been at all popular with the other servants," +said Mr. Flexen. + +"He certainly wasn't popular with me," said Mr. Manley dryly. + +"What did Lord Loudwater discharge him for?" + +"A matter of a commission on the purchase of some wine," said Mr. Manley. +Then in a more earnest tone he added: "Look here: the trenches knock a +good deal of the nonsense out of one, and I tell you frankly that if I +could help you in any way to discover the criminal, I wouldn't. My +feeling is that if ever any one wanted putting out of the way, Lord +Loudwater did; and as he was put out of the way quite painlessly, +probably it was a valuble action, whatever its motive." + +"I expect that a good many people have come back from the trenches with +very different ideas about justice," said Mr. Flexen in an indulgent +tone. "The Indian Police also changes your ideas about it. But it's my +duty to see that justice is done, and I shall. Besides, I'm very keen on +solving this problem, if I can. It seems that Hutchings was in the Castle +last night about eleven o'clock, and as you said something about coming +down for a drink about that time, I thought you might possibly know +something about his movements." + +"Well, as it happens," said Mr. Manley and stopped short, paused, and +went on: "You seem to have made up your mind that it was a murder and not +a suicide." + +"So you do know something about the movements of Hutchings," said Mr. +Flexen, smiling. "You'll be subpoenaed, you know, if he is charged with +the murder." + +"That would, of course, be quite a different matter," said Mr. +Manley gravely. + +"As to its being a murder, I've pretty well made up my mind that it was," +said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley looked at him gravely: "You have, have you?" he said. Then he +added: "About that knife and the finger-prints on it, if it happens to +have recorded any: I've been thinking that you may find yourself +suffering from an embarrassment of riches. I know that mine will be on +it, and Lady Loudwater's, who used it to cut the leaves of a volume of +poetry the day before yesterday, and Hutchings', who cut the string of a +parcel of books with it yesterday, and very likely the fingerprints of +Lord Loudwater. You know how it is with a knife like that, which lies +open and handy. Every one uses it. I've seen Lady Loudwater use it to cut +flowers, and Lord Loudwater to cut the end off a cigar--cursing, of +course, because he couldn't lay his hands on a cigar-cutter, and the +knife was blunt--and I've cut all kinds of things with it myself." + +"Yes; but the finger-prints of the murderer, if it does record them, will +be on the top of all those others. I shall simply take prints from all of +you and eliminate them." + +"Of course; you can get at it that way," said Mr. Manley. + +They were silent while Holloway set the cheese-straws on the table. + +When he had left the room Mr. Flexen said in a casual tone: "You don't +happen to know whether Lord Loudwater was mixed up with any woman in the +neighbourhood?" + +Mr. Manley paused, then laughed and said: "It's no use at all. When I +told you that I would throw no light on the matter, if I could help it, I +really meant it. At the same time, I don't mind saying that, with his +reputation for brutality, I should think it very unlikely." + +"You can never tell about women. So many of them seem to prefer brutes. +And, after all, a peer is a peer," said Mr. Flexen. + +"There is that," said Mr. Manley in thoughtful agreement. + +But he was frowning faintly as he cudgelled his brains in the effort to +think what had set Mr. Flexen on the track of Helena Truslove, for it +must be Helena. + +"I expect I shall be able to find out from his lawyers," said Mr. Flexen. + +"This promises to be interesting--the intervention of Romance," said Mr. +Manley in a tone of livelier interest. "I took it that the murder, if it +was a murder, would be a sordid business, in keeping with Lord +Loudwater himself. But if you're going to introduce a lady into the +case, it promises to be more fruitful in interest for the dramatist. I'm +writing plays." + +But Mr. Flexen was not going to divulge the curious fact that about the +time of his murder Lord Loudwater had had a violent quarrel with a lady. +He had no doubt that Mrs. Carruthers would keep it to herself. + +"Oh, one has to look out for every possible factor in a problem like +this, you know," he said carelessly. + +The faint frown lingered on Mr. Manley's brow. Mr. Flexen supposed that +it was the result of his refraining from gratifying his appetite for the +dramatic. They were silent a while. + +"When are you going to take our finger-prints?" said Mr. Manley +presently. + +"Not till I've learned whether there are any on the handle of the knife," +said Mr. Flexen. "Perkins has already sent it off to Scotland Yard." + +"I never thought of that. It would be rather a waste of time to take them +before knowing that," said Mr. Manley. + +Holloway brought the coffee; Mr. Manley gave Mr. Flexen an excellent +cigar, and they talked about the war. Mr. Flexen drank his coffee +quickly, said that he must get back to his work, and added that he hoped +that he would enjoy the company of Mr. Manley at dinner. Mr. Manley had +been going to dine with Helena Truslove; but after Mr. Flexen's question +whether Lord Loudwater had been entangled with any woman in the +neighbourhood, he thought that he had better dine with him. He might +learn something useful, if he could induce Mr. Flexen to expand under the +relaxing influence of dinner. He resolved to use his authority to have +the most engaging wine the cellar held. He was determined to make every +endeavour to keep Helena's name out of the affair, and he thought that he +would succeed. + +Mr. Flexen left him. He finished his coffee, the second cup, slowly, +wondering about Mr. Flexen's question about Lord Loudwater and a woman. +Then, since he had done all the work he could think of, in the way of +making arrangements for the funeral, during the morning, he set out +briskly to Helena's house, hoping that she would be able to throw some +light on it. + +He greeted her with his usual warmth, and then, when he came to look at +her at his leisure, it was plain to him that the murder had been a much +greater shock to her than he had expected. He was surprised at it, for +she had assured him that she had never been really in love with Lord +Loudwater, and he had believed her. But there was no doubt that she had +been greatly upset by the news of his death. Her high colouring was +dimmed; she wore a harassed air, and she was uncommonly nervous and ill +at ease. He thought it strange that she should be so deeply affected by +the death of a man she had such good reason to detest. But, of course, +there was no telling how a woman would take anything; Lady Loudwater's +distress had fallen as far short of what he had expected as Helena's had +exceeded it. + +To Mr. Manley's credit it must be admitted that in less than twenty +minutes Helena Truslove was looking another creature; her face had +recovered all its colour; the harassed air had vanished from it, and she +was sitting on his knee in a condition of the most pleasant repose. It +was his theory that a woman was never too ill, or too ill at ease, or too +unhappy to be made love to. He had acted on it. + +When he had thus restored her peace of mind, he told her that Mr. Flexen +had asked him whether the late Lord Loudwater had been mixed up with any +lady in the neighbourhood, and asked her if she could suggest any reason +for his having asked the question. She appeared greatly startled to hear +of it. But she could not suggest any reason for his having asked the +question. He then asked her about the manner in which the allowance had +been paid to her, and was pleased to learn that there was little +likelihood of Mr. Flexen's learning that she had received such an +allowance from Lord Loudwater, for it had been paid her through a young +lawyer of the name of Shepherd, at Low Wycombe, the lawyer who had dealt +with the matter of the transference of the house they were in to her, +from the rents of some houses Lord Loudwater owned in that town, and that +lawyer was somewhere in Mesopotamia, his practice in abeyance. + +She was in entire accord with Mr. Manley about the advantage of her name +not being connected in any way with the tragedy at the Castle. She +pointed out that it was also an advantage that she had just, been paid +her allowance for the present quarter, and there would not be another +payment for three months. By that time it was probable that the murder +would have passed out of people's minds and Mr. Flexen be busy with other +work. It seemed to Mr. Manley that Mr. Flexen would not easily learn +about the allowance unless Mr. Carrington also knew it, which seemed +unlikely, though it was always possible that there was some record of it +among the Lord Loudwater's papers at the Castle. Soon after seven he left +her to walk back to dine with Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Flexen had had a considerable surprise that afternoon. He had told +Robert Black to find William Roper and bring him to him. He wished to +hear the story he had told Lord Loudwater the evening before, for it +might be of a triviality to make the hypothesis that Lord Loudwater had +committed suicide yet less worthy of serious consideration. Black was a +long while finding William Roper, for he was at work in the woods. +Indeed, he had not yet heard that Lord Loudwater had been murdered, for +he had been up most of the night, risen late, got his own breakfast in +his out-of-the-way cottage in the depths of the West wood, and gone out +on his rounds. The constable found him at the cottage, in the act of +preparing his dinner, or rather his tea and dinner, at a quarter to four. + +William Roper was startled, indeed, to hear of the murder, and then +bitterly annoyed. All the while on his rounds he had been congratulating +himself on his coming promotion, and reckoning up the many advantages +which would accrue from it, not the least of which was a wider prospect +of finding a wife. The cup was dashed from his lips. He had acquired no +merit in the eyes of the new Lord Loudwater, and he had most probably +made the present Lady Loudwater his enemy, if the murdered man had +divulged the source of his knowledge of her goings-on with Colonel Grey. +He ate his mixed meal very sulkily, listening to the constable's account +of the circumstances of the crime. Slowly, however, his face grew +brighter as he listened; the new information he had obtained for his +murdered employer might very well have an important bearing on the crime +itself. He might yet establish himself as the benefactor of the family. + +On the way to the Castle he was so mysterious with Robert Black that the +stout constable became a prey to mingled curiosity and doubt. He could +not make up his mind whether William Roper really knew something of +importance or was merely vapouring. William Roper neither gratified his +curiosity, nor banished his doubt. He was alive to the advantage of +reserving his information for the most important ear, so as to gain the +greatest possible credit for it. + +At the first sight of him Mr. Flexen felt that he had before him an +important witness, for he took a violent dislike to him, and he had +observed, in the course of his many years' experience in the detection of +crime, that the most important witness in hounding down a criminal was +very often of a repulsive type, the nark type. William Roper was of that +type, but his story was indeed startling. + +He first told how he had seen Colonel Grey kiss Lady Loudwater in the +afternoon--Mr. Flexen noted that Lord Loudwater had accused her of +kissing Grey--and of their spending most of the afternoon in the pavilion +in the East wood. The time of his watching had already lengthened in +William Roper's memory. There was nothing new in these facts, and Mr. +Flexen saw no reason to suppose that they had any bearing on the crime. +But William Roper went on to say that soon after ten in the evening he +had been on his round in the East wood, when he saw Colonel Grey walking +in the direction of the Castle. His curiosity had been aroused by what he +had seen in the afternoon, and thinking it not unlikely that he was on +his way to another meeting with the Lady Loudwater, and that it was the +duty of a faithful retainer to make sure about it, with a view to +informing his master should his surmise prove correct, he followed him. + +The Colonel went straight through the wood into the Castle garden, walked +round the Castle, keeping in its shadow as he went, till he stood under +the window of Lady Loudwater's suite of rooms. + +There he appeared to suffer a check. There was a light in the room on the +ground floor under her boudoir. The Colonel had waited quite a while; +then he had walked round the Castle and into it by the library window. + +William, greatly surprised by the Colonel's audacity, had taken up his +position in a clump of tall rhododendrons, opposite the library window, +from which he could keep watch on it. + +"What time would this be?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"It couldn't have been more than twenty minutes past ten, sir," said +William Roper. + +"And what happened then?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Nothing 'appened for a good ten minutes. Then James Hutchings, the +butler, come across the gardens from the south gate, as if 'e'd come from +the village, and 'e went in through the libery winder--the same winder." + +Mr. Flexen had thought it not unlikely that Hatchings had entered the +Castle by that entrance. He was pleased to have his guess corroborated. + +"That would be about half-past ten," he said. "Could you see into the +library at all?" + +"Only a very little way, sir." + +"You couldn't see whether Colonel Grey and then James Hutchings went +straight through it into the hall, or whether either of them went into +the smoking-room?" + +"No; I couldn't see so far in as that, though there was a light burning +in the libery," said William Roper. + +That was a new fact. Any one passing through the library would be able to +see the open knife lying in the big inkstand. + +"Go on," said Mr. Flexen. "What happened next?" + +"Nothing 'appened for a long while--twenty minutes, I should think--and +then there come a woman round the right-'and corner of the Castle wall +and along it and into the libery winder. At first I thought it was Mrs. +Carruthers, or one of the maids--she were too tall for her ladyship--but +it warn't." + +"Are you quite sure?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Quite, sir. I should have known 'er if she had been. Besides, she was +all muffled up like. You couldn't see 'er face." + +"Did she hesitate before going through the library window?" said +Mr. Flexen. + +"Not as I noticed. She seemed to go straight in." + +"As if she were used to going into the Castle that way?" said Mr. Flexen. + +William Roper scratched his head. Then he said cautiously: "She seemed to +know that way in all right, sir." + +"And how was she dressed?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"She wasn't in black. It wasn't as dull as black, but it was dullish. It +might have been grey and again it might not. It might have been blue or +brown. You see, there was a fair moon, sir, but it was be'ind the Castle, +an' I never seed 'er in the full moonlight, as you may say, seeing as, +coming and going, she come along the wall and went round the right 'and +corner of it, in the shadder." + +"And which of these three people came away first?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"She did. She wasn't in the Castle more nor twenty minutes--if that." + +"Did she seem to be in a hurry when she came out? Did she run, or +walk quickly?" + +"No. I can't say as she did. She went away just about as she came--in no +purtic'ler 'urry," said William Roper. + +Mr. Flexen paused, considering; then he said: "And who was the next +to leave?" + +"The Colonel, 'e come out next--in about ten minutes." + +"Did he seem in a hurry?" + +"'E walked pretty brisk, and 'e was frowning, like as if 'e was in a +rage. 'E passed me close, so I 'ad a good look at 'im. Yes; I should say +'e was fair boilen', 'e was," said William Roper, in a solemn, pleased +tone of one giving damning evidence. + +Mr. Flexen did not press the matter. He said: "So James Hutchings came +away last?" + +"Yes; about five minutes after the Colonel. And 'e was in a pretty fair +to-do, too. Leastways, he was frowning and a-muttering of to 'imself. He +passed me close." + +"Did _he_ seem in any hurry?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"'E was walkin' fairly fast," said William Roper. + +Mr. Flexen paused again, pondering. He thought that William Roper had +thrown all the light on the matter he could; and he had certainly +revealed a number of facts which looked uncommonly important. + +"And that was all you saw?" he said. + +"That was all--except 'er ladyship," said William Roper. + +"Her ladyship?" said Mr. Flexen sharply. + +"Yes. You see, there was no 'urry for me to go back to the woods, sir; +an' I sat down on one of them garden seats along the edge of the +Wellin'tonia shrubbery to smoke a pipe and think it ou'. I felt it was my +dooty like to let 'is lordship know about these goings-on, never thinking +as 'ow 'e was sitting there all the time with a knife in 'im. I should +think it was twenty minutes arter that I saw 'er ladyship come out. Of +course, I was farther away from the window, but I saw 'er quite plain." + +"And where did she go?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"She didn't go nowhere, so to speak. She just walked up an' down the +gravel path--like as if she'd come out for a breath of fresh air. +Then she went in. She wasn't out more nor ten minutes, or a quarter +of an hour." + +Mr. Flexen was silent in frowning thought; then he looked earnestly at +William Roper for a good minute; then he said: "Well, this may be +important, or it may not. But it is very important that you should keep +it to yourself." He looked hard again at William, decided that an appeal +to his vanity would be best, and added: "You're pretty shrewd, I fancy, +and you can see that it is most important not to put the criminal on his +guard--if it was a crime." + +"I suppose I shall 'ave to tell what I know at the inquest?" said William +Roper, with an air of importance. + +Mr. Flexen gazed at him thoughtfully, weighing the matter. Here were a +number of facts which might or might not have an important bearing on the +murder, but which would give rise to a great deal of painful and harmful +scandal if they were given to the world at this juncture. + +Besides the publication of them might force his hand, and he preferred to +have a free hand in this matter as he had been used to have a free hand +in India. There he had dealt with more than one case in such a manner as +to secure substantial justice rather than the exact execution of the law. +It might be that in this case justice would be best secured by leaving +the murderer to his, or her, conscience rather than by causing several +people great unhappiness by bringing about a conviction. He was inclined +to think, with Mr. Manley, that the murderer might have performed a +public service by removing Lord Loudwater from the world he had so ill +adorned. At any rate, he was resolved to have a free hand to deal with +the case, and most certainly he was not going to allow this noxious young +fellow to hamper his freedom of action and final decision. + +"Your evidence seems to me of much too great importance to be given at +the inquest. It must be reserved for the trial," he said in an impressive +tone. "But if it gets abroad that you have seen what you have told me, +the criminal will be prepared to upset your evidence; and it will +probably become quite worthless. You must not breathe a word about what +you saw to a soul till we have your evidence supported beyond all +possibility of its being refuted. Do you understand?" + +For a moment William Roper looked disappointed. He had looked to become +famous that very day. But he realized his great importance in the affair, +and his face cleared. + +"I understands, sir," he said with a dark solemnity. + +"Not a word," said Mr. Flexen yet more impressively. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +That morning Olivia went to meet Grey in a mood very different from that +of the afternoon before. Then she had moved on light feet, in high +spirits, expectant, even excited. She had not known what was coming, but +the prospect had been full of possibilities; and, thanks to the sudden +appearance of the cat Melchisidec at the crucial moment, she had not been +disappointed. Today she would have gone to meet the man who loved her in +yet higher spirits, for there is no blinking the fact that she was wholly +unable to grieve for her husband. He had with such thoroughness +extirpated the girlish fondness she had felt for him when she married +him, that she could not without hypocrisy make even a show of grieving +for him. His death had merely removed the barrier between her and the man +she loved. + +But today she did not go to her tryst in spirits higher for the removal +of that barrier. She went more slowly, on heavier, lingering feet. Her +eyes were downcast, and her forehead was furrowed by an anxious, +brooding frown. + +The sight of Colonel Grey, waiting for her at the door of the Pavilion, +smoothed the furrows from her forehead and quickened her steps. When the +door closed behind them he caught her in his arms and kissed her. It was +early in her widowhood to be kissed, but she made no protest. She did not +feel a widow; she felt a free woman again. It is even to be feared that +her lips were responsive. + +Antony, too, was changed. He was paler and almost careworn. There was no +doubt of his joy at her coming, no doubt that it was greater than the day +before. But it was qualified by some other troubling emotion. Now and +again he looked at her with different eyes--eyes from which the joy had +of a sudden faded, rather fearful eyes that looked a question which could +not be asked. Her eyes rather shrank from his, and when they did look +into them it was with a like question. + +But they were too deeply in love with one another for any other emotion +to hold them for long at a time. Presently in the joy of being together, +looking at one another, touching one another, the fearfulness and the +question passed from their eyes. + +There was nothing rustic about the Pavilion inside or out. It was of +white marble, brought from Carrara for the fifth Baron Loudwater at the +end of the eighteenth century; and a whim of her murdered husband had led +him to replace the original, delicate, rather severe furniture by a most +comfortable broad couch, two no less comfortable chairs with arms, a +small red lacquer table and a dozen cushions. He had hung on each wall a +drawing of dancing-girls by Degas. Since the coverings of the couch and +the cushions were of Chinese silken embroideries, the interior appeared a +somewhat bizarre mixture of the Oriental and the French. + +Antony had been in some doubt that Olivia would come. But he had thought +it natural that she should come to him in such an hour of distress, for +he knew the simple directness of her nature. Therefore he had taken no +chance. He had gone to High Wycombe, ransacked its simple provision +shops, and brought away a lunch basket. + +She was for returning to the Castle to lunch. But he persuaded her to +stay. She needed no great pressing; she had a feeling that every hour was +precious, that it was unsafe to lose a single one of them: a foreboding +that she and Antony might not be together long. It almost seemed that a +like foreboding weighed on him. At times they seemed almost feverish in +their desire to wring the last drop of sweetness out of the swiftly +flying hour. + +After lunch again the thought came to her that she ought to go back to +the Castle, that she might be needed, and missed; but it found no +expression. She could not tear herself away. She had been denied joy too +long, and it was intoxicating. + +It was five o'clock before she left the Pavilion. She walked briskly, +with her wonted, easy, swinging gait, back to the Castle, in a dream, her +anxiety and fear for the while forgotten. On her way up to her suite of +rooms she met no one. She was quick to take off her hat and ring for her +tea. Elizabeth Twitcher brought it to her, and from her Olivia learned +that only Mr. Manley had asked for her. She realized that, after all, +thanks to her dead husband, she was but an inconspicuous person in the +Castle. No one had been used to consult her in any matter. She was glad +of it. At the moment all she desired was freedom of action, freedom to be +with Antony; and the fact that the life of the Castle moved smoothly +along in the capable hands of Mrs. Carruthers and Mr. Manley gave her +that freedom. + +After her tea she went out into the rose-garden and was strolling up and +down it when Mr. Flexen, pondering the information which he had obtained +from William Roper, saw her and came out to her. He thought that she +shrank a little at the sight of him, but assured himself that it must be +fancy; surely there could be no reason why she should shrink from him. + +"I'm told, Lady Loudwater, that you went out through the library window +into the garden for a stroll about a quarter to twelve last night. Did +you by any chance, as you went in or came out, hear Lord Loudwater snore? +I want to fix the latest hour at which he was certainly alive. You see +how important it may prove." + +She hesitated, wrinkling her brow as she weighed the importance of her +answer. Then she looked at him with limpid eyes and said: + +"Yes." + +He knew--the sixth sense of the criminal investigator told him--that she +lied, and he was taken aback. Why should she lie? What did she know? What +had she to hide? + +"Did you hear him snore going out, or coming in?" he said. + +"Both," said Olivia firmly. + +Mr. Flexen hesitated. He did not believe her. Then he said: "How long did +Lord Loudwater sleep after dinner as a rule? What time did he go to bed?" + +"It varied a good deal. Generally he awoke and went to bed before twelve. +But sometimes it was nearer one, especially if he was disturbed and went +to sleep again." + +"Thank you," said Mr. Flexen, and he left her and went back into +the Castle. + +Lord Loudwater had certainly been disturbed by the woman with whom he +had quarrelled. He might have slept on late. But why had Lady Loudwater +lied about the snoring? What did she know? What on earth was she +hiding? Whom was she screening? Could it be Colonel Grey? Was he mixed +up in the actual murder? Mr. Flexen decided that he must have more +information about Colonel Grey, that he would get into touch with him, +and that soon. + +He had information about him sooner than he expected and without seeking +it. Inspector Perkins was awaiting him, with Mrs. Turnbull, the landlady +of the "Cart and Horses." The inspector had learned from her that the +Lord Loudwater had paid a visit to her lodger the evening before, and +that they had quarrelled fiercely. Mr. Flexen heard her story and +questioned her. The important point in it seemed to him to be Lord +Loudwater's threats to hound Colonel Grey out of the Army. + +Mrs. Turnbull left him plenty to ponder. Mr. Manley had told him that the +handle of the famous knife would probably provide him with an +embarrassment of riches in the way of finger-prints. It seemed to him +that the stories of William Roper, Mrs. Carruthers, and Mrs. Turnbull had +provided him with an embarrassment of riches in the way of possible +murderers. It grew clearer than ever to him that the inquest must be +conducted with the greatest discretion, that as few facts as possible +must be revealed at it. It was also clear to him that, unless the handle +of the knife told a plain story, he would get nothing but circumstantial +evidence, and so far he had gotten too much of it. + +He made up his mind that it would be best to see Colonel Grey at once and +form his impression as to the likelihood of his having had a hand in the +crime. He was loth to believe that a V.C. would murder in cold blood +even as detestable a bully as the Lord Loudwater appeared to have been. +But he had seen stranger things. Moreover, it depended on the type of +V.C. Colonel Grey was. V.C.s varied. + +Mr. Flexen lost no time. It was nearly six o'clock. It was likely that +the Colonel would be back at his inn after his fishing. Mrs. Turnbull was +sure that he had as usual gone fishing, for, when he set out in the +morning, he had taken his rod with him. Antony Grey was not the man to +omit a simple precaution like that. Therefore, Mr. Flexen ordered a car +to be brought round, and was at the "Cart and Horses" by twenty past six. + +He found that Colonel Grey had indeed returned. He sent up his card; +the maid came back and at once took him up to the Colonel's +sitting-room. Grey received him with an air of inquiry, which grew yet +more inquiring when Mr. Flexen told him that he was engaged in +investigating the affair of Lord Loudwater's death. Therefore, Mr. +Flexen came to the point at once. + +"I have been informed that Lord Loudwater paid you a visit last night, +and that a violent quarrel ensued, Colonel Grey," he said. + +"Pardon me; but the violence was all on Lord Loudwater's part," said +Colonel Grey in an exceedingly unpleasant tone. "I merely made myself +nasty in a quiet way. Violence is not in my line, unless I'm absolutely +driven to it; and any one less likely to drive any one to violence than +that obnoxious and noisy jackass I've never come across. The fellow was +all words--abusive words. He'd no fight in him. I gave him every reason I +could think of to go for me because I particularly wanted to hammer him. +But he hadn't got it in him." + +Grey spoke quietly, without raising his voice, but there was a rasp in +his tone that impressed Mr. Flexen. If a man could give such an +impression of dangerousness with his voice, what would he be like in +action? He realized that here was a quite uncommon type of V. C. He +realized, too, that Lord Loudwater had made the mistake of a lifetime in +his attempt to bully him. Moreover, he had a strong feeling that if it +had seemed to Colonel Grey that Lord Loudwater was better out of the +way, and a favourable opportunity had presented itself, he might very +well have displayed little hesitation in putting him out of the way. He +felt that the obnoxious peer would have been little more than a +dangerous dog to him. + +He did not speak at once. He looked into Colonel Grey's grey eyes, and +cold and hard they were, weighing him. Then he said: "Lord Loudwater +threatened to hound you out of the Army, I'm told." + +"Among other things," said Grey carelessly. + +Mr. Flexen guessed that the other things were threats to divorce Lady +Loudwater. + +"That would have been a very serious blow to you," he said. + +"You're quite--right," said Colonel Grey. + +Mr. Flexen could have sworn that he had started to say: "You're quite +wrong," and changed his mind. + +The Colonel seemed to hesitate for words; then he went on: "It would have +been a very heavy blow indeed. You can see that for a man who enlisted in +the Artists' Rifles in 1914, and fought his way up to the command of a +regiment, nothing could be more painful. It would have been +heartbreaking; I should have been years getting over it." + +The rasp had gone out of his voice. He was speaking in a pleasant, +confidential tone, and Mr. Flexen did not believe a word he said. At the +least he was exaggerating the distress he would have felt at leaving the +Army; but Mr. Flexen had the strongest feeling that he would have felt +next to no distress at all. Again he was astonished. Colonel Grey was +lying to him just as Lady Loudwater had lied. What could be their reason? +What on earth had they done? + +He kept his astonishment out of his face, and said in a sympathetic +voice: "Yes, I can see that. And then, again, it would have been painful +and very unpleasant to feel that your thoughtlessness had landed Lady +Loudwater in the Divorce Court." + +"Oh, Lord, no!" said Colonel Grey quickly. "There was no chance of any +divorce proceedings. Even for a divorce case, at any rate one brought by +the husband, there must be _some_ grounds; he must have _some_ evidence. +The cock-and-bull story of a gamekeeper is hardly enough to found a +divorce case on, is it?" + +"Oh, I don't know. The gamekeeper might convince a jury. You know what +juries are. You can never tell what form their stupidity will take," said +Mr. Flexen. + +"But apart from the lack of evidence, there was no chance of a divorce +case. I tell you, Loudwater hadn't got it in him," said Grey +confidently. "He'd have threatened and been abusive. He'd have gone on +throwing that cock-and-bull story at Lady Loudwater for as long as she +continued to stick to him; but it would have stopped at that. His +infernal temper never went any deeper than his lungs. Lady Loudwater had +nothing to fear." + +"Yet you think that he would have done his best to hound you out of the +Army?" said Mr. Flexen, finding this conception of Lord Loudwater as a +harmless, if violent, vapourer somewhat inconsistent. + +"That's quite another matter," said Grey quickly. "It merely meant using +his influence behind my back with some scurvy politician. There wouldn't +have been any publicity attached to that, any exposure of his bullying. +He'd have done that all right." + +"I should have thought that a man of Lord Loudwater's violent temper +would rather have sought an open row," Mr. Flexen persisted. + +"Of course--if he'd been really violent. But he wasn't, I tell you. He +was only a blustering bully where women and servants were +concerned--people he could cow. I tell you, I made it quite clear that he +crumpled up directly you stood up to him. Why, hang it all! Any man with +the soul of a mouse who really believed that I had been making love to +his wife, couldn't have taken the things I told him without going for me +at any risk. And as I'm still rather crocked up, and he knew it, there +must have seemed precious little risk about it. I tell you that he was +just a blustering ruffian." + +Mr. Flexen had a strong impression that Colonel Grey was unused to being +as expansive as this, that he was talking for talking's sake, possibly +to put him off asking some question which would be difficult or +dangerous to answer. He could not for the life of him think what that +question could be. + +"I daresay you're right," he said carelessly. "Bullies aren't over-fond +of a real scrap. But I am told that you paid a visit to the Castle last +night and came away about a quarter past eleven. Did you?" + +Colonel Grey showed no faintest disquiet on hearing that his visit to +Olivia the night before was known. But he did not give Mr. Flexen time to +finish the sentence. + +He interrupted him, saying quickly: "Yes. I went to see Lady Loudwater. I +thought it likely that she would attach a good deal more importance to +Loudwater's silly threats than they deserved and might be worrying. It +would have been quite natural. I wanted to talk it over with her and set +her mind at rest about it. It didn't take very long to do that, partly +because it was a long time since he had really frightened her. She had +got used to his tantrums and bullying; and even this new game had not +disturbed her very much. We both came to the conclusion that he was just +blustering again, and wouldn't do anything. As a matter of fact, I don't +think she cared very much what he did. She had got so fed up with him +that she didn't care whether they separated or not." + +Mr. Flexen felt more sure than ever that this garrulity was unusual in +Colonel Grey. He was talking with a purpose, apparently to induce him to +believe that both he and Lady Loudwater had taken her husband's threat of +divorce proceedings lightly. He began to think that they had not taken it +lightly at all, or, at any rate, one or other of them had not. + +"Yes," he said. "That's what always happens with those blustering' +fellows. In the end no one takes them seriously. But what I came to ask +you was: Did you, as you came through the library or went out through it, +hear Lord Loudwater snore?" + +Colonel Grey hesitated, just as Lady Loudwater had hesitated over that +question. Plainly he was weighing the effect of his answer. + +Then he said: "No." + +Mr. Flexen's instinct assured him that Colonel Grey had lied just as Lady +Loudwater had lied. + +"Are you sure that nothing in the nature of a snore came to your ears as +you came out? Did you hear any sound from the room? You can see how +important it is to fix as near as we possibly can the hour of Lord +Loudwater's death," he said earnestly. + +"No, I heard nothing," said Colonel Grey firmly. + +"Bother!" said Mr. Flexen. "It's very important. Possibly I shall be able +to find out from some one else." + +"I hope you will," said Grey politely. + +Mr. Flexen bade him good-night cordially enough, and drove back to the +Castle in a considerable perplexity. Both Colonel Grey and Lady Loudwater +were behaving in an uncommonly odd, not to say suspicious manner. + +He was quite sure that both of them had lied about the dead man's +snoring. But it was plain that either had lied with a different object. +Lady Loudwater had lied to make it appear that her husband had been alive +at midnight. Colonel Grey had lied to make it appear that he was dead at +a quarter-past eleven. But Mr. Flexen was sure that Colonel Grey had +heard Lord Loudwater snore and that Lady Loudwater had not. + +What did they know? What had they done? Or what had one of them done? + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +When Mr. Flexen reached the Castle Wilkins took him to a bedroom in the +west wing. He found that his portmanteau had arrived, had been unpacked, +and that his dress clothes were laid out ready for him on the bed. + +As he dressed he cudgelled his brains for the reason why Lady +Loudwater and Colonel Grey had lied. Then an idea came to him: were +they lying to shield the unknown woman with whom Lord Loudwater had +had that violent quarrel? The longer he considered this hypothesis the +more possible it grew. + +He must find that unknown woman, and at once. Possibly Mr. Carrington, as +Lord Loudwater's legal adviser, would be able to put him on her track. + +He came to dinner, still perplexed, to find Mr. Manley waiting to +bear him company. They talked for a while about public affairs and +the weather. + +Then Mr. Flexen said: "Was Lord Loudwater the kind of man to confide in +his lawyers?" + +"Not if he could help it," said Mr. Manley with conviction. + +Mr. Flexen hoped that Lord Loudwater had not been able to help confiding +in his lawyers about this unknown woman. + +Then he said: "By the way, do you know Colonel Grey?" + +"Oh, yes. He was here a lot up to a little while ago. Then he had a row, +the inevitable row, with Lord Loudwater, and he hasn't been here since. +He dropped on to Lord Loudwater for bullying Lady Loudwater, and he +didn't drop on him lightly either. Hell, I fancy, was what he gave him." + +"Yes; I gathered that something of the kind had taken place. What kind of +a man is the Colonel?" said Mr. Flexen carelessly. + +"The best man in the world not to have a row with. He's a cold terror," +said Mr. Manley, in a tone of enthusiastic conviction. "He always seems +rather cooler than a cucumber. But my belief is that that coolness is +just the mask of really violent emotions. I saw them working once. I came +in on the end of his row with Loudwater--just the end of it--my goodness! +From my point of view, the dramatist's, you know, he's the most +interesting person in the county--bar Lady Loudwater, of course." + +"I should never have thought him a terror," said Mr. Flexen, in a tone of +somewhat incredulous surprise. "I had a talk with him this evening about +Lord Loudwater's death, and he seemed to me to be a pleasant enough +fellow and an excellent soldier. I take it that he's very keen on his +career in the Army?" + +"Not a bit of it. The war is merely a side issue with him," said Mr. +Manley in an assured tone. "I know from what he told me himself. We were +talking over our experiences." + +"But, hang it all! he's a V. C.!" cried Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes, he's a V. C. all right. But that's because he's one of those men +who have the knack of taking an interest in everything they turn their +hands to, and doing it well. But his two passions are Chinese art and +women," said Mr. Manley. + +"Women?" said Mr. Flexen. "He didn't strike me as being that kind of man +at all. He seemed a quite simple, straightforward soldier." + +"Simplicity and a passion for Chinese art don't go together--at least, +not what is usually called simplicity," said Mr. Manley dryly. "A friend +of mine, who knows all about him, told me that he had had more really +serious love affairs than any other man in London. He seems to be one of +those men who fall in love hard every time they fall in love. He said +that it was one of the mysteries of the polite world how he had kept out +of the Divorce Court." + +"Sounds an odd type," said Mr. Flexen, storing up the information, and +marking how little it agreed with his own observation of Colonel Grey. +"And you say that Lady Loudwater is interesting too?" + +"Oh, come! Are you pumping me or merely pulling my leg?" said Mr. Manley. +"Surely you can see that Lady Loudwater is pure Italian Renaissance. She +is one of those subtle, mysterious creatures that Leonardo and Luini were +always painting, compact of emotion." + +"It's so long since I was at Balliol, and then I was doing Indian Civil +work--the languages, you know. I've forgotten all I knew about the +Renaissance in Italy, and I don't look at many pictures. All the same, I +think you're wrong--your dramatic imagination, you know. My own idea is +that Lady Loudwater, at any rate, is a quite simple creature." + +"It isn't mine," said Mr. Manley firmly. "She's a great deal too +intelligent to be simple, and she comes of far too intelligent a family." + +"What family?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"She's a Quainton, with Italian blood in her veins." + +"The deuce she is!" cried Mr. Flexen, and half a dozen stories of the +Quaintons rose in his mind. + +He must amend his impressions of Lady Loudwater. + +"And she has a keener sense of humour than any woman I ever came across," +said Mr. Manley, driving his contention home. + +"Has she?" said Mr. Flexen. + +There was a pause. Then Mr. Manley said in a musing tone: "Do you suppose +that Colonel Grey finds her simple?" + +"What? You don't think that there is really anything serious between +them?" said Mr. Flexen quickly. + +"No, not really serious--at any rate, on Colonel Grey's part. You can +hardly expect a man, recovering very slowly from three bad wounds and +still crocked up, to fall in love, can you? Especially a man who, when he +does fall in love, falls in love with the violence with which Grey is +charged," said Mr. Manley. + +"There is that," said Mr. Flexen. "But that wouldn't prevent Lady +Loudwater from falling in love with Colonel Grey. And after the way her +husband treated her, she must have needed something in the way of +affection--badly." + +"It's no good a woman falling in love with a man unless he falls in love +with her," said Mr. Manley, in the tone of a philosopher. "Besides, women +don't fall in love with men who are so feeble from illness as the Colonel +seems to be. How can there be the attraction? She might, of course, want +to mother him very keenly. But that's quite a different thing." He +paused, then added in a tone of some anxiety: "I say, you're not trying +to mix her up with the murder--if it was a murder?" + +"I'm not trying to mix anybody up in it," said Mr. Flexen slowly. "But I +don't mind telling you that it is growing quite a pretty problem, and to +solve a problem you must have every factor in it. You see that the +strong point about both Lady Loudwater and Colonel Grey is, on your own +showing, that they are uncommonly clever; and only stupid people commit +murder--except, of course, once in a blue moon." + +"But what about these gangs of criminals we sometimes read about, with +extraordinarily clever men at the head of them? Don't they exist?" said +Mr. Manley, in a tone of surprise. + +"They exist; but they don't commit murders--not in Europe, at any rate," +said Mr. Flexen. "In the East and in the United States it's different +perhaps. Murder is always as much of a blunder as a crime. It makes +people so keen after the criminal. No: no really intelligent criminal +commits murder." + +"Of course, that's true," said Mr. Manley readily. He paused, then added +in a thoughtful tone: "I wonder whether the war has weakened our +conception of the sanctity of human life?" + +"I shouldn't wonder," said Mr. Flexen; and their talk drifted into a +discussion of generalities. + +He was glad that he was staying at the Castle. His talk with Mr. Manley +had been illuminating. + +Olivia dined in her sitting-room, and with a poor appetite. Away from +Grey, she had fallen back into her anxiety and fearfulness. Wilkins was +waiting on her, an insensible block of a fellow; but even he perceived +that she was very little aware of what she was eating, and now and again +paused, and in some worrying train of thought forgot that she was +dining at all. + +After dinner, however, her mood changed. The fearfulness and anxiety at +times vanished from her face, and a pleasant, eager expectancy took +their place. + +At a quarter to nine she took a dark wrap from her wardrobe, went quietly +down the stairs, and slipped out of the side door, across the east lawn, +and into the path through the shrubbery, unseen. Grey had suggested that +he should come to the Castle after dinner to spend the evening with her; +but they had decided that it would be wiser to meet in the pavilion. +There would be talk if he spent the evening with her so soon after her +husband's death, with his body still unburied in the house. This was the +only mention they made of him all the time they spent together. Besides, +both of them found the pavilion in the wood a far more delightful +meeting-place than the Castle. In the pavilion they felt that they were +out of the world. + +Grey, too anxious and restless to await her at the pavilion, had come +down the wood and into the end of the path through the shrubbery. It +startled her to come upon him so suddenly. But when they came out of the +shrubbery into the moonlit aisle of the wood, the fearfulness and +anxiety and restlessness had vanished utterly from their faces; both of +them were smiling. + +They walked slowly, saying little, touching now and again as they +swayed in their walk along the turf. It seemed wiser not to light the +candles in the pavilion. The moonlight, shining through the high +windows, gave them light enough to see one another's eyes. It was all +they needed. The time passed quickly in the ineffable confidences of +lovers. They had a hundred things to tell one another, a hundred things +to ask one another, in their effort to attain that oneness which is the +aim of all true love. But in their joy in being together, in the joy of +both of them, there was a feverishness, a sense that it was a menaced +joy which must needs be brief. Again they were striving to wring the +most out of the hour which was so swiftly passing. At times the sense of +danger which hung over them was so strong, that they clung to one +another like frightened children in the dark. + +Though Mr. Flexen had at the time shown himself somewhat unbelieving in +the matter of Mr. Manley's conclusions about the character and +temperament of Grey and Olivia, the impression they had made on him grew +stronger. He was too good a judge of men not to perceive that the budding +dramatist had the intelligent imagination which makes for real +shrewdness, and he was not disposed to underrate the value of the +imagination in forming judgments of men and women. Probably Colonel Grey +was a man of less intensity of emotion than Mr. Manley had declared, and +Lady Loudwater less subtile and intelligent. But, after making these +reductions, he had here possible actors in a drama of passion; and though +it was his experience that money, not passion, is the most frequent +motive of murder, he must take the probability of Lord Loudwater's murder +being a crime of passion into account, though, of course, the violent +Hutchings, threatened with ruin, would undoubtedly benefit from a +monetary point of view by the murder. At the same time, Hutchings had +just had an interview, which had gone better probably than he had +expected, with an uncommonly pretty girl. + +Mr. Carrington arrived soon after breakfast next morning, and Mr. Flexen +at once discussed the matter of the inquest with him and the Coroner. He +found the lawyer chiefly eager to have as little scandal as possible, and +the Coroner took his cue from the lawyer. This suited Mr. Flexen +admirably. He had no wish to show his hand so early. He foresaw that if +the story of William Roper were told, and the story of Lord Loudwater's +quarrel with Colonel Grey at the "Cart and Horses," there would be a +painful scandal. The majority of the people of the neighbourhood would at +once believe and declare that Lady Loudwater, or Colonel Grey, or both, +had murdered Lord Loudwater. Such a scandal would in no way serve his +purpose. It might rather hamper him. Pressure might be put on him which +might force him to take steps before the time was ripe for them. + +There was no difficulty in their having exactly the kind of inquest they +wanted, for it was wholly in the hands of Mr. Flexen and the Coroner. +After careful discussion they decided to limit it to Dr. Thornhill's +evidence, and that of the servants with regard to the dead nobleman's +mood on the night of his death. Mr. Carrington urged strongly that full +prominence should be given to the fact that the wound might have been +self-inflicted, and the Coroner promised that this should be done. + +When the Coroner had left them the lawyer said to Mr. Flexen: "In the +case of a man like the late Lord Loudwater, you can't be too careful, you +know. Really, it would be better if the jury brought in a verdict of +suicide. A suicide in a family is always better than a murder." + +"H'm! You could hardly expect me to rest content with such a verdict," +said Mr. Flexen. "Not, I mean, on the evidence." + +"Oh, no; I shouldn't," said Mr. Carrington. "All I want to avoid is a lot +of quite unnecessary painful scandal, which won't lead to anything of use +to you, about innocent people connected with my late client. You won't +act without something pretty definite to go upon, while the +scandalmongers will talk on no grounds at all. Lord Loudwater was a queer +customer, and goodness knows what will come to light, for, of course, +you'll investigate the affair thoroughly." + +The inquest accordingly was conducted on these lines. Only Dr. Thornhill, +Wilkins and Holloway were called as witnesses; and the Coroner directed +the jury to bring in a verdict to the effect that Lord Loudwater had died +of a knife-wound, and that there was no evidence to show whether it was +self-inflicted or not. + +But in this he failed. The jury, muddle-headed, obstinate country folk, +had made up their minds that Lord Loudwater was the kind of man to be +murdered, and that, therefore, he had been murdered. They brought in +the verdict that Lord Loudwater had been murdered by some person or +persons unknown. + +Mr. Flexen, Mr. Carrington and the Coroner were annoyed, but they had had +too wide an experience of juries to be surprised. + +"This will let loose a horde of reporters on us," said Mr. Carrington +very gloomily. + +"It will," said Mr. Flexen. "The pet sleuths of the _Wire_ and the +_Planet_ will leave London in about an hour." + +"Well, they'll have to be dealt with," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Oh, they're all right. I probably know them. I'll get them to work with +me. They must be treated very nicely," said Mr. Flexen cheerfully. + +"They're always a confounded nuisance," said Mr. Carrington, frowning. + +"Not if they're kindly treated. Indeed, I shall very likely find them +really useful," said Mr. Flexen. "But you might give the servants a +hint to be careful of what they say. The hint will come best from you, +and be much more effective than if it came from any one else. You +represent the family." + +"I'll see about it," said Mr. Carrington, and he went to Olivia's boudoir +to confer with her about the invitations to the funeral. + +Mr. Flexen was, indeed, little disturbed by the prospect of the coming of +the newspaper men. A popular member of the chief literary and +journalistic club in London, he would probably know them, or they would +know of him; and he would find them ready enough to work with him. +Besides, even if they discovered that the quarrel between Colonel Grey +and Lord Loudwater had its origin in Lady Loudwater, in the present state +of mind of the country, they would have to move very cautiously indeed in +the case of a V.C. + +He did not, indeed, think it likely that they would discover the cause of +the quarrel for some time--possibly not before their papers had tired of +the business and sent them on other errands. Mrs. Turnbull only knew of +Lord Loudwater's threat to hound Colonel Grey out of the Army; she did +not know the reason of his fury and his threat. Elizabeth Twitcher would +certainly hold her tongue about Lord Loudwater's subsequent quarrel with +Lady Loudwater, and his accusations and threats; Mrs. Carruthers was even +more unlikely to tell of it. It was unlikely that William Roper would +come within the ken of the newspaper men. No one could tell them that he +was the great repository of facts in the case, and Mr. Flexen believed +that he had given him good cause to keep his mouth shut till he called on +him to open it. + +Taking one thing with another, he thought it more than likely that the +newspaper men would not hinder him in his purpose of dealing with the +affair in his own way. + +On the other hand, they might very well be used to help him discover the +unknown woman who had had the furious quarrel with Lord Loudwater at +about eleven o'clock. Indeed, he regarded the information about that +quarrel as a sop to be thrown to them. She afforded just the element of +melodrama in the case which would be most grateful to their different +newspapers, and provide them with plenty of the kind of headlines which +best sold them. It was certain that James Hutchings would also occupy +their attention. The fact that he had been discharged with contumely and +threats, that he had departed uttering violent threats against the dead +man, and that he had returned to visit Elizabeth Twitcher late that +night, were doubtless being discussed by the whole neighbourhood. +However, only himself and William Roper knew, at present, that James +Hutchings had come and gone by the library window, had actually passed +twice within a few feet of his sleeping, or dead, master. That fact, +also, Mr. Flexen proposed to keep to himself till he saw reason to +divulge it. His next business must be to question Hutchings. + +It was quite likely that there lay the solution of the mystery. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +It would have been easy enough for Mr. Flexen to send for Hutchings to +the Castle and question him there. But he did not. In the first place, he +did not think it fair to a man who had already prejudiced himself so +seriously by his threats against the murdered man. Besides, he would be +at a disadvantage, under a greater strain at the Castle, and Mr. Flexen +wanted him where he would be at his best, for he wished to be able to +form an exact judgment of the likelihood of his being the murderer. +Indeed, it must be a very careful and exact judgment, for he felt that he +was moving in deep waters; that it was a case in which it was possible, +even easy, to go hopelessly wrong. Also, he was fully alive to the fact +that if threatened men live long, the men who threaten are to blame for +it, and that threats such as Hutchings' are the commonest things in the +world, and, as a rule, of very little importance. But there was always +the chance that Hutchings was the unusual threatener; and, if he were, he +had assuredly been in circumstances most favourable to the carrying out +of his threats. + +Accordingly he learnt from Inspector Perkins the way to the gamekeeper's +cottage in the West Wood, where Hutchings was staying with his father, +and drove the car to it himself. Hutchings was alone in the cottage, for +his father was out on his rounds. He invited Mr. Flexen to come in. Mr. +Flexen came in, sat down in an arm-chair, and examined Hutchings' face. +He saw that the man was plainly very anxious and ill at ease. It was +natural enough. He must perceive quite clearly how black against him +things looked. + +He was forced also to admit to himself that Hutchings had not a pleasant +face. It was choleric and truculent, and in spite of the man's evident +anxiety, there was a sullen fierceness on it which gave him no little of +the air of a wild beast trapped. + +Mr. Flexen wasted no time beating about the bush, but said to him: "When +you visited Elizabeth Twitcher last night you entered and left the Castle +by the library window." + +"You got that from that young blighter Manley," said Hutchings bitterly. + +"Not at all. I did not know that Mr. Manley knew it," said Mr. Flexen. +"So you did?" + +"Yes, sir, I did. I always went to the village that way in the +summer-time. It's the shortest. Besides, his lordship was nearly always +asleep; and if he wasn't and did 'ear me, there was always something I +could be doing in the library, sir." + +He spoke with eager, rather humble civility. + +"Well, did you, as you went through the library, coming or going, hear +Lord Loudwater snore?" + +Hutchings knitted his brow, thinking; then he said: "I can't call to mind +as I did, sir. But, then, I wasn't giving him any attention. I was +thinking about other things altogether. Of course, I went out quietly +enough. But that was habit." + +"That sounds as if you had not heard him snore--as if you thought that he +was awake," said Mr. Flexen. + +"I don't think I thought about him at all, sir, at the moment. I was +thinking about other things," said Hutchings. + +"You say that Mr. Manley saw you go out?" + +"Yes, sir. I passed him in the hall and went into the library. We had a +few words, and I told him I had come to fetch some cigarettes as I'd +left behind." + +"Do you know what the time was?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"No, sir--not exactly. But it must have been nearly half-past eleven, I +should think." + +"It is very important to fix the time at which Lord Loudwater died," said +Mr. Flexen. "You can't tell me nearer than that?" + +"No, sir. It was nearly ten to twelve when I got home, and I reckon it's +about twenty minutes' walk from the Castle to the cottage here." + +"And all you went to the Castle for was to speak to Elizabeth Twitcher?" +said Mr. Flexen. + +"That was all I went for--every single thing. And it was all I did +there--every mortal thing I did there, sir," Hatchings asseverated, and +he wiped his brow. + +"H'm!" said Mr. Flexen. "As you passed through the library, did you +happen to notice whether the knife was in its place in the big inkstand?" + +Hutchings hesitated, and his lips twitched. Then he said: "Yes, I did, +sir. It was in the big inkstand." + +Mr. Flexen could not make up his mind whether he was telling the truth or +not. He thought that he was not. But he did not attach much importance to +the matter. People who knew themselves to be suspected of a crime had +often told him quite stupid and unnecessary lies and been proved innocent +after all. + +"I should have thought that your mind was too full of other things to +notice a thing like that," he said in a somewhat incredulous tone. + +Then there came an outburst. Mr. Flexen had thought that Hutchings was +worked up to a high degree of nervous tension, and he was. He cried out +that he knew that every one believed that he had done it; but he hadn't. +He'd never thought of it. He was damned if he didn't wish he had done it. +He might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, anyhow. He broke off to +curse Lord Loudwater at length. He had been a curse to every one who came +into contact with him while he was alive, and now he was getting people +into trouble when he was dead. Yes: he wished it had occurred to him to +stick that knife into him. He'd have done it like a shot, and he'd have +done the right thing. The world was well rid of a swine like that! + +His face was contorted, and his eyes kept gleaming red as he talked, and +he came to the end of his outburst, trembling and panting. + +Mr. Flexen was unmoved and unenlightened. It was merely the outburst +of a badly-frightened man lacking in self-control, and told him +nothing. It left it equally likely that Hutchings had, or had not, +committed the crime. + +"There's nothing to get so frantic about," he said quietly to the panting +man. "It doesn't do any good." + +"It's all very well to talk like that, sir," said Hutchings in a shaky +voice. "But I know what people are saying. It's enough to make any one +lose their temper." + +"I should think that yours was pretty easy to lose," said Mr. +Flexen dryly. + +"I know it. It is very short, sir. It always was; and I can't help it," +said Hutchings in an apologetic voice. + +"Then you'd better set about learning to help it, my man," said +Mr. Flexen. + +He took out his pipe and filled it slowly. The flush faded a little from +Hutchings' face. Mr. Flexen lighted his pipe and rose. + +Then as he went to the door he said: "I should advise you to get that +stupid temper well in hand. It makes a bad impression. Good afternoon." + +Mr. Flexen drove back to the Castle, considering Hutchings carefully. +There was no doubt that he was, indeed, badly frightened; but he had +reason to be. Mr. Flexen could not decide whether he had worn the air of +a guilty man or an innocent. He could not decide whether the butler had +been too deeply absorbed in his own affairs to hear the snoring of Lord +Loudwater as he went through the library. It was possible that Lord +Loudwater was alive, asleep, and yet not snoring at the time. Snoring is +often intermittent. + +He considered Hutchings' violent outburst. Certainly such an outburst +showed the man uncommonly unbalanced; it might, indeed, on occasion take +the form of uncontrollable murderous fury. But it seemed to him that an +actual meeting with Lord Loudwater would have been necessary to provoke +that. But Lord Loudwater had been sitting in his chair when he died; and +if he had not killed himself, he had been killed in his sleep. At any +rate, there was probably sufficient evidence, seeing what juries are, to +convict Hatchings. If he had been one of those not uncommon ministers of +the law, whose only desire is to secure a conviction, he would doubtless +arrest him at once. But it was not his only desire to secure a +conviction; it was his very keen desire to find the right solution of the +problem. He could not see where any more evidence against Hutchings was +to come from. What Mr. Manley had told him about the knife, that it had +been in general use, and that he had seen Hutchings cut string with it +the day before the murder, greatly lessened its value as evidence, even +if Hutchings' finger-prints were thick on it. He decided to dismiss +Hutchings from his mind for the time being, and devote all his energies +to discovering the mysterious woman with whom Lord Loudwater had had the +furious quarrel between eleven and a quarter-past. + +With this end in view, on his return to the Castle, he went straight to +the library, where Mr. Carrington was engaged, along with Mr. Manley, in +an examination of the murdered man's papers. They were uncommonly few, +and Mr. Manley had already set them in order. Lord Loudwater seemed to +have kept but few letters, and the papers consisted chiefly of receipted +and unreceipted bills. + +When he found that Mr. Flexen had come to confer with the lawyer, Mr. +Manley assumed an air of extraordinary discretion and softly withdrew. + +"I want to know--it is most important--whether there was any +entanglement between Lord Loudwater and a woman," said Mr. Flexen. + +"I should think it very unlikely," said Mr. Carrington without +hesitation. "At least, I have never heard of anything of the kind, +and so far I have come across no trace of anything of the kind among +his papers." + +Mr. Flexen frowned, considering; then he said: "Do you happen to know +whether he employed any one besides your firm to do legal work for him?" + +"As to that I can't say. But I should not think it likely. It was always +a business to get him to attend to anything that wanted doing, and he +always made a fuss about it. I can't see him employing another firm too. +But he may have done. The only thing is that I ought to have found either +their bills or the receipts for them among those papers--except that my +late client does not appear to have taken the trouble to keep many +receipts." + +"The thing is that I've learnt that Lord Loudwater had a furious quarrel +with some unknown woman between eleven and a quarter-past on the night of +his death, and I want to find her. You can see how important it is. It +may be that she stabbed him, or it may be that she provided him with the +motive to commit suicide--not that that seems likely. But you can't tell: +she might have been able to threaten him with some exposure. Those people +without any self-control are always doing the most senseless +things--bigamy, for instance, is often one of their weaknesses." + +"Loudwater was certainly without self-control; but I hardly think that he +was the man to commit bigamy," said the lawyer. + +"It would very much simplify matters if he had," said Mr. Flexen in +a dissatisfied tone. "I wonder whether Manley would know anything +about it?" + +"He might," said Mr. Carrington. + +Mr. Flexen went through the library window to find Mr. Manley strolling +up and down the lawn with every appearance of enjoying his pipe and the +respite from perusing papers. + +"Mr. Carrington tells me that you were in Lord Loudwater's confidence," +said Mr. Flexen. + +"Wholly," said Mr. Manley, with more promptness than his actual knowledge +of the facts warranted. + +It seemed to him fitting that a secretary of his intelligence and +discretion should have been wholly in the confidence of any nobleman who +employed him. Therefore he himself must have been. + +"Then perhaps you can tell me whether he was entangled with a woman," +said Mr. Flexen. + +"Entangled? In what way?" said Mr. Manley in a tone of surprise. + +"In the usual way, I suppose. Was he engaged in a love-affair with any +woman, or had he been?" + +"He certainly did not tell me anything about it if he was," said Mr. +Manley. "But that is the kind of thing he might very well _not_ confide +to his secretary." + +"You don't happen to know if he was making any payments to a woman--an +allowance, for example?" said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley was well on his guard by now. These questions must surely +refer to Helena. + +"He never told me anything about it," he said with perfect readiness. +"Not, of course, that I would tell you if he had," he added, in his most +amiable voice. "I've told you that I thought that he made enough trouble +while he was alive. I won't help him to make trouble now that he's dead." + +Mr. Flexen thought that the asseveration was unnecessary, since Mr. +Manley had not the knowledge which would make the trouble. He returned to +the lawyer and told him that Mr. Manley had no information to give. + +"It seems a very important point in the affair," said the lawyer. + +"It is," said Mr. Flexen, frowning. "I wonder if there was an intrigue +with a country girl or woman, some one in the neighbourhood?" + +"There might have been. Lord Loudwater rode a great deal. He was +hours in the saddle every day. He had time and opportunity for that +kind of thing." + +"On the other hand, there's no need for it to have been any one in the +neighbourhood at all. To say nothing of the train, it's a short enough +motor drive from London; and it was a moonlight night," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Then you may be able to find traces of the car. The woman must have left +it somewhere while she had the interview with Lord Loudwater," said Mr. +Carrington. + +"I'll try," said Mr. Flexen, not very hopefully, "But there are so few +people about at night nowadays. Five out of the eight gamekeepers are +still abroad. In ordinary times there would have been four at least of +them about the roads and woods. On that night there was only one." + +"There's the further difficulty that Lord Loudwater had so few friends. +That will make it harder to find out anything about an affair of this +kind--if he had one," said Mr. Carrington. + +"It will, indeed," said Mr. Flexen, and paused, frowning. Then he +added gravely: "I'm sure that there was such an affair, and I've got +to find the woman." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +Mr. Manley did not lunch with Mr. Flexen and the lawyer. In cultivating +Mr. Flexen he had been forced to see less than usual of Helena, and, +interesting a companion as Mr. Flexen was, Mr. Manley very much preferred +her society. He found her less nervous than she had been the day before, +but she still wore a sufficiently anxious air, and was still restless. +She seemed more pleased to see him than usual, and the warmth of her +welcome gave him a sudden sense that she was even fonder of him than he +had thought, or hoped. It stirred him to an admirable response. + +At lunch she questioned him with uncommon particularity about the +proceedings of Mr. Flexen, the discoveries he had made, the lines on +which he was making his investigation. Her interest seemed natural +enough, and he told her all that he knew, which was little. She seemed +much disappointed by his lack of information. He was careful not to tell +her that Mr. Flexen had inquired of him whether he knew of any +entanglement between Lord Loudwater and a woman. Thanks to his +imagination he was a young man of uncommon discretion, and it was plain +that she was suffering anxiety enough. + +At the end of her fruitless questioning she sighed and said: "Of course, +the whole affair is of no great interest to you really." + +"It isn't of very great interest to me," said Mr. Manley. "You see, the +victim of the crime, if it was a crime, was such an uninteresting +creature. Nature, as I've told you before, intended him for a bull, +changed her mind when it was too late to make a satisfactory alteration, +and botched it. You must admit that the bull man is a very dull kind of +creature, unless he can make things lively for you by prodding you with +his horns. When he is dead, he is certainly done with." + +"I wish he was done with," she said, with a sigh. + +"Well, as far as you are concerned, he is done with, surely," he said, in +some surprise. + +"Of course, of course," she said quickly. "But still, he seems likely to +give a great deal of trouble to somebody; and if there is a trial, how am +I to know that my name won't be brought up?" + +"I don't think there's a chance of it," he said. "How should it be +brought up?" + +"One never knows," she said, with a note of nervous dread in her voice. + +"Well, as far as I'm concerned, he'll get no help in making a posthumous +nuisance of himself from me; and I'm inclined to think that, as things +are going, he'll need my help to do that," he said in a tone of quiet +satisfaction. + +"A posthumous nuisance--you do have phrases! And how you do dislike +him!" she said. + +"The moderately civilized man, with a gentle disposition like mine, +always does hate the bull man. Also, he despises him," said Mr. +Manley calmly. + +She was silent a while, thinking; then she said: "What did you mean by +saying: 'If it was a crime.' What else could it have been?" + +"A suicide. The evidence was that the wound might have been +self-inflicted," said Mr. Manley. + +"Absurd! Lord Loudwater was the last man in the world to commit suicide!" +she cried. + +"That's purely a matter of individual opinion. I am of the opinion that a +man of his uncontrollable temper was quite likely to commit suicide," he +said firmly. "As for its being absurd, if there is any attempt to prove +any one guilty of murdering him on purely circumstantial evidence, that +person won't find anything absurd in the theory at all. In fact, he'll +work it for all it's worth. I think myself that, with Dr. Thornhill's +evidence in mind, the police, or the Public Prosecutor, or the Treasury, +or whoever it is that decides those things, will never attempt in this +case to bring any one to trial for the murder on merely circumstantial +evidence." + +"Do you think not?" she said in a tone of relief. + +"I'm sure of it," said Mr. Manley. "But why do we waste our time talking +about the tiresome fellow when there are things a thousand times more +interesting to talk about? Your eyes, now--" + +Mr. Flexen instructed Inspector Perkins and his men to make inquiries +about the rides of Lord Loudwater and to try to learn whether any one had +seen a strange car, or, indeed, a car of any kind, in the neighbourhood +of the Castle about eleven o'clock on the night of the murder. Also, he +could see his way to using the newspaper men to help him to discover +whether there had been any entanglement known to the club gossips or the +people of the neighbourhood between Lord Loudwater and a lady in London. +It was not unlikely that he had talked of it to some one, for if they +quarrelled so furiously he must need sympathy; and if he had not talked, +the lady probably had, though it might very well be that she was not in +the circle in which the Loudwaters moved in London. He had some doubt, +however, that she was a London woman at all. She had shown too intimate a +knowledge of Lord Loudwater's habits at Loudwater and of the Castle +itself, for it was clear from William Roper's story that she had gone +straight to the library window and through it, in the evident expectation +of finding Lord Loudwater asleep as usual in his smoking-room. It was +this doubt which prevented him from appealing to Scotland Yard for help +in clearing up this particular point. He wished to make sure first that +the woman did not belong to the neighbourhood. On the other hand, she +might always be some one who had been a guest at the Castle. + +He was about to go in search of Lady Loudwater to question her about +their friends and acquaintances who might have this knowledge of the +Castle and the habits of her husband, when the sleuth from the _Wire_ and +the sleuth from the _Planet_ arrived together, in all amity and the same +vexation at being prevented by this errand from spending the afternoon at +the same bridge table. The sleuth of the _Wire_ was a very solemn-looking +young man, with a round, simple face. The sleuth of the _Planet_ was a +tall, dark man, with an impatient and slightly worried air, who looked +uncommonly like an irritable actor-manager. + +Both of them greeted Mr. Flexen with affectionate warmth, and Douglas, +the tall sleuth of the _Planet_, at once deplored, with considerable +bitterness, the fact that he had been robbed of his afternoon's bridge. +Gregg, the sleuth of the _Wire_, preserved a gently-blinking, +sympathetic silence. + +Mr. Flexen at once sent for whisky, soda and cigars, and over them took +his two friends into his confidence. He told them that it was very +doubtful whether it was a case of murder or suicide; that the jury's +verdict was not in accordance with the directions of the Coroner, but +just a piece of natural, pig-headed stupidity. This produced another +bitter outcry from Douglas about the loss of his afternoon. Mr. Flexen +did not soothe him at all by pointing out that he was in a beautiful +country on a beautiful day. Then he told them about the coming of the +mysterious woman and her violent quarrel with the Lord Loudwater just +about the probable time of his death. Douglas at once lost his irritated +air and displayed a lively interest in the matter; Gregg listened and +blinked. Mr. Flexen told them also of Hutchings, his threats, and his +visit to the Castle. That was as far as his confidences went. But they +were enough. He had given them the very things they wanted, and they both +assured him that they would at once inform him of any discoveries they +might make themselves. They left him feeling sure that he might safely +leave the servants and the villagers to them and the policemen. If any +one in the neighbourhood knew anything about the mysterious woman, they +would probably ferret it out. What was far more important was that +tomorrow's _Wire_ and _Planet_ would contain such an advertisement of her +that any one in London or the country who knew of her relations with the +dead man would learn at once the value of that knowledge. + +When they had gone he sent for Mrs. Carruthers, and learned, to his +annoyance, that none of the upper servants except Elizabeth Twitcher had +been in service at the Castle for more than four months. She could only +say that during the six weeks that she had been housekeeper there had +been very few visitors; and they had been merely callers, except when +Colonel Grey had been coming to the Castle and there had been small +tennis parties. She had heard nothing from the servants about his +lordship's being on particularly friendly terms with any lady in the +neighbourhood. Hutchings would be the most likely person to know a thing +like that. He had been in service at the Castle all his life. Of course, +her ladyship, too, she might know. + +Mr. Flexen made up his mind to seek out Hutchings at once and question +him on the matter; but Mrs. Carruthers had only just left him when he saw +Olivia come into the rose-garden with Colonel Grey. He watched them idly +and perceived that, for the time being at any rate, Olivia had lost her +strained and anxious air. She was plainly enough absorbed, wholly +absorbed, in Grey. She had eyes only for him, and Mr. Flexen suspected +that her ears were at the moment deaf to everything but the sound of his +voice. They did look a well-matched pair. + +It occurred to him that he might as well again question Olivia about her +husband's possible intrigue with another woman and be done with it. There +could be no harm in Colonel Grey's hearing the questions. As for +interrupting their pleasant converse, he thought that they would soon +recover from the interruption. Accordingly he went out to the +rose-garden. + +Absorbed in one another, they did not see him till he was right on them, +and then he saw a curious happening. At the sight of him a sudden, +simultaneous apprehension filled both their faces, and they drew closer +together. But he had an odd fancy that they did not draw together for +mutual protection, but mutually to protect. Then, almost on the instant, +they were gazing at him with politely inquiring eyes, Lady Loudwater +smiling. He felt that they were intensely on their guard. It was +uncommonly puzzling. + +He changed his mind about questioning Lady Loudwater in the presence of +Grey, and asked if she could spare him a minute or two to answer a few +questions. + +"Oh, yes. I'm sure Colonel Grey will excuse me," she said readily. + +"But why shouldn't you question Lady Loudwater before me?" said Colonel +Grey coolly; but he slapped his thigh nervously with the pair of gloves +he was carrying. "It's always as well for a woman to have a man at hand +in an awkward affair like this, which may lead to a good deal of +unpleasantness if anything goes wrong. I'm a friend of Lady Loudwater, +and I don't suppose you fear that anything you discuss before me will go +any further, Mr. Flexen." + +He was cool enough, but Mr. Flexen did not miss the note of anxiety in +his voice. + +"I don't mind at all if Lady Loudwater would like it," he said readily. +"But it's rather a delicate matter." + +"Oh, I should like Colonel Grey to hear everything," said Olivia quickly. + +"It's about the matter of an entanglement between Lord Loudwater and some +lady. Are you quite sure there was nothing of the kind before his +marriage, if not after it?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"I don't know for certain," said Olivia readily. "But two or three times +Lord Loudwater did talk about other women in a boasting sort of way. +Only it was when he was trying to annoy me; so I didn't pay much +attention to it." + +"And you never tried to find out whether it was the truth or not?" said +Mr. Flexen. + +"No, never. You see, I didn't particularly care," said Olivia, with +unexpected frankness. "If I'd cared, I expect it would have been very +different." + +"And did Lord Loudwater never mention the name of any lady when he was +boasting?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"No. Never. It was just general boasting. And he certainly gave me to +understand that it was two or three, not one," said Olivia. + +"Have you any suspicion that he had any particular lady in mind--any of +your common friends, for example--some one who has stayed at the Castle?" +said Mr. Flexen. + +"None at all. I haven't the slightest idea who it could have been. It +must have been some one I don't know, or I should have been nearly sure +to notice something," said Olivia. + +"Can you tell me any one who might know?" + +Olivia shook her head, and said: "No. I don't know any friend of my +husband well enough to say. He never told me who his chief friends were. +It never occurred to me that he had an intimate friend. I always thought +he hadn't, in fact." + +"I tell you what: you might inquire of Outhwaite, you know the man I +mean, the man who used always to be getting fined for furious driving. He +was a friend of Loudwater, the only friend I ever heard him mention, +indeed. If he ever confided in any one, that would be the most likely +man," said Colonel Grey. + +"Thank you. That's an idea. I'll certainly try him," said Mr. Flexen, and +he turned as if to go. + +But Olivia stopped him, saying: "Do you think, then, that a woman did it, +Mr. Flexen?" + +"Well, there is a certain amount of evidence which lends some colour to +that theory, but I don't want any one to know that," said Mr. Flexen. + +And then he could have sworn that he heard Olivia breathe a faint sigh +of relief. + +But Colonel Grey broke in in a tone of some acerbity and more anxiety: +"It's nonsense to talk of any one having done it in face of the +medical evidence--any one, that is, but Loudwater himself. He +committed suicide." + +"You think him a likely man to have committed suicide, do you?" said +Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes. A man of his utterly uncontrollable temper is the very man to +commit suicide," said Colonel Grey firmly. + +"It is, of course, always possible that he committed suicide," said Mr. +Flexen in a non-committal tone. + +"It's most probable," said Colonel Grey curtly. + +"What do you think, Lady Loudwater?" said Flexen. + +"Why, I haven't thought much about it. I always--I--but now I do think +about it, I--I--think it's not unlikely," said Olivia, in a tone of no +great conviction. "And he was so frightfully upset, too, that night--not +that he had any reason to be; but he was." + +"Ah, well; my duty is to investigate the matter till there isn't a shadow +of doubt left," said Mr. Flexen in a pleasant voice. "I daresay that I +shall get to the bottom of it." + +With that he left them and went back into the Castle. + +At the sight of his back Olivia breathed so deep a sigh of relief that +Grey winced at it. + +"If only it could be proved that Egbert did commit suicide!" she said +wistfully. + +"I don't see any chance of it," said Colonel Grey gloomily. Then he +added in a tone of but faint hope: "Unless he wrote to one of his friends +that he intended to commit suicide." + +Olivia shook her head and said: "Egbert wouldn't do that. He hated +letter-writing." + +"Besides, if he had, we should have heard of it by now," said Grey. + +"The friend might be away," said Olivia. "I know that Mr. Outhwaite was +in France." + +"That's hoping too much," said Grey. + +They strolled on in silence, his eyes on her thoughtful face, which under +Mr. Flexen's questioning had again grown anxious. Then he said: "This sun +is awfully hot. Let's stroll through the wood to the pavilion. It will be +delightful there." + +"Very well," said Olivia, smiling at him. + +Mr. Flexen went back to his room, rang for Holloway, and bade him find +Mr. Manley, if he were in, and ask him to come to him. Holloway went, and +presently returned to say that Mr. Manley had gone out to lunch, but left +word that he would be back to dinner. + +Mr. Flexen, therefore, gave his mind to the consideration of his talk +with Colonel Grey and Olivia, and the longer he considered it, the more +their attitude intrigued and puzzled him. They certainly knew something +about the murder, something of the first importance. What could it be? + +Again he asked himself could either, or both of them, have actually had +a hand in it? It seemed improbable; but he was used to the improbable +happening. He could not believe that either of them would have dreamt of +committing murder to gain a personal end--to save themselves, for +example, from the injuries with which Lord Loudwater had threatened them. +But would they commit murder to save some one else, one to save the +other, for example, from such an injury? Murder was, indeed, a violent +measure; but Mr. Flexen was inclined to think that either of them might +take it. Mr. Manley's confident declaration that they were both creatures +of strong emotions had impressed him. He felt that Colonel Grey, under +the impulse to save Lady Loudwater, would stick at very little; and he +was used to violence and to hold human life cheap. On the other hand, +Lady Loudwater would go a long way--a very long way--if any one she loved +were threatened. The fact that she had good Italian blood in her veins +was very present in his mind. + +Again, it would be a matter of sudden impulse, not of grave deliberation. +The irritating sound of Lord Loudwater's snores and the sight of the +gleaming knife-blade on the library table coming together after their +painful and moving discussion of their dangers might awake the impulse to +be rid of him, at any cost, in full strength. He was not disposed to +underrate the suggestion of that naked knife-blade on them when they +were strung to such a height of emotion. Again, he asked himself, had +either of them murdered Lord Loudwater to save the other? + +At any rate, they knew who had committed the murder. Of that he was sure. + +Could they be shielding a third person? If so, who was that third person? + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Mr. Flexen sat pondering this question of a third person for a good +twenty minutes. + +It could not be Hutchings. There would be no reason to shield Hutchings +unless they had instigated or employed him to commit the murder, and that +was out of the question. He was not sure, indeed, that Hutchings was not +the murderer; the snores and the knife were as likely to have excited the +murderous impulse in him as in them. He was quite sure that if Dr. +Thornhill had been able to swear that the wound was not self-inflicted, +he could have secured the conviction of Hutchings. But it was incredible +that Lady Loudwater or Colonel Grey had employed him to commit the +murder. No; if they were shielding a third person, it must be the +mysterious, unknown woman who had come with such swift secrecy and so +wholly disappeared. + +It grew clearer and clearer that there most probably lay that solution +of the problem. If that woman herself had not murdered Lord Loudwater, +as seemed most likely, she might very well give him the clue for which +he was groping. He must find her, and, of course, sooner or later he +would find her. But the sooner he found her, the sooner would the +problem be solved and his work done. Till he found her he would not find +its solution. + +It still seemed to him probable that somewhere among Lord Loudwater's +papers there was information which would lead to her discovery, and he +went into the library to confer again with Mr. Carrington on the matter. +He found him discussing the arrangements for tomorrow's funeral with Mrs. +Carruthers and Wilkins. + +When they had gone he said: "Did you come across any information about +that mysterious woman in the rest of the papers?" + +"Not a word," said Mr. Carrington. + +"I've been thinking that you might come across traces of her in his +pass-books--payments or an allowance." + +"I thought of that. But there's only one passbook, the one in use. Lord +Loudwater doesn't seem to have kept them after they were filled. And +Manley knows all about this one; he wrote out every cheque in it for +Loudwater, and he is quite sure that there were no cheques of any size +for a woman among them." + +"That's disappointing," said Mr. Flexen. "What about the cheques to +'Self'? Are there any large ones among them?" + +"No. They're all on the small side--distinctly on the small +side--cheques for ten pounds--and very few of them." + +"It is queer that it should be so difficult to find any information +about a woman who played such an important part in his life," said Mr. +Flexen gloomily. + +"It's not so very uncommon," said the lawyer. + +"Well, let's hope that the advertisement she'll get from my newspaper +friends will bring her to light," said Mr. Flexen. + +"It would be a pleasant surprise to me to find them serving some useful +purpose," said Mr. Carrington grimly. + +Mr. Flexen laughed and said: "You're prejudiced. It's about time to dress +for dinner." + +Mr. Carrington rose with alacrity and said anxiously, "I hope to goodness +Loudwater didn't quarrel with his chef!" + +"I've no reason to think so. The food's excellent," said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley joined them at dinner, wearing his best air of a discreet and +indulgent man of the world, and confident of making himself valued. He +was in very good spirits, for he had persuaded Helena to marry him that +day month, and was rejoicing in his success. He did not tell Mr. Flexen, +or Mr. Carrington, of his good fortune. He felt that it would hardly +interest them, since neither of them knew Helena or was intimate with +himself. But, inspired by this success, he took the lead in the +conversation, and showed himself inclined to be somewhat patronizing to +two men outside the sphere of imaginative literature. + +It was Mr. Flexen who broached the subject of the murder. + +After they had talked of the usual topics for a while, he said: "By the +way, Manley, did you hear Lord Loudwater snore after Hutchings went into +the library, or before?" + +"So you know that I saw Hutchings in the hall that night?" said Mr. +Manley. "It's wonderful how you find things out. I didn't tell you, and I +should have thought that I was the only person awake in the front part of +the Castle. I suppose that some one saw him getting his cigarettes from +the butler's pantry." + +"So that was the reason he gave you for being in the Castle," said Mr. +Flexen. "Well, was it after or before you spoke to him that you heard +Lord Loudwater snore?" + +Mr. Manley hesitated, thinking; then he said: "I can't remember at the +moment. You see, I was downstairs some little time. I found an evening +paper in the dining-room and looked through it there. I might have heard +him from there." + +"You can't remember?" said Mr. Flexen in a tone of disappointment. + +"Not at the moment," said Mr. Manley. "Is it important?" + +"Yes; very important. It would probably help me to fix the time of Lord +Loudwater's death." + +"I see. A lot may turn on that," said Mr. Manley thoughtfully. + +"Yes. You can see how immensely it helps to have a fact like that fixed," +said Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes: of course," said Mr. Manley. "Well, I must try to remember. I +daresay I shall, if I keep the fact in my mind gently, and do not try to +wrench the recollection out of it. You know how hard it is to remember a +thing, if it hasn't caught your attention fairly when it happened." + +"Yes," said Mr. Flexen. "But I hope to goodness you'll remember it +quickly. It may be of the greatest use to me." + +"Ah, yes; I must," said Mr. Manley, giving him a queer look. + +"I was forgetting," said Mr. Flexen, understanding the thought behind the +queer look. "You'd hardly believe it, Mr. Carrington, but Mr. Manley told +me at the very beginning of this business that he was not going to help +in any way to discover the murderer of Lord Loudwater, because he +considered that murderer a benefactor of society." + +"But I never heard of such a thing!" cried the lawyer in a tone of +astonished disapproval. "Such a course might be possible in the case of +some minor crime, or in a person intimately connected with the criminal +in the case of a major crime. But for an outsider to pursue such a +course in the case of a murder is unheard of--absolutely unheard of." + +"I daresay it isn't common," said Mr. Manley in a tone of modest +satisfaction. "But I am modern; I claim the right of private judgment in +all matters of morality." + +"Oh, that won't do--that won't do at all!" cried the shocked lawyer. +"There would be hopeless confusion--in fact, if everybody did that, the +law might easily become a dead letter--absolutely a dead letter." + +"But there's no fear of everybody doing anything of the kind. The ruck +of men have no private judgment to claim the right of. They take +whatever's given them in the way of morals by their pastors and masters. +Only exceptional people have ideas of their own to carry out; and there +are not enough exceptional people to make much difference," said Mr. +Manley calmly. + +"But, all the same, such principles are subversive of society--absolutely +subversive of society," said Mr. Carrington warmly, and his square, +massive face was growing redder. + +"I daresay," said Mr. Manley amiably. "But if any one chooses to have +them, and act on them, what are you going to do about it? For example, if +I happened to know who had murdered Lord Loudwater and did not choose to +tell, how could you make me?" + +"If there were many people with such principles about, society would +soon find out a way of protecting itself," said the lawyer, in the +accents of one whose tenderest sensibilities are being outraged. + +"It would have to have recourse to torture then," said Mr. Manley +cheerfully. + +"But let me remind you that it is a crime to be an accessory before, or +after, the fact to murder," said the lawyer in a tone of some triumph. + +"Oh, I'm not going as far as that," said Mr. Manley. "A man might very +well approve of a murder without being willing to further it." + +Mr. Flexen laughed and said: "I understand Mr. Manley's point +of view. Sometimes I have felt inclined to be judge as well as +investigator--especially in the East." + +"And you followed your inclination," said Mr. Manley with amiable +certainty. + +"Perhaps--perhaps not," said Mr. Flexen, smiling at him. + +"The war has upset everything. I never heard such ideas before the war," +grumbled the lawyer. + +There was a silence as Holloway brought in the coffee and cigars. + +When he had gone, Mr. Flexen said in an almost fretful tone: "It's an +extraordinary thing that Lord Loudwater kept so few papers." + +"I don't know," said Mr. Manley carelessly. "During the six months I've +been here we were never stuck for want of a paper. He seemed to me to +have kept all that were necessary." + +"It's the destroying of his pass-books that seems so odd to me," said +the lawyer. "A man must often want to know how he spent his money in a +given year." + +"I'm sure I never want to," said Mr. Manley. "And certainly pass-books +are unattractive-looking objects to have about." + +"All the same, they might have proved very useful in this case," said Mr. +Flexen. "Of course, they wouldn't tell us anything we shall not find out +eventually. But they might have saved us a lot of time and trouble. They +might put us on to the track of another firm of lawyers who did certain +business for Lord Loudwater." + +"Well, no one but Mr. Carrington's firm did any business for him during +the last six months," said Mr. Manley, rising. "I feel inclined to take +advantage of the moonlight and go for a stroll. So I will leave you to go +on working on the murder. Good-bye for the present." + +He sauntered out of the room, and when the door closed behind him, the +lawyer said earnestly: "I do hate a crank." + +The words came from his heart. + +"Oh, I don't think he's a crank," said Mr. Flexen in an indulgent tone. +"He's too intelligent; that's all." + +"There's nothing so dangerous as too much intelligence. It's always a +nuisance to other people," said the lawyer. "Do you think he really knows +anything?" + +"He knows something--nothing of real importance, I think," said Mr. +Flexen. "But, as I expect you've noticed, he likes to feel himself of +importance. And whatever knowledge he has helps him to feel important. +It's a harmless hobby. By the way, is there anything in the way of +insanity in Lady Loudwater's family?" + +"No, I never heard of any, and I should have been almost certain to hear +if there were any," said the lawyer in some surprise. + +"That's all right," said Mr. Flexen. + +"By the way, how did you get on with the newspaper men?" said the lawyer. + +"I put them in the way of making themselves very useful to me, and, at +the same time, I gave them exactly the kind of thing they wanted. I +think, too, that when they've run the story I gave them for all it's +worth, they'll very likely drop the case--unless, that is, we've really +got it cleared up. I was careful to point out to them that the verdict of +the coroner's jury was a piece of pig-headed idiocy, and they'll see the +unlikelihood of securing a conviction for murder with the medical +evidence as it is, unless we have an absolutely clear case." + +"But, all the same, there's going to be a tremendous fuss in the papers," +said Mr. Carrington, in the tone of dissatisfaction of the lawyer who is +always doing his best to keep tremendous fusses out of the papers. + +"Oh, yes. That was necessary. It's out of that fuss that I hope to get +the evidence which will settle once and for all, in my mind at any rate, +the question whether Lord Loudwater was murdered or not." + +"But surely you haven't any doubt about that?" said the lawyer sharply. + +"Just a trifle, and I may as well get rid of it," said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley took his hat and stick and went leisurely out of the front +door of the Castle. He paused on the steps for half a minute to admire +the moonlit night and murmur a few lines from Keats. Then he strolled +down the drive whistling the tune of an American coon song. But presently +the whistle died on his lips as he considered Mr. Flexen's keen desire to +discover the other firm of lawyers who had done business for Lord +Loudwater. He could not but think, when he put this keenness of Mr. +Flexen beside Helena's strange anxiety, that she had done something of +which she had not told him, something that might have drawn suspicion on +her. He did not see what she could have done; but there it was. He had a +feeling, an intuition that it was she whom Mr. Flexen was seeking, and he +prided himself on his intuition. Well, the longer they were finding +Shepherd, the lawyer who had handled the business of her allowance, the +better he would be pleased. He had certainly done his best to block their +way. At the same time, they might at any moment learn who he was. It was +fortunate, therefore, that Shepherd had a job in Mesopotamia, and that +his business was closed down for the present. If they did learn who he +was, they would still be a long while before they obtained any +information about Helena from him. Mr. Manley's keen desire was that the +first excitement about the murder should have died down before they did +get it. He was a firm believer in the soothing effect of time. The +discovery of Helena's allowance, if it were made now, might cause her +considerable annoyance, if not actual trouble. Coming in six weeks' time, +or even a month's time, it would be far less likely to make that trouble. + +He wondered what it could be that she had done to bring herself under +suspicion. Remembering what she had said of her determination to discuss +the halving of her allowance with the dead man, and her remark that she +had such a knowledge of his habits that she could make sure of having an +interview with him to discuss it, it seemed not unlikely that she had +gone to see him on the very night of his murder, and that some one had +seen her. If it were so, he hoped that she would tell him, so that they +might together devise some way of preventing harm coming from the +accident that the interview had occurred at such an unfortunate hour. He +felt sure that he would be able to devise such a way. He never blinked +the fact of his extreme ingenuity. + +He found her strolling in her garden with the anxious frown which had +awakened his uneasiness, still on her brow. Her face grew brighter at the +sight of him, and presently he had smoothed the frown quite away. Again +he realized that the murder of Lord Loudwater had had a softening effect +on her. Before it they had been much more on equality; now she rather +clung to him. He found it pleasing, much more the natural attitude of a +woman towards a man of his imagination and knowledge of life. He was +properly gracious and protective with her. + +The next morning the _Daily Wire_ opened his eyes and confirmed his +apprehensions. The murder of a nobleman is an uncommon occurrence, and +the editor of that paper showed every intention of making the most of it. +The visit of the unknown woman to Lord Loudwater and their quarrel, +treated with the nervous picturesqueness of which Mr. Gregg was so famous +a master, formed the main and interesting part of the article. When he +came to the end of it, Mr. Manley whistled ruefully. He had no difficulty +whatever in picturing to himself the indignant and violent wrath of +Helena, and he could not conceive for a moment that Lord Loudwater had +been able to withstand it. Of course, he would be violent, too, but with +a much less impressive violence. + +Lord Loudwater had been lavish in the matter of newspapers; he was a rich +man, and they had been his only reading. Mr. Manley read the report of +the inquest in all the chief London dailies, and found in the _Daily +Planet_ another nervously picturesque article on the visit of the +mysterious woman from the nervously picturesque pen of Mr. Douglas. + +Here was certainly a pretty kettle of fish. He could not doubt that the +woman was Helena. It explained Flexen's questioning him whether he had +any knowledge of an entanglement between Lord Loudwater and a woman, and +Flexen's keen desire to find some other firm of lawyers who might have +been called in to deal with such an entanglement. But he could not for a +moment bring himself to believe that there could have ever been any need +for Helena to have recourse to the knife. He could not see Lord +Loudwater resisting her when she became really angry; he must have given +way. None the less, he did not underestimate the awkwardness, the danger +even, of her having paid that visit and had that quarrel at such an +unfortunate hour. + +He had matter enough for earnest thought during the funeral. It was a +large funeral, though there were not many funeral guests. Five ladies, an +aunt and four cousins, of Lord Loudwater's own generation, came down from +London. The younger generation was either on its way back from the war, +or too busy with its work to find the time to attend the funeral of a +distant relation, whom, if they had chanced to meet him, they neither +liked nor respected. But there was a show of carriages from all the big +houses within a radius of nine miles, which more than made up for the +fewness of the guests. Also, there was a crowd of middle- and lower-class +spectators who considered the funeral of a murdered nobleman a spectacle +indeed worth attending. It was composed of women, children, old men, and +a few wounded private soldiers. + +Olivia attended the funeral, wearing a composed but rather pathetic air, +owing to the fact that her brow was most of the time knitted in a +pondering, troubled frown. Lady Croxley, Lord Loudwater's aged aunt, rode +with her in the first coach. She was a loquacious soul, and whiled away +the journey to and from the church, which is over a mile from the Castle, +with a panegyric on her dead nephew, and an astonished dissertation on +the strange fact that Olivia had not had a woman with her during this sad +time. She ascribed her abstinence from this stimulant to her desire to be +alone with her grief. Olivia encouraged her harmless babble by a vague +murmur at the right points, and continued to look pathetic. It was all +her aunt by marriage needed, and it left Olivia free to think her own +thoughts. She gave but few of them to her dead husband; the living +claimed her attention. + +Mr. Manley wore an air of gloom far deeper than his sense of the fitness +of things would in the ordinary course of events have demanded. It was +the result of the nervously picturesque English which had flowed with +such ease from the forceful pens of Mr. Douglas and Mr. Gregg. Mr. +Carrington, who rode with him, and from attending the funerals of many +clients had acquired as good a funeral air as any man in his profession, +found his gloom exaggerated. He was all the more scandalized, therefore, +when, as they were nearing the Castle, Mr. Manley suddenly cried, "By +Jove!" and rubbed his hands together with a face uncommonly radiant. + +He had had the cheering thought that he had the Loudwater case, if ever +it should come to a trial, wholly in his hands. He had but to remember +having heard Lord Loudwater snore at, say, a few minutes to twelve, to +break it down. He did not conceive that he would encounter any difficulty +in remembering that if it should be necessary. + +The solemnity of the funeral and Mr. Carrington's conversation in the +coach--he had talked about the weather--had not weakened his resolve +that, if he could help it, no one should swing for the murder. + +This realization of his position of vantage made him eager to go to +Helena to set her mind at rest, should she, as he thought most likely, +be greatly troubled by the fact that her untimely visit to the murdered +man was known. But he had to lunch at the Castle with the funeral guests. +They were interested beyond measure in the murder and full of questions. +He talked to them with a darkly mysterious air, and made a deep +impression of discreet sagacity on their simple minds. He observed that +Olivia appeared to have been afflicted more deeply by the funeral than he +had expected. She looked harassed and seemed to find the lunch rather a +strain. He observed also that she did not, as did her guests, who were so +slightly acquainted with him, pay any tribute to the character of her +dead husband. + +Mr. Flexen was not lunching with them. He had spent an expectant morning +waiting for the local effects of the story in the _Wire_ and _Planet_, +and in having that story spread far and wide by Inspector Perkins and his +two men among the villagers, who only saw a paper in the public-houses of +the neighbourhood on a Sunday. He hoped, if it had been a local affair, +to have information about it in the course of the day. Up to lunchtime +the newspaper advertisement of the mysterious woman had proved as +fruitless as the earlier private inquiries. But he remained hopeful. + +It was past three before Mr. Manley escaped from the funeral guests and +betook himself at a brisk pace to Helena's house. As he went he made up +his mind that the quality most fitting the occasion was discretion. He +had better not let it appear that he was sure that she was the mysterious +woman of the _Daily Wire._ He must make his announcement that, in the +event of any one being brought to trial for the murder of Lord Loudwater, +his evidence could break down any case for the prosecution, and that he +would see that it did break it down, appear as casual as possible. But, +at the same time, he must make it quite clear to her that he could secure +her safety. He felt that though she might think his firm resolve that no +one should swing for the murder quixotic, she would perceive that it was +only in keeping with his generous nature. + +He had expected to find her much more disturbed by the nervously +picturesque articles of Mr. Gregg and Mr. Douglas than she appeared. +Indeed, she seemed to him much less under a strain, much less nervous +than she had been the night before. None the less, he was careful to +reassure her wholly by the announcement of his discovery of the important +nature of the evidence he could give, before he said anything about those +articles. When he did tell her that he could break down any case for the +prosecution, she did not at once confess that she was the woman of whose +visit to Lord Loudwater those stories told; they did not even discuss the +question, which had seemed so important to the _Daily Wire_, who that +woman was. They contented themselves with discussing the question who +could have seen her. He admired her spirit in not telling him, her +readiness to forgo his comfort and support before the absolute need for +them was upon her. Her force of character was what he most admired in +her, and this was a striking example of it. His own character, he knew, +was rather subtile and delicate than strong. He was more than ever alive +to the advantage of having her to lean upon in the difficult career that +lay before him. + +Mr. Flexen was disappointed that the advertisement of the mysterious +woman in the _Wire_ and the _Planet_ brought no information about her +during the morning. After lunch Mr. Carrington returned to London. At +half-past three Mr. Flexen telegraphed to Scotland Yard to ask if any one +had given them information about the woman he was seeking. No one had. +Then he realized that he was unreasonably impatient. Whoever had the +information would probably think the matter over, and perhaps confer with +friends before coming forward. In the meantime, he would make inquiries +of James Hutchings. + +He drove to the gamekeeper's cottage to find James Hutchings sitting on a +chair outside it and reading the _Planet_. He perceived that he looked +puzzled. Also, he perceived that he still wore a strained, hunted air, +more strained and hunted by far than at their last talk. + +He walked briskly up to him and said: "Good afternoon. I see that you're +reading the story of Lord Loudwater's murder in the _Planet_. It occurred +to me that you might very likely be able to tell me who the lady who +visited Lord Loudwater on the night of his murder was. At any rate, you +can probably make a guess at who she was." + +Hutchings shook his head and said gloomily: "No, sir, I can't. I +don't know who it was and I can't guess. I wish I could. I'd tell you +like a shot." + +"That's odd," said Mr. Flexen, again disappointed. "I should have thought +it impossible for your master to have been on intimate terms with a lady +without your coming to hear of it. You've always been his butler." + +"Yes, sir. But this is the kind of thing as a valet gets to know about +more than a butler--letters left about, or in pockets, you know, sir. But +his lordship never could keep a valet long enough for him to learn +anything. He was worse with valets than with any one." + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen in a vexed tone. "But still, I should have +thought you'd have heard something from some one, even if the matter had +not come under your own eyes. Gossip moves pretty widely about the +countryside." + +"Oh, this didn't happen in the country, sir--not in this part of the +country, anyhow. It must have been a London woman," said Hutchings with +conviction. "If she'd lived about here, I must have heard about it." + +"It was a lady, you must know. The papers do not bring that fact out. My +informant is quite sure that it was a lady," said Mr. Flexen. + +"That's no 'elp, sir," said Hutchings despondently. "She must have come +down by train and gone away by train." + +"She would have probably been noticed at the station. But she wasn't. +Besides, she could not have walked back to the station in time to catch +the last train. I'm sure of it." + +"Then she must have come in a car, sir." + +"That is always possible," said Mr. Flexen. + +There was a pause. + +Then Hutchings burst out: "You may depend on it that she did it, sir. +There isn't a shadow of a doubt. You get her and you'll get the +murderess." + +He spoke with the feverish, unbalanced vehemence of a man whose nerves +are on edge. + +"You think so, do you?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"I'm sure of it--dead certain," cried Hutchings. + +"It's a long way from visiting a gentleman late at night and quarrelling +with him to murdering him," said Mr. Flexen. + +"And she went it. You mark my words, sir. She went it. I don't say that +she came to do it. But she saw that knife lying handy on the library +table and she did it," said Hutchings with the same vehemence. + +"Any one who passed through the library would see that knife," said Mr. +Flexen carelessly, but his eyes were very keen on Hutchings' face. + +Hutchings was pale, and he went paler. He tried to stammer something, but +his voice died in his throat. + +"Well, I'm sorry you can't give me any information about this lady. +Good afternoon," said Mr. Flexen, and he turned on his heel and went +back to the car. + +He was impressed by Hutchings' air and manner. Of course, believing +himself to be suspected, the man was under a strain. But would the strain +on him be so heavy as it plainly was, if he knew himself to be innocent? +And then his eagerness to fasten the crime on the mysterious woman. It +had been astonishingly intense, almost hysterical. + +When he reached the Castle he found Inspector Perkins awaiting him with a +small package which had come by special messenger from Scotland Yard. It +contained enlarged photographs of the fingerprints on the handle of the +knife. They were all curiously blurred. + +_The murderer had worn a glove._ + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +Mr. Flexen studied the photographs and the report which stated this fact +with a lively interest and a growing sense of its great importance. For +one thing, it settled the question of suicide for good and all. Lord +Loudwater had worn no glove. + +Also, it strengthened the case against the mysterious woman. She had +come, apparently, from a distance, and probably in a motor-car. If she +had driven herself down, she would be wearing gloves. Also, only a woman +would be likely to be wearing gloves on a warm summer night. Indeed, +coming from a distance by train, or car, she would certainly wear gloves. +She would not dream of coming to an interview, with a man with whom she +had been intimate and whom she wished to bend to her will, with hands +dirtied by a journey. + +If that gloved hand had not been the hand of the mysterious woman, then +the murder had been premeditated, and the murderer or murderess had put +on gloves with the deliberate purpose of leaving no finger-prints. + +It _was_ the woman. In all probability it was the woman. + +Then Mr. Flexen's sub-conscious mind began to jog his intellect. +Somewhere in his memory there was a fact he had noted about gloves, and +that fact was now important in its bearing on the case. He set about +trying to recall it to his mind. He was not long about it. Of a sudden he +remembered that he had been a trifle surprised to perceive that Colonel +Grey had been carrying gloves when he had found him in the rose-garden +with Lady Loudwater. + +His surprise had passed quickly enough. He had decided that the life in +the trenches had not weakened Colonel Grey's habit, as a fastidious man +about town, of taking care of his hands. He remembered, too, that at his +first interview with him he had observed that his hands were uncommonly +well shaped and well kept. + +He did not suppose that Colonel Grey had come to the Castle on the +night of the murder wearing gloves with the deliberate intention of +killing Lord Loudwater without leaving finger-prints. But suppose that, +as he came away from a distressing interview with Lady Loudwater, the +knife on the library table had caught his eye and his gloves had been +in his pocket? + +Mr. Flexen took out his pipe, lit it, and moved to an easy-chair to let +his brain work more easily. He tabulated his facts. + +Colonel Grey had gone through the library window at about twenty +minutes past ten. + +Hutchings had gone through the library window at half-past ten. + +The mysterious woman had gone through the library window at about ten +minutes to eleven. + +She came out of the library window at about a quarter-past eleven after a +violent quarrel with Lord Loudwater. + +Colonel Grey came out of the library window at about twenty-five minutes +past eleven, after a distressing interview with Lady Loudwater, +apparently in a very bad temper. + +James Hutchings had come out of the library window at about half-past +eleven, also, if William Roper might be believed, furious. + +Lady Loudwater had come through the library window at a quarter to +twelve, and gone back through it at five minutes to twelve. + +Each of the last three had passed within fifteen feet of Lord Loudwater, +dead or alive, both on entering and on coming out of the Castle. The +mysterious woman had actually been in the smoking-room with him. + +If Lady Loudwater's statement that she heard her husband snoring at five +minutes to twelve were to be accepted, neither Colonel Grey, Hutchings, +nor the mysterious woman could have committed the murder--unless always +one of them had returned later and committed it. That possibility must +be borne in mind. + +But Mr. Flexen did not accept her statement. If he were to accept it, she +herself at once became the most likely person to have committed the +crime. It was always possible that she had. She certainly had the best +reasons of any one, as far as he knew, for committing it. + +The evidence of Mr. Manley about the time at which he heard Lord +Loudwater snore was of the first importance. But how to get it out of +him? Mr. Flexen had a strong feeling that not only would Mr. Manley +afford no help to bring the murderer of Lord Loudwater to justice, but, +that owing to the vein of Quixotry in his nature, he was capable of +helping the murderer to escape. That he could do. He had only to declare +that he heard Lord Loudwater snore at twelve o'clock to break down the +case against any one of the four persons between whom the crime obviously +lay. Mr. Flexen had a shrewd suspicion that Mr. Manley would fail to +remember at what time he had last heard Lord Loudwater's snores till the +police had set about securing the conviction of one of the possible +murderers. Then, when the case of the police against the murderer was +revealed, he would come forward and break it down. He had decided that +Mr. Manley was a sentimentalist, and he knew well the difficulty of +dealing with sentimentalists. Moreover, Mr. Manley was animated by a +grudge against the murdered man. Mr. Flexen could quite conceive that he +might presently be regarding perjury as a duty; he had had experience of +the queer way in which the mind of the sentimentalist works. + +It appeared to him that everything depended on his finding the +mysterious woman. + +That afternoon Elizabeth Twitcher determined to go to see James +Hutchings. She had not seen him since their interview on the night of the +murder. In the ordinary course she would not have dreamt of going to him +after that interview, for it had left them on such a footing that further +advances, repentant advances, must come from him. But there were pressing +reasons why she should not wait for him to make the advances which he +would in ordinary circumstances have made after his sulkiness had abated. +All her fellow-servants and all the villagers, who were not members of +the Hutchings family, were assured that he had murdered Lord Loudwater. +Three of the maids, who were jealous of her greater prettiness, had with +ill-dissembled spitefulness congratulated her on having dismissed him +before the murder; her mother had also congratulated her on that fact. +Elizabeth Twitcher was the last girl in the world to desert a man in +misfortune, and, considering James Hutchings' temper, she could only +consider the murder a misfortune. Besides, she had been very fond of him; +she was very fond of him still, and the fact that he was in great +trouble was making him dearer to her. + +Moreover, every one who spoke to her about him told her that he was +looking miserable beyond words. Her heart went out to him. + +None the less, she did not go to see him without a struggle. She felt +that he ought to come to her. However, her pride had been beaten in that +struggle by her fondness and her pity--even more by her pity. + +When she knocked at the door of his father's cottage James Hutchings +himself opened it, and his harassed, hang-dog air settled in her mind for +good and all the question of his guilt. She was not daunted; indeed, a +sudden anger against Lord Loudwater for having brought about his own +murder flamed up in her. Like every one else who had known him, she could +feel no pity for him. + +James Hutchings showed no pleasure whatever at the sight of her. Indeed, +he scowled at her. + +"Come to gloat over me, have you?" he growled bitterly. + +"Don't be silly!" she said sharply. "What should I want to do a thing +like that for? Is your father in?" + +"No; he isn't," said James Hutchings sulkily, but his eyes gazed at +her hungrily. + +He showed no intention of inviting her to enter. Therefore she pushed +past him, walked across the kitchen, sat down in the window-seat, and +surveyed him. + +He shut the door, turned, and gazed at her, scowling uncertainly. + +Then she said gently: "You're looking very poorly, Jim." + +"I didn't think you'd be the one to tell of my being in the Castle that +night!" he cried bitterly. + +"It wasn't me," she said quietly. "It was that little beast, Jane +Pittaway. She heard us talking in the drawing-room." + +"Oh, that was it, was it?" he said more gently. Then, scowling again, he +cried fiercely: + +"I'll wring her neck!" + +"That's enough of that!" she said sharply. "You've talked a lot too much +about wringing people's necks. And a lot of good it's done you." + +"Oh, I know you believe I did it, just like everybody else. But I tell +you I didn't. I swear I didn't!" he cried loudly, with a vehemence which +did not convince her. + +"Of course you didn't," she said in a soothing voice. "But what are you +going to do if they try to make out that you did? What are you going to +tell them?" + +He gazed at her with miserable eyes and said in a miserable voice: "God +knows what I'm to tell them. It isn't a matter of telling them. It's how +to make 'em believe it. These people never believe anything; the police +never do." + +She gazed at him thoughtfully, with eyes compassionate and full of +tenderness. They were a balm to his unhappy spirit. + +The hardness slowly vanished from his face. It became merely troubled. He +walked quickly across the room, dropped into the seat beside her and put +an arm round her. + +"You're a damned sight too good for me, Lizzie," he said in a gentler +voice than she had ever heard him use before, and he kissed her. + +"Poor Jim!" she said. And again: "Poor Jim!" + +He trembled, breathing quickly, and held her tight. + +After a while he regained control of himself, and sat upright. But he +still held her tightly to him with his right arm. + +They began to discuss his plight and how he might best defend himself. +She was fully as fearful as he. But she did not show it. She must cheer +him up, and she kept insisting that the police could not fix the murder +on him, that they had nothing to go upon. If they had, they would have +already arrested him. Certainly they knew what the servants and the +village people were saying. But that was just talk. There wasn't any +evidence; there couldn't be any evidence. + +Her support and encouragement put a new spirit into him. He had been so +alone against the world. His own family, though they had loudly and +fiercely protested his innocence to their friends and enemies in the +village, had not expressed this faith in him to him. + +Indeed, his father had expressed their real belief, when he said to him +gloomily: "I always told you that damned temper of yours would get you +into trouble, Jim." + +Then Elizabeth gave him his tea. After it they talked calmly with an +actual approach to cheerfulness till it was time for her to return to the +Castle to dress Olivia's hair for dinner. Then she would have it that he +should escort her back to the Castle. She declared, truly enough, that he +was doing himself no good by moping at the cottage, that people would say +that he dare not show himself. He _must_ hold his head up. + +She insisted also that they should take the long way round, through the +village; that people should see them together. She insisted that he +should look cheerful, and talk to her all the length of the village +street. The looking cheerful helped to lighten his spirit yet more. As +they went through the village she kept looking up at him in an +affectionate fashion and smiling. + +The village was, indeed, taken aback. It had made up its mind that James +Hutchings was a pariah to be shunned. It was not only taken aback, it was +annoyed. It had no wish that its belief that James Hutchings had +murdered Lord Loudwater should be in any way unsettled. + +Mrs. Roper, the mother of William Roper and a lifelong enemy of the +Hutchings family, summed up the feeling of her neighbours about the +behaviour of James Hutchings and Elizabeth. + +"Brazen, I call it," she said bitterly. + +Before they reached the Castle, Elizabeth had come to feel that during +the last three days James Hutchings had changed greatly, and for the +better. She had an odd fancy that murdering his master had improved his +character; the fear of the police had softened him. Not once did he try +to domineer over her. That domineering had been the source of their not +infrequent quarrels, for she was not at all of a temper to endure it. + +Olivia and Grey had again spent their afternoon in the pavilion in the +East wood. Their bearing at times had been oddly like that of Elizabeth +and James Hutchings. Now and again they had lapsed from their absorption +in one another into a like fearfulness. But, unlike Elizabeth and James +Hutchings, neither of them said a word about the murder of Lord +Loudwater. But both of them seemed a little less under a strain than they +had been. This new factor of a quarrel with an unknown woman seemed to +open a loophole. Olivia's colouring had lost some of its warmth; the +contours of her face were less rounded. Grey had manifestly taken a step +backwards in his convalescence; his face was thinner, even a little +haggard; there was a somewhat strained watchfulness in his eyes. + +They could not tear themselves away from the pavilion till the last +moment, and he walked back with her as far as the shrubbery on the edge +of the East lawn, and there they parted after she had promised to meet +him there that evening at nine. + +As Olivia came into her sitting-room Elizabeth and James Hatchings came +to the back door of the Castle. She did not say good-bye at once; of set +purpose, she lingered talking to him that the other servants might +understand clearly that her attitude to him was definitely fixed. + +But at last she held out her hand and said: "I must be getting along to +her ladyship, or she'll be waiting for me." + +James Hutchings looked round, considered the coast sufficiently clear, +caught her to him, kissed her, and said huskily: "You're just a +ministering angel, Lizzie, and there's more sense in your little finger +than in all my fat head. I'm feeling a different man, and I'll baulk +them yet." + +"Of course you will, Jim," said Elizabeth, and she opened the door. + +"Lord, how I wish I was coming in with you--back in my old place! I +should be seeing you most of the time," he said wistfully. + +Elizabeth stopped short, flushing, and looked at him with suddenly +excited eyes. + +At his words a great thought had come into her mind. + +"Wait a minute, Jim. Wait till I come back," she said somewhat +breathlessly, and, leaving the door open, she hurried down the passage. + +She hurried up to her room, took off her hat, and hurried to Olivia. She +found her in her sitting-room looking through an evening paper to learn +if any new fact about the murder had come to light. + +"If you please, your ladyship, James Hutchings has come to ask if your +ladyship would like him to come back for the time being till you've got +suited with another butler," said Elizabeth in a rather breathless voice. + +Olivia looked at Elizabeth's flushed, excited and hopeful face, +and smiled. + +"Why, have you and James made it up, Elizabeth?" she said. + +"Yes, m'lady," said Elizabeth, and the flush deepened in her cheeks. + +"Then go and tell him to come back, by all means," said Olivia. + +"Thank you, m'lady," said Elizabeth, in accents of profound gratitude, +and she ran out of the room. + +Olivia smiled and then she sighed. It was pleasant to have given +Elizabeth such obviously keen pleasure. She never dreamed that Elizabeth +and James Hutchings were under the same strain of fear and anxiety as +she herself, and that she had given them great help in their trouble, for +Elizabeth saw that the return of James Hutchings to his situation would +give the wagging tongues full pause. + +James Hutchings was dumbfounded on receiving the message. He stared at +Elizabeth with his mouth open. + +"Be quick, Jim. Get your clothes and be back in time to wait on her +ladyship at dinner," said Elizabeth. + +James Hutchings came out of his stupor. + +"Why, L-L-Lizzie, you must let me p-p-put up our b-b-banns tomorrow," he +stammered. + +"Be off!" said Elizabeth, stamping her foot. "We can talk about +that later." + +When she came from her bath Olivia sent Elizabeth to tell Holloway that +she would dine with Mr. Flexen and Mr. Manley that evening. She had a +sudden desire to see more of Mr. Flexen, to weigh him as an antagonist. + +Mr. Flexen was somewhat surprised to receive the information; then, +considering the terms on which Olivia had been with her husband, he found +her action natural enough. After all, she was not a woman of the middle +class, bound to make a pretence of grieving for a wholly unamiable bully. +Also, he was pleased: to dine with so charming a creature as Olivia would +be pleasant and stimulating. In the course of the evening his wits might +rise to the solution of his problem. Moreover, it would be odd if he did +not gain a further, valuable insight into her character. + +He was yet more surprised to find James Hutchings, still rather pale and +haggard, but quite cool and master of himself, superintending the +waiting of Wilkins and Holloway at dinner. Also, he liked the way in +which he spoke to Olivia and looked at her. To Mr. Flexen, James +Hutchings had the air of the authentic faithful dog. He was inclined to +a better opinion of him. + +Plainly, too, Olivia had learned that tongues were wagging against him, +and had taken this way of checking them. It was a generous act. At the +same time, he could very well believe that Olivia might, unconsciously of +course, be on the side of the murderer of such a husband. + +Thanks to Mr. Manley's invaluable sense of what was fitting, there was no +constraint about the dinner. He had decided that they were three people +of the world dining together, and the fact that there had been a murder +in the house three days before and a funeral in the morning should not be +allowed to impair their proper nonchalance. At the same time, decorum +must be preserved; there must be no laughter. + +Accordingly he took the conversation in hand, and kept it in hand. Mr. +Flexen was somewhat astonished at the ability with which he did it; now +and again he felt as if, personally, he were performing feats on the +loose wire, but that, thanks to Mr. Manley, he was not going to fall off. +They talked of the usual subjects on which people who have not a large +circle of common acquaintances fall back. They all three abused the +politicians with perfect sympathy; they abused the British drama with +perfect sympathy; with no less perfect sympathy they abused the Cubists +and the Vorticists and the New Poets. Mr. Flexen had an odd feeling that +they were behaving with entire naturalness and propriety; that their real +interest was in the politicians, the British drama, the Cubists, the +Vorticists and the New Poets, and not at all in the fate of the murderer +of the late Lord Loudwater. After a while he found himself vying +earnestly with Mr. Manley in an effort to display himself as a man of at +least equal insight and intelligence. + +Olivia did not talk much herself. She never did. But she displayed a +quickness of understanding and soundness of judgment which stimulated +them. All the while she was watching and weighing Mr. Flexen. He never +once perceived it. Plainly enough, the talk did her good. She had come +to dinner looking, Mr. Flexen thought, rather under the water. Before +long she was looking, as she had resolved to look, her usual self. When, +at a few minutes to nine, she left them, she was looking the most +charming and sympathetic creature in the world, and, what was more, a +creature without a care. + +When the door closed behind her, she seemed to have taken with her a good +deal of the brightness of the room. Mr. Flexen dropped back into his +chair and frowned. In the silence which fell he wondered. Plainly she was +free enough from care now. + +"But when the feast is finished and the lamps expire--" + +Then Mr. Manley said, in a tone almost insolent: "If you think she +murdered that red-eyed bull in a china shop, you're wrong. She didn't." + +Mr. Flexen did not resent his tone. Indeed, before he could speak, it +flashed on him that if she had done so, and Justice was depending on him +himself to bring her to it, it was depending on a somewhat frail reed. He +liked Mr. Manley for his readiness to fight for her cause. + +He laughed gently and said: "I wasn't thinking so. I was only wondering." +Then his eyes on Mr. Manley's face turned very keen, and he said: "I +believe you know a good deal more about the affair than I do, if you +liked to speak." + +It seemed to him that for a moment Mr. Manley's desire to make himself +valued struggled with his desire to be accurate. + +Then the young man shook his head and said in a tone of surprise: "But +what nonsense! You know so much more about it than I do. Why, you must +have all the threads in your hands by now. I never even dreamt of the +_Daily Wire's_ mysterious woman." + +"Not quite all--yet. But they're coming all right," said Mr. Flexen, with +a confidence he was far from feeling. + +James Hutchings, coming into the room to fetch cigarettes for Olivia, +interrupted them. + +"I'm glad to see you back again, Hutchings," said Mr. Manley in a tone of +hearty congratulation. "Your going away for a trifle after all the years +you've been here was a silly business." + +"Thank you, sir," said Hutchings gratefully. + +When Hutchings had gone, Mr. Flexen said: "It's all very well your +talking, but it was you who suggested that Lady Loudwater was a woman of +strong primitive emotions with a strain of Italian blood in her." + +"I never suggested for a moment that she was a woman of _primitive_ +emotions," Mr. Manley protested with some vehemence. + +"But the emotions of all women are primitive," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Not the emotion excited in them by beauty," said Mr. Manley with +chivalrous warmth. "And, hang it all! Does she look like a woman to +commit murder?" + +"Not on her own account, certainly," said Mr. Flexen. + +"And on whose account should she commit murder?" cried Mr. Manley. + +Mr. Flexen shrugged his shoulders. + +"I said you knew ten times as much about the business as I do," said Mr. +Manley in a tone of triumph. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Mr. Flexen awoke next morning hopeful of news of the mysterious woman. +But the letters addressed to him at the Castle and those brought over +from the office of the Chief Constable at Low Wycombe brought none. After +breakfast, still hopeful, he telephoned to Scotland Yard. No information +had reached it. + +He perceived clearly that the case was at a deadlock till he had that +information. He was sure that it would come sooner or later, possibly +from the neighbourhood, more probably from London. It was always possible +that Mr. Carrington might discover that some other lawyer had handled an +entanglement for Lord Loudwater. In the meantime, his work at the Castle +was done. He had exhausted its possibilities. There was no reason why he +should not return to his rooms at Low Wycombe. After having conferred +with Inspector Perkins, he decided to leave one of the two detectives to +continue making inquiries in the neighbourhood. He told James Hutchings +that he would like his clothes packed, and went to the rose-garden to +taken his leave of Olivia and thank her for her hospitality. + +He found her looking very charming in a light summer frock of white lace +with a few black bows set about it, and he thought that she seemed less +under a strain than she had seemed the day before. He told her that he +was returning to Low Wycombe; she expressed regret at his going, and +thanked him for his efforts to clear up the matter of Lord Loudwater's +death. They parted on the friendliest terms. + +As he came away, Mr. Flexen thought it significant that, though she had +thanked him for his efforts, she had made no inquiry about the result of +them. It might be that she dreaded to hear that they were on the way to +be successful. + +He observed that James Hutchings, who watched over his actual +departure, seemed less pale and haggard than he had been the night +before. He could well believe that he was glad to see him going without +having had him arrested. + +As he drove through the park he told himself that Lady Loudwater and Mr. +Manley between them would probably break down any case the police might +bring against any one but the mysterious woman, and they might break down +that. For his part, he was not going to give much time or attention to it +till the mysterious woman had been discovered, and he did not think that +he would be urged by Headquarters to do so after he had sent in his +report, for, mindful of what he had told them of the unsatisfactory +nature of Dr. Thornhill's evidence, Mr. Gregg in the _Daily Wire_ and +Mr. Douglas on the _Daily Planet_ were dealing with the case in a +half-hearted manner, though they were still clamouring with some vivacity +for the mysterious woman. + +As Mr. Flexen came out of the park gates he met William Roper on the edge +of the West wood, stopped the car, and walked a few yards down the road +to talk to him out of hearing of the chauffeur. + +"I gather that you haven't told any one of what you saw on the night of +Lord Loudwater's death; or I should have heard of it," he said. + +"Not a word, I haven't," said William Roper. + +"That's good," said Mr. Flexen in a tone of warm approval. "It might +spoil everything to put people on their guard." + +He was more strongly than ever resolved to prevent, if he could, the +gamekeeper from setting afoot a scandal about Lady Loudwater which could +be of no service to the police or any one else. + +"Everybody says as James Hutchings did it, sir," said William Roper. + +"H'm! And what do they say about the mysterious lady the papers are +talking about--the lady you saw?" + +"Oh, they don't pay no 'eed to 'er--not about 'ere, sir. They know Jim +Hutchings," said William Roper contemptuously. + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen. + +"'Er ladyship and Colonel Grey, they still spends a lot of their time in +the East wood pavilion. But now 'er ladyship's a widder, it's nobody's +business but their own, I reckon," said William Roper. + +"Of course not, of course not," said Mr. Flexen quickly, pleased to find +that the ferret-faced gamekeeper attached so little importance to it. "I +suppose people about here see that." + +"They don't know about it. Nobody knows about it but me, and I don't tell +everything I sees unless there's something to be got by it. A still +tongue makes a wise 'ead, I say," said William Roper, with a somewhat +vainglorious air. + +"Quite right--quite right," said Mr. Flexen heartily. "Many a man's +tongue has lost him a good job." + +"You're right there, sir. But not me it won't," said William Roper +with emphasis. + +"I can see that. You've too much sense. Well, I shall keep in touch with +you, and when the time comes you'll be called on. Drink my health. Good +day," said Mr. Flexen, giving him half-a-crown. + +He walked back to the car, pleased to have done Olivia the service of +closing William Roper's mouth, at any rate for a time. He would talk, of +course, sooner or later, probably sooner. But he might have closed his +mouth for a fortnight. + +William Roper walked on to the village and went into the "Bull and Gate." +The village was simmering in a very lively fashion. The return of James +Hutchings to his situation at the Castle was a fact with which it could +not grapple easily. It was bewildered and annoyed. + +William Roper had not, as he had assured Mr. Flexen, told what he had +seen on the night of the murder of Lord Loudwater, but he had been +dropping hints. He dropped more. He was a supporter of the theory that +James Hutchings was the murderer because he desired to oust the father of +James Hutchings from his post as head-gamekeeper. That was the reason +also of his belief in James Hutchings' guilt. He was beginning to enjoy +the interest he awakened as the storehouse of undivulged knowledge. When +Mr. Flexen had supposed that he would remain silent for a fortnight, he +had overestimated both his modesty and his reticence. + +Later in the day the village was further upset by the behaviour of James +Hutchings himself. He came into the "Bull and Gate" with an easy air, +showed himself but little more civil than usual, and told the landlord +that he had just arranged that the parson should publish the banns of his +marriage with Elizabeth Twitcher on the following Sunday. The village was +staggered. This was not the way in which it expected a man who would +presently be tried and hanged for murder to behave. + +In all fairness to James Hutchings, it must be said that he would not +have acted with this decision of his own accord. Elizabeth had bidden him +to it, urging that a bold front was half the battle. However grave her +own doubts of his innocence might be, she was resolved that such doubts +should, if possible, be banished from the minds of other people. Under +her influence he was already becoming his old self as far as looks went. +A shade of his usual ruddiness had come back; he was losing his +haggardness. + +With the going of Mr. Flexen there came a lull. His departure was a +relief to Olivia, to Colonel Grey, and to James Hutchings. Doubtless he +was still working on the case; but, working at a distance, he seemed less +of a menace. All three of them seemed less under a strain. Olivia and +Grey spent their hours together in a less feverish eagerness to make the +most of them. + +Even Helena Truslove, when Mr. Manley told her that Mr. Flexen had left +the Castle, said that she was very pleased to hear it. She looked very +pleased. Mr. Manley's sense of what was fitting restrained him from +asking her the reason of this pleasure. He had, indeed, no great desire +to hear the reason of it from her own lips. It was enough for him to +guess that she was the mysterious woman. He felt no need of her full +confidence. + +The Castle seemed to be settling down to its old round, the quieter for +the loss of Lord Loudwater. His heir in Mesopotamia had been informed of +his death by cable. But no cable in reply had come from him. Mr. Manley +remained at the Castle as secretary to Olivia, who was making +preparations leisurely to leave it and settle down in a flat in London. +Colonel Grey was recovering from his wound with a passable quickness. +James Hutchings had come to look very much his old self. Thanks to the +shock he had had and thanks to Elizabeth, he wore a more subdued air, and +was much more amiable with his fellow-servants. + +The _Daily Wire_, the _Daily Planet_, and the rest of the newspapers had +let the Loudwater mystery slip quietly out of their columns. Mr. Flexen +was waiting with quiet expectation for information about the unknown +woman. Since the advertisement the papers had given her had failed to +produce that information he had a London detective working on the life in +London, before his marriage, of the murdered man. Mr. Carrington had +found nothing among Lord Loudwater's papers in the office of his firm to +throw any light on the matter. + +The chief actors in the affair regarded the quiet turn it had taken with +a timorous satisfaction. Not so William Roper; William Roper was +thoroughly dissatisfied. He had been willing enough to hold his tongue, +because by so doing his unexpected and damning appearance at the trial +would be the more dramatic and impressive. But he was impatient to make +that appearance, and chafed at the delay. Also, his prestige was waning. +The village was losing interest in the mystery, and it no longer looked +to him to drop hints as the holder of the secret. That did not prevent +him from dropping them. He would bring up the subject of the murder in +order to drop them. His acquaintances who wished now to talk about other +things found this practice tiresome. They did not hide this feeling. +Matters came to a climax one evening in the bar of the "Bull and Gate." + +William Roper dragged the subject of the murder into a conversation on +the high price of groceries, and then, as usual, hinted at the things he +could say and he would. + +John Pittaway, who had been leading the conversation about the high price +of groceries, turned on him and said with asperity: "I don't believe as +there's anything you can tell us as we don't know, or you'd 'ave told it +afore this fast enough, William Roper." + +"That's what I've been thinking this long time," said old Bob Carter, who +had for over forty years made a point of agreeing with the most +disagreeable person at the moment in the bar of the "Bull and Gate." + +"Isn't there? You wait an' see. You wait till the trial," said +William Roper. + +"Trial? There won't be no trial. 'Oo's a goin' to be tried? They ain't +agoin' to try Jim 'Utchings. It's plain that 'er ladyship 'as set 'er +face against that. And, wot's more, they can't 'ave much to try 'im on, +or they'd 'ave to do it, in spite o' wot she said," said John Pittaway in +yet more disagreeable accents. + +William Roper was very angry. This was not to be borne. Indeed, if John +Pittaway were right, and there was to be no trial, where was his +dramatic and impressive appearance at it? He had better be dramatic and +impressive now. + +"Who said as they were goin' to try Jim 'Utchings? I never did," he +growled. "There was other people went to the Castle that night besides +Jim 'Utchings, and that mysterierse woman the papers talked about." + +"An' 'ow do you know?" said John Pittaway in a tone of most disagreeable +incredulity. + +"I know because I seed 'em," said William Roper. + +"Saw 'oo?" said John Pittaway. + +Then the whole story he had told Mr. Flexen burst forth from William +Roper's overcharged bosom, the story with the embellishments natural to +the lapse of time since its first telling. No less naturally in the +course of the discussion which followed, he told also the story of the +luckless kiss in the East wood, and the landlord pounced on that as the +cause of the quarrel between Lord Loudwater and Colonel Grey at +Bellingham. William Roper supported his contention with an embellished +account of the interview with Lord Loudwater in which he had informed him +of that kiss. + +It was, indeed, his great hour, not as great as the hour he had promised +himself at the trial, not so public, but a great hour. + +He left the "Bull and Gate" at closing time that night a man, in the +estimation of all there, whose evidence could hang four of his +fellow-creatures, the great man of the village. + +Next morning the village was indeed simmering, and the scandal rose and +spread from it like a stench. That very afternoon Mr. Manley heard it +from Helena Truslove, and the next morning Mr. Flexen received two +anonymous letters conveying the information to him, and suggesting that +Colonel Grey and the Lady Loudwater had between them made away with her +husband. It is hard to say whether Mr. Manley or Mr. Flexen was more +annoyed by William Roper's blabbing. + +But there was nothing to be done. The scandal must run its course. Mr. +Flexen did not think that it would find its way into the papers, local or +London. None the less, he was alive to the danger that a sudden heavy +pressure might be put on the police, and he might be forced to take +ill-advised action, start a prosecution which would do Lady Loudwater +infinite harm, and yet end in a fiasco which would leave the mystery just +where it was. The one bright spot in the affair was that Lord Loudwater +appeared to have left no friends behind him who would make it their +business to see that he was avenged. As long as that avenging was +everybody's business it was nobody's business. + +Elizabeth Twitcher was no less disturbed than Mr. Flexen. She felt that +Olivia ought to be informed of what was being said that she might be able +to take steps to meet the danger. She took counsel with James Hutchings, +who could not help feeling relieved by this diversion of suspicion, and +he agreed with her that Olivia should be informed of the scandal at once. +But it was an uncommonly unpleasant task, and she shrank from it. + +Then a happy thought came to James Hutchings, and he said: "Look here: +let Mr. Manley do it. He's her ladyship's secretary, and it's the kind of +thing he'll do very well. He's a tactful young fellow." + +"It would be a blessing if he did," said Elizabeth with a sigh. +She paused and added: "You do speak differently about him to what +you used to." + +"Yes. I made a mistake about him like as I did about some other people," +said James Hutchings, with a rather shame-faced air. "He behaved very +well about seeing me here the night the master was murdered and saying +nothing to the police about it. An' then he congratulated me very +handsomelike on coming back as butler before Mr. Flexen." + +"He would do it better than I should," said Elizabeth. + +"Then I'll speak to him about it," said James Hutchings. + +He paused a while to kiss Elizabeth, then went in search of Mr. Manley. +He learned from Holloway that he had come in about twenty minutes earlier +and was in his sitting-room. He went to him and found him looking through +the MS. of the play he was writing, with an unlighted pipe in his mouth. + +"If you please, sir, I thought I'd better come and tell you that they're +saying in the village that Colonel Grey kissed her ladyship in the East +wood on the afternoon of his lordship's death, and his lordship was +informed of it and quarrelled with Colonel Grey and then her ladyship, +and she and Colonel Grey made away with his lordship," said James +Hutchings. + +"I've heard something about it," said Mr. Manley, frowning, and he struck +a match. "Who set this absurd story going?" + +"William Roper, one of the under-gamekeepers, sir." + +"William Roper? Ah, I know--a ferret-faced young fellow." + +"Yes, sir. And we was thinking that her ladyship ought to know about it +so as she can put a stop to it at once, and you were the proper person to +tell her, sir," said James Hutchings. + +On the instant Mr. Manley saw himself discharging this unpleasant but +important duty with intelligence and tact, and he said readily: "I was +thinking of doing so, and now that I know the lying rascal's name I can +do it at once. The sooner this kind of thing is stopped the better." + +"Thank you, sir," said Hutchings, and with a sigh of relief he +left the room. + +He had reached the top of the stairs when the door of Mr. Manley's room +opened; he appeared on the threshold and said: "Will you send some one to +tell William Roper to be here at nine o'clock tonight? And it wouldn't be +a bad idea to drop a hint to any one you send that William Roper has got +himself into serious trouble." + +Mr. Manley thought quickly. + +"Very good, sir," said James Hutchings, and he hurried down the stairs. + +Mr. Manley did not see Olivia at once, for she was still in the pavilion +in the East wood. But as soon as she returned, he sent a message by +Holloway to her, that he wished to see her on important business. +Holloway brought word that she would see him at once. + +He found her in her sitting-room, gazing out of the window, and she +turned quickly at his entrance with inquiring eyes. + +"It's a rather unpleasant business, and the sooner it's dealt with the +better," said Mr. Manley in a brisk, businesslike voice. "One of the +under-gamekeepers has been spreading a scandalous and lying story about +you and Colonel Grey, something about his kissing you in the East wood on +the afternoon of Lord Loudwater's death, and he has gone on to suggest, +or assert--I don't know which--that you and Colonel Grey had a hand in +Lord Loudwater's death." + +The blow she had been expecting had fallen, and Olivia paled and her +mouth went dry. + +"Which of the under-gamekeepers is it?" she said calmly but with +difficulty, for her tongue kept sticking to the roof of her mouth. + +"A ferret-faced, rascally-looking fellow, called William Roper," said Mr. +Manley with some heat. Then, to save her the effort of speaking, he went +on: "Of course you'd like him discharged at once. The sooner these people +understand that their excitement about Lord Loudwater's death is not +going to be held an excuse for telling lying stories the better. You will +not be troubled by any more of them." + +Olivia looked at him with steady eyes. She had recovered herself and was +thinking hard. Mr. Manley's certainty about the right method of dealing +with the matter was catching. It was better to show a bold front and at +once. There was no time to consult Antony Grey. + +"Yes. You're quite right, Mr. Manley. Gentle measures are of no use with +this kind of scandal-monger. William Roper must be discharged at once," +she said quietly. + +"Perhaps you would like me to deal with him? It's rather a business for a +man," Mr. Manley suggested. + +"Yes, if you would," she said in a grateful tone. + +"I will, as soon as I can get hold of him," said Mr. Manley +cheerfully. "He'll make no more mischief about here," He went out of +the room briskly. + +His confidence was heartening. When the door closed behind him Olivia +sobbed twice in the reaction from the shock of his announcement. Then +she recovered herself and went quietly to her bath. She observed +Elizabeth's sympathetic manner as she dressed her hair. Evidently all +the servants as well as the villagers were talking about her. But for +its possible, dangerous consequences, she was indifferent to their talk. +She was now wholly absorbed in Grey; he was the only thing of any +importance in her life. + +Mr. Manley ate his dinner with an excellent appetite. He was pleased with +the brisk, almost brusque, manner in which he had dealt with the matter +of William Roper, in his interview with Olivia. If he had shilly-shallied +and hummed and hawed about the scandal, it would have been so much more +unpleasant for her. He thought, too, that his practical, common-sense +attitude to the business would probably help her to take it more easily, +and he was sure that he had advised the best measure to be taken with +William Roper. + +He was smoking a cigar in a great content, when at nine o'clock Holloway +brought him word that William Roper had come. Mr. Manley bade him bring +him to him at a quarter-past. He felt that suspense would make William +Roper malleable, and he intended to hammer him. At thirteen minutes past +nine he composed his face into a dour truculence, an expression to which +the heavy conformation of the lower part lent itself admirably. + +William Roper, looking uncommonly ill at ease, was ushered in by James +Hutchings himself, and the butler had improved the thirteen shining +minutes he had had with him by increasing to a considerable degree his +uneasiness and anxiety. + +Mr. Manley did not greet William Roper. He stood on the hearth-rug and +glowered at him with heavy truculence. William Roper shuffled his feet +and fumbled with his cap. + +Then Mr. Manley said: "Her ladyship has been informed that you have been +spreading scandalous reports in the village, and she has instructed me to +discharge you at once." He walked across to the table, took the sheet of +notepaper on which he had written the amount due to William Roper, dipped +a pen in the ink, and added: "Here are your wages up to date, and a +week's wages in lieu of notice. Sign this receipt." + +He dipped a pen in the ink and held it out to William Roper with very +much the air of Lady Macbeth presenting her husband with the dagger. + +William Roper was stupefied. Mr. Manley, truculent and dramatic, +cowed him. + +"I never done nothing, sir," he said feebly. + +"Sign--at once!" said Mr. Manley, gazing at him with the glare of +the basilisk. + +"I ain't agoing to sign. I ain't done nothing to be discharged. I ain't +said nothing but what I seed with my own eyes," William Roper protested. + +"Sign!" said Mr. Manley, tapping the receipt like an official in a spy +play. "Sign!" + +He was too much for William Roper. The conflict, such as it was, of wills +ceased abruptly. William Roper signed. + +Mr. Manley pushed the money towards him as towards a loathed pariah. +William Roper counted it, and put it in his pocket. He walked towards the +door with an air of stupefied dejection. + +"Also, you are to be off the estate by twelve o'clock tomorrow. Loudwater +is not the place for ungrateful and slanderous rogues," said Mr. Manley. + +William Roper stopped and turned; his face was working malignantly. + +"We'll see what Mr. Flexen's got to say about this," he snarled, went +through the door, and slammed it behind him. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +Olivia came that night to her tryst with Grey in a great dejection. She +perceived clearly enough that the instant discharge of William Roper +would not stop the scandal, and she was desperately afraid of the results +of it. The hope which had sprung up in her mind on reading in the _Daily +Wire_ the story of her husband's quarrel with an unknown woman died down. +This was a far more important matter, and she could not see how the +police could fail to act on William Roper's story. + +She found Grey waiting for her with his wonted impatience, and presently +told him about William Roper. + +"This is the very thing I've been fearing," he said with a sudden +heaviness. + +"It will certainly force Mr. Flexen's hand," she said. + +"I don't know--I don't know," he said more hopefully. "Flexen struck me +as being the kind of man to act just when it suited him, and I expect +that he had known all along anything William Roper had to tell." + +"Yes, he did. Twitcher told me that Roper had an interview with him on +the afternoon after Egbert's death," she said, catching a little of his +hopefulness. + +"Well, if he hasn't done anything about it so far, there's no reason why +he should act immediately the story becomes common property," he said in +a tone of relief. + +"No--no," she said slowly. Then she sobbed once and cried: "But, oh, this +waiting's so dreadful! Never knowing what's going to happen and +when--feeling that he's lying in wait all the time." + +"It is pretty awful," he said, drawing her more closely to him and +kissing her. + +She clung tightly to him, quivering. + +"The only thing to do is to stick it out, and when the time comes--if +it comes--put up a good fight. I think we shall," he said in a +cheering tone. + +"Of course we will," she said firmly, gave herself a little shake, and +relaxed her grip a little. + +He kissed her again, and they were silent a while, both of them +thinking hard. + +Then he said: "Look here: let's get married." + +"Get married?" she said. + +"Yes. The more we belong to one another the better we shall feel." + +"But--but won't there be rather an outcry at our marrying so +soon?" she said. + +"Oh, if people knew of it, yes. But I don't propose that they should. +We'll get married quite quietly. I'll get a special licence. The padre +of my regiment is in Town, and he'll marry us. I can find a couple of +witnesses who'll hold their tongues. We can get married in twenty-four +hours. Will you?" + +"Yes," she said firmly. + +His surprise at her ready assent was drowned in the joy it gave him. + +The next morning at half-past nine Mr. Manley rang up Mr. Flexen at his +office at Low Wycombe. + +When he heard his voice he said: "Good morning, Flexen. A young fellow of +the name of William Roper will be calling on you this morning. I expect +you know all he has to say already. But do you see anything to be gained +by his making a pestiferous, scandal-mongering nuisance of himself?" + +"I do not. I will say a few kind words to him," said Mr. Flexen grimly. + +Mr. Manley thanked him and rang off. Then he sent Hutchings down to the +village to let it be known that any one who let William Roper lodge in +his or her cottage would at once receive notice to quit it. He thought it +improbable, in view of the general unpleasantness of William Roper, that +he would be called on to carry out the threat. + +William Roper had already started to pay his visit to Mr. Flexen. Mr. +Flexen kept him dangling his heels in his office for three-quarters of an +hour before he saw him. This cold welcome allowed much of William +Roper's sense of his great importance in the district to ooze out of him. + +Mr. Flexen emptied him of the rest of it. He greeted him curtly, heard +his story with a deepening frown, and abused him at some length for a +babbling idiot, and sent him about his business. William Roper returned +to his mother's cottage to find that her only object in life was to get +him out of her cottage then and there. She had conceived the idea that +the whole affair was a plot to have a good excuse for giving her notice +to leave that cottage. She knew well that it was the opinion of all its +other inhabitants that the village would be much better without her and +that there were very good grounds for it. + +William Roper perceived with uncommon clearness the truth of Mr. Flexen's +assertion that he was a babbling idiot. His dream of outing William +Hutchings from the post of head-gamekeeper and filling it himself was for +ever shattered, and he had been the great man of the village for little +more than fourteen hours, ten of which he had spent in sleep. He cursed +the hour in which he had espied that luckless kiss, and too late +perceived the folly of a humble gamekeeper's meddling with the affairs of +those who own the game he keeps. + +The next morning Elizabeth observed that her mistress was another +creature, almost her old self indeed. The air of strain and oppression +had, for the time being at any rate, gone from her face. She moved with +her old alertness. She even smiled at Elizabeth's strictures on the +treacherous William Roper. + +After breakfast she bade Elizabeth pack a trunk for her, since she was +going to London that afternoon and would spend the night, perhaps two or +three days, there. Also, she chose, with frowning thoughtfulness and no +little changing of mind, the frocks she would take with her, and +discussed carefully with Elizabeth the changes necessary to give them a +sufficiently mourning character. + +Elizabeth was indeed pleased with the change in her mistress. She +ascribed it to the influence of Colonel Grey. + +In the afternoon Olivia went to London and drove from Paddington to +Grey's flat. She found him awaiting her with the most eager expectation. +He had bought the special licence; the chaplain of his regiment and a +wounded friend were coming at seven o'clock. After they were married, +they would all four dine together, and, later, he and she would return +to his flat. + +They had tea, and then he showed her some of the beautiful things, for +the most part ivory and jade, which were his most loved possessions. She +admitted frankly that she had to learn to appreciate and admire them as +they deserved. But she was sure that she would learn to do so. + +She found the flat of a somewhat spartan simplicity after Loudwater +Castle, Quainton Hall, and the houses to which she was used. But she also +found that it had been furnished with a keen regard for comfort. In +particular, she observed that the easy chairs, which were the chief +furniture of the sitting-room, were the most comfortable she had ever +taken her ease in. + +At seven o'clock the padre and Sir Charles Ross, Grey's wounded friend, +arrived. After they had talked for a few minutes, making Olivia's +acquaintance, the padre married them. Henderson, Grey's valet, a tall, +spare Scot with rugged features who in the course of his seven years' +service had acquired, in his manner and way of speaking, a curious and +striking likeness to his master, was the second witness. + +It was wholly characteristic of Olivia that she felt no slightest need of +the supporting presence of a woman. Yet, for all the unfamiliar +simplicity of the scene, the ceremony did not lack dignity, or +impressiveness. At the end of it Olivia felt herself very much more the +wife of Antony Grey than she had ever felt herself the wife of Lord +Loudwater. + +They dined in a private dining-room at the "Ritz," and Olivia found the +dinner delightful. The three men, after some desultory talk about common +friends and the ordinary London subjects, fell to talking about their +work and their fighting in France. She was most pleased by the evident +respect and admiration with which the other two regarded her husband. It +was a new experience for her to be married to a man for whom any one +showed respect. + +At a few minutes past ten she and Grey went home to his flat. They +preferred to walk. + +Olivia did not return to Loudwater for three days. Grey did not return +till the day after that. Then they again spent much of their time in the +pavilion in the East wood, and since Olivia was careful not to replace +William Roper, no one knew of their meetings. Every week they went to +London for two days. They lived in an absorption in one another which +left them little time to be troubled by fears of the danger which hung +over them. The scandal about them ran the usual nine days' course. Then, +since no new development of the Loudwater case arose to give it a fresh, +active life, it died down. + +About a fortnight after their marriage Mr. Manley retired from his post +of secretary and went to London. A few days later he married Helena +Truslove at the office of a registrar, and they established themselves in +a furnished flat at Clarence Gate, while they furnished a flat of their +own. Mr. Manley found himself, under the influence of domesticity, the +stimulation of life in London, and the society of the intelligent, +writing his new play with all the ease and vigour he had expected. + +Mr. Flexen was beginning, somewhat gloomily, to think it probable that +the problem of the death of Lord Loudwater would have to be set among +the unsolved problems which have at different times baffled the police. +Then, before he had quite lost hope, there came a letter from Mr. +Carrington. It ran: + +"Dear Mr. Flexen, + +"I received this morning a letter from Mrs. Marshall, of 3, Laburnum +Terrace, Low Wycombe, asking me, as the agent of the present Lord +Loudwater, to have some repairs made to the house in which she is his +lordship's tenant. We have never handled this property; we did not +even know that it belonged to the late Lord Loudwater. If you can find +the man who managed it for him, he may be able to give you the +information you want. + +"Yours faithfully, + +"C.R.W. CARRINGTON." + +In ten minutes Mr. Flexen was at 3, Laburnum Terrace; in a quarter of an +hour he had learned that Mrs. Marshall had paid her rent to Mr. Shepherd, +of 9, Bolton Street, Low Wycombe; in twenty minutes he had learned from +Mrs. Shepherd that her husband was in Mesopotamia, and that she had not +heard from him for two months. In half an hour from the time he read Mr. +Carrington's letter he was in the train on his way to London. To get in +touch with Captain Shepherd in that distant and backward land was a +matter for Scotland Yard. No acting Chief Constable would do so without +considerable delay. + +He drafted the telegram in consultation with one of the commissioners, +who himself set about the business of getting it through to Captain +Shepherd and receiving his answer to it. Then he returned to Low +Wycombe. Three days later came a letter from Scotland Yard to inform +him that Captain Shepherd was in an out-of-the-way district in the +north of Mesopotamia, and that there must be a delay of days before he +received the telegram and sent his answer to it. Mr. Flexen possessed +his soul in the patience of a man who was sure that he was going to get +what he wanted. + +A few days later, on a Saturday, his work took him to Loudwater, and he +called on Olivia. He found her a different creature. She had lost her air +of being under a strain, and save that her eyes were at first anxious, +she showed herself wholly at her ease with him. He came away assuring +himself that she was one of the most charming women he had ever met. He +took it that she still met Colonel Grey in the pavilion in the East wood, +and that after a decorous lapse of time they would marry. He thought +Colonel Grey uncommonly fortunate. + +Then he again wondered what had so perturbed them when he had been at +the Castle inquiring into the death of Lord Loudwater. What did they know +of the mystery? What part had they played in it? + +Soon after he had left her Olivia went to London to spend the week-end +with her husband. But she did not go in her wonted joyful mood. She tried +to thrust it out of her mind; but Mr. Flexen's visit had brought back her +old fear. Grey at once perceived that she was not in good spirits, and he +was a little alarmed. He had firmly kept his thought from the danger +which still hung over them. Now he caught from her something of her +uneasiness. But he would not yield to it, and by the end of dinner he +had, for the while at any rate, banished it from both their minds. + +Then when he awoke that night, quietly, at the turning hour, he heard +Olivia crying very softly. + +He put his arm round her and said seriously "What is it, darling? What's +the matter?" + +"Oh, why ever did you kill him?" she wailed. "He--he wasn't worth it. And +I'd have come to you without. And we might have been so happy!" + +Grey, with a start, sat bolt upright, and in a tone of the last +astonishment stammered: "K-K-Kill him? Me? B-B-But I thought you +k-k-killed him!" + +He had never been so taken aback in his life. + +Olivia sat bolt upright in her turn. + +"Me?" she said in an astonishment fully as great as his. "No, I didn't." + +Then with one accord they clung to one another and laughed tremulously in +an immeasurable relief. + +Then Olivia said: "And you didn't mind? You married me when you actually +thought I'd murdered Egbert?" + +"Oh, Egbert!" said Grey in a tone of contempt which placed the late Lord +Loudwater definitely as a person the murder of whom was neither here nor +there. Then he added: "But, hang it all! You married me when you actually +thought I'd murdered him." + +"I thought you did it for my sake," said Olivia. + +"I thought you did it for mine--to get me out of a mess. Though I'll be +shot if I believe I should have cared if you'd done it entirely on your +own account. Not that you could." + +"Oh, Antony, how very fond of one another we must be!" said Olivia in a +hushed voice. + +It was after breakfast next morning that Olivia, who stood before the +window, smoking a cigarette and watching the passers-by, turned and said: +"But if neither you nor I murdered Egbert, who did?" + +"The mysterious woman, I suppose," said Grey, with very little show of +interest in the matter. + +"But I never believed that there was any mysterious woman, I thought the +papers invented her," said Olivia. + +"So did I," said Grey. "But it's beginning to look to me as if there +might have been one." + +"I wonder who she can be?" said Olivia. + +"A barmaid, I should think," said Grey, in a tone which placed definitely +the late Lord Loudwater as a lover. + +"You certainly do dislike Egbert," said Olivia, in a dispassionate tone +of one stating a natural fact of little importance. + +"I do," said Grey. + +"It's odd how little I remember him," said Olivia thoughtfully. "But then +I was always trying to forget him unless he was actually in the room with +me. And then I was always trying not to see him." + +"I remember the way he treated you," said Grey sternly. + +Olivia smiled at him. + +"I hope to goodness the police never do find that wretched woman!" he +said. + +Olivia frowned thoughtfully. Then she smiled again. + +"I don't think it would be much use if they did," she said. "I told Mr. +Flexen that I heard Egbert snoring about twelve o'clock. I didn't; but I +thought that as you went away about half-past eleven, it would make it +safer for you. I could always stick to it, if we thought it right." + +"And I told Flexen that I didn't hear him snoring at about half-past +eleven, and I did. I thought it would make it safer for you." + +"Well, we are--" said Olivia, and she laughed. + +Then of a sudden her eyes sparkled and she cried: "But if you heard him +snore at half-past eleven that lets the mysterious woman out. She went +away at a quarter-past." + +"By Jove! so it does," said Grey. + +Three days later, driving back in the evening from Rickmansworth to Low +Wycombe, Mr. Flexen passed Grey on his way home from an afternoon's +fishing. He stopped the car, and as Grey came up to it he perceived that +he was looking uncommonly well, though his limp appeared to be as bad as +ever. He was not only looking well, he was also looking happy, wholly +free from care. + +They greeted one another and Mr. Flexen said: "By Jove! you are +looking fit!" + +"Yes, I'm all right again," said Grey. Then he frowned and added: "But +the nuisance of it is that I shall always have this confounded limp." + +"You get off more lightly than a good many men I know," said +Flexen sadly. + +"Yes. I'm not grousing much," said Grey. + +There came a pause, and then Grey said: "I've been rather hoping to come +across you. When you questioned me about my doings on the night of +Loudwater's death, you asked me whether I heard him snore as I went +through the library, going in and out of the Castle, and for reasons +which seemed quite good to me at the time I told you I didn't. As a +matter of fact, he was snoring like a pig when I came out." + +Mr. Flexen looked at him hard, thinking quickly. Then he said softly: "My +goodness! That would be half-past eleven!" + +"Close on it," said Grey. + +"Well as a matter of fact, I didn't believe you," said Mr. Flexen +frankly. "In my business, you know, one acquires a very good ear for +the truth." + +Grey laughed cheerfully and said: "I expect you do." + +"All the same, I'm glad to have it for certain," said Mr. Flexen, smiling +at him. "Well, I must be getting on; let me give you a lift as far as +Loudwater." + +Grey thanked him and stepped into the car. + +When he had set him down, Mr. Flexen drove on in frowning thought. +Colonel Grey was speaking the truth, and in that case neither James +Hutchings nor the mysterious woman had committed the murder, unless they +had deliberately returned for the purpose. He did not believe that James +Hutchings had returned; he thought it improbable that the mysterious +woman had returned. + +Even more important was the fact that this admission of Colonel Grey +assured him that neither he nor Lady Loudwater had committed the murder. +Grey had evidently lied to shield her. He had no less evidently learned +that she did not need shielding. That admission had not at all simplified +the problem. + +The next morning Scotland Yard telegraphed to him the reply to its cable +to Captain Shepherd. It ran: + +_Loudwater allowed Mrs. Helena Truslove Crest Loudwater six hundred a +year and gave her Crest_. + +He had the mysterious woman at last! + +He drove over to the Crest at once and learned from the caretaker that +Mrs. Truslove was now living in London in a flat at Clarence Gate. He +could not get away from his work till the afternoon, and it was past +half-past four when he knocked at the door of her flat. + +The maid led him down the passage, opened the door on the right, and +announced him. + +Helena was sitting beside a table on which afternoon tea for two was set. +She looked surprised to hear his name. + +"Mrs. Truslove?" he said. + +"I was Mrs. Truslove," she said, rising and holding out her hand. "But +now I am Mrs. Manley. You know my husband. He will be so pleased to see +you again. I'm expecting him every minute." + +Mr. Flexen was for a moment conscious of a slight sensation of vertigo. +The mysterious woman was the wife of Herbert Manley! + +He could not at once see the bearings of this fact, but ideas, fancies +and suspicions raced one another through his head. + +He checked them and said in a somewhat toneless voice: "I shall be +delighted to see him again. Have you been married long?" + +"Rather more than a fortnight." said Helena. "But do sit down. My husband +will be so pleased to see you again. He has a great admiration for you." + +Mr. Flexen sat down and unconsciously stared hard at her. Ideas were +jostling one another in his head. + +"We won't wait for him. I'll have the tea made at once," she said, +bending forward to press the bell-button. + +"One moment, please," he said in his crispest, most official voice. "I've +come to see you on a very important matter." + +"Oh?" she said quickly, frowning. Then she looked at him with +steady eyes. + +"Yes. You know that I am investigating the Loudwater case, and I have +received information that you are the mysterious lady who visited Lord +Loudwater on the night of his death and had a violent quarrel with him." + +"We began by quarrelling," she said quietly. + +"_Began_ by quarrelling?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes. I'd better tell you the whole story, and you'll understand," she +said in a matter-of-fact voice. "Rather more than two years ago I was +engaged to be married to Lord Loudwater. He broke off our engagement and +married Miss Quainton. I was not going to stand that, and I was going to +bring a breach of promise action against him. He didn't want that, of +course. It would most likely have stopped his marrying Miss Quainton. So +he agreed to make over the Crest, my house just beyond Loudwater, to me, +and pay me an allowance of six hundred a year." + +"This was two years ago?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes," said Helena. "But stupidly, though I had the house properly made +over to me, I didn't have a deed about the allowance. And a few days +before he committed suicide--" + +"Committed suicide?" Mr. Flexen interrupted. + +"Of course he committed suicide. Didn't Dr. Thornhill say that the wound +might have been self-inflicted? Besides, poor Egbert had a most +frightful temper." + +"But why should he commit suicide?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"He may have been upset about Lady Loudwater and Colonel Grey. Why, I'm +quite sure that it would drive him mad--absolutely mad for the time +being. I know him well enough to be sure of that." + +"Yes--yes," said Mr. Flexen slowly. "It's a tenable theory, doubtless. +But about your quarrel with him." + +"A few days before he died he talked about halving my allowance. And, of +course, I was frightfully annoyed about it. I wanted to have it out with +him--I meant to--but I knew that he'd never let me get near him, if he +could help it. But I knew, too, that he sat in the smoking-room every +evening after dinner, and generally went to sleep. You know everything +about every one in the country, you know. And I determined to take him by +surprise, and I did. We did have a row, for I was frightfully angry. It +seemed so mean. But he stopped it by telling me that he had instructed +his bankers--we have the same bankers--to pay twelve thousand pounds into +my account instead of allowing me six hundred a year." + +There was just the faintest change in her voice as she spoke the last +sentence, and it did not escape Mr. Flexen's sensitive ear. He thought +that the whole story had been rehearsed; it sounded so. But she spoke the +last sentence just a little more quickly. The rest of the story rang +true, or, at any rate, truer. + +"Twelve thousand pounds," he said slowly. "And did Lord Loudwater tell +you when he instructed his bankers?" + +"No. But it must have been that very day. The letter must have been in +the post, in fact, for two mornings later I received a letter from the +bank telling me that they had credited me with that amount--the morning +after the inquest, I think it was." + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen, and he paused, considering the story. Then he +said: "And were you surprised at all at his doing this?" + +"Yes, I was," she said frankly. "It didn't seem like him. But since I've +wondered whether he had made up his mind to commit suicide and wished to +leave things quite straight." + +It was a plausible theory, but Mr. Flexen did not believe that Lord +Loudwater had committed suicide. + +"I suppose that your husband knows all about it?" he said at random. + +"He may, and he may not. He hasn't said anything to me about it," she +said. + +"Then we may take it that he did not write the letter of instruction to +the bankers," said Mr. Flexen. + +Oh, he might have done and still have said nothing about it. He has a +very sensitive delicacy and might have thought it my business and not +his. I haven't told him about the twelve thousand pounds yet. I don't +bother him about business matters. In fact, I'm going to manage his +business as well as my own." + +"And he didn't know about the allowance?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Oh, yes, he did. I told him all about that," said Helena quickly. + +Mr. Flexen paused, considering. He seemed to have learnt from her all she +had to tell. + +There came the sound of the opening of the door of the flat and of steps +in the hall. Then the door of the room opened, and Mr. Manley came in. +Mr. Flexen's eyes swept over him. He was looking cheerful, prosperous, +and rather sleek. His air had grown even more important and assured. + +He greeted Mr. Flexen warmly and beamed on him. Then he demanded tea. But +Mr. Flexen rose, declared that he must be going, and in spite of Mr. +Manley's protests went. It had flashed on him that he might just catch +Mr. Carrington at his office. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +Mr. Flexen did find Mr. Carrington at his office, and Mr. Carrington's +first words were: + +"Well, have you found the mysterious woman?" + +"I've found the mysterious woman, and she's now Mrs. Herbert Manley," +said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Carrington stared at him, then he said softly: "Well, I'm damned!" + +"It does explain several things," said Mr. Flexen dryly. "We know now why +she was so hard to find--why there was no trace of her relations with +Lord Loudwater, no trace of Shepherd's managing the Low Wycombe property +among his papers, why there were no pass-books." + +Mr. Carrington flushed and said: "The young scoundrel had us on toast all +the while." + +"Toast is the word," said Mr. Flexen. + +"I never did like the beggar. I couldn't stand his infernal manner. But +it never occurred to me that he was a bad hat. I merely thought him a +pretentious young ass who didn't know his place," said Mr. Carrington. + +"I'm not so sure about the ass," said Mr. Flexen. + +"No--perhaps not. He certainly brought it off for a time, and shielded +her as long as it lasted," said Mr. Carrington slowly. + +"She didn't need any shielding," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Do you mean to tell me that she didn't murder Loudwater?" + +"She did not. You don't murder a man who has just given you twelve +thousand pounds," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Twelve thousand pounds?" said Mr. Carrington slowly. Then he started +from his chair and almost howled: "Are you telling me that Lord Loudwater +gave this woman twelve thousand pounds! He never gave any one twelve +thousand pounds! He never gave any one a thousand pounds! He never gave +any one fifty pounds! He couldn't have done it! Never in his life!" + +His voice rose in a fine crescendo. + +"Well, perhaps it was hardly a gift," said Mr. Flexen, and he told him +Helena's story. + +At the end of it Mr. Carrington said with dogged, sullen conviction: "I +don't care, I don't believe it. Lord Loudwater couldn't have done it." + +"But there's the letter from her bankers," said Mr. Flexen. "And I +suppose you can trace the twelve thousand pounds." + +Mr. Carrington started and said sharply: "Why, that must be where the +rubber shares went to." + +"What rubber shares?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"We can't lay our hands on a block of rubber shares Lord Loudwater owned. +The certificate isn't among his scrip--he kept all his scrip at the +Castle--he wouldn't keep it at his bank. Those rubber shares were worth +just about twelve thousand pounds." + +"Well, there you are," said Mr. Flexen. + +"No, I'm not, I tell you I don't believe in that gift--not even in the +circumstances. Lord Loudwater would a thousand times rather have gone on +paying the allowance--as little of it as he could. There's something +fishy--very fishy--about it, I tell you," said Mr. Carrington vehemently. + +"And where did the fishiness come in?" said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Carrington was silent, frowning. Then he said: "I'll--I'll be hanged +if I can see." + +Mr. Flexen rose sharply and said: "There's only one point in the affair +where it could have come in as far as I can see. I should like to examine +Lord Loudwater's letter of instruction to his bankers." + +"By George! You've got it," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Well, can we get a look at it?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"We can. Harrison, the manager, will stretch a point for me. He knows +that I'm quite safe. Come along," said Mr. Carrington. + +"At this hour? The bank's been closed this two hours," said Flexen. + +"He'll be there. It's years since he got away before seven," said Mr. +Carrington confidently. + +He told a clerk to telephone to the bank that he was coming. They found a +taxicab quickly, drove to the bank, entered it by the side door, and were +taken straight to Mr. Harrison. + +He made no bones about showing them Lord Loudwater's letter of +instructions with regard to the twelve thousand pounds. Mr. Carrington +and Mr. Flexen read it together. It was quite short, and ran: + +"GENTLEMEN, + +"I shall be much obliged by your paying the enclosed cheque from Messrs. +Hanbury and Johnson for L12,046 into the account of Mrs. Helena Truslove. + +"Yours faithfully, + +"LOUDWATER." + +"Rather a curt way of disposing of such a large sum," said Mr. Flexen, +taking the letter and going to the window. + +"It was the way Lord Loudwater did things," said Mr. Harrison. + +"Yes, yes; I know," said Mr. Carrington. "Some things." + +They both looked at Mr. Flexen, who was examining the letter through a +magnifying glass. + +He studied it for a good two minutes, turned to them with a quiet smile +of triumph on his face and said: "I've never seen Lord Loudwater's +signature. But this is a forgery." + +"A forgery?" said the manager sharply, stepping quickly towards Mr. +Flexen with outstretched hand. + +"I'm not surprised to hear it," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Well, the signature is not written with the natural ease with which a +man signs his name," said Mr. Flexen, giving the letter to Mr. Harrison. + +Mr. Harrison studied it carefully. Then he pressed a button on his desk +and bade the clerk who came bring all the letters they had received +from Lord Loudwater during the last three months of his life and bring +them quickly. + +Then he turned to Mr. Flexen and said stiffly: "I'm bound to say that the +signature looks perfectly right to me." + +"I've no doubt that it's a good forgery. It was done by a very clever +man," said Mr. Flexen. + +"A first-class young scoundrel," Mr. Carrington amended. + +"We shall soon see," said Mr. Harrison, politely incredulous. + +The clerk came with the letters. There were eight of them, all written +by Mr. Manley and signed by Lord Loudwater. + +The manager compared the signatures of every one of them with the +signature in question, using a magnifying glass which lay on his desk. + +Then, triumphant in his turn, he said curtly: "It's no forgery." + +"Allow me," said Mr. Flexen, and in his turn he compared the signatures, +again every one of them. + +Then he said: "As I said, it's an uncommonly good forgery. You see that +the bodies of the letters are all written with the same pen, a +gold-nibbed fountain-pen; the signatures are written with a steel nib. It +cuts deeper into the paper, and the ink doesn't flow off it so evenly. +The forged signature is written with the same kind of nib as the genuine +ones. Also, the bodies of the letters are written in a fountain-pen +ink--the 'Swan,' I think. The signatures are written in Stephens' +blue-black ink. The forged signature is also written in Stephens' +blue-black ink. No error there, you see." + +"You seem to know a good deal about these things," said Mr. Harrison, +rather tartly. + +"Yes. I've been a partner in Punchard's Agency--you know it; we've done +some work for you--for the last two years. I didn't need this kind of +knowledge for my work in India. I only made a special study of forgery +after joining the agency. A private inquiry agency gets such a lot of +it," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Well, and if there's an error in these details, where is it? It's not in +the signature itself," said Mr. Harrison. + +"Indeed, it is," said Mr. Flexen. "It's an uncommonly good signature too. +The 'Loud' is perfect. But the 'water' gives it away. The forger had +evidently practised it a lot. In fact, he wrote the 'Loud' straight off. +But the 'water' has no less than five distinct pauses in it--under the +microscope, of course--where he paused to think, or perhaps to look at a +genuine signature, the endorsement on the cheque very likely." + +Mr. Harrison sniffed ever so faintly, and said: "Of course, I've had +experience of handwriting experts--not very much, thank goodness!--and +you differ among yourselves so. It's any odds that another expert will +find those pauses in quite different places from you, or even no +pauses at all." + +Mr. Flexen laughed gently and said: "Perhaps. But he ought not to." + +"There you are. And when it comes to a jury," said Mr. Harrison, and he +threw out his hands. "Besides, if you got your experts to agree, you'd +have to show a very strong motive." + +"Oh, we've got that--we've got that," said Mr. Carrington with +conviction. + +"Well, of course that will make it easier for you to get the jury to +believe your handwriting experts rather than those of the other side," +said Mr. Harrison, without any enthusiasm. Then he added, with rather +more cheerfulness: "But you never can tell with a jury." + +"No; that's true," said Mr. Flexen quickly. "I'm sure we're very much +obliged to you for showing us the letter." + +There was nothing more to be done at the bank, and having again thanked +Mr. Harrison, they took their leave of him. He showed no great cordiality +in his leave-taking, he was looking at the matter from the point of view +of the bank. The bank preferred to detect forgeries itself--in time. + +As they came into the street, Mr. Carrington rubbed his hands together +and said in a tone of deep satisfaction: "And now for the warrant." + +"Warrant for whom?" said Mr. Flexen in a tone of polite inquiry. + +"Manley. The sooner that young scoundrel is in gaol the better I shall +feel," said Mr. Carrington. + +"So should I," said Mr. Flexen. "But I'm very much afraid that for Mr. +Manley it's a far cry to Holloway. We have no case against him +whatever--not a scrap of a case that I can see." + +"Hang it all! It's as plain as a pikestaff! He's engaged to this +woman--this Mrs. Truslove--who has a nice little income. He hears that +her income is to be halved; and we know that if an allowance begins by +being halved, as likely as not it will be stopped altogether before long. +He saw that clearly enough. Then in the very nick of time this cheque +comes along. He sends it to the bank with this letter of instructions, +and murders Lord Loudwater so that he cannot disavow them. What more of a +case do you want?" + +"I don't want a better case. I only want some evidence. It's true enough +that Mrs. Manley told me that she told Manley that Lord Loudwater +proposed to halve her allowance. But where's the evidence that she talked +to him about it? She'd deny it if you put her into the witness-box, and +you can't put her into the witness-box." + +"Husband and wife, by Jove! Oh, the clever young scoundrel!" cried Mr. +Carrington. + +"And that halving of the allowance is the beginning of the whole +business. Manley had made up his mind to marry a lady with a fixed +income--indeed, they were probably already engaged. Loudwater upsets the +arrangement. Manley restores the _status quo_ by means of this cheque and +the murder of Loudwater. Of course, he hated Loudwater--he admitted as +much to me--more than once. But if Loudwater had played fair about that +allowance, he'd be alive now. Having established the _status quo,_ Manley +promptly marries the lady, and closes the mouth of the only person who +can bear witness that the allowance was in danger and he had any motive +for murdering Loudwater." + +Mr. Carrington ground his teeth and murmured: "The infernal young +scoundrel!" Then he broke out violently: "But we're not beaten yet. Now +that we know for a fact that he murdered Loudwater and why, there must be +some way of getting at him." + +"I very much doubt it," said Flexen sadly. "He's an uncommonly able +fellow. I don't believe that he's taken a chance. He wears a glove and +leaves the knife in the wound, so that there are no bloodstains. And +consider the cheque. The bank wouldn't have honoured Loudwater's own +cheque, the cheque of a dead man, but the stock-broker's cheque goes +through as a matter of course." + +"Of course," said Mr. Carrington. + +"And he has kept the business so entirely in his own hands. If we had run +in any one else, he'd have come forward and sworn that he heard Loudwater +snore after Roper had seen that person leave the Castle. I'm beginning to +think that he's one of the most able murderers I ever heard of. I +certainly never came across one in my own experience who was a patch on +him," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Don't be in such a hurry to lose hope. There must be some way of getting +at him--there must be," said Mr. Carrington obstinately. + +"I'm glad to hear it," said Mr. Flexen in a tone of utter scepticism. + +They walked on, Mr. Flexen reflecting on Mr. Manley's ability, Mr. +Carrington cudgelling his brains for a method of bringing his crime home +to him. At the door of his office Mr. Flexen held out his hand. + +"Come along in. I've got an idea," said Mr. Carrington. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +Mr. Flexen shrugged his shoulders with a sceptical air. He had not formed +a high opinion of Mr. Carrington's intelligence. However, he followed him +into his office and sat down, ready to give him his best attention. + +Mr. Carrington wore a really hopeful expression, and he said: "My idea is +that we should get at Manley through Mrs. Manley." + +"I'm not at all keen on getting at a man through his wife," said Mr. +Flexen rather dolefully. "But in this case it's manifestly our duty to +leave nothing untried. Murder for money is murder for money." + +"I should think it _was_ our duty!" cried Mr. Carrington with emphasis. + +"And there are three innocent people under suspicion of having committed +the murder. Fire away. How is it to be done?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"The new Lord Loudwater must bring an action against Mrs. Manley for the +return of that twelve thousand pounds on the ground that it was obtained +from the late Lord Loudwater by fraud--as it certainly was," said Mr. +Carrington, leaning forward with shining eyes and speaking very +distinctly. + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen. But his expression was not hopeful. + +"Once we get her in the witness-box we establish the fact that Lord +Loudwater had made up his mind to halve her allowance, for she'll have to +give the reason for her visiting him so late that night; and so we get +Manley's motive for committing the murder also established." + +"I see. But will you be able to use her evidence in the first trial at +the second?" said Mr. Flexen doubtfully. + +"That's the idea," said Mr. Carrington triumphantly. + +"You think it can be worked?" + +"We can have a jolly good try at it," said Mr. Carrington, rubbing his +hands together, and his square, massive face was rather malignant in +its triumph. + +Mr. Flexen did not look triumphant, or even hopeful. + +"But will you get the new Lord Loudwater to bring this action?" he said. + +"Why, of course. There's the money for one thing, and when he sees how +important it is from the point of view of getting at Manley, he can't +refuse," said Mr. Carrington confidently. + +"There isn't the money--not necessarily. He might get back the twelve +thousand pounds and have to pay Mrs. Manley six hundred a year for forty +or fifty years. She's a healthy-looking woman," said Mr. Flexen. "I take +it that the late Lord Loudwater had property of his own against which she +could claim." + +"Oh, of course, she could do that," said Mr. Carrington, and there was +some diminution of the triumphant expression. + +"She would," said Mr. Flexen. "Then you'll have to get over his objection +to incurring a considerable amount of odium. It will look bad for a man +of his wealth to try to recover from a lady a sum of money to which every +one will consider her entitled." + +"Oh, but it was obtained by fraud," said Mr. Carrington. + +"If you were sure of proving that, it would make a difference in the way +people would regard it. But you're not sure of proving it--not by a long +chalk. And you can't assure your client that you are. There'll be a lot +of conflicting evidence about that signature, as Harrison pretty clearly +showed. If you don't prove it, your client will be landed with the costs +of the case and incur still greater odium." + +"Ah, but he is bound to take the risk to bring his cousin's murderer to +justice," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Is he?" said Flexen dryly. "What kind of terms was he on with his +murdered cousin?" + +"Well, I must say I didn't expect you to ask that question," said Mr. +Carrington pettishly. "What kind of terms was the late Lord Loudwater +likely to be on with his heir? They hated one another like poison." + +"I thought as much," said Mr. Flexen. "And what kind of a man is the new +man--anything like his dead cousin?" + +"Oh, well, all the Loudwaters are pretty much of a muchness. But the +present man is a better man all round--better manners and better +brains," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Better brains, and you think he'll be willing to celebrate his +succession to the peerage by a first-class scandal of this kind, a +scandal which may bring him this money, but which will certainly bring +odium on him?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"When it's a case of bringing a murderer to justice," said Mr. Carrington +obstinately. + +"The murderer of a man he hated like poison? I should think that he'd +want to see his way pretty clear. And it isn't clear--not by any means. +For there's precious little chance of Mrs. Manley's giving Lord +Loudwater's threat to halve her allowance as the reason of her visit to +him that night. In fact, there's no chance at all. Manley will see to +that. Once attack the genuineness of that signature, and you open his +eyes to his danger. She'll come into the witness-box with quite another +reason for that visit, and a good reason too. Manley will find it for +her," said Mr. Flexen with conviction. "But there's the quarrel. She +can't get over that quarrel," said Mr. Carrington stubbornly. + +"She'll deny the quarrel. It's only Mrs. Carruthers' word against hers. +Besides, Mrs. Carruthers heard what she did hear through a closed door. +It will be so easy to make out that she made a mistake." + +"You seem to take it for granted that Mrs. Manley will commit perjury at +that young scoundrel's bidding," snapped Mr. Carrington. + +"I take it for granted that she'll be a woman fighting to save her +husband. And I'm also sure that there'll be precious few mistakes in +tactics made in the fight. I think that all you'll get out of the trial +will be a strong presumption that Lord Loudwater committed suicide. I'd +bet that that is the line Manley will take. And she'll make a thundering +good witness for him. She's a good-looking woman, with plenty of +intelligence." + +Mr. Carrington gazed at him with unhappy eyes. His square, massive face +had lost utterly its expression of triumph. + +"But hang it all!" he cried. "What are we going to do? Knowing what we +know, we can't sit still and do nothing." + +"I can't see _anything_ we can do," said Mr. Flexen frankly, and he rose. +"You have demonstrated that Manley's position is impregnable." + +He took his leave of the dejected lawyer. + +Outside Mr. Carrington's office he stood still, hesitating. He could have +caught a train back to Low Wycombe, but he could not bring himself to +take it. He could not at once tear himself away from London and Mr. +Manley. He must sleep on the new facts in the Loudwater case. He went to +his club, engaged a bedroom, and dined there. + +Mr. and Mrs. Manley dined at their flat. Mr. Manley talked during dinner +with elegance and vivacity. The maid brought in the coffee and went back +to the kitchen. + +As he lighted his wife's cigarette, Mr. Manley said in a careless tone: +"What did Flexen want to see you about?" + +Helena gave him a full account of her interview with Mr. Flexen, his +questions and her answers. + +"I guessed that you were the _Daily Wire's_ mysterious woman," he said. +"I saw how frightened you were when it came out. But, of course, as you +didn't say anything about it, I didn't." + +"That is so like you," she murmured. + +"One human being should never intrude on another," said Mr. Manley with a +noble air. + +"It might be your motto," she said, looking at him with admiring eyes. +She paused; then she added: "And I was frightened--horribly frightened. I +couldn't sleep. I was going to tell you about it, but I didn't like to. +You gave me no opening. Then the letter came from my bankers--about the +twelve thousand pounds--and it made it all right. It made it clear that I +had no reason to murder Loudwater." + +"Of course," said Mr. Manley. "But in the event of any new +developments, I should not admit that Lord Loudwater talked of halving +your allowance, or that you quarrelled with him. In fact, I shouldn't +let Flexen interview you again at all. In an affair of this kind you +can't be ton careful." + +"I won't let him interview me again," said Helena with decision. + +Mr. Flexen did not try to interview her again. But at eleven the next +morning he called on Mr. Manley. He had very little hope of effecting +anything by the call, though he meant to try. But he had the keenest +desire to scrutinize him again and carefully in the light of the new +facts he had discovered. + +Mr. Manley kept him waiting awhile in the drawing-room; then the maid +ushered him into Mr. Manley's study. Mr. Manley was sitting at a +table, at work on his play. He greeted Mr. Flexen with a rather +absent-minded air. + +Mr. Flexen surveyed him with very intent, measuring eyes. At once he +perceived that he had rather missed Mr. Manley's jaw in giving attention +to his admirable forehead. It was, indeed, the jaw of a brute. He could +see him drive the knife into Lord Loudwater, and walk out of the +smoking-room with an ugly, contented smile on his face. + +He had little hopes of bringing off anything in the nature of a bluff; +but he said, in a rasping tone: "We've discovered that the signature of +Lord Loudwater's letter of instructions to his bankers to pay that cheque +for twelve thousand pounds into your wife's account was forged." + +Mr. Manley looked at him blankly for a moment. There was no expression at +all on his face. Then it filled slowly with an expression of surprise. + +"Rehearsed, by Jove!" murmured Mr. Flexen under his breath, and he could +not help admiring the skilful management of that expression of surprise. +It was so unhasty and natural. + +"My dear fellow, what on earth are you driving at? I saw him write it +myself," said Mr. Manley in an indulgent tone. + +"You forged it," snapped Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley looked at him with a new surprise which changed slowly to +pity. Then he said in such a tone as one might use to an unreasonable +child: "My good chap, what on earth should I forge it _for?_" + +"You knew that he was going to halve Mrs. Truslove's allowance. You were +bent on marrying a woman with money. You took this way of ensuring that +she had money, forged the letter, and murdered Lord Loudwater," said Mr. +Flexen on a rising inflexion. + +"By Jove! I see what you're after. It shows how infernally silly a +schoolboy joke can be! Lord Loudwater never talked of halving my wife's +allowance. That was an invention of mine. I told her that he was doing so +just to tease her," said Mr. Manley firmly, with a note of contrition in +his voice. + +Mr. Flexen opened his mouth a little way. It was a superb invention. It +left Mrs. Manley free to go into the witness-box to tell the story she +had told him. It knocked the bottom clean out of Carrington's case. + +"What really happened was that Lord Loudwater was grousing about the +allowance--at being reminded every six months that he had behaved like a +cad. I suggested that he should pay her a lump sum and be done with the +business. He jumped at the idea. The cheque had come from his +stockbrokers that morning; he directed me to write that letter of +instructions to his bankers; I wrote it, and he signed it. There you have +the whole business." + +"I don't believe a word of it!" cried Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley rose with an air of great dignity and said: "My good chap, I +can excuse your temper. It was an ingenious theory, and it must be very +annoying to have it upset. But I'm fed up with this Loudwater business. +I've got here"--he tapped the manuscript on the table--"a drama worth +fifty of it. Out of working hours I don't mind talking that affair over +with you; in them I won't." + +Mr. Flexen rose and said: "You're undoubtedly the most accomplished +scoundrel I've ever come across." + +"If you will have it so," said Mr. Manley patiently. Then he smiled and +added: "Praise from an expert--" + +They turned to see Mrs. Manley standing in the doorway, her lips parted, +her eyes dilated in a growing consternation. + +She stepped forward. Mr. Flexen slipped round her and fairly fled. + +She looked at Mr. Manley with horror-stricken eyes and said: "What--what +did he mean, Herbert?" + +"He meant what he said. But what it really means is that I won't let him +hang that wretched James Hutchings," said Mr. Manley with a noble air. + + * * * * * + +Three months later, on the first night of Mr. Manley's play, Colonel +Grey came upon Mr. Flexen in the lounge of the Haymarket, between the +second and third acts. Both of them praised the play warmly, and there +came a pause. + +Then Colonel Grey said: "I suppose you've given up all hope of solving +the problem of Loudwater's death." + +"Oh, I solved it three months ago. It was Manley," said Mr. Flexen. + +"By Jove!" said Colonel Grey softly. + +"Not a doubt of it. I'll tell you all about it one of these days," +said Mr. Flexen, for the bell rang to warn them that the third act was +about to begin. + +In the corridor Colonel Grey said: "Queer that he should have dropped +down dead in the street a week before this success." + +"Well, he was discharged from the Army for having a bad heart. But it is +a bit queer," said Mr. Flexen. + +"The mills of God," said Colonel Grey. + +"Looks like it," said Mr. Flexen. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Loudwater Mystery, by Edgar Jepson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOUDWATER MYSTERY *** + +This file should be named 7loud10.txt or 7loud10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 7loud11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 7loud10a.txt + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan +and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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Do not change or edit the +header without written permission. + +Please read the "legal small print," and other information about the +eBook and Project Gutenberg at the bottom of this file. Included is +important information about your specific rights and restrictions in +how the file may be used. You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**eBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These eBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers!***** + + +Title: The Loudwater Mystery + +Author: Edgar Jepson + +Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9808] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on October 19, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOUDWATER MYSTERY *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan +and PG Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + THE LOUDWATER MYSTERY + + BY EDGAR JEPSON + + 1920 + + + + +CHAPTER I + + +Lord Loudwater was paying attention neither to his breakfast nor to the +cat Melchisidec. Absorbed in a leader in _The Times_ newspaper, now and +again he tugged at his red-brown beard in order to quicken his +comprehension of the weighty phrases of the leader-writer; now and again +he made noises, chiefly with his nose, expressive of disgust. Lady +Loudwater paid no attention to these noises. She did not even raise her +eyes to her husband's face. She ate her breakfast with a thoughtful air, +her brow puckered by a faint frown. + +She also paid no attention to her favourite, Melchisidec. Melchisidec, +unduly excited by the smell of grilled sole, came to Lord Loudwater, rose +on his hind legs, laid his paws on his trousers, and stuck some claws +into his thigh. It was no more than gentle, arresting pricks; but the +tender nobleman sprang from his chair with a short howl, kicked with +futile violence a portion of the empty air which Melchisidec had just +vacated, staggered, and nearly fell. + +Lady Loudwater did not laugh; but she did cough. + +Her husband, his face a furious crimson, glared at her with reddish eyes, +and swore violently at her and the cat. + +Lady Loudwater rose, her face flushed, her lips trembling, picked up +Melchisidec, and walked out of the room. Lord Loudwater scowled at the +closed door, sat down, and went on with his breakfast. + +James Hutchings, the butler, came quietly into the room, took one of the +smaller dishes from the sideboard and Lady Loudwater's teapot from the +table. He went quietly out of the room, pausing at the door to scowl at +his master's back. Lady Loudwater finished her breakfast in the +sitting-room of her suite of rooms on the first floor. She was no longer +inattentive to Melchisidec. + +During her breakfast she put all consideration of her husband's behaviour +out of her mind. As she smoked a cigarette after breakfast she considered +it for a little while. She often had to consider it. She came to the +conclusion to which she had often come before: that she owed him nothing +whatever. She came to the further conclusion that she detested him. She +had far too good a brow not to be able to see a fact clearly. She wished +more heartily than ever that she had never married him. It had been a +grievous mistake; and it seemed likely to last a life-time--her +life-time. The last five ancestors of her husband had lived to be eighty. +His father would doubtless have lived to be eighty too, had he not broken +his neck in the hunting-field at the age of fifty-four. On the other +hand, none of the Quaintons, her own family, had reached the age of +sixty. Lord Loudwater was thirty-five; she was twenty-two; he would +therefore survive her by at least seven years. She would certainly be +bowed down all her life under this grievous burden. + +It was an odd calculation for a young married woman to make; but Lady +Loudwater came of an uncommon family, which had produced more brilliant, +irresponsible, and passably unscrupulous men than any other of the +leading families in England. Her father had been one of them. She took +after him. Moreover, Lord Loudwater would have induced odd reveries in +any wife. He had been intolerable since the second week of their +honeymoon. Wholly without power of self-restraint, the furious outbursts +of his vile temper had been consistently revolting. She once more told +herself that something would have to be done about it--not on the +instant, however. At the moment there appeared to her to be months to do +it in. She dropped her cigarette end into the ash-tray, and with it any +further consideration of the manners and disposition of Lord Loudwater. + +She lit another cigarette and let her thoughts turn to that far more +appealing subject, Colonel Antony Grey. They turned to him readily and +wholly. In less than three minutes she was seeing his face and hearing +certain tones in his voice with amazing clearness. Once she looked at the +clock impatiently. It was half-past ten. She would not see him till +three--four and a half hours. It seemed a long while to her. However, +she could go on thinking about him. She did. + +While she considered her ill-tempered husband her eyes had been hard and +almost shallow. While she considered Colonel Grey, they grew soft and +deep. Her lips had been set and almost thin; now they grew most kissable. + +Lord Loudwater finished his breakfast, the scowl on his face fading +slowly to a frown. He lit a cigar and with a moody air went to his +smoking-room. The criminal carelessness of the cat Melchisidec +still rankled. + +As he entered the room, half office and half smoking-room, Mr. Herbert +Manley, his secretary, bade him good morning. Lord Loudwater returned his +greeting with a scowl. + +Mr. Herbert Manley had one of those faces which begin well and end badly. +He had a fine forehead, lofty and broad, a well-cut, gently-curving-nose, +a slack, thick-lipped mouth, always a little open, a heavy, animal jaw, +and the chin of an eagle. His fine, black hair was thin on the temples. +His moustache was thin and straggled. His black eyes were as good as his +brow, intelligent, observant, and alert. It was plain that had his lips +been thinner and his chin larger he would not have been the secretary of +Lord Loudwater--or of any one else. He would have been a masterless man. +The success of two one-act plays on the stage of the music-halls had +given him the firm hope of one day becoming a masterless man as a +successful dramatist. His post gave him the leisure to write plays. But +for the fact that it brought him into such frequent contact with the Lord +Loudwater it would have been a really pleasant post: the food was +excellent; the wine was good; the library was passable; and the servants, +with the exception of James Hutchings, liked and respected him. He had +the art of making himself valued (at far more than his real worth, said +his enemies), and his air of importance continuously impressed them. + +With a patient air he began to discuss the morning's letters, and ask for +instructions. Lord Loudwater was, as often happened, uncommonly captious +about the letters. He had not recovered from the shock the inconsiderate +Melchisidec had given his nerves. The instructions he gave were somewhat +muddled; and when Mr. Manley tried to get them clearer, his employer +swore at him for an idiot. Mr. Manley persisted firmly through much abuse +till he did get them clear. He had come to consider his employer's furies +an unfortunate weakness which had to be endured by the holder of the post +he found so advantageous. He endured them with what stoicism he might. + +Lord Loudwater in a bad temper always produced a strong impression of +redness for a man whose colouring was merely red-brown. Owing to the fact +that his fierce, protruding blue eyes were red-rimmed and somewhat +bloodshot, in moments of emotion they shone with a curious red glint, and +his florid face flushed a deeper red. In these moments Mr. Manley had a +feeling that he was dealing with a bad-tempered red bull. His employer +made very much the same impression on other people, but few of them had +the impression of bullness so clear and so complete as did Mr. Manley. +Lady Loudwater, on the other hand, felt always, whether her husband was +ramping or quiet, that she was dealing with a bad-tempered bull. + +Presently they came to the end of the letters. Lord Loudwater lit another +cigar, and scowled thoughtfully. Mr. Manley gazed at his scowling face +and wondered idly whether he would ever light on another human being whom +he would detest so heartily as he detested his employer. He thought it +indeed unlikely. Still, when he became a successful dramatist there might +be an actor-manager-- + +Then Lord Loudwater said: "Did you tell Mrs. Truslove that after +September her allowance would be reduced to three hundred a year?" + +"Yes," said Mr. Manley. + +"What did she say?" + +Mr. Manley hesitated; then he said diplomatically: "She did not seem +to like it." + +"What did she _say_?" cried Lord Loudwater in a sudden, startling bellow, +and his eyes shone red. + +Mr. Manley winced and said quickly: "She said it was just like you." + +"Just like me? Hey? And what did she mean by that?" cried Lord Loudwater +loudly and angrily. + +Mr. Manley expressed utter ignorance by looking blank and shrugging his +shoulders. + +"The jade! She's had six hundred a year for more than two years. Did she +think it would go on for ever?" cried his employer. + +"No," said Mr. Manley. + +"And why didn't she think it would go on for ever? Hey?" said Lord +Loudwater in a challenging tone. + +"Because there wasn't an actual deed of settlement," said Mr. Manley. + +"The ungrateful jade! I've a good mind to stop it altogether!" cried +his employer. + +Mr. Manley said nothing. His face was blank; it neither approved nor +disapproved the suggestion. + +Lord Loudwater scowled at him and said: "I expect she said she wished +she'd never had anything to do with me." + +"No," said Mr. Manley. + +"I'll bet that's what she thinks," growled Lord Loudwater. + +Mr. Manley let the suggestion pass without comment. His face was blank. + +"And what's she going to do about it?" said Lord Loudwater in a tone of +challenge. + +"She's going to see you about it." + +"I'm damned if she is!" cried Lord Loudwater hastily, in a much less +assured tone. + +Mr. Manley permitted a faint, sceptical smile to wreathe his lips. + +"What are you grinning at? If you think she'll gain anything by doing +that, she won't," said Lord Loudwater, with a blustering truculence. + +Mr. Manley wondered. Helena Truslove was a lady of considerable force of +character. He suspected that if Lord Loudwater had ever been afraid of a +fellow-creature, he must at times have been afraid of Helena Truslove. +He fancied that now he was not nearly as fearless as he sounded. He did +not say so. + +His employer was silent, buried in scowling reflection. Mr. Manley gazed +at him without any great intentness, and came to the conclusion that he +did not merely detest him, he loathed him. + +Presently he said: "There's a cheque from Hanbury and Johnson for twelve +thousand and forty-six pounds for the rubber shares your lordship sold. +It wants endorsing." + +He handed the cheque across the table to Lord Loudwater. Lord +Loudwater dipped his pen in the ink, transfixed a struggling +bluebottle, and drew it out. + +"Why the devil don't you see that the ink is fresh?" he roared. + +"It is fresh. The bluebottle must have just fallen into it," said Mr. +Manley in an unruffled tone. + +Lord Loudwater cursed the bluebottle, restored it to the ink-pot, +endorsed the cheque, and tossed it across the table to Mr. Manley. + +"By the way," said Mr. Manley, with some hesitation, "there's another +anonymous letter." + +"Why didn't you burn it? I told you to burn 'em all," snapped his +employer. + +"This one is not about you. It's about Hutchings," said Mr. Manley in an +explanatory tone. + +"Hutchings? What about Hutchings?" + +"You'd better read it," said Mr. Manley, handing him the letter. "It +seems to be from some spiteful woman." + +The letter was indeed written in female handwriting, and it accused the +butler, wordily enough, of having received a commission from Lord +Loudwater's wine merchants on a purchase of fifty dozen of champagne +which he had bought from them a month before. It further stated that he +had received a like commission on many other such purchases. + +Lord Loudwater read it, scowling, sprang up from his chair with his eyes +protruding further than usual, and cried: "The scoundrel! The blackguard! +I'll teach him! I'll gaol him!" + +He dashed at the electric bell by the fireplace, set his thumb on it, and +kept it there. + +Holloway, the second footman, came running. The servants knew their +master's ring. They always ran to answer it, after some discussion as to +which of them should go. + +He entered and said: "Yes, m'lord?" + +"Send that scoundrel Hutchings to me! Send him at once!" roared +his master. + +"Yes, m'lord," said Holloway, and hurried away. + +He found James Hutchings in his pantry, told him that their master wanted +him, and added that he was in a tearing rage. + +Hutchings, who never expected his sanguine and irascible master to be in +any other mood, finished the paragraph of the article in the _Daily +Telegraph_ he was reading, put on his coat, and went to the study. His +delay gave Lord Loudwater's wrath full time to mature. + +When the butler entered his master shook his fist at him and roared: "You +scoundrel! You infernal scoundrel! You've been robbing me! You've been +robbing me for years, you blackguard!" + +James Hutchings met the charge with complete calm. He shook his head and +said in a surly tone: "No; I haven't done anything of the kind, m'lord." + +The flat denial infuriated his master yet more. He spluttered and was for +a while incoherent. Then he became again articulate and said: "You have, +you rogue! You took a commission--a secret commission on that fifty dozen +of champagne I bought last month. You've been doing it for years." + +James Hutchings' surly face was transformed. It grew malignant; his +fierce, protruding, red-rimmed blue eyes sparkled balefully, and he +flushed to a redness as deep as that of his master. He knew at once who +had betrayed him, and he was furious--at the betrayal. At the same time, +he was not greatly alarmed; he had never received a cheque from the wine +merchants; all their payments to him had been in cash, and he had always +cherished a warm contempt for his master. + +"I haven't," he said fiercely. "And if I had it would be quite +regular--only a perquisite." + +For the hundredth time Mr. Manley remarked the likeness between Lord +Loudwater and his butler. They had the same fierce, protruding, +red-rimmed blue eyes, the same narrow, low forehead, the same large ears. +Hutchings' hair was a darker brown than Lord Loudwater's, and his lips +were thinner. But Mr. Manley was sure that, had he worn a beard instead +of whiskers, it would have been difficult for many people to be sure +which was Lord Loudwater and which his butler. + +Lord Loudwater again spluttered; then he roared: "A perquisite! What +about the Corrupt Practices Act? It was passed for rogues like you! +I'll show you all about perquisites! You'll find yourself in gaol +inside of a month." + +"I shan't. There isn't a word of truth in it, or a scrap of evidence," +said Hutchings fiercely. + +"Evidence? I'll find evidence all right!" cried his master. "And if I +don't, I'll, anyhow, discharge you without a character. I'll get you one +way or another, my fine fellow! I'll teach you to rob me!" + +"I haven't robbed your lordship," said Hutchings in a less surly tone. + +He was much more moved by the threat of discharge than the threat of +prosecution. + +"I tell you you have. And you can clear out of this. I'll wire to town at +once for another butler--an honest butler. You'll clear out the moment he +comes. Pack up and be ready to go. And when you do go, I'll give you +twenty-four hours to clear out of the country before I put the police on +your track," cried Lord Loudwater. + +Mr. Manley observed that it was exactly like him to take no risk, in +spite of his fury, of any loss of comfort from the lack of a butler. The +instinct of self-protection was indeed strong in him. + +"Not a bit of it. You've told me to go, and I'm going at once--this very +day. The police will find me at my father's for the next fortnight," said +Hutchings with a sneer. "And when I go to London I'll leave my address." + +"A lot of good your going to London will do you. I'll see you never get +another place in this country," snarled Lord Loudwater. + +Hutchings gave him a look of vindictive malignity so intense that it +made Mr. Manley quite uncomfortable, turned, and went out of the room. + +Lord Loudwater said: "I'll teach the scoundrel to rob me! Write at once +for a new butler." + +He took some lumps of sugar from a jar on the mantelpiece, and went +through the door which opened into the library. + +In the library he stopped and shouted back: "If Morton comes about the +timber, I shall be in the stables." + +Then he went through one of the long windows of the library into the +garden and took his way to the stables. As he drew near them the scowl +cleared from his face. But it remained a formidable face; it did not grow +pleasant. None the less, he spent a pleasant hour in the stables, petting +his horses. He was fond of horses, not of cats, and he never bullied and +seldom abused his horses as he abused and bullied his fellow men and +women. This was the result of his experience. He had learnt from it that +he might bully and abuse his human dependents with impunity. As a boy he +had also bullied and abused his horses. But in his eighteenth year he had +been savaged by a young horse he had maltreated, and the lesson had stuck +in his mind. It was a simple, obtuse mind, but it had formed the theory +that he got more out of human beings, more deference and service, by +bullying them and more out of horses by treating them kindly. Besides, he +liked horses. + +Mr. Manley did not set about answering the letters at once. He reflected +for a while on the likeness between Hutchings and his master. He thought +the physical likeness of little interest. There was a whole clan of +Hutchingses in the villages and woods round the castle, the bulk of them +gamekeepers; and there had been for generations. Mr. Manley was much more +interested in the resemblance in character between Hutchings and Lord +Loudwater. Hutchings, probably under the pressure of circumstances, was +much less of a bore than his master, but quite as much of a bully. Also, +he was more intelligent, and consequently more dangerous. Mr. Manley +would on no account have had him look at him with the intense malignity +with which he had looked at his master. Doubtless the butler had far +greater self-control than Lord Loudwater; but if ever he did lose it it +would be uncommonly bad for Lord Loudwater. + +It would be interesting to find in the Loudwater archives the common +ancestor to whom they both cast so directly back. He fancied that it must +be the third Baron. At any rate, both had his protruding blue eyes, +softened in his portrait doubtless by the natural politeness of the +fashionable painter. Was it worth his while to look up the record of the +third Lord Loudwater? He decided that, if he found himself at sufficient +leisure, he would. Then he decided that he was glad that Hutchins was +going; the butler had shown him but little civility. Then he set about +answering the letters. + +When he had finished them he took up the stockbroker's cheque and +considered it with a thoughtful frown. He had never before seen a cheque +for so large a sum; and it interested him. Then he wrote a short note of +instructions to Lord Loudwater's bankers. The ink in his fountain-pen ran +out as he came to the end of it, and he signed it with the pen with which +Lord Loudwater had endorsed the cheque. He put the cheque into the +envelope he had already addressed, put stamps on all the letters, carried +them to the post-box on a table in the hall, went through the library out +into the garden, and smoked a cigarette with a somewhat languid air. Then +he went into the library and took up his task of cataloguing the books at +the point at which he had stopped the day before. He often paused to dip +at length into a book before entering it in the catalogue. He did not +believe in hasty work. + + + + +CHAPTER II + + +Lord Loudwater came to lunch in a better temper than that in which he had +left the breakfast-table. He had ridden eight miles round and about his +estate, and the ride had soothed that seat of the evil humours--his +liver. Lady Loudwater had been careful to shut Melchisidec in her +boudoir; James Hutchings had no desire in the world to see his master's +florid face or square back, and had instructed Wilkins and Holloway, the +first and second footmen, to wait at table. Lord Loudwater therefore +could, without any ruffling of his sensibilities, give all his thought to +his food, and he did. The cooking at the castle was always excellent. If +it was not, he sent for the chef and spoke to him about it. + +There was little conversation at lunch. Lady Loudwater never spoke to her +husband first, save on rare occasions about a matter of importance. It +was not that she perceived any glamour of royalty about him; she did not +wish to hear his voice. Besides, she had never found a conversational +opening so harmless that he could not contrive, were it his whim, to be +offensive about it. Besides, she had at the moment nothing to say to him. + +In truth, owing to the fact that she took so many practically silent +meals with him, she was becoming rather a gourmet. The food, naturally +the most important fact, had become really the most important fact at the +meals they took together. She had come to realize this. It was the only +advantage she had ever derived from her intercourse with her husband. + +At this lunch, however, she did not pay as much attention to the food as +usual, not indeed as much as it deserved. Her mind would stray from it to +Colonel Grey. She wondered what he would tell her about herself that +afternoon. He was always discovering possibilities in her which she had +never discovered for herself. She only perceived their existence when he +pointed them out to her. Then they became obvious. Also, he was always +discovering fresh facts, attractive facts, about her--about her eyes and +lips and hair and figure. He imparted each discovery to her as he made +it, without delay, and with the genuine enthusiasm of a discoverer. Of +course, he should not have done this. It was, indeed, wrong. But he had +assured her that he could not help it, that he was always blurted things +out. Since it was a habit of long standing, now probably ingrained, it +was useless to reproach him with any great severity for his frankness. +She did not do so. + +For his part, the Lord Loudwater had but little to say to his wife. She +was fond of Melchisidec and indifferent to horses. For the greater part +of the meal he was hardly aware that she was at the other end of the +table. Immersed in his food and its deglutition, he was hardly sensible +of the outside world at all. Once, disturbed by Holloway's removing his +empty plate, he told her that he had seen a dog-fox on Windy Ridge; +again, when Holloway handed the cheese-straws to him, he told her that +Merry Belle's black colt had a cold. Her two replies, "Oh, did you?" and +"Has he?" appeared to fall on deaf ears. He did not continue either +conversation. + +Then Lord Loudwater broke into an eloquent monologue. Wilkins had poured +out a glass of port for both of them to drink with their cheese-straws. +Lord Loudwater finished his cheese-straws, took a long sip from his +glass, rolled it lovingly over his tongue, gulped it down with a hideous +grimace, banged down his fist on the table, and roared in a terrible, +anguished voice: + +"It's corked! It's corked! It's that scoundrel Hutchings! This is his way +of taking it out of me for sacking him. He's done it on purpose, the +scoundrel! Now I will gaol him! Hanged if I don't!" + +"I'll get another bottle, m'lord," said Wilkins, catching up the +decanter, and hurrying towards the door. + +"Get it! And be quick about it! And tell that scoundrel I'll gaol him!" +cried Lord Loudwater. + +Wilkins rushed from the room bearing in his hand the decanter of +offending port; Holloway followed him to help. + +Lady Loudwater sipped a little port from her glass. She was rather +inclined to take no one's word for anything which she could herself +verify. Then she took another sip. + +Then she said; "Are you sure this wine's corked?" + +Corked wine at the end of a really good meal is a bitter blow to any man, +an exceedingly bitter blow to a man of Lord Loudwater's sensitiveness in +such matters. + +"Am I sure? Hey? Am I sure? Yes! I am sure, you little fool!" he +bellowed. "What do you know about wine? Talk about things you +understand!" + +Lady Loudwater's face was twisted by a faint spasm of hate which left it +flushed. She would never grow used to being bellowed at for a fool. Once +more her husband's refusal to let her take her meals apart from him +seemed monstrous. Hardly ever did she rise from one at which she had not +been abused and insulted. She realized indeed that she had been foolish +to ask the question. But why should she sit tongue-tied before the brute? + +She took another sip and said quietly: "It isn't corked." + +Then she turned cold with fright. + +Lord Loudwater could not believe his ears. It could not be that his wife +had contradicted him flatly. It--could--_not_--be. + +He was still incredulous, breathing heavily, when the door opened and +James Hutchings appeared on the threshold. In his right hand he held the +decanter of offending port, in his left a sound cork. + +He said firmly: "This wine isn't corked, m'lord. Its flavour is perfect. +Besides, a cork like this couldn't cork it." + +A less sensitive man than Lord Loudwater might have risen to the +double emergency. Lord Loudwater could not. He sat perfectly still. +But his eyes rolled so horribly that the Lady Loudwater started from +her chair, uttered a faint scream, and fairly ran through the long +window into the garden. + +James Hutchings advanced to the table, thumped the decanter down on +it--no way to treat an old vintage port--at Lord Loudwater's right hand, +walked out of the room, and shut the door firmly behind him. + +In the great hall he smiled a triumphant, malevolent smile. Then he +called Wilkins and Holloway, who stood together in the middle of it, +cowardly dogs and shirkers, and strode past them to the door to the +servants' quarters. + +A few moments later Lord Loudwater rose to his feet and staggered +dizzily along to the other end of the table. He picked up his wife's +half-emptied glass and sipped the port. It was _not_ corked. It was +incredible! He would never forgive her! + +He rang the bell. Both Wilkins and Holloway answered it. He bade them +tell Hutchings to pack his belongings and go at once. If he were not out +of the castle by four o'clock, they were to kick him out. Then he went, +still scowling, to the stables. + +Mr. Manley had already finished his lunch. Halfway through his +after-lunch pipe he rose, took his hat and stick, and set out to pay a +visit to Mrs. Truslove. + +As he came out of the park gates he came upon the Rev. George Stebbing, +the _locum tenens_ in charge of the parish, for the vicar was away on a +holiday, enjoying a respite from his perpetual struggle with the patron +of the living, Lord Loudwater. + +They fell into step and for a while discussed the local weather and local +affairs. Then Mr. Manley, who had been gifted by Heaven with a lively +imagination wholly untrammelled by any straining passion for exactitude, +entertained Mr. Stebbing with a vivid account of his experiences as +leader of the first Great Push. Mr. Manley was one of the many rather +stout, soft men who in different parts of Great Britain will till their +dying days entertain acquaintances with vivid accounts of their +experiences as leaders of the Great Pushes. Like that of most of them, +his war experience, before his weak heart had procured him his discharge +from the army, had consisted wholly of office work in England. His +account of his strenuous fighting lacked nothing of fire or +picturesqueness on that account. He was too modest to say in so many +words that but for his martial qualities there would have been no Great +Push at all, and that any success it had had was due to those martial +qualities, but that was the impression he left on Mr. Stebbing's simple +and rather plastic mind. When therefore they parted at the crossroads, +Mr. Manley went on his way in a pleasant content at having once more made +himself valued; and Mr. Stebbing went on his way feeling thankful that he +had been brought into friendly contact with a really able hero. Both of +them were the happier for their chance meeting. + +Mr. Manley found Helena Truslove in her drawing-room, and when the door +closed behind the maid who had ushered him into it, he embraced her with +affectionate warmth. Then he held her out at arm's-length, and for the +several hundredth time admired her handsome, clear-skinned, +high-coloured, gipsy face, her black, rather wild eyes, and the black +hair wreathed round her head in so heavy a mass. + +"It has been an awful long time between the kisses," he said. + +She sighed a sigh of content and laughed softly. Then she said: "I +sometimes think that you must have had a great deal of practice." + +"No," said Mr. Manley firmly. "I have never had occasion to be in +love before." + +He put her back into the chair from which he had lifted her, sat down +facing her, and gazed at her with adoring eyes. He was truly very much in +love with her. + +They were excellent complements the one of the other. If Mr. Manley had +the brains for two--indeed, he had the brains for half a dozen--she had +the character for two. Her chin was very unlike the chin of an eagle. She +was not, indeed, lacking in brains. Her brow forbade the supposition. But +hers was rather the practical intelligence, his the creative. That she +had the force of character, on occasion the fierceness, which he lacked, +was no small source of her attraction for him. + +"And how was the hog this morning?" she said, ready to be soothing. + +"The hog" was their pet name for Lord Loudwater. + +"Beastly. He's an utterly loathsome fellow," said Mr. Manley with +conviction. + +"Oh, no; not utterly--at any rate, not if you're independent of him," she +protested. + +"Does he ever come into contact with any one who is not dependent on him? +I believe he shuns them like the pest." + +"Not into close contact," she said--"at any rate, nowadays. But +I've known him to do good-natured things; and then he's very fond of +his horses." + +"That makes the way he treats every human being who is in any way +dependent on him all the more disgusting," said Mr. Manley firmly. + +"Oh, I don't know. It's something to be fond of animals," she said +tolerantly. + +"This morning he had a devil of a row with Hutchings, the butler, you +know, and discharged him." + +"That was a silly thing to do. Hutchings is not at all a good person to +have a row with," she said quickly. "I should say that he was a far more +dangerous brute than Loudwater and much more intelligent. Still, I don't +know what he could do. What was the row about?" + +"Some woman sent Loudwater an anonymous letter accusing Hutchings of +having received commissions from the wine merchants." + +"That would be Elizabeth Twitcher's mother. Elizabeth and Hutchings were +engaged, and about ten days ago he jilted her," said Mrs. Truslove. "I +suppose that when he was in love with her he bragged about these +commissions to her and she told her mother." + +"Her mother has certainly taken it out of him for jilting her daughter. +But what an unsavoury place the castle is!" said Mr. Manley. + +"With such a master--what can you expect?" said Mrs. Truslove. "Did the +hog say anything more about halving my allowance?" + +Mr. Manley frowned. A few days before he had been greatly surprised to +learn from Lord Loudwater that the bulk of Helena Truslove's income was +an allowance from him. The matter had greatly exercised his mind. Why +should his employer allow her six hundred a year? It was a matter which +should be cleared up. + +He said slowly: "Yes, he did. He asked what you said when I told you that +he was going to halve it, and he did not seem to like the idea of your +seeing him about it." + +"He'll like my seeing him about it even less than the idea of it," +said Mrs. Truslove firmly, and there was a sudden gleam in her wild +black eyes. + +Mr. Manley looked at her, frowning faintly. Then he said in a rather +hesitating manner: "I've never asked you about it. But why does the hog +make you this allowance?" + +"That's my dark past," she said in a teasing tone, smiling at him. "I +suppose that as we're going to be married so soon I ought to make a clean +breast of it, if you really want to know." + +"Just as you like," said Mr. Manley, his face clearing a little at her +careless tone. + +"Well, the hog treated me badly--not really badly, because I didn't care +enough about him to make it possible for him to treat me really badly, +but just as badly as he could. For when he and I first met I was on the +way to get engaged to a man, named Hardwicke--a rich city man, rather a +bore, but a man who would make an excellent husband. Loudwater knew that +Hardwicke was ready and eager to marry me, and I suppose that that helped +to make him keen on me. At any rate, he made love to me, not nearly so +badly as you'd think, and persuaded me to promise to marry him." + +"I can't think how you could have done it!" cried Mr. Manley. + +"How was I to know what a hog he was at home? At Trouville he was quite +nice, as I tell you. Besides, there was the title--I thought I should +like to be Lady Loudwater. You know, I do have strong impulses, and I +act on them." + +"Well, after all, you didn't marry him," said Mr. Manley in a tone of +relief. "What did happen?" + +"We were engaged for about two months. Then, about a month before the +date fixed for our marriage, he met Olivia Quainton, fell in love with +her, and broke off our engagement a week before our wedding-day." + +"Well, of all the caddish tricks!" cried Mr. Manley. + +"You can imagine how furious I was. And I wasn't going to stand it--not +from Loudwater, at any rate. I had learnt a good deal more about him in +the eleven weeks we were engaged, and, naturally, I wasn't pleased with +what I had learnt. I set out to make myself very disagreeable. I saw him +and did make myself very disagreeable. I told him a good many unpleasant +things about himself which made him much more furious than I was myself." + +"I'm glad some of it got through his thick skin," said Mr. Manley. + +"A good deal of it did. Then I made it clear to him that he had robbed me +of John Hardwicke and an excellent settlement in life, and told him that +I was going to bring an action for breach of promise against him. That +certainly got through his thick skin, for it's very painful to him to +spend money on any one but himself. But he made terms at once, gave me +this house furnished, and promised to allow me six hundred a year for +life. You don't think I was wrong to take it?" she added anxiously. + +"Certainly not," said Mr. Manley quickly and firmly. + +Her face cleared and she said: "So many people would say that it was not +nice my taking money for an injury like that." + +"Rubbish! It wasn't as if you'd been in love with him," said Mr. Manley +with the firmest conviction. + +"That's the exact point. You do see things," she said, smiling at him +gratefully. "If I had been, it would have been quite different." + +"And how else were you to score off him except by hitting him in the +pocket? That and his stomach are his only vulnerable points," said Mr. +Manley viciously. + +He was ignorant of Melchisidec's discovery of another. + +"They are. And he certainly had robbed me of an income. It was only fair +that he should make up for it," she said rather plaintively. + +"Absolutely fair." + +"Well, those were the terms. The house is mine all right; it was properly +made over to me. But, stupidly, I didn't have a proper deed drawn up +about the money. I had his promise. One supposes that one can take the +word of an English Peer. But I think that it's really all right. I have +his letters about it." + +"There's no saying. You'd better see a lawyer about it and find out. But +this isn't a very dark past," he said, and rose and came to her and +kissed her. + +He was, indeed, relieved and reassured. In these circumstances the six +hundred a year was not an allowance at all. It was merely the payment of +a debt--a just debt. + +"But it won't be nearly so nice for us, if the hog does manage to cut the +six hundred down to three hundred. My husband only left me a hundred a +year," she said, frowning. + +"To be with you will be perfection, whatever our income is," said Mr. +Manley, with ringing conviction, and he kissed her again. + +She smiled happily and said: "He shan't cut it down. I'll see that he +doesn't. When I've had a talk with him, he'll be glad enough to leave it +as it is." + +"It's very likely that he's only trying it on. It's the kind of thing he +would do. But you'll find it difficult to get that talk. He's bent on +shirking it," said Mr. Manley. + +"I'll see that he doesn't get the chance of shirking it," she said, and +her eyes gleamed again. + +"I believe you're the only person in the world he's afraid of," he said +in a tone of admiration. + +"I shouldn't wonder," she said. "At any rate, I seem to be the only +person in the world to whom he's always been civil. At least, I've never +heard of any one else." + +"I'm afraid he won't be civil when you get that talk with him--if ever +you do get it," said Mr. Manley, frowning rather anxiously. + +"That'll be all the worse for him," she said dauntlessly. "But, after +all, if I did fail to make him leave my income at six hundred, we should +still have this house and four hundred a year. We should still be quite +comfortable. Besides, you could keep on as his secretary, and that would +be another two hundred a year." + +"I can't do that! It's out of the question!" cried Mr. Manley. "I'm +getting so to loathe the brute that I shall soon be quite unable to stand +him. As it is, I sometimes have a violent desire to wring his neck. Now +that I know that he played this measly trick on you, it will be more +violent than ever. Besides, we must have a flat in town. It's really +necessary to my work! I can do my actual writing down here fairly well. +But what I really need is to get in touch with the right people, with the +people who are really stimulating. Besides, I'm gregarious; I like mixing +with people." + +"Yes. You're right. We must have a flat in town. Therefore, I must make +the hog keep to his bargain, and I will," she said firmly. + +"I believe you may," he said, gazing at her determined face with +admiring eyes. + +There was a pause. Then she said carelessly: "When are we going to tell +people that we're engaged?" + +"Not yet awhile," said Mr. Manley quickly. "At least I don't want the +people about here to know about it. And if you come to think of it, +things being as they are, Loudwater would probably make himself more +infernally disagreeable to me than he does at present. He'd not only try +to take it out of me to annoy you, but it's just as likely as not that he +would consider my getting engaged to you as poaching on his +preserves--infernal cheek. He's the most hopelessly vain and +unreasonable sweep in the British Isles." + +"I shouldn't be a bit surprised if he did. He couldn't possibly help +being a dog in the manger," she said thoughtfully. "And there's another +thing. It has just occurred to me that if he tries to halve my income for +nothing at all, he might try to stop it altogether if I got married. No; +I must get that matter settled for good and all. I'll have that talk with +him at once." + +"If you can get it," said Mr. Manley doubtfully. + +"I can get it," she said confidently. "You must remember that, having +lived here for nearly two years, I know all about his habits. I shall +take him by surprise. But we've talked enough about these dull things; +let's talk about something interesting. How's the play going?" + +They talked about the play he was writing, and then they talked about one +another. They had their afternoon tea soon after four, for Mr. Manley had +to return to the Castle to deal with any letters that the five o'clock +post might bring. + +At twenty minutes to five he left Mrs. Truslove and walked back to the +Castle. He was truly in love with Helena. She was intelligent and +appreciative. She was of his own class, with his own practical outlook on +life, born of having belonged to a middle-class family of moderate means +like himself. She was the daughter of a country architect. He could +nowhere have found a more suitable wife. He was relieved about the matter +of the reason why she received an allowance from Lord Loudwater; but he +was not relieved about the matter of its being halved. Seven hundred a +year had been an excellent income for the wife of a struggling playwright +to enjoy. It had promised him the full social life in which his genius +would most rapidly develop. He had regarded that income with great +pleasure. Ever since Lord Loudwater had bidden him inform Helena of his +intention of halving her allowance he had been bitterly angered by this +barefaced attempt to rob her and consequently her future husband. In the +light of her story the attempt had grown yet more disgraceful, and he +resented it yet more bitterly. + +The further danger that Lord Loudwater might attempt to stop her income +altogether if she married, though he perceived that it was a real, even +imminent danger, did not greatly trouble him. He was full of resentment, +not fear. He felt that he loathed his employer more than ever and with +more reason. + +Holloway brought the post-bag to the library, and waited while Mr. +Manley sorted the letters, that he might take those addressed to Lady +Loudwater to her rooms and those addressed to the servants to the +housekeeper's room. + +As Mr. Manley inverted the bag and poured its contents on to the table, +the footman said: "'Utchings 'as gone, sir." + +"We must bear up," said Mr. Manley, in a tone wholly void of any sympathy +with Hutchings in his misfortune. + +"He was that furious. The things 'e said 'e'd do to his lordship!" said +Holloway in a deeply-impressed tone. + +"Threatened men live long," said Mr. Manley carelessly. + + + + +CHAPTER III + + +There is in the collection of the Earl of Ellesmere a picture of the head +of a girl which the connoisseurs of the nineteenth century ascribed to +Leonardo da Vinci. The connoisseurs of the twentieth century ascribe it +to Luini. But for the colour of the hair it might have been a portrait of +Lady Loudwater, a faded portrait. It might also very well be a portrait +of one of her actual ancestresses, for her grandmother was a lady of an +old Tuscan family. + +Be that as it may, Lady Loudwater had the soft, dark, dreamy eyes, set +rather wide apart, the straight, delicate nose, the alluring lips, +promising all the kisses, the broad, well-moulded forehead, and the +faint, exactly curving eyebrows of the girl in the picture. Above all, +when Lord Loudwater was not present, the mysterious, enchanting, +lingering smile, which is perhaps the chief charm of Luini's women, +rested nearly always on her face. But while the hair of the girl in the +picture is a deep, dull red, the hair of Olivia was dark brown with +glimmers of gold in it. Also, her colouring was warmer than that of the +girl in the picture, and her alluring charm stronger. + +At a quarter to three that afternoon she came out on to the East lawn in +a silk frock and hat of a green rather sombre for the summer day. She had +been bidden by a fashionable fortune-teller never to wear green, for it +was her unlucky colour. But that tint had so given her colouring its full +values and her dark, liquid eyes so deep a depth, that she had paid no +heed to the warning. There was a bright light of expectation in her eyes, +and the alluring smile lingered on her face. + +She walked quickly across the lawn with the easy, graceful gait proper to +the accomplished golfer she was, into the shrubbery on the other side of +it. A few feet along the path through it she looked sharply back over her +shoulder. She saw no one at those windows of the East wing which looked +on to the lawn and shrubbery, but a movement on the lawn itself caught +her eye. The cat Melchisidec was following her. She did not slacken her +pace, but for a moment the smile faded from her face at the remembrance +of her husband's outburst at breakfast. Then the smile returned, subtile +and expectant. + +She did not wait for Melchisidec. She knew his way of pretending to +follow her like a dog; she knew that if she displayed any interest in +him, even showed that she was aware of his presence, he would probably +come no further. She went on at the same brisk pace till she came to the +gate in the East wood. She went through it, shut it gently, paused, and +again looked back. All of the path through the shrubbery that she could +see was empty. She turned and walked briskly along the narrow path +through the wood, and came into the long, turf-paved aisle which ran at +right angles to it. + +The middle of the aisle was deeply rutted by the wheels of the carts +which had carried away the timber from the spring thinning of the wood. +She turned to the left and sauntered slowly up the smooth turf along the +side of the aisle, a brighter light of expectation in her eyes, her smile +even more mysterious and alluring. + +She had not gone fifty yards up the aisle when Colonel Grey came limping +out of the entrance of a path on the other side of it, and quickened his +pace as he crossed it. + +She stood still, flushing faintly, gazing at him with her lips parted a +little. He looked, as he was, very young to be a Lieutenant-Colonel, and +uncommonly fragile for a V. C. At any time he would look delicate, and +he was the paler for the fact that at times he still suffered +considerable pain from his wound. But there was force in his delicate, +distinguished face. His sensitive lips could set very firm; his chin was +square; his nose had a rather heavy bridge, and usually his grey eyes +were cold and very keen. He gave the impression of being wrought of +finely-tempered steel. + +His eyes were shining so brightly at the moment that they had lost their +keenness with their coldness. He marked joyfully the flush on her face, +and did not know that he was flushing himself. + +About five feet away he stopped, gazing, or rather staring, at her, and +said in a tone of fervent conviction: "Heavens, Olivia! What a beautiful +and entrancing creature you are!" + +She smiled, flushing more deeply. He stepped forward, took her hand, and +held it very tightly. + +"Goodness! But I have been impatient for you to come!" he cried. + +"I'm not late," she said in her low, sweet, rather drawling voice. + +He let go of her hand and said: "I don't know how it is, but I've been as +restless as a cat all the morning. I'm never sure that you will be able +to come; and the uncertainty worries me." + +"But you saw me for three hours yesterday," she said, moving forward. + +"Yesterday?" he said, falling into step with her. "Yesterday is a +thousand years away. I wasn't sure that you'd come today." + +"Why shouldn't I come?" she said. + +"Loudwater might have got to know of it and stopped you coming." + +"Fortunately he doesn't take enough interest in my doings. Of course, if +I didn't turn up at a meal, he'd make a fuss, though why he should make +such a point of our having all our meals together I can't conceive. I +should certainly enjoy mine much more if I had them in my sitting-room," +she said in a dispassionate tone, for all the world as if she were +discussing the case of some one else. + +"I _am_ so worried about you," he said with a harassed air. "Ever since +that evening I heard him bullying you I've been simply worried to death +about it." + +"It was nice of you to interfere, but it was a pity," she said gently. +"It didn't do any good as far as his behaviour is concerned, and we saw +so much more of one another when you could come to the Castle." + +"Then you do want to see more of me?" he said eagerly. + +Lady Loudwater lost her smiling air; she became demureness itself, and +she said: "Well, you see--thanks to Egbert's vile temper--we have so +few friends." + +Grey frowned; she was always quick to elude him. Then he growled: "What a +name! Egbert!" + +"He can't help that. It was given him. Besides, it's a family name," she +said in a tone of fine impartiality. + +"It would be. Hogbert!" said Grey contemptuously. + +Mrs. Truslove and Mr. Manley were not the only people to ignore the +essential bullness of Lord Loudwater. + +They went on a few steps in silence; then she said: "Besides, I don't +mind his outbursts. I'm used to them." + +"I don't believe it! You're much too delicate and sensitive!" he cried. + +"But I _am_ getting used to them," she protested. + +"You never will. Has he been bullying you again?" he said, looking +anxiously into her eyes. + +"Not more than usual," she said in a wholly indifferent tone. + +"Then it is usual! I was afraid it was," he said in a miserable voice. +"What on earth is to be done about it?" + +"Why, there's nothing to be done, except just grin and bear it," she said +bravely enough, and with the conviction of one who has thought a matter +out thoroughly. + +"Then it's monstrous! Just monstrous, that the most charming and +loveliest creature in the world should be bullied by that infernal +brute!" he cried, and put his arm around her. + +The Countess was on the very point of slipping out of it when the cat +Melchisidec came out of the bushes a dozen yards ahead of them, and +with Melchisidec came a very distinct vision of Lord Loudwater's +flushed, distorted, and revolting face as he swore at her at breakfast +that morning. + +She did not slip out of the encircling arm, and Grey bent his head and +kissed her lightly on the lips. + +It was the gentlest, lightest kiss, the kiss he might have given a +pretty child, just a natural tribute to beauty and charm. + +But the harm was done. The population of Great Britain cannot really be +more than one and a half persons to the acre, and the great majority of +them live, thousands to the acre, in towns; yet it is indeed difficult +to kiss a girl during the daytime in any given acre, however thickly +wooded, without being seen by some superfluous sojourner on that acre; +and whether, or no, it was that the green frock and hat brought the +Countess the bad luck the fortuneteller had foretold, there was a +witness to that kiss. + +Undoubtedly, too, it was not the right kind of witness. If it had been an +indulgent elder not given to gossip, or a chivalrous young man not averse +himself from kisses, all might have been well. But William Roper, +under-gamekeeper, was a young man without a spark of chivalry in him, and +he had been soured in the matter of kisses by the steadfast resolve of +the young women of the village to suffer none from him. He was an +unattractive young man, not unlike the ferrets he kept at his cottage. He +was the last young man in the world, or at any rate in the neighbourhood, +to keep silent about what he had seen. + +Even so, no great harm might have been done. He might have blabbed about +the matter in the village, and the whole village and the servants of the +Castle might have talked about it for weeks and months, or even years, +without it reaching the ears of Lord Loudwater. But William Roper saw in +that kiss his royal road to Fortune. Ambitious in the grain, he was not +content with his post of under-gamekeeper; he desired to oust William +Hutchings from the post of head-gamekeeper, and though there were two +under-gamekeepers senior to him with a greater claim on that post, occupy +it himself. Here was the way to it; his lordship could not but be +grateful to the man who informed him of such goings-on; he could not but +promote him to the post of his desire. + +He wholly misjudged his lordship. Ordinary gratitude was not one of his +attributes. + +Olivia slipped out of Grey's arm, and they walked on up the aisle. But +they walked on, changed creatures--trembling, a little bemused. + +William Roper, the ill-favoured minister of Nemesis, followed them. + +At the top of the aisle they came to the pavilion, a small white marble +building in the Classic style, standing in the middle of a broad glade. + +As they went into it, Olivia said wistfully: "It's a pity I couldn't have +tea sent here." + +"I did. At least I brought it," said Grey, waving his hand towards a +basket which stood on the table. "I knew you'd be happier for tea." + +"No one has ever been so thoughtful of me as you are," she said, gazing +at him with grateful, troubled eyes. + +"Let's hope that your luck is changing," he said gravely, gazing at her +with eyes no less troubled. + +Then Melchisidec scratched at the door and mewed. Olivia let him in. +Purring in the friendliest way, he rubbed his head against Grey's leg. He +never treated Lord Loudwater with such friendliness. + +William Roper chose a tree about forty yards from the pavilion and set +his gun against the trunk. Then he filled and lit his pipe, leaned back +comfortably against the trunk, hidden by the fringe of undergrowth, and, +with his eyes on the door of the pavilion, waited. For Grey and Olivia, +never dreaming of this patient watcher, the minutes flew; they had so +many things to tell one another, so many questions to ask. At least Grey +had; Olivia, for the most part, listened without comment, unless the +flush which waxed and waned should be considered comment, to the things +he told her about herself and the many ways in which she affected him. +For William Roper the minutes dragged; he was eager to start briskly up +the royal road to Fortune. He was a slow smoker and he smoked a strong, +slow-burning twist; but he had nearly emptied the screw of paper which +held it before they came out of the door of the pavilion. + +It was a still evening, but some drift of air had carried the rank smoke +from William Roper's pipe into the glade, and it hung there. Colonel Grey +had not taken five steps before his nostrils were assailed by it. + +"Damn!" he said softly. + +"What's the matter?" said Olivia. + +She was too deeply absorbed in Grey for her senses to be alert, and +the reek of William Roper's twist had reached her nostrils, but not +her brain. + +"There's some one about," he said. "Can't you smell his vile tobacco?" + +"Bother!" said Olivia softly, and she frowned. They walked quietly on. +Grey was careful not to look about him with any show of earnestness, for +there was nothing to be gained by letting the watcher know that they had +perceived his presence. Indeed, he would have seen nothing, for the +undergrowth between him and the glade was too thin to form a good screen, +and William Roper was now behind the tree-trunk. + +Thirty yards down the broad aisle Grey said in a low voice: "This is an +infernal nuisance!" + +"Why?" said Olivia. + +"If it comes to Loudwater's ears, he'll make himself devilishly +unpleasant to you." + +"He can't make himself more unpleasant than he does," she said, in a tone +of quiet certitude and utter indifference. "But why shouldn't I have tea +with you in the pavilion? It's what it's there for." + +"All the same, Loudwater will make an infernal fuss about it, if it gets +to his ears. He'll bully you worse than ever," he said in an unhappy +tone, frowning heavily. + +"What do I care about Loudwater--now?" she said, smiling at him, and she +brushed her fingertips across the back of his hand. + +He caught her fingers and held them for a moment, but the frown +did not lift. + +"The nuisance is that, whoever it was, he had been there a long time," he +said gravely. "The glade was full of the reek of his vile tobacco. +Suppose he saw me kiss you in the drive here and then followed us?" + +"Well, if you will do such wicked things in the open air--" she +said, smiling. + +"It isn't a laughing matter, I'm afraid," he said rather heavily, +and frowning. + +"Well, I should have to consider your reputation and say that you didn't. +It would be very bad for your career if it became known that you did such +things, and Egbert would never rest till he had done everything he could +do to injure you. I should certainly declare that you didn't, and you'd +have to do the same." + +"Oh, leave me out of it! Hogbert can't touch me. It's you I'm thinking +about," he said. + +"But there's no need to worry about me. I'm not afraid of Egbert any +longer," she said, and her eyes, full of confidence and courage, met his +steadily. Then, resolved to clear the anxiety away from his mind, she +went on: "It's no use meeting trouble half-way. If some one did see us, +Egbert may not get to hear of it for days, or weeks--perhaps never." + +She did not know that they had to reckon with the ambition of +William Roper. + +"Lord, how I want to kiss you again!" he cried. + +"You'll have to wait till tomorrow," she said. + +It was as well that he did not kiss her again, for fifty yards behind +them, stealing through the wood, came William Roper, all eyes. And he had +already quite enough to tell. + +Grey walked with her through the rest of the wood and nearly to the end +of the path through the shrubbery. She spared no effort to set his mind +at ease, protesting that she did not care a rap how furiously her husband +abused her. A few yards from the edge of the East lawn they stopped, but +they lingered over their parting. She promised to meet him in the East +wood at three on the morrow. + +She walked slowly across the lawn and up to her suite of rooms, thinking +of Grey. She changed into a _peignoir_, lit a cigarette, lay down on a +couch, and went on thinking about him. She gave no thought to the matter +of whether they had been watched. Lord Loudwater had become of less +interest than ever to her; his furies seemed trivial. She had a feeling +that he had become a mere shadow in her life. + +As she lay smoking that cigarette William Roper was telling his story to +Lord Loudwater. He had waited in the wood till Colonel Grey had gone +back through it; then he had walked briskly to the back door of the +Castle and asked to see his lordship. Mary Hutchings, the second +housemaid, who had answered his knock, took him to the servants' hall, +and told Holloway what he asked. Both of them regarded him curiously; +they themselves never wanted to see his lordship, though seeing him was +part of their jobs, and one who could go oat of his way to see him must +indeed be remarkable. William Roper was hardly remarkable. He was merely +somewhat repulsive. Holloway said that he would inquire whether his +lordship would see him, and went. + +As he went out of the door William Roper said, with an air of great +importance: "Tell 'is lordship as it's very partic'ler." + +Mary Hutchings' curiosity was aroused, and she tried to discover what it +was. All she gained by doing so was an acute irritation of her curiosity. +William Roper grew mysterious to the very limits of aggravation, but he +told her nothing. + +Her irritation was not alleviated when he said darkly: "You'll 'ear all +about these goings-on in time." + +She wished to hear all about them then and there. + +Holloway came back presently, looking rather sulky, and said that his +lordship would see William Roper. + +"Though why 'e should curse me because you want to see 'im very +partic'ler, I can't see," he added, with an aggrieved air. + +He led the way, and for the first time in his life William Roper found +himself entering the presence of the head of the House of Loudwater +without any sense of trepidation. He carried himself unusually upright +with an air of conscious rectitude. + +Lord Loudwater was in the smoking-room in which he had that morning dealt +with his letters with Mr. Manley. It was his favourite room, his +smoking-room, his reading-room, and his office. He had been for a long +ride, and was now lying back in an easy chair, with a long +whisky-and-soda by his side, reading the _Pall Mall Gazette_. In +literature his taste was blameless. + +Holloway, ushering William Roper into the room, said: "William Roper, +m'lord," and withdrew. + +Lord Loudwater went on reading the paragraph he had just begun. William +Roper gazed at him without any weakening of his courage, so strong was +his conviction of the nobility of the duty he was discharging, and +cleared his throat. + +Lord Loudwater finished the paragraph, scowled at the interrupter, and +said: "Well, what is it? Hey? What do you want?" + +"It's about 'er ladyship, your lordship. I thought your lordship oughter +be told about it--its not being at all the sort of thing as your lordship +would be likely to 'old with." + +There are noblemen who would, on the instant, have bidden William Roper +go to the devil. Lord Loudwater was not of these. He set the newspaper +down beside the whisky-and-soda, leaned forward, and said in a hushed +voice: "What the devil are you talking about? Hey?" + +"I seed Colonel Grey--the gentleman as is staying at the 'Cart and +'Orses'--kiss 'er in the East wood," said William Roper. + +The first emotion of Lord Loudwater was incredulous amazement. It was his +very strong conviction that his wife was a cold-blooded, passionless +creature, incapable of inspiring or feeling any warm emotion. He had +forgotten that he had married her for love--violent love. + +"You infernal liar!" he said in a rather breathless voice. + +"It ain't no lie, your lordship. What for should I go telling lies about +'er?" said William Roper in an injured tone. + +Lord Loudwater stared at him. The fellow was telling the truth. + +"And what did she do? Hey? Did she smack his face for him?" he cried. + +"No. She let 'im do it, your lordship." + +"She did?" bellowed his lordship. + +"Yes. She didn't seem a bit put out, your lordship," said William +Roper simply. + +"And what happened then?" bellowed Lord Loudwater, and he got to his +feet. + +"They walked on to the pavilion, your lordship. An' they had their tea +there. Leastways, I seed'er ladyship come to the door an' empty hot water +out of a tea-pot." + +"Tea? Tea?" said Lord Loudwater in the tone of one saying: "Arson! +Arson!" + +Then, in all his black wrath, he perceived that he must have himself in +hand to deal with the matter. He took a long draught of whisky-and-soda, +rose, walked across the room and back again, grinding his teeth, rolling +his eyes, and snapping the middle finger and thumb of his right hand. +Never had the flush of rage been so deep in his face. It was almost +purple. Never had his eyes protruded so far from his head. + +He stopped and said thickly: "How long were they in the pavilion?" + +"In the pavilion, your lordship? They were there a longish while--an hour +and a half maybe," said William Roper, with quiet pride in the impression +his information had made on his employer. + +His employer looked at him as if it was the dearest wish of his heart to +shake the life out of him then and there. It _was_ the dearest wish of +his heart. But he refrained. It would be a senseless act to slay the +goose which lay these golden eggs of information. + +"All right. Get out! And keep your tongue between your teeth, or I'll cut +it out for you! Do you understand? Hey?" he roared, approaching William +Roper with an air so menacing that the conscientious fellow backed +against the door with his arm up to shield his face. + +"I ain't a-going to say a word to no one!" he cried. + +"You'd better not! Get out!" snarled his employer. + +William Roper got out. Trembling and perspiring freely, he walked +straight through the Castle and out of the back door without pausing to +say a word to any one, though he heard the voice of Holloway discussing +his mysterious errand with Mary Hutchings in the servants' hall. He had +walked nearly a mile before he succeeded in convincing himself that his +feet were firmly set on the royal road to Fortune. His conviction was +ill-founded. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + + +For a good three minutes after the departure of William Roper the Lord +Loudwater walked up and down the smoking-room. His redly-glinting eyes +still rolled in a terrifying fashion, and still every few seconds he +snapped his fingers in the throes of an effort to make up his raging mind +whether to begin by an attack on his wife or on Colonel Grey. He could +not remember ever having been so angry in his life; now and again his red +eyes saw red. + +Then of a sudden he made up his mind that he was at the moment +angrier with Colonel Grey. He would deal with him first. Olivia could +wait. He hurried out to the stables and bellowed for a horse with +such violence that two startled grooms saddled one for him in little +more than a minute. + +He made no attempt to think what he would say to Colonel Grey. He was +too angry. He galloped the two miles to the "Cart and Horses" at +Bellingham, where Colonel Grey was staying, in order to restore his +health and to fish. + +At the door of the inn he bellowed: "Ostler! Ostler!" Then without +waiting to see whether an ostler came, he threw the reins on his horse's +neck, left it to its own devices, strode into the tap-room, and bellowed +to the affrighted landlady, Mrs. Turnbull, to take him straight to +Colonel Grey. Trembling, she led him upstairs to Grey's sitting-room on +the first floor. Before she could knock, he opened the door, bounced +through it, and slammed it. + +Grey was sitting at the other side of the table, looking through a book +of flies. He appeared to be quite unmoved by the sudden entry of the +infuriated nobleman, or by his raucous bellow: + +"So here you are, you infernal scoundrel!" + +He looked at him with a cold, distasteful eye, and said in a clear, very +unpleasant voice: "Another time knock before you come into my room." + +Lord Loudwater had not expected to be received in this fashion; dimly he +had seen Grey cowering. + +He paused, then said less loudly: "Knock? Hey? Knock? Knock at the door +of an infernal scoundrel like you?" His voice began to gather volume +again. "Likely I should take the trouble! I know all about your +scoundrelly game." + +Colonel Grey remembered that Olivia had said that she proposed to deny +the kiss, and his course was quite clear to him. + +"I don't know whether you're drunk, or mad," he said in a quiet, +contemptuous voice. + +This again was not what Lord Loudwater had expected. But Grey was a +strong believer in the theory that the attacker has the advantage, and +he had an even stronger belief that an enemy in a fury is far less +dangerous than an enemy calm. + +"You're lying! You know I'm neither!" bellowed Lord Loudwater. "You +kissed Olivia--Lady Loudwater--in the East wood. You know you did. You +were seen doing it." + +"You're raving, man," said Colonel Grey quietly, in a yet more +unpleasant tone. + +The interview was not going as Lord Loudwater had seen it. He had to +swallow violently before he could say: "You were seen doing it! Seen! By +one of my gamekeepers!" + +"You must have paid him to say so," said Colonel Grey with quiet +conviction. + +Lord Loudwater was a little staggered by the accusation. He gasped and +stuttered: "D-D-Damn your impudence! P-P-Paid to say it!" + +"Yes, paid," said Colonel Grey, without raising his voice. "You happened +to hear that we had tea in the pavilion in the wood--probably from Lady +Loudwater herself--and you made up this stupid lie and paid your +gamekeeper to tell it in order to score off her. It's exactly the dog's +trick a bullying ruffian like you would play a woman." + +"D-D-Dog's trick? Me?" stammered Lord Loudwater, gasping. + +He was used to saying things of this kind to other people; not to have +them said to him. + +"Yes, you. You know that you're a wretched bully and cad," said Colonel +Grey, with just a little more warmth in his tone. + +Had Lord Loudwater's belief that William Roper had told him the truth +about the kiss been weaker, it might have been shaken by the +whole-hearted thoroughness of Grey's attack. But William Roper had +impressed that belief on him deeply. He was sure that Grey had kissed +Lady Loudwater. + +The certainty spurred him to a fresh effort, and he cried: "It's no good +your trying to humbug me--none at all. I've got evidence--plenty of +evidence! And I'm going to act on it, too. I'm going to hound you out of +the Army and that jade of a wife of mine out of decent society. Do you +think, because I don't spend four or five months every year in that +rotten hole, London, I haven't got any influence? Hey? If you do, you're +damn well wrong. I've got more than enough twice over to clear a +scoundrel like you out of the Army." + +"Don't talk absurd nonsense!" said Grey calmly. + +"Nonsense? Hey? Absurd nonsense?" howled Lord Loudwater on a new note of +exasperation. + +"Yes, nonsense. A disreputable cad like you can't hurt me in any way, and +well you know it," said Grey with painstaking distinctness. + +"Not hurt you? Hey? I can't hurt the corespondent in a divorce case? +Hey?" said Lord Loudwater rather breathlessly. + +"As if a man who has abused and bullied his wife as you have could get a +divorce!" said Grey, and he laughed a gentle, contemptuous laugh, galling +beyond words. + +It galled Lord Loudwater surely enough; he snapped his fingers four times +and gibbered. + +"I tell you what it is: I've had enough of your manners," said Grey. +"What you want is a lesson. And if I hear that you've been bullying Lady +Loudwater about this simple matter of my having had tea with her, I'll +give it you--with a horsewhip." + +"You'll give me a lesson? You?" whispered Lord Loudwater, and he danced a +little frantically. + +"Yes. I'll give you the soundest thrashing any man hereabouts has had for +the last twenty years, if I have to begin by knocking your ugly head off +your shoulders," said Grey, raising his clear voice, so that for the +first time Mrs. Turnbull, trembling, but thrilled, on the landing, heard +what was being said. + +The enunciation of Lord Loudwater had been thick, his words had +been slurred. + +"You? You thrash me?" he howled. + +"Yes, me. Now get out!" + +Lord Loudwater gnashed his teeth at him and again snapped his fingers. He +burned to rush round the table and hammer the life out of Grey, but he +could not do it; violent words, not violent deeds, were his +accomplishment. Moreover, there was something daunting in Grey's cold +and steady eye. He snapped his fingers again, and, pouring out a stream +of furious abuse, turned to the door and flung out of it. Mrs. Turnbull +scuttled aside into Grey's bedroom. + +Half-way down the stairs Lord Loudwater paused to bellow: "I'll ruin you +yet, you scoundrel! Mark my word! I _will_ hound you out of the Army!" + +He flung out of the house and found that the ostler had taken his horse +round to the stable, removed its bridle, and given it a feed of corn. He +cursed him heartily. + +Grey rose, shut the door, and laughed gently. Then he frowned. Of a +sudden he perceived that, natural as had been his manner of dealing with +Lord Loudwater, he had handled him badly. At least, it was possible that +he had handled him badly. It would have been wiser, perhaps, to have been +suave and firm rather than firm and provoking. But it was not likely that +suavity would have been of much use; the brute would probably have +regarded it as weakness. But for Olivia's sake he ought probably to have +tried to soothe him. As it was, the brute had gone raging off and would +vent his fury on her. + +What had he better do? + +He was not long perceiving that there was nothing that he could do. The +natural thing was to go to the Castle and prevent her husband--by force, +if need be--from abusing and bullying Olivia. That was what his +strongest instincts bade him do. It was quite impossible. It would +compromise her beyond repair. He had done her harm enough by his +impulsive indiscretion in the wood. His face slowly settled into a set +scowl as he cudgelled his brains to find a way of coming effectually to +her help. It seemed a vain effort, but a way had to be found. + +Lord Loudwater galloped half-way to the Castle in a furious haste to +punish Olivia for allowing Grey to make love to her, and even more for +the contemptuous way in which Grey had treated him. He had hopes also +of bullying her into a confession of the truth of William Roper's +story. But Grey had excited him to a height of fury at which not even +he could remain without exhaustion. In a reaction he reined in his +horse to a canter, then to a trot, and then to a walk. He found that he +was feeling tired. + +He continued, however, to chafe at his injuries, but with less vehemence, +and he was still resolved to make a strong effort to draw the confession +from Olivia. On reaching the Castle, he did not go to her at once. He sat +down in an easy chair in his smoking-room and drank two +whiskies-and-sodas. + +In the background of Olivia's mind, meditating pleasantly on her pleasant +afternoon, there had been a patient and resigned expectation that +presently her conscience would begin to reproach her for allowing Grey to +make love to her. But the minutes slipped by, and she did not begin to +feel that she had been wicked. The meditation remained pleasant. At last +she realized suddenly that she was not going to feel wicked. She was +surprised and even a trifle horror-stricken by her insensibility. Then, +fairly faced by it, she came to the conclusion that, in a woman cursed +with such a brute of a husband, such insensibility was not only natural, +it was even proper. + +Her woman's craving to be loved and to love was the strongest of her +emotions, and it had gone unsatisfied for so long. Her husband had +killed, or rather extirpated, her fondness for him before they had been +married a month. She was inclined to believe that she had never really +loved him at all. He had certainly ceased to love her before they had +been married a fortnight, if, indeed, he had ever loved her at all. She +had no child; she was an orphan without sisters or brothers. Her husband +let her see but little of the friends who were fond of her. She began to +suspect that her conscience did not reproach her because she had merely +acted on her natural right to love and be loved. This conclusion brought +her mind again to the consideration of Antony Grey, and again she let her +thoughts dwell on him. + +The gong, informing her that it was time to dress for dinner, interrupted +this pleasant occupation. She had her bath, put herself into the hands of +her maid, Elizabeth Twitcher, and resumed her meditation. She was at +once so deeply absorbed in it that she did not observe her maid's sullen +and depressed air. + +She was presently interrupted again, and in a manner far more violent and +startling than the summons of the gong. The door was jerked open, and her +refreshed husband strode into the room. + +"I know all about your little game, madam!" he cried. "You've been +letting that blackguard Grey make love to you! You kissed him in the East +wood this afternoon!" + +The mysterious smile faded from the face of Olivia, and an expression of +the most natural astonishment took its place. + +"I sometimes think that you are quite mad, Egbert," she said in her slow, +musical voice. + +Elizabeth Twitcher continued her deft manipulation of a thick strand of +hair without any change in her sullen and depressed air. To all seeming, +she was uninterested, or deaf. + +Lord Loudwater had expected, in the face of Olivia's gentleness, to have +to work himself up to a proper height of indignant fury by degrees. The +echo of Grey's accusation from the mouth of his wife raised him to it on +the instant and without an effort. + +"Don't lie to me!" he bellowed. "It's no good whatever! I tell +you, I know!" + +Olivia was surprised to find herself wholly free from her old fear of +him. The fact that she was in love with Grey and he with her had already +worked a change in her. These were the only things in the world of any +real importance. That clear knowledge gave her a new confidence and a new +strength. Her husband had been able to frighten her nearly out of her +wits. Now he could not; and she could use them. + +"I'm not lying at all. I really do believe you're mad--often," she said +very distinctly. + +Once more Lord Loudwater was compelled to grind his teeth. Then he +laughed a harsh, barking laugh, and cried: "It's no good! I've just had +a short interview with that scoundrel Grey. And I put the fear of God +into him, I can tell you. I made him admit that you'd kissed him in the +East wood." + +For a breath Olivia was taken aback. Then she perceived clearly that it +was a lie. He could not put the fear of God into Grey. Besides, Grey had +kissed her, not she him. + +"It's you who are lying," she said quickly and with spirit. "How could +Colonel Grey admit a thing that never happened?" + +Lord Loudwater perceived that it was going to be harder to wring the +confession from her than he had expected. Checked, he paused. Then +Elizabeth Twitcher caught his attention. + +"Here: you--clear out!" he said. + +Elizabeth Twitcher caught her mistress's eye in the glass. Olivia +made no sign. + +"I can't leave her ladyship's hair in this state, your lordship," said +Elizabeth Twitcher with sullen firmness. + +"You do as you're told and clear out!" bellowed his lordship. + +"I don't want to be half an hour late for dinner," said Olivia, accepting +the diversion and ready to make the most of it. + +Elizabeth Twitcher looked at Lord Loudwater, saw more clearly than +ever his likeness to the loathed James Hutchings, and made up her mind +to do nothing that he bade her do. She went on dressing her mistress's +hair sullenly. + +"Are you going? Or am I to throw you out of the room?" cried Lord +Loudwater in a blustering voice. + +"Don't be silly, Egbert!" said Olivia sharply. + +From the height of her new emotional experience she felt that her husband +was merely a noisy and obnoxious boy. This was, indeed, quite plain to +her. She felt years older than he and very much wiser. + +Lord Loudwater, with a quite unusual glimmer of intelligence, perceived +that bringing Elizabeth Twitcher into the matter had been a mistake. It +had weakened his main action. In a less violent but more malevolent +voice he said: + +"Silly? Hey? I'll show you all about that, you little jade! You clear +out of this first thing to-morrow morning. My lawyers will settle your +hash for you. I'll deal with that blackguard Grey myself. I'll hound him +out of the Army inside of a month. Perhaps it'll be a consolation to you +to know that you've done him in as well as yourself." + +He turned on his heel, left the room with a positively melodramatic +stride, and slammed the door behind him. + +Olivia was stricken by a sudden panic. She had lost all fear of her +husband as far as she herself was concerned. He had become a mere +offensive windbag. She did not care whether he did, or did not, try to +divorce her. Even on the terms of so great a scandal it would be a cheap +deliverance. But Antony was another matter.... She could not bear that he +should be ruined on her account.... It was intolerable ... not to be +thought of.... She must find some way of preventing it. + +She began to cudgel her brains for that way of preventing it, but in +vain. She could devise no plan. The more she considered the matter, the +worse it grew. She could not bear to be associated in Antony's mind with +disaster; she desired most keenly to stand for everything that was +pleasant and delightful in his life. She would not let her brute of a +husband spoil both their lives. He had already spoiled enough of hers. + +After his injunction to her to leave the Castle first thing next +morning, she took it that they would hardly dine together, and told +Elizabeth Twitcher to tell Wilkins to serve her dinner in her boudoir. +Also, she refused to put on an evening gown, saying that the _peignoir_ +she was wearing was more comfortable on such a hot night. Last of all, +she told her to pack some of her clothes that night. + +Elizabeth Twitcher, stirred somewhat out of her brooding on her own +troubles by this trouble of her mistress, looked at her thoughtfully and +said: "I shouldn't go, m'lady. It'll look as if you agreed with what his +lordship said. And it's only William Roper as has been telling these +lies. He asked to see his lordship about something very partic'ler before +his lordship went out. And who's going to pay any heed to William Roper?" + +"William Roper? Who is William Roper? What kind of a man is he?" said +Olivia quickly. + +"He's an under-gamekeeper, m'lady, and the biggest little beast on the +estate. Everybody hates William Roper," said Elizabeth with conviction. + +This was satisfactory as far as it went. The worse her husband's evidence +was the freer it left her to take her own course of action. But it was no +great comfort, for she was but little concerned about the harm he could +do her. Indeed, she was only concerned about the harm he could do Antony. +She returned to her search for a method of preventing that harm during +her dinner, and after her dinner she continued that search without any +success. This injury to Antony, for her the central fact of the +situation, weighed on her spirit more and more heavily. + +The longer she pondered it the more harassed she grew. The most fantastic +schemes for baulking her husband and saving Antony came thronging into +her mind. She rose and walked restlessly up and down the room, working +herself up into a veritable fever. + +Mr. Manley, having dealt with the letters which had come by the +five-o'clock post, read half a dozen chapters of the last published novel +of Artzybachev with the pleasure he never failed to draw from the works +of that author. Then he dressed and set forth, in a very cheerful spirit, +to dine with Helena Truslove. His cheerful expectations were wholly +fulfilled. She had divined that he was endowed, not only with a romantic +spirit, but with a hearty and discriminating appetite, and was careful to +give him good food and wine and plenty of both. With his coffee he smoked +one of Lord Loudwater's favourite cigars. Expanding naturally, he talked +with spirit and intelligence during dinner, and made love to her after +dinner with even more spirit and intelligence. As a rule, he stayed on +the nights he dined with her till a quarter to eleven. But that night she +dismissed him at ten o'clock, saying that she was feeling tired and +wished to go to bed early. Smoking another of Lord Loudwater's favourite +cigars, he walked briskly back to the Castle, more firmly convinced than +ever that every possible step must be taken to prevent any diminution of +the income of a woman of such excellent taste in food and wine. It would +be little short of a crime to discourage the exercise of her fine natural +gift for stimulating the genius of a promising dramatist. + +He was not in the habit of going to bed early, and having put on slippers +and an old and comfortable coat, he once more turned to the novel by +Artzybachev. He read two more chapters, smoking a pipe, and then he +became aware that he was thirsty. + +He could have mixed himself a whisky and soda then and there, for he had +both in the cupboard, in his sitting-room. But he was a stickler for the +proprieties: he had drunk red wine, Burgundy with his dinner and port +after it, and after red wine brandy is the proper spirit. There would be +brandy in the tantalus in the small dining-room. + +He went quietly down the stairs. The big hall, lighted by a single +electric bulb, was very dim, and he took it that, as was their habit, the +servants had already gone to bed. As he came to the bottom of the stairs +the door at the back of the hall opened; James Hutchings came through the +doorway and shut the door quietly behind him. + +Mr. Manley stood still. James Hutchings came very quietly down the hall, +saw him, and started. + +"Good evening, Hutchings. I thought you'd left us," said Mr. Manley, in a +rather unpleasant tone. + +"You may take your oath to it!" said James Hutchings truculently, in a +much more unpleasant tone than Mr. Manley had used. "I just came back to +get a box of cigarettes I left in the cupboard of my pantry. I don't want +any help in smoking them from any one here." + +He opened the library door gently, went quietly through it, and drew it +to behind him, leaving Mr. Manley frowning at it. It was a fact that +Hutchings carried a packet, which might very well have been cigarettes; +but Mr. Manley did not believe his story of his errand. He took it that +he was leaving the Castle by one of the library windows. Well, it was no +business of his. + +At a few minutes past eight the next morning he was roused from the +deep dreamless sleep which follows good food and good wine well +digested, by a loud knocking on his door. It was not the loud, steady +and prolonged knocking which the third housemaid found necessary to +wake him. It was more vigorous and more staccato and jerkier. Also, a +voice was calling loudly: + +"Mr. Manley, sir! Mr. Manley! Mr. Manley!" + +For all the noise and insistence of the calling Mr. Manley did not awake +quickly. It took him a good minute to realize that he was Herbert Manley +and in bed, and half a minute longer to gather that the knocking and +calling were unusual and uncommonly urgent. He sat up in bed and yawned +terrifically. + +Then he slipped out of bed--the knocking and calling still +continued--unlocked the door, and found Holloway, the second footman, on +the threshold looking scared and horror-stricken. + +"Please, sir, his lordship's dead!" he cried. "He's bin murdered! Stabbed +through the 'eart!" + + + + +CHAPTER V + + +"Murdered? Lord Loudwater?" said Mr. Manley with another terrific yawn, +and he rubbed his eyes. Then he awoke completely and said: "Send a groom +for Black the constable at once. Yes--and tell Wilkins to telephone the +news to the Chief Inspector at Low Wycombe. Hurry up! I'll get dressed +and be down in a few minutes. Hurry up!" + +Holloway turned to go. + +"Stop!" said Mr. Manley. "Tell Wilkins to see that no one disturbs Lady +Loudwater. I'll break the news myself when she is dressed." + +"Yes, sir," said Holloway, and ran down the corridor. + +Mr. Manley was much quicker than usual making his toilet, but thorough. +He foresaw a hard and trying day before him, and he wished to start it +fresh and clean. He would come into contact with new people; he saw +himself playing an important rôle in a most important affair; he would +naturally and as usual make himself valued. A slovenly air did not +conduce to that. It seemed fitting to put on his darkest tweed suit and a +black necktie. + +When he came--briskly for him--downstairs he found a group of women +servants in the hall, outside the door of the smoking-room, three of them +snivelling, and Wilkins and Holloway in the smoking-room itself, standing +and staring with a wholly helpless air at the body of Lord Loudwater, +huddled in the easy chair in which he had been wont to sleep after dinner +every evening. + +"He's been stabbed, sir. There's that knife which was in the inkstand on +the library table stickin' in 'is 'eart," said Wilkins in a dismal voice. + +Mr. Manley glanced at the dead man. He looked to have been stabbed as he +slept. His body had sagged down in the chair, and his head was sunk +between his shoulders, so that he appeared almost neckless. His once so +florid face was of an even, dead, yellowish pallor. + +Mr. Manley's glance at the dead man was brief. Then he saw that the door +between the smoking-room and the library was ajar. He could not see the +library windows without crossing the smoking-room. That he would not do. +He was a stickler for correctness in all matters, and he knew that the +scene of a crime must be left untrampled. + +He turned and said: "We will leave everything just as it is till the +police come. And telephone at once to Doctor Thornhill, and ask him to +come. If he is out, tell them to get word to him, Wilkins." + +Wilkins and Holloway filed out of the room before him; he followed them +out, locked the door and put the key in his pocket. Then he opened the +door from the hall into the library. The long window nearest the +smoking-room door was open. + +The group of servants were all watching him; never had he moved or +acted with an air of graver or greater importance. His portliness gave +it weight. + +"Has any of you opened the windows of the library this morning?" he said. + +No one answered. + +Then Mrs. Carruthers, the housekeeper, said: "Clarke does the library +every morning. Have you done it this morning, Clarke?" + +"No, mum. I hadn't finished the green droring-room when Mr. Holloway +brought the sad news," said one of the housemaids. + +Mr. Manley locked the library door and put that key also in his pocket. + +Then he said in a tone of authority: "I think, Mrs. Carruthers, that the +sooner we all have breakfast the better. I for one am going to have a +hard day, and I shall need all my strength. We all shall." + +"Certainly, Mr. Manley. You're quite right. We shall all need our +strength. You shall have your breakfast at once. I'll have it sent to +the little dining-room. You would like to be on the spot. Come along, +girls. Wilkins, and you, Holloway, get on with your work as quickly as +you can," said Mrs. Carruthers, driving her flock before her towards the +servants' quarters. + +"Thank you. And will you see that no one wakes Lady Loudwater before +her usual hour, or tells her what has happened? I will tell her myself +and try to break the news with as little of a shock as possible," said +Mr. Manley. + +"Twitcher hasn't bin downstairs yet. She doesn't know anything about it," +said one of the maids. + +"Send her straight to me--to the terrace when she does come down," said +Mr. Manley, walking towards the hall door. + +He felt that after the sight of the dead man's face the fresh morning air +would do him good. + +There came a sudden burst of excited chatter from the women as they +passed beyond the door into the back of the Castle. All their tongues +seemed to be loosed at once. Mr. Manley went out of the Castle door, +crossed the drive, and walked up and down the lawn. He took long breaths +through his nostrils; the sight of the dead man's yellowish face had been +unpleasant indeed to a man of his sensibility. + +In about five minutes Elizabeth Twitcher came out of the big door and +across the lawn to him. She was looking startled and scared. + +"Mrs. Carruthers said you wished to speak to me, sir?" she said quickly. + +"Yes. I propose to break the news of this very shocking affair to Lady +Loudwater myself. She's rather fragile, I fancy. And I think that it +needs doing with the greatest possible tact--so as to lessen the shock," +said Mr. Manley in an impressive voice. + +Elizabeth Twitcher gazed at him with a growing suspicion in her eyes. +Then she said: "It isn't--it isn't a trap?" + +"A trap? What kind of a trap? What on earth do you mean?" said Mr. +Manley, in a not unnatural bewilderment at the odd suggestion. + +"You might be trying to take her off her guard," said Elizabeth Twitcher +in a tone of deep suspicion. + +"Her guard against what?" said Mr. Manley, still bewildered. + +Elizabeth's Twitcher's eyes lost some of their suspicion, and he heard +her breathe a faint sigh of relief. + +"I thought as 'ow--as how some of them might have told you what his +lordship was going to do to her, and that she--she stuck that knife into +him so as to stop it," she said. + +"What on earth are you talking about? What was his lordship going to do +to her?" cried Mr. Manley, in a tone of yet greater bewilderment. + +"He was going to divorce her ladyship. He told her so last night when I +was doing her hair for dinner," said Elizabeth Twitcher. + +She paused and stared at him, frowning. Then she went on: "And, like a +fool, I went and talked about it--to some one else." + +Mr. Manley glared at her in a momentary speechlessness; then found his +voice and cried: "But, gracious heavens! You don't suspect her ladyship +of having murdered Lord Loudwater?" + +"No, I don't. But there'll be plenty as will," said Elizabeth Twitcher +with conviction. + +"It's absurd!" cried Mr. Manley. + +Elizabeth Twitcher shook her head. + +"You must allow as she had reason enough--for a lady, that is. He was +always swearing at her and abusing her, and it isn't at all the kind of +thing a lady can stand. And this divorce coming on the top of it all," +she said in a dispassionate tone. + +"You mustn't talk like this! There's no saying what trouble you may +make!" cried Mr. Manley in a tone of stern severity. + +"I'm not going to talk like that--only to you, sir. You're a gentleman, +and it's safe. What I'm afraid of is that I've talked too much +already--last night that is," she said despondently. + +"Well, don't make it worse by talking any more. And let me know when your +mistress is dressed, and I'll come up and break the news of this shocking +affair to her." + +"Very good, sir," said Elizabeth, and with a gloomy face and depressed +air she went back into the Castle. + +She had scarcely disappeared, when Holloway came out to tell Mr. Manley +that his breakfast was ready for him in the little dining-room. Mr. +Manley set about it with the firmness of a man preparing himself against +a strenuous day. The frown with which Elizabeth Twitcher's suggestion had +puckered his brow faded from it slowly, as the excellence of the chop he +was eating soothed him. Holloway waited on him, and Mr. Manley asked him +whether any of the servants had heard anything suspicious in the night. +Holloway assured him that none of them had. + +Mr. Manley had just helped himself a second time to eggs and bacon when +Wilkins brought in Robert Black, the village constable. Mr. Manley had +seen him in the village often enough, a portly, grave man, who regarded +his position and work with the proper official seriousness. Mr. Manley +told him that he had locked the door of the smoking-room and of the +library, in order that the scene of the crime might be left undisturbed +for examination by the Low Wycombe police. Robert Black did not appear +pleased by this precaution. He would have liked to demonstrate his +importance by making some preliminary investigations himself. Mr. Manley +did not offer to hand the keys over to him. He intended to have the +credit of the precautions he had taken with the constable's superiors. + +He said: "I suppose you would like to question the servants to begin +with. Take the constable to the servants' hall, give him a glass of beer, +and let him get to work, Wilkins." + +He spoke in the imperative tone proper to a man in charge of such an +important affair, and Robert Black went. Mr. Manley could not see that +the grave fellow could do any harm by his questions, or, for that +matter, any good. + +He finished his breakfast and lighted his pipe. Elizabeth Twitcher came +to tell him that Lady Loudwater was dressed. He told her to tell her that +he would like to see her, and followed her up the stairs. The maid went +into Lady Loudwater's sitting-room, came out, and ushered him into it. + +His strong sense of the fitness of things caused him to enter the room +slowly, with an air grave to solemnity. Olivia greeted him with a faint, +rather forced smile. + +He thought that she was paler than usual, and lacked something of her +wonted charm. She seemed rather nervous. She thought that he had come +from her husband with an unpleasant and probably most insulting message. + +He cleared his throat and said in the deep, grave voice he felt +appropriate: "I've come on a very painful errand, Lady Loudwater--a very +painful errand." + +"Indeed?" she said, and looked at him with uneasy, anxious eyes. + +"I'm sorry to tell you that Lord Loudwater has had an accident, a very +bad accident," he said. + +"An accident? Egbert?" she cried, in a tone of surprise that sounded +genuine enough. + +It gave Mr. Manley to understand that she had expected some other kind of +painful communication--doubtless about the divorce Lord Loudwater had +threatened. But he had composed a series of phrases leading up by a nice +gradation to the final announcement, and he went on: "Yes. There is very +little likelihood of his recovering from it." + +Olivia looked at him queerly, hesitating. Then she said: "Do you mean +that he's going to be a cripple for life?" + +"I mean that he will not live to be a cripple," said Mr. Manley, pleased +to insert a further phrase into his series. + +"Is it as bad as that?" she said, in a tone which again gave Mr. Manley +the impression that she was thinking of something else and had not +realized the seriousness of his words. + +"I'm sorry to say that it's worse than that. Lord Loudwater is dead," he +said, in his deepest, most sympathetic voice. + +"Dead?" she said, in a shocked tone which sounded to him rather forced. + +"Murdered," he said. + +"Murdered?" cried Olivia, and Mr. Manley had the feeling that there was +less surprise than relief in her tone. + +"I have sent for Dr. Thornhill and the police from Low Wycombe," he said. +"They ought to have been here before this. And I am going to telegraph to +Lord Loudwater's solicitors. You would like to have their help as soon as +possible, I suppose. There seems nothing else to be done at the moment." + +"Then you don't know who did it?" said Olivia. + +Her tone did not display a very lively interest in the matter or any +great dismay, and Mr. Manley felt somewhat disappointed. He had expected +much more emotion from her than she was displaying, even though the death +of her ill-tempered husband must be a considerable relief. He had +expected her to be shocked and horror-stricken at first, before she +realized that she had been relieved of a painful burden. But she seemed +to him to be really less moved by the murder of her husband than she +would have been, had the Lord Loudwater carried out his not infrequent +threat of shooting, or hanging, or drowning the cat Melchisidec. + +"No one so far seems to be able to throw any light at all on the crime," +said Mr. Manley. + +Olivia frowned thoughtfully, but seemed to have no more to say on +the matter. + +"Well, then, I'll telegraph to Paley and Carrington, and ask Mr. +Carrington to come down," said Mr. Manley. + +"Please," said Olivia. + +Mr. Manley hesitated; then he said: "And I suppose that I'd better be +getting some one to make arrangements about the funeral?" + +"Please do everything you think necessary," said Olivia. "In fact, you'd +better manage everything till Mr. Carrington comes. A man is much better +at arranging important matters like this than a woman." + +"You may rely on me," said Mr. Manley, with a reassuring air, and greatly +pleased by this recognition of his capacity. "And allow me to assure you +of my sincerest sympathy." + +"Thank you," said Olivia, and then with more animation and interest she +added: "And I suppose I shall want some black clothes." + +"Shall I write to your dressmaker?" said Mr. Manley. + +"No, thank you. I shall be able to tell her what I want better myself." + +Mr. Manley withdrew in a pleasant temper. It was true that as a student +of dramatic emotion he had been disappointed by the calmness with which +Olivia had received the news of the murder; but she had instructed him to +do everything he thought fit. He saw his way to controlling the +situation, and ruling the Castle till some one with a better right should +supersede him. He was halfway along the corridor before he realized that +Olivia had asked no single question about the circumstance of the crime. +Indifference could go no further. But--he paused, considering--was it +indifference? Could she--could she have known already? + +As he came down the stairs Wilkins opened the door of the big hall, and a +man of medium height, wearing a tweed suit and carrying a soft hat and a +heavy malacca cane, entered briskly. He looked about thirty. On his heels +came a tall, thin police inspector in uniform. + +Mr. Manley came forward, and the man in the tweed suit said: "My name is +Flexen, George Flexen. I'm acting as Chief Constable. Major Arbuthnot is +away for a month. I happened to be at the police station at Low Wycombe +when your news came, and I thought it best to come myself. This is +Inspector Perkins." + +Mr. Manley introduced himself as the secretary of the murdered man, and +with an air of quiet importance told Mr. Flexen that Lady Loudwater had +put him in charge of the Castle till her lawyer came. Then he took the +keys of the smoking-room and the library door from his pocket and said: + +"I locked up the room in which the dead body is, and the library through +which there is also access to it, leaving everything just as it was when +the body was found. I do not think that any traces which the criminal has +left, if, that is, he has left any, can have been obliterated." + +He spoke with the quiet pride of a man who has done the right thing in +an emergency. + +"That's good," said Mr. Flexen, in a tone of warm approval. "It +isn't often that we get a clear start like that. We'll examine these +rooms at once." + +Mr. Manley went to the door of the smoking-room and was about to unlock +it, when Dr. Thornhill, a big, bluff man of fifty-five, bustled in. Mr. +Manley introduced him to Mr. Flexen; then he unlocked the door and +opened it. + +The doctor was leading the way into the smoking-room when Mr. Flexen +stepped smartly in front of him and said: "Please stay outside all of +you. I'll make the examination myself first." + +He spoke quietly, but in the tone of a man used to command. + +"But, for anything we know, his lordship may still be alive," said Dr. +Thornhill in a somewhat blustering tone, and pushing forward. "As his +medical adviser, it's my duty to make sure at once." + +"I'll tell you whether Lord Loudwater is alive or not. Don't let any one +cross the threshold, Perkins," said Mr. Flexen, with quiet decision. + +Perkins laid a hand on the doctor's arm, and the doctor said: "A nice way +of doing things! Arbuthnot would have given his first attention to his +lordship!" + +"I'm going to," said Mr. Flexen quietly. + +He went to the dead man, looked in his pale face, lifted his hand, let +it fall, and said: "Been dead hours." + +Then he examined carefully the position of the knife. He was more than a +minute over it. Then he drew it gingerly from the wound by the ring at +the end of it. It was one of these Swedish knives, the blades of which +are slipped into the handle when they are not being used. + +"I think that's the knife that lay, open, in the big ink-stand in the +library. We used it as a paper-knife, and to cut string with," said Mr. +Manley, who was watching him with most careful attention. + +"It may have some evidence on the handle," said Mr. Flexen, still holding +it by the ring, and he drove the point of it into the pad of blotting +paper on which Mr. Manley had been wont to write letters at the murdered +man's dictation. + +"And how am I to tell whether the wound was self-inflicted, or not?" +cried the doctor in an aggrieved tone. + +"If you will get some of the servants, you can remove the body to any +room convenient and make your examination. It's a clean stab into the +heart, and it looks to me as if the person who used that knife had some +knowledge of anatomy. Most people who strike for the heart get the middle +of the left lung," said Mr. Flexen. + +So saying, he gently drew the easy chair, in which the body was huddled, +nearer the door by its back. Mr. Manley bade Holloway fetch Wilkins and +two of the grooms, and then, eager for hints of the actions of a +detective, so useful to a dramatist, gave all his attention again to the +proceedings of Mr. Flexen, who was down on one knee on the spot in which +the chair had stood, studying the carpet round it. He rose and walked +slowly towards the door which opened into the library, paused on the +threshold to bid Perkins examine the chair and the clothes of the +murdered man, and went into the library. + +He was still in it when the footman and the grooms lifted the body of +Lord Loudwater out of the chair, and carried it up to his bedroom. Mr. +Manley stayed on the threshold of the smoking-room. His interest in the +doings of Mr. Flexen forbade him leaving it to superintend decorously the +removal of the body. + +Presently Mr. Flexen came back, and as he walked round the room, +examining the rest of it, especially the carpet, Mr. Manley studied the +man himself, the detective type. He was about five feet eight, +broad-shouldered out of proportion to that height, but thin. He had an +uncommonly good forehead, a square, strong chin, a hooked nose and thin, +set lips, which gave him a rather predatory air, belied rather by his +pleasant blue eyes. The sun wrinkles round their corners and his sallow +complexion gave Mr. Manley the impression that he had spent some years in +the tropics and suffered for it. + +When Mr. Flexen had examined the room, though Inspector Perkins had +already done so, he felt round the cushions of the easy chair in which +Lord Loudwater had been stabbed, found nothing, and stood beside it in +quiet thought. + +Then he looked at Mr. Manley and said: "The murderer must have been some +one with whom Lord Loudwater was so familiar that he took no notice of +his or her movements, for he came up to him from the front, or walked +round the chair to the front of him, and stabbed him with a quite +straightforward thrust. Lord Loudwater should have actually seen the +knife--unless by any chance he was asleep." + +"He was sure to be asleep," said Mr. Manley quickly. "He always did sleep +in the evening--generally from the time he finished his cigar till he +went to bed. I think he acquired the habit from coming back from hunting, +tired and sleepy. Besides, I came down for a drink between eleven and +twelve, and I'm almost sure I heard him snore. He snored like the devil." + +"Slept every evening, did he? That puts a different complexion on the +business," said Mr. Flexen. "The murderer need _not_ have been any one +with whom he was familiar." + +"No. He need not. But are you quite sure that the wound wasn't +self-inflicted--that it wasn't a case of suicide?" said Mr. Manley. + +"No, I'm not; and I don't think that that doctor--what's his name? +Thornhill--can be sure either. But why should Lord Loudwater have +committed suicide?" + +"Well, he had found out, or thought he had found out, something about +Lady Loudwater, and was threatening to start an action against her for +divorce. At least, so her maid told me this morning. And as he wholly +lacked balance, he might in a fury of jealousy have made away with +himself," said Mr. Manley thoughtfully. + +"Was he so fond of Lady Loudwater?" said Mr. Flexen in a somewhat +doubtful tone. + +He had heard stories about Lord Loudwater's treatment of his wife. + +"He didn't show any great fondness for her, I'm bound to say. In fact, +he was always bullying her. But he wouldn't need to be very fond of any +one to go crazy with jealousy about her. He was a man of strong passions +and quite unbalanced. I suppose he had been so utterly spoilt as a +child, a boy, and a young man, that he never acquired any power of +self-control at all." + +"M'm, I should have thought that in that case he'd have been more likely +to murder the man," said Mr. Flexen. + +"He was," said Mr. Manley in ready agreement. "But the other's always +possible." + +"Yes; one has to bear every possibility in mind," said Mr. Flexen. "I've +heard that he was a bad-tempered man." + +"He was the most unpleasant brute I ever came across in my life," said +Mr. Manley with heartfelt conviction. + +"Then he had enemies?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Scores, I should think. But, of course, I don't know. Only I can't +conceive his having had a friend," said Mr. Manley in a tone of some +bitterness. + +"Then it's certainly a case with possibilities," said Mr. Flexen in a +pleased tone. "But I expect that the solution will be quite simple. It +generally is." + +He said it rather sadly, as if he would have much preferred the solution +to be difficult. + +"Let's hope so. A big newspaper fuss will be detestable for Lady +Loudwater. She's a charming creature," said Mr. Manley. + +"So I've heard. Do you know who the man was that Loudwater was making a +fuss about?" + +"I haven't the slightest idea. Probably the maid, Elizabeth Twitcher, +will be able to tell you," said Mr. Manley. + +Mr. Flexen walked across the room and drew the knife out of the pad of +blotting-paper by the ring in its handle, and studied it. + +"I suppose this is the knife that was in the library? They're pretty +common," he said. + +Mr. Manley came to him, looked at it earnestly, and said: "That's it all +right. I tried to sharpen it a day or two ago, so that it would sharpen a +pencil. I generally leave my penknife in the waist-coat I'm not wearing. +But I couldn't get it sharp enough. It's rotten steel." + +"All of them are, but good enough for a stab," said Mr. Flexen. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + + +Olivia had very little appetite for breakfast. It is to be doubted, +indeed, whether she was aware of what she was eating. Elizabeth Twitcher +hovered about her, solicitous, pressing her to eat more. She was fond of +her mistress, and very uneasy lest she should have harmed her seriously +by her careless gossiping the night before. But she was surprised by the +exceedingly anxious and worried expression which dwelt on Olivia's face. +Her air grew more and more harassed. The murder of her husband had +doubtless been a shock, but he had been such a husband. Elizabeth +Twitcher had expected her mistress to cry a little about his death, and +then grow serene as she realized what a good riddance it was. But Olivia +had not cried, and she showed no likelihood whatever of becoming serene. + +At the end of her short breakfast she lit a cigarette, and began to pace +up and down her sitting-room with a jerky, nervous gait, quite unlike her +wonted graceful, easy, swinging walk. She had to relight her cigarette, +and as she did so, Elizabeth Twitcher, who was clearing away the +breakfast, perceived that her hands were shaking. There was plainly more +in the matter than Elizabeth Twitcher had supposed, and she wondered, +growing more and more uneasy. + +When she went downstairs with the tray she learned that Dr. Thornhill was +examining the wound which had caused the Lord Loudwater's death, and that +Mr. Flexen and Inspector Perkins were questioning Wilkins. Talking to the +other servants, she found of a sudden that she had reason for anxiety +herself, and hurried back in a panic to her mistress's boudoir. She found +Olivia still walking nervously up and down. + +"The inspector and the gentleman who is acting Chief Constable are +questioning the servants, m'lady," said Elizabeth. + +Olivia stopped short and stared at her with rather scared eyes. + +Then she said sharply: "Go down and learn what the servants have told +them--all the servants--everything." + +Her mistress's plainly greater anxiety eased a little Elizabeth +Twitcher's own panic in the matter of James Hutchings, and she went down +again to the servants' quarters. + +Mr. Flexen and Inspector Perkins learnt nothing of importance from +Wilkins; but he made it clearer to Mr. Flexen that the temper of the +murdered man had indeed been abominable. Holloway, on the other hand, +proved far more enlightening. From him they learnt that Hatchings had +been discharged the day before without notice, and that he had uttered +violent threats against his employer before he went. Also they learnt +that Hatchings, who had left about four o'clock in the afternoon, had +come back to the Castle at night. Jane Pittaway, an under-house-maid, had +heard him talking to Elizabeth Twitcher in the blue drawing-room between +eleven and half-past. + +Mr. Flexen questioned Holloway at length, and learned that James +Hatchings was a man of uncommonly violent temper; that it had been a +matter of debate in the servants' hall whether his furies or those of +their dead master were the worse. Then he dismissed Holloway, and sent +for Jane Pittaway. A small, sharp-eyed, sharp-featured young woman, she +was quite clear in her story. About eleven the night before she had gone +into the great hall to bring away two vases full of flowers, to be +emptied and washed next morning, and coming past the door of the blue +drawing-room, had heard voices. She had listened and recognized the +voices of Hutchings and Elizabeth Twitcher. No; she had not heard what +they were saying. The door was too thick. But he seemed to be arguing +with her. Yes; she had been surprised to find him in the house after he +had gone off like that. Besides, everybody thought that he had jilted +Elizabeth Twitcher and was keeping company with Mabel Evans, who had come +home on a holiday from her place in London to her mother's in the +village. No; she did not know how long he stayed. She minded her own +business, but, if any one asked her, she must say that he was more likely +to murder some one than any one she knew, for he had a worse temper than +his lordship even, and bullied every one he came near worse than his +lordship. In fact, she had never been able to understand how Elizabeth +Twitcher could stand him, though of course every one knew that Elizabeth +could always give as good as she got. + +When Mr. Flexen thanked her and said that she might go, she displayed a +desire to remain and give them her further views on the matter. But +Inspector Perkins shooed her out of the room. + +Then Wilkins came to say that Dr. Thornhill had finished his examination +and would like to see them. + +He came in with a somewhat dissatisfied air, sat down heavily in the +chair the inspector pushed forward for him, and said in a +dissatisfied tone: + +"The blade pierced the left ventricle, about the middle, a good inch and +a half. Death was practically instantaneous, of course." + +"I took it that it must have been. The collapse had been so complete. I +suppose the blade stopped the heart dead," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Absolutely dead," said the doctor. "But the thing is that I can't swear +to it that the wound was not self-inflicted. Knowing Lord Loudwater, I +could swear to it morally. There isn't the ghost of a chance that he +took his own life. But physically, his right hand might have driven that +blade into his heart." + +"I thought so myself, though of course I'm no expert," said Mr. Flexen. +"And I agree with you when you say that you are morally certain that the +wound was not self-inflicted. Those bad-tempered brutes may murder other +people, but themselves never." + +"Well, I've not your experience in crime, but I should say that you were +right," said the doctor. + +"All the same, the fact that you cannot swear that the wound was not +self-inflicted will be of great help to the murderer, unless we get an +absolute case against him," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Well, I'm sure I hope you will. Lord Loudwater had a bad temper--an +infernal temper, in fact. But that's no excuse for murdering him," said +Dr. Thornhill. + +"None whatever," said Mr. Flexen. "What about the inquest? I suppose we'd +better have it as soon as possible." + +"Yes. Tomorrow morning, if you can," said the doctor, rising. + +"Very good. Send word to the coroner at once, Perkins. Don't go yourself. +I shall want you here," said Mr. Flexen. + +He shook hands with the doctor and bade him good-day. As Inspector +Perkins went out of the room to send word to the coroner, he bade him +send Elizabeth Twitcher to him. + +She was not long coming, for, in obedience to Olivia's injunction, she +was engaged in learning what the other servants knew, or thought they +knew, about the murder. + +When she came into the dining-room, Mr. Flexen's keen eyes examined her +with greater care than he had given to the other servants. On Jane +Pittaway's showing, she should prove an important witness. Now Elizabeth +Twitcher was an uncommonly pretty girl, dark-eyed and dark-haired, and +her forehead and chin and the way her eyes were set in her head showed +considerable character. Mr. Flexen made up his mind on the instant that +he was going to learn from Elizabeth Twitcher exactly what Elizabeth +Twitcher thought fit to tell him and no more, for all that he perceived +that she was badly scared. + +He did not beat about the bush; he said: "You had a conversation with +James Hutchings last night, about eleven o'clock, in the blue +drawing-room. Did you let him in?" + +Elizabeth Twitcher's cheeks lost some more of their colour while he was +speaking, and her eyes grew more scared. She hesitated for a moment; +then she said: + +"Yes. I let him in at the side door." + +He had not missed her hesitation; he was sure that she was not telling +the truth. + +"How did you know he was at the side door?" he said. + +She hesitated again. Then she said: "He whistled to me under my window +just as I was going to bed." + +Again he did not believe her. + +"Did you let him out of the Castle?" he said. + +"No, I didn't. He let himself out," she said quickly. + +"Out of the side door?" + +"How else would he go out?" she snapped. + +"You don't know that he went out by the side door?" said Mr. Flexen. + +Elizabeth hesitated again. Then she said sullenly: "No, I don't. I left +him in the blue drawing-room." + +"In a very bad temper?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"I don't know what kind of a temper he was in," she said. + +Mr. Flexen paused, looking at her thoughtfully. Then he said: "I'm told +that you and he were engaged to be married, and that he broke the +engagement off." + +"_I_ broke it off!" said Elizabeth angrily, and she drew herself up very +stiff and frowning. + +It was Mr. Flexen's turn to hesitate. Then he made a shot, and said: "I +see. He wanted you to become engaged to him again, and you wouldn't." + +Elizabeth looked at him with an air of surprise and respect, and said: +"It wasn't quite like that, sir. I didn't say as I wouldn't be his fioncy +again. I said I'd see how he behaved himself." + +"Then he wasn't in a good temper," said Mr. Flexen. + +"He was in a better temper than he'd any right to expect to be," said +Elizabeth with some heat. + +"That's true," said Mr. Flexen, smiling at her. "But after the trouble he +had had with Lord Loudwater he couldn't be in a very good temper." + +"He was too used to his lordship's tantrums to take much notice of them. +He was too much that way himself," said Elizabeth quickly. + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen. "What time was it when he left you?" + +"I can't rightly say. But it wasn't half-past eleven," she said. + +He perceived that that was true. At the moment there was no more to be +learned from her. If she could throw any more light on the doings of +James Hutchings, she was on her guard and would not. But he had learned +that James Hutchings had not entered the Castle by the side door. Had he +entered it and left it by the library window? + +He asked Elizabeth a few more unimportant questions and dismissed her. + +Inspector Perkins, having sent a groom to inform the coroner of the +murder, and of the need for an early inquest into it, came back to him. +They discussed the matter of James Hutchings, and decided to have him +watched and arrest him on suspicion should he try to leave the +neighbourhood. The inspector telephoned to Low Wycombe for two of his +detectives. + +Mr. Flexen questioned the rest of the servants and learned nothing new +from them. By the time he had finished the two detectives from Low +Wycombe arrived, and he sent them out to make inquiries in the village, +though he thought it unlikely that anything was to be learnt there, +unless Hutchings had been talking again. + +He had risen and was about to go to the smoking-room to look round it +again, on the chance that something had escaped his eye, when Mrs. +Carruthers, the housekeeper, entered the room. None of the servants had +mentioned her to him, and it had not occurred to him that there would of +course be a housekeeper. + +"Good morning, Mr. Flexen. I'm Mrs. Carruthers, the housekeeper," she +said. "You didn't send for me. But I thought I ought to see you, for +I know something which may be important, and I thought you ought to +know it, too." + +"Of course. I can't know too much about an affair like this," said Mr. +Flexen quickly. + +"Well, there was a woman, or rather I should say a lady, with his +lordship in the smoking-room last night--about eleven o'clock." + +"Indeed?" said Mr. Flexen. "Won't you sit down? A lady you say?" + +"Yes; she was a lady, though she seemed very angry and excited, and was +talking in a very high voice. I didn't recognize it, so I can't tell you +who it was. You see, I don't belong to the neighbourhood. I've only been +here six weeks." + +"And how long did this interview last?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"I can't tell you. It was no business of mine. I was making my round last +thing to see that the servants had left nothing about. I always do. You +know how careless they are. I went round the hall, and then I went to +bed. But, of course, I wondered about it," said Mrs. Carruthers. + +Mr. Flexen looked at her refined, rather delicate face, and he did not +wonder how she had repressed her natural curiosity. + +"Can you tell me whether the French window in the library, the end one, +was open at that time?" he said. + +"I can't," she said in a tone of regret. "I couldn't very well open the +library door. If the door between the library and the smoking-room was +open, I should have been certain to hear something that was not meant +for my ears. And it generally is open in summer time. But I should think +it very likely that the lady came in by that window. It's always open in +summer time. In fact, his lordship always went out into the garden +through it, going from his smoking-room." + +"And what time was it that you heard this?" he said. + +"A few minutes past eleven. I looked round the drawing-room and the two +dining-rooms, and it was a quarter-past eleven when I came into my room." + +"That's the first exact time I've got from any one yet," said Mr. Flexen +in a tone of satisfaction. "And that's all you heard?" + +She hesitated, and a look of distress came over her face. Then she said: +"You have questioned Elizabeth Twitcher. Did she tell you anything about +his lordship's last quarrel with her ladyship?" + +"She did not," said Mr. Flexen. "Mr. Manley told me that she had told +him about the quarrel. But I did not question her about it. I left it +till later." + +Mrs. Carruthers hesitated; then she said: "It's so difficult to see what +one's duty is in a case like this." + +"Well, one's obvious duty is to make no secret of anything that may throw +a light on the crime. Was it anything out of the way in the way of +quarrels? Wasn't Lord Loudwater always quarrelling with Lady Loudwater? +I've been told that he was always insulting and bullying her." + +"Well, this one was rather out of the common," said Mrs. Carruthers +reluctantly. "He accused her of having kissed Colonel Grey in the East +wood and declared that he would divorce her." + +"It was Colonel Grey, was it?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"That is what Elizabeth Twitcher told me after supper last night. It +seems that his lordship burst in upon them when she was dressing her +ladyship's hair for dinner and blurted it out before her. I've no doubt +she was telling the truth. Twitcher is a truthful girl." + +"Moderately truthful," said Mr. Flexen in a somewhat ironical tone. + +"Of course she may have exaggerated. Servants do," said Mrs. Carruthers. + +"And how did Lady Loudwater take it?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Twitcher said that she denied everything, and did not appear at all +upset about it. Of course, she was used to Lord Loudwater's making +scenes. He had a most dreadful temper." + +"M'm," said Mr. Flexen, and he played a tune on the table with his +finger-tips, frowning thoughtfully. "Was Colonel Grey--I suppose it is +Colonel Antony Grey--the V.C. who has been staying down here?" + +"Yes," said Mrs. Carruthers. "He's at the 'Cart and Horses' at +Bellingham." + +"Was he on good terms with Lord Loudwater?" + +"They were quite friendly up to about a fortnight ago. The Colonel used +to play billiards with his lordship and stay on to dinner two or three +times a week. Then they had a quarrel--about the way his lordship +treated her ladyship. Holloway, the footman, heard it, and the Colonel +told his lordship that he was a cad and a blackguard, and he hasn't been +here since." + +"But he met Lady Loudwater in the wood?" + +"So his lordship declared," said Mrs. Carruthers in a non-committal tone. + +"Do you know how Lord Loudwater came to hear of their meeting?" + +"Twitcher said that he must have had it from one of the +under-gamekeepers, a young fellow called William Roper. Roper asked to +see his lordship that evening and was very mysterious about his errand, +so that it looks as if she might be right. None of the servants ever went +near his lordship, if they could help it. It had to be something very +important to induce William Roper to go to him of his own accord." + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen thoughtfully. "Well, I'm glad you told me about +this. Do you suppose that this Twitcher girl has talked to any one but +you about it?" + +"That I can't say at all. But she has a bedroom to herself," said Mrs. +Carruthers. "Besides, if she had talked to any of the others, they would +have told you about it." + +"Yes; there is that. I think it would be a good thing if you were to +give her a hint to keep it to herself. It may have no bearing whatever +on the crime. It's not probable that it has. But it's the kind of +thing to set people talking and do both Lady Loudwater and Colonel +Grey a lot of harm." + +"I will give her a hint at once," said Mrs. Carruthers, rising. "But the +unfortunate thing is that if Twitcher doesn't talk, this young fellow +Roper will. And, really, Lord Loudwater gave her ladyship quite enough +trouble and unhappiness when he was alive without giving her more now +that he's dead." + +"I may be able to induce William Roper to hold his tongue," said Mr. +Flexen dryly. "Certainly his talking cannot do any good in any case. And +I have gathered that Lady Loudwater has suffered quite enough already +from her husband." + +"I'm sure she has; and I do hope you will be able to keep that young man +quiet," said Mrs. Carruthers, moving towards the door. As she opened it, +she paused and said: "Will you be here to lunch, Mr. Flexen?" + +"To lunch and probably all the afternoon." He hesitated and added: "It +would be rather an advantage if I could sleep here, too. I do not think +that I shall need to look much further than the Castle for the solution +of this problem, though there's no telling. At any rate, I should like to +have exhausted all the possibilities of the Castle before I leave it. And +if I'm on the spot, I shall probably exhaust them much more quickly." + +"Oh, that can easily be arranged. I'll see her ladyship about it at +once," said Mrs. Carruthers quickly. + +"And would you ask her if she feels equal to seeing me yet?" + +"Certainly, Mr. Flexen; and if she does, I'll let you know at once," she +said and went through the door. + +Mr. Flexen was considering the new facts she had given him, when about +three minutes later Inspector Perkins returned; and Mr. Flexen bade him +find William Roper and bring him to him without delay. The inspector +departed briskly. He was not used to having the inquiry into a crime +conducted by the Chief Constable himself; but Mr. Flexen had impressed +the conviction on him that it was work which he thoroughly understood. +Moreover, he had been appointed acting Chief Constable of the district +during the absence of Major Arbuthnot, on the ground of his many years' +experience in the Indian Police. Also, the inspector realized that this +was, indeed, an exceptional case worthy of the personal effort of any +Chief Constable. He could not remember a case of the murder of a peer; +they had always seemed to him a class immune from anything more serious +than ordinary assault. He was pleased that Mr. Flexen was conducting the +inquiry himself, for he did not wish Scotland Yard to deal with it. Not +only would that cast a slur on the capacity of the police of the +district, but he was sure that he himself would get much more credit for +his work, if he and Mr. Flexen were successful in discovering the +murderer, than he would get if a detective inspector from Scotland Yard +were in charge of the case. Such a detective inspector might or might not +earn all the credit, but he would certainly know how to get it and +probably insist on having it. + +He had not been gone a minute when Elizabeth Twitcher came into the +dining-room, said that her ladyship would be pleased to see Mr. Flexen, +and led him upstairs to her sitting-room. + +He found Olivia paler than her wont, but quite composed. She had lost her +nervous air, for she had perceived very clearly that it would be +dangerous, indeed, to display the anxiety which was harassing her. It was +only natural that she should appear upset by the shock, but not that she +should appear in any way fearful. + +Mr. Flexen had been told that Lady Loudwater was pretty, but he had not +been prepared to find her as charming a creature as Olivia. He made up +his mind at once to do the best he could to save her from the trouble +that the gossip about her and Colonel Grey would surely bring upon +her--if always he were satisfied that neither of them had a hand in the +crime. Looking at Olivia, nothing seemed more unlikely than that she +should be in any way connected with it. But he preserved an open mind. As +such reasons go, she was not without reasons, substantial reasons, for +getting rid of her husband, and she appeared to him to be a creature of +sufficiently delicate sensibilities to feel that husband's brutality more +than most women. At the same time he found it hard to conceive of her +using that fatal knife herself. Yet the knife is most frequently the +womanly weapon. + +For her part, Olivia liked his face; but she had an uneasy feeling that +he would go further than most men in solving any problem with which he +set his mind to grapple. + +They greeted one another; he sat down in a chair facing the light, though +he would have preferred that Olivia should have faced it, and expressed +his concern at the trouble which had befallen her. + +Then he said: "I came to see you, Lady Loudwater, in the hope that you +might be able to throw some light on this deplorable event." + +"I don't think I can," said Olivia gently. "But of course, if I can do +anything to help you find out about it I shall be very pleased to try." + +She looked at him with steady, candid eyes that deepened his feeling +that she had had no hand in the crime. + +"And, of course, I'll make it as little distressing for you as I can," +he said. "Do you know whether your husband had anything worrying +him--any serious trouble of any kind which would make him likely to +commit suicide?" + +"Suicide? Egbert?" cried Olivia, in a tone of such astonishment that, as +far as Mr. Flexen was concerned, the hypothesis of suicide received its +death-blow. "No. I don't know of anything which would have made him +commit suicide." + +"Of course he had no money troubles; but were there any domestic troubles +which might have unhinged his mind to that extent?" said Mr. Flexen. + +He wished to be able to deal with the hypothesis of suicide, should it be +put forward. + +Olivia did not answer immediately. She was thinking hard. The possibility +that her husband had committed suicide, or that any one could suppose +that he had committed suicide, had never entered her head. She perceived, +however, that it was a supposition worth encouraging. At the same time, +she must not seem eager to encourage it. + +"But they told me that he'd been murdered," she said. + +"We cannot exclude any possibility from a matter like this, and the +possibility of suicide must be taken into account," said Mr. Flexen +quickly. "You don't know of any domestic trouble which might have induced +Lord Loudwater to make an end of himself?" + +"No, I don't know of one," said Olivia firmly. "But, of course, he was +sometimes quite mad." + +"Mad?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes, quite. I told him so last night--just before dinner. He was quite +mad. He said that I had kissed a friend of ours--at least he was a friend +of both of us till he quarrelled with my husband some weeks ago--in the +East wood. He raged about it, and declared he was going to start a +divorce action. But I didn't take much notice of it. He was always +falling into dreadful rages. There was one at breakfast about my cat and +another at lunch about the wine. He fancied it was corked." + +Olivia had perceived clearly that since Elizabeth Twitcher had been a +witness of her husband's outburst about Grey, it would be merely foolish +not to be frank about it. + +"But the last matter was very much more serious than the matter of the +cat or the wine," said Mr. Flexen. "You don't think that your husband +brooded on it for the rest of the evening and worked himself up into a +dangerous frame of mind?" + +Olivia hesitated. She was quite sure that her husband had done nothing of +the kind, for if he had worked himself up into a dangerous frame of mind +he would assuredly have made some effort to get at her and give some +violent expression to it. But she said: + +"That I can't say. I wish I'd gone down to dinner--now. But I was too +much annoyed. I dined in my boudoir. I'd had quite enough unpleasantness +for one day. Perhaps one of the servants could tell you. They may have +noticed something unusual in him--perhaps that he was brooding." + +"Wilkins did say that Lord Loudwater seemed upset at dinner, and that he +was frowning most of the meal," said Mr. Flexen. + +"That wasn't unusual," said Olivia somewhat pathetically. "Besides--" + +She stopped short, on the very verge of saying that she was sure that +those frowns cleared from her husband's face before the sweets, for he +would never take afternoon tea, in order to have a better appetite for +dinner, and consequently was wont to begin that meal in a tetchy humour. +Such an explanation would have gone no way to support the hypothesis of +suicide. Instead of making it she said: + +"Of course, he did seem frightfully upset." + +"But you don't think that he was sufficiently upset to do himself an +injury?" said Mr. Flexen. + +Olivia had formed a strong impression that her husband would not in any +circumstance do himself an injury; it was his part to injure others. +But she said: + +"I can't say. He might have gone on working himself up all the evening. I +didn't see him after he left my dressing-room. It was there he made the +row--while I was dressing for dinner." + +Mr. Flexen paused; then he said: "Mr. Manley tells me that Lord Loudwater +used to sleep every evening after dinner. Do you think that he was too +upset to go to sleep last night?" + +"Oh, dear no! I've known him go to sleep in his smoking-room after a much +worse row than that!" cried Olivia. + +"With you?" said Mr. Flexen quickly. + +"No; with Hutchings--the butler," said Olivia. + +"But that wouldn't be such a serious matter--not one to brood upon," said +Mr. Flexen. + +"I suppose not," said Olivia readily. + +Mr. Flexen paused again; then he said in a somewhat reluctant tone: +"There's another matter I must go into. Have you any reason to believe +that there was any other woman in Lord Loudwater's life--anything in the +nature of an intrigue? It's not a pleasant question to have to ask, but +it's really important." + +"Oh, I don't expect any pleasantness where Lord Loudwater is concerned," +said Olivia, with a sudden almost petulant impatience, for this +inquisition was a much more severe strain on her than Mr. Flexen +perceived. "Do you mean now, or before we were married?" + +"Now," said Mr. Flexen. + +"I haven't the slightest idea," said Olivia. + +"Do you think it likely?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"No, I don't--not very. I don't see how he could have got another woman +in. He was always about--always. Of course, he rode a good deal, though." + +"He did, did he?" said Mr. Flexen quickly. + +"Every afternoon and most mornings." + +That was important. Mr. Flexen thought that he might not have to go very +far afield to find the woman who had been quarrelling with Lord Loudwater +at a few minutes past eleven the night before. She probably lived within +an easy ride of the Castle. + +"I'm very much obliged to you for helping me so readily in such +distressing circumstances," he said in a grateful voice as he rose. "If +anything further occurs to you that may throw any light on the matter, +you might let me hear it with as little delay as possible." + +"I will," said Olivia. "By the way, Mrs. Carruthers told me that you +would like to stay here while you were making your inquiry; please do; +and please make any use of the servants and the cars you like. My +husband's heir is still in Mesopotamia, and I expect that I shall have +to run the Castle till he comes back." + +"Thank you. To stay here will be very convenient and useful," said Mr. +Flexen gratefully, and left her. + +He came down the stairs thoughtfully. It seemed to him quite unlikely +that she had had anything to do with the crime, or knew anything more +about it than she had told him. Nevertheless, there was this business of +Colonel Grey and her murdered husband's threat to divorce her. They must +be borne in mind. + +He would have been surprised, intrigued, and somewhat shaken in his +conviction that she had been in no way connected with the murder, had he +heard the gasp of intense relief which burst from Olivia's lips when the +door closed behind him, and seen her huddle up in her chair and begin to +cry weakly in the reaction from the strain of his inquisition. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + + +Mr. Flexen found Inspector Perkins waiting for him in the dining-room +with the information that James Hutchings was at his father's cottage in +the West wood, and that he had set one of his detectives to watch him. +Also, he told him that he had learned that Hutchings was generally +disliked in the village as well as at the Castle, as a violent, +bad-tempered man, with a habit of fixing quarrels on any one who would +quarrel with him, and as often as not on mild and inoffensive persons, +quite incapable of bearing themselves in a quarrel with any unpleasant +effectiveness. + +Mr. Flexen discussed with the inspector the question of taking out a +warrant for the arrest of Hutchings, and they decided that there was no +need to take the step--at any rate, at the moment; it was enough to have +him watched. He would learn doubtless that it was known that he had been +in the Castle late the night before. If, on learning it, he took fright +and bolted, it would rather simplify the case. + +Then Mr. Flexen sent again for Elizabeth Twitcher and questioned her at +length about Lord Loudwater's onslaught on Lady Loudwater the night +before and about the condition in which he had been at the end of it. +Elizabeth was somewhat sulky in her manner, for she felt that she was to +blame for that onslaught having come to Mr. Flexen's ears. She was the +more careful to make it plain that however violently Lord Loudwater may +have been affected, Olivia had taken the business lightly enough, and +decided to ignore his injunction to her to leave the Castle. Mr. Flexen +did not miss the point that Lord Loudwater had threatened to hound +Colonel Grey out of the Army; but at the moment he did not attach +importance to it. It was the kind of threat that an angry man would be +pretty sure to make in the circumstances. + +Having dismissed Elizabeth Twitcher, he came to lunch with the impression +strong on him that he had made as much progress as could be expected in +one morning towards the solution of the problem. He was quite undecided +whether Hutchings' presence in the Castle at so late an hour, and the +probability that he had entered and left it by the library window, or the +matter of the woman who had had the stormy interview with the murdered +man, was the more important. It must be his early task to discover who +that woman was. + +He found Mr. Manley awaiting him in the little dining-room, ready to play +host. Over their soup and fish they talked about ordinary topics and a +little about themselves. Mr. Manley learned that Mr. Flexen had been in +the Indian Police for over seven years, and had been forced to resign his +post by the breaking down of his health; that during the war he had twice +acted as Chief Constable and three times as stipendiary magistrate in +different districts. Mr. Flexen gathered that Mr. Manley had fought in +France with a brilliant intrepidity which had not met with the public +recognition it deserved, and learned that he had been invalided out of +the Army owing to the weakness of his heart. This common failure of +health was a bond of sympathy between them, and made them well disposed +to one another. + +There came a pause in this personal talk, and either of them addressed +himself to the consumption of the wing of a chicken with a certain +absorption in the occupation. It was not uncharacteristic of Mr. Manley +that his high sense of the fitness of things had not prevailed on him to +accord the liver wing to the guest. He was firmly eating it himself. + +Then Mr. Flexen said: "I suppose you came across Hutchings, the butler, +pretty often. What kind of a fellow was he?" + +"He was rather more like his master than if he had been his twin brother, +except that he wore whiskers and not a beard," said Mr. Manley, in a tone +of hearty dislike. + +"He does not appear to have been at all popular with the other servants," +said Mr. Flexen. + +"He certainly wasn't popular with me," said Mr. Manley dryly. + +"What did Lord Loudwater discharge him for?" + +"A matter of a commission on the purchase of some wine," said Mr. Manley. +Then in a more earnest tone he added: "Look here: the trenches knock a +good deal of the nonsense out of one, and I tell you frankly that if I +could help you in any way to discover the criminal, I wouldn't. My +feeling is that if ever any one wanted putting out of the way, Lord +Loudwater did; and as he was put out of the way quite painlessly, +probably it was a valuble action, whatever its motive." + +"I expect that a good many people have come back from the trenches with +very different ideas about justice," said Mr. Flexen in an indulgent +tone. "The Indian Police also changes your ideas about it. But it's my +duty to see that justice is done, and I shall. Besides, I'm very keen on +solving this problem, if I can. It seems that Hutchings was in the Castle +last night about eleven o'clock, and as you said something about coming +down for a drink about that time, I thought you might possibly know +something about his movements." + +"Well, as it happens," said Mr. Manley and stopped short, paused, and +went on: "You seem to have made up your mind that it was a murder and not +a suicide." + +"So you do know something about the movements of Hutchings," said Mr. +Flexen, smiling. "You'll be subpoenaed, you know, if he is charged with +the murder." + +"That would, of course, be quite a different matter," said Mr. +Manley gravely. + +"As to its being a murder, I've pretty well made up my mind that it was," +said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley looked at him gravely: "You have, have you?" he said. Then he +added: "About that knife and the finger-prints on it, if it happens to +have recorded any: I've been thinking that you may find yourself +suffering from an embarrassment of riches. I know that mine will be on +it, and Lady Loudwater's, who used it to cut the leaves of a volume of +poetry the day before yesterday, and Hutchings', who cut the string of a +parcel of books with it yesterday, and very likely the fingerprints of +Lord Loudwater. You know how it is with a knife like that, which lies +open and handy. Every one uses it. I've seen Lady Loudwater use it to cut +flowers, and Lord Loudwater to cut the end off a cigar--cursing, of +course, because he couldn't lay his hands on a cigar-cutter, and the +knife was blunt--and I've cut all kinds of things with it myself." + +"Yes; but the finger-prints of the murderer, if it does record them, will +be on the top of all those others. I shall simply take prints from all of +you and eliminate them." + +"Of course; you can get at it that way," said Mr. Manley. + +They were silent while Holloway set the cheese-straws on the table. + +When he had left the room Mr. Flexen said in a casual tone: "You don't +happen to know whether Lord Loudwater was mixed up with any woman in the +neighbourhood?" + +Mr. Manley paused, then laughed and said: "It's no use at all. When I +told you that I would throw no light on the matter, if I could help it, I +really meant it. At the same time, I don't mind saying that, with his +reputation for brutality, I should think it very unlikely." + +"You can never tell about women. So many of them seem to prefer brutes. +And, after all, a peer is a peer," said Mr. Flexen. + +"There is that," said Mr. Manley in thoughtful agreement. + +But he was frowning faintly as he cudgelled his brains in the effort to +think what had set Mr. Flexen on the track of Helena Truslove, for it +must be Helena. + +"I expect I shall be able to find out from his lawyers," said Mr. Flexen. + +"This promises to be interesting--the intervention of Romance," said Mr. +Manley in a tone of livelier interest. "I took it that the murder, if it +was a murder, would be a sordid business, in keeping with Lord +Loudwater himself. But if you're going to introduce a lady into the +case, it promises to be more fruitful in interest for the dramatist. I'm +writing plays." + +But Mr. Flexen was not going to divulge the curious fact that about the +time of his murder Lord Loudwater had had a violent quarrel with a lady. +He had no doubt that Mrs. Carruthers would keep it to herself. + +"Oh, one has to look out for every possible factor in a problem like +this, you know," he said carelessly. + +The faint frown lingered on Mr. Manley's brow. Mr. Flexen supposed that +it was the result of his refraining from gratifying his appetite for the +dramatic. They were silent a while. + +"When are you going to take our finger-prints?" said Mr. Manley +presently. + +"Not till I've learned whether there are any on the handle of the knife," +said Mr. Flexen. "Perkins has already sent it off to Scotland Yard." + +"I never thought of that. It would be rather a waste of time to take them +before knowing that," said Mr. Manley. + +Holloway brought the coffee; Mr. Manley gave Mr. Flexen an excellent +cigar, and they talked about the war. Mr. Flexen drank his coffee +quickly, said that he must get back to his work, and added that he hoped +that he would enjoy the company of Mr. Manley at dinner. Mr. Manley had +been going to dine with Helena Truslove; but after Mr. Flexen's question +whether Lord Loudwater had been entangled with any woman in the +neighbourhood, he thought that he had better dine with him. He might +learn something useful, if he could induce Mr. Flexen to expand under the +relaxing influence of dinner. He resolved to use his authority to have +the most engaging wine the cellar held. He was determined to make every +endeavour to keep Helena's name out of the affair, and he thought that he +would succeed. + +Mr. Flexen left him. He finished his coffee, the second cup, slowly, +wondering about Mr. Flexen's question about Lord Loudwater and a woman. +Then, since he had done all the work he could think of, in the way of +making arrangements for the funeral, during the morning, he set out +briskly to Helena's house, hoping that she would be able to throw some +light on it. + +He greeted her with his usual warmth, and then, when he came to look at +her at his leisure, it was plain to him that the murder had been a much +greater shock to her than he had expected. He was surprised at it, for +she had assured him that she had never been really in love with Lord +Loudwater, and he had believed her. But there was no doubt that she had +been greatly upset by the news of his death. Her high colouring was +dimmed; she wore a harassed air, and she was uncommonly nervous and ill +at ease. He thought it strange that she should be so deeply affected by +the death of a man she had such good reason to detest. But, of course, +there was no telling how a woman would take anything; Lady Loudwater's +distress had fallen as far short of what he had expected as Helena's had +exceeded it. + +To Mr. Manley's credit it must be admitted that in less than twenty +minutes Helena Truslove was looking another creature; her face had +recovered all its colour; the harassed air had vanished from it, and she +was sitting on his knee in a condition of the most pleasant repose. It +was his theory that a woman was never too ill, or too ill at ease, or too +unhappy to be made love to. He had acted on it. + +When he had thus restored her peace of mind, he told her that Mr. Flexen +had asked him whether the late Lord Loudwater had been mixed up with any +lady in the neighbourhood, and asked her if she could suggest any reason +for his having asked the question. She appeared greatly startled to hear +of it. But she could not suggest any reason for his having asked the +question. He then asked her about the manner in which the allowance had +been paid to her, and was pleased to learn that there was little +likelihood of Mr. Flexen's learning that she had received such an +allowance from Lord Loudwater, for it had been paid her through a young +lawyer of the name of Shepherd, at Low Wycombe, the lawyer who had dealt +with the matter of the transference of the house they were in to her, +from the rents of some houses Lord Loudwater owned in that town, and that +lawyer was somewhere in Mesopotamia, his practice in abeyance. + +She was in entire accord with Mr. Manley about the advantage of her name +not being connected in any way with the tragedy at the Castle. She +pointed out that it was also an advantage that she had just, been paid +her allowance for the present quarter, and there would not be another +payment for three months. By that time it was probable that the murder +would have passed out of people's minds and Mr. Flexen be busy with other +work. It seemed to Mr. Manley that Mr. Flexen would not easily learn +about the allowance unless Mr. Carrington also knew it, which seemed +unlikely, though it was always possible that there was some record of it +among the Lord Loudwater's papers at the Castle. Soon after seven he left +her to walk back to dine with Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Flexen had had a considerable surprise that afternoon. He had told +Robert Black to find William Roper and bring him to him. He wished to +hear the story he had told Lord Loudwater the evening before, for it +might be of a triviality to make the hypothesis that Lord Loudwater had +committed suicide yet less worthy of serious consideration. Black was a +long while finding William Roper, for he was at work in the woods. +Indeed, he had not yet heard that Lord Loudwater had been murdered, for +he had been up most of the night, risen late, got his own breakfast in +his out-of-the-way cottage in the depths of the West wood, and gone out +on his rounds. The constable found him at the cottage, in the act of +preparing his dinner, or rather his tea and dinner, at a quarter to four. + +William Roper was startled, indeed, to hear of the murder, and then +bitterly annoyed. All the while on his rounds he had been congratulating +himself on his coming promotion, and reckoning up the many advantages +which would accrue from it, not the least of which was a wider prospect +of finding a wife. The cup was dashed from his lips. He had acquired no +merit in the eyes of the new Lord Loudwater, and he had most probably +made the present Lady Loudwater his enemy, if the murdered man had +divulged the source of his knowledge of her goings-on with Colonel Grey. +He ate his mixed meal very sulkily, listening to the constable's account +of the circumstances of the crime. Slowly, however, his face grew +brighter as he listened; the new information he had obtained for his +murdered employer might very well have an important bearing on the crime +itself. He might yet establish himself as the benefactor of the family. + +On the way to the Castle he was so mysterious with Robert Black that the +stout constable became a prey to mingled curiosity and doubt. He could +not make up his mind whether William Roper really knew something of +importance or was merely vapouring. William Roper neither gratified his +curiosity, nor banished his doubt. He was alive to the advantage of +reserving his information for the most important ear, so as to gain the +greatest possible credit for it. + +At the first sight of him Mr. Flexen felt that he had before him an +important witness, for he took a violent dislike to him, and he had +observed, in the course of his many years' experience in the detection of +crime, that the most important witness in hounding down a criminal was +very often of a repulsive type, the nark type. William Roper was of that +type, but his story was indeed startling. + +He first told how he had seen Colonel Grey kiss Lady Loudwater in the +afternoon--Mr. Flexen noted that Lord Loudwater had accused her of +kissing Grey--and of their spending most of the afternoon in the pavilion +in the East wood. The time of his watching had already lengthened in +William Roper's memory. There was nothing new in these facts, and Mr. +Flexen saw no reason to suppose that they had any bearing on the crime. +But William Roper went on to say that soon after ten in the evening he +had been on his round in the East wood, when he saw Colonel Grey walking +in the direction of the Castle. His curiosity had been aroused by what he +had seen in the afternoon, and thinking it not unlikely that he was on +his way to another meeting with the Lady Loudwater, and that it was the +duty of a faithful retainer to make sure about it, with a view to +informing his master should his surmise prove correct, he followed him. + +The Colonel went straight through the wood into the Castle garden, walked +round the Castle, keeping in its shadow as he went, till he stood under +the window of Lady Loudwater's suite of rooms. + +There he appeared to suffer a check. There was a light in the room on the +ground floor under her boudoir. The Colonel had waited quite a while; +then he had walked round the Castle and into it by the library window. + +William, greatly surprised by the Colonel's audacity, had taken up his +position in a clump of tall rhododendrons, opposite the library window, +from which he could keep watch on it. + +"What time would this be?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"It couldn't have been more than twenty minutes past ten, sir," said +William Roper. + +"And what happened then?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Nothing 'appened for a good ten minutes. Then James Hutchings, the +butler, come across the gardens from the south gate, as if 'e'd come from +the village, and 'e went in through the libery winder--the same winder." + +Mr. Flexen had thought it not unlikely that Hatchings had entered the +Castle by that entrance. He was pleased to have his guess corroborated. + +"That would be about half-past ten," he said. "Could you see into the +library at all?" + +"Only a very little way, sir." + +"You couldn't see whether Colonel Grey and then James Hutchings went +straight through it into the hall, or whether either of them went into +the smoking-room?" + +"No; I couldn't see so far in as that, though there was a light burning +in the libery," said William Roper. + +That was a new fact. Any one passing through the library would be able to +see the open knife lying in the big inkstand. + +"Go on," said Mr. Flexen. "What happened next?" + +"Nothing 'appened for a long while--twenty minutes, I should think--and +then there come a woman round the right-'and corner of the Castle wall +and along it and into the libery winder. At first I thought it was Mrs. +Carruthers, or one of the maids--she were too tall for her ladyship--but +it warn't." + +"Are you quite sure?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Quite, sir. I should have known 'er if she had been. Besides, she was +all muffled up like. You couldn't see 'er face." + +"Did she hesitate before going through the library window?" said +Mr. Flexen. + +"Not as I noticed. She seemed to go straight in." + +"As if she were used to going into the Castle that way?" said Mr. Flexen. + +William Roper scratched his head. Then he said cautiously: "She seemed to +know that way in all right, sir." + +"And how was she dressed?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"She wasn't in black. It wasn't as dull as black, but it was dullish. It +might have been grey and again it might not. It might have been blue or +brown. You see, there was a fair moon, sir, but it was be'ind the Castle, +an' I never seed 'er in the full moonlight, as you may say, seeing as, +coming and going, she come along the wall and went round the right 'and +corner of it, in the shadder." + +"And which of these three people came away first?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"She did. She wasn't in the Castle more nor twenty minutes--if that." + +"Did she seem to be in a hurry when she came out? Did she run, or +walk quickly?" + +"No. I can't say as she did. She went away just about as she came--in no +purtic'ler 'urry," said William Roper. + +Mr. Flexen paused, considering; then he said: "And who was the next +to leave?" + +"The Colonel, 'e come out next--in about ten minutes." + +"Did he seem in a hurry?" + +"'E walked pretty brisk, and 'e was frowning, like as if 'e was in a +rage. 'E passed me close, so I 'ad a good look at 'im. Yes; I should say +'e was fair boilen', 'e was," said William Roper, in a solemn, pleased +tone of one giving damning evidence. + +Mr. Flexen did not press the matter. He said: "So James Hutchings came +away last?" + +"Yes; about five minutes after the Colonel. And 'e was in a pretty fair +to-do, too. Leastways, he was frowning and a-muttering of to 'imself. He +passed me close." + +"Did _he_ seem in any hurry?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"'E was walkin' fairly fast," said William Roper. + +Mr. Flexen paused again, pondering. He thought that William Roper had +thrown all the light on the matter he could; and he had certainly +revealed a number of facts which looked uncommonly important. + +"And that was all you saw?" he said. + +"That was all--except 'er ladyship," said William Roper. + +"Her ladyship?" said Mr. Flexen sharply. + +"Yes. You see, there was no 'urry for me to go back to the woods, sir; +an' I sat down on one of them garden seats along the edge of the +Wellin'tonia shrubbery to smoke a pipe and think it ou'. I felt it was my +dooty like to let 'is lordship know about these goings-on, never thinking +as 'ow 'e was sitting there all the time with a knife in 'im. I should +think it was twenty minutes arter that I saw 'er ladyship come out. Of +course, I was farther away from the window, but I saw 'er quite plain." + +"And where did she go?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"She didn't go nowhere, so to speak. She just walked up an' down the +gravel path--like as if she'd come out for a breath of fresh air. +Then she went in. She wasn't out more nor ten minutes, or a quarter +of an hour." + +Mr. Flexen was silent in frowning thought; then he looked earnestly at +William Roper for a good minute; then he said: "Well, this may be +important, or it may not. But it is very important that you should keep +it to yourself." He looked hard again at William, decided that an appeal +to his vanity would be best, and added: "You're pretty shrewd, I fancy, +and you can see that it is most important not to put the criminal on his +guard--if it was a crime." + +"I suppose I shall 'ave to tell what I know at the inquest?" said William +Roper, with an air of importance. + +Mr. Flexen gazed at him thoughtfully, weighing the matter. Here were a +number of facts which might or might not have an important bearing on the +murder, but which would give rise to a great deal of painful and harmful +scandal if they were given to the world at this juncture. + +Besides the publication of them might force his hand, and he preferred to +have a free hand in this matter as he had been used to have a free hand +in India. There he had dealt with more than one case in such a manner as +to secure substantial justice rather than the exact execution of the law. +It might be that in this case justice would be best secured by leaving +the murderer to his, or her, conscience rather than by causing several +people great unhappiness by bringing about a conviction. He was inclined +to think, with Mr. Manley, that the murderer might have performed a +public service by removing Lord Loudwater from the world he had so ill +adorned. At any rate, he was resolved to have a free hand to deal with +the case, and most certainly he was not going to allow this noxious young +fellow to hamper his freedom of action and final decision. + +"Your evidence seems to me of much too great importance to be given at +the inquest. It must be reserved for the trial," he said in an impressive +tone. "But if it gets abroad that you have seen what you have told me, +the criminal will be prepared to upset your evidence; and it will +probably become quite worthless. You must not breathe a word about what +you saw to a soul till we have your evidence supported beyond all +possibility of its being refuted. Do you understand?" + +For a moment William Roper looked disappointed. He had looked to become +famous that very day. But he realized his great importance in the affair, +and his face cleared. + +"I understands, sir," he said with a dark solemnity. + +"Not a word," said Mr. Flexen yet more impressively. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + + +That morning Olivia went to meet Grey in a mood very different from that +of the afternoon before. Then she had moved on light feet, in high +spirits, expectant, even excited. She had not known what was coming, but +the prospect had been full of possibilities; and, thanks to the sudden +appearance of the cat Melchisidec at the crucial moment, she had not been +disappointed. Today she would have gone to meet the man who loved her in +yet higher spirits, for there is no blinking the fact that she was wholly +unable to grieve for her husband. He had with such thoroughness +extirpated the girlish fondness she had felt for him when she married +him, that she could not without hypocrisy make even a show of grieving +for him. His death had merely removed the barrier between her and the man +she loved. + +But today she did not go to her tryst in spirits higher for the removal +of that barrier. She went more slowly, on heavier, lingering feet. Her +eyes were downcast, and her forehead was furrowed by an anxious, +brooding frown. + +The sight of Colonel Grey, waiting for her at the door of the Pavilion, +smoothed the furrows from her forehead and quickened her steps. When the +door closed behind them he caught her in his arms and kissed her. It was +early in her widowhood to be kissed, but she made no protest. She did not +feel a widow; she felt a free woman again. It is even to be feared that +her lips were responsive. + +Antony, too, was changed. He was paler and almost careworn. There was no +doubt of his joy at her coming, no doubt that it was greater than the day +before. But it was qualified by some other troubling emotion. Now and +again he looked at her with different eyes--eyes from which the joy had +of a sudden faded, rather fearful eyes that looked a question which could +not be asked. Her eyes rather shrank from his, and when they did look +into them it was with a like question. + +But they were too deeply in love with one another for any other emotion +to hold them for long at a time. Presently in the joy of being together, +looking at one another, touching one another, the fearfulness and the +question passed from their eyes. + +There was nothing rustic about the Pavilion inside or out. It was of +white marble, brought from Carrara for the fifth Baron Loudwater at the +end of the eighteenth century; and a whim of her murdered husband had led +him to replace the original, delicate, rather severe furniture by a most +comfortable broad couch, two no less comfortable chairs with arms, a +small red lacquer table and a dozen cushions. He had hung on each wall a +drawing of dancing-girls by Degas. Since the coverings of the couch and +the cushions were of Chinese silken embroideries, the interior appeared a +somewhat bizarre mixture of the Oriental and the French. + +Antony had been in some doubt that Olivia would come. But he had thought +it natural that she should come to him in such an hour of distress, for +he knew the simple directness of her nature. Therefore he had taken no +chance. He had gone to High Wycombe, ransacked its simple provision +shops, and brought away a lunch basket. + +She was for returning to the Castle to lunch. But he persuaded her to +stay. She needed no great pressing; she had a feeling that every hour was +precious, that it was unsafe to lose a single one of them: a foreboding +that she and Antony might not be together long. It almost seemed that a +like foreboding weighed on him. At times they seemed almost feverish in +their desire to wring the last drop of sweetness out of the swiftly +flying hour. + +After lunch again the thought came to her that she ought to go back to +the Castle, that she might be needed, and missed; but it found no +expression. She could not tear herself away. She had been denied joy too +long, and it was intoxicating. + +It was five o'clock before she left the Pavilion. She walked briskly, +with her wonted, easy, swinging gait, back to the Castle, in a dream, her +anxiety and fear for the while forgotten. On her way up to her suite of +rooms she met no one. She was quick to take off her hat and ring for her +tea. Elizabeth Twitcher brought it to her, and from her Olivia learned +that only Mr. Manley had asked for her. She realized that, after all, +thanks to her dead husband, she was but an inconspicuous person in the +Castle. No one had been used to consult her in any matter. She was glad +of it. At the moment all she desired was freedom of action, freedom to be +with Antony; and the fact that the life of the Castle moved smoothly +along in the capable hands of Mrs. Carruthers and Mr. Manley gave her +that freedom. + +After her tea she went out into the rose-garden and was strolling up and +down it when Mr. Flexen, pondering the information which he had obtained +from William Roper, saw her and came out to her. He thought that she +shrank a little at the sight of him, but assured himself that it must be +fancy; surely there could be no reason why she should shrink from him. + +"I'm told, Lady Loudwater, that you went out through the library window +into the garden for a stroll about a quarter to twelve last night. Did +you by any chance, as you went in or came out, hear Lord Loudwater snore? +I want to fix the latest hour at which he was certainly alive. You see +how important it may prove." + +She hesitated, wrinkling her brow as she weighed the importance of her +answer. Then she looked at him with limpid eyes and said: + +"Yes." + +He knew--the sixth sense of the criminal investigator told him--that she +lied, and he was taken aback. Why should she lie? What did she know? What +had she to hide? + +"Did you hear him snore going out, or coming in?" he said. + +"Both," said Olivia firmly. + +Mr. Flexen hesitated. He did not believe her. Then he said: "How long did +Lord Loudwater sleep after dinner as a rule? What time did he go to bed?" + +"It varied a good deal. Generally he awoke and went to bed before twelve. +But sometimes it was nearer one, especially if he was disturbed and went +to sleep again." + +"Thank you," said Mr. Flexen, and he left her and went back into +the Castle. + +Lord Loudwater had certainly been disturbed by the woman with whom he +had quarrelled. He might have slept on late. But why had Lady Loudwater +lied about the snoring? What did she know? What on earth was she +hiding? Whom was she screening? Could it be Colonel Grey? Was he mixed +up in the actual murder? Mr. Flexen decided that he must have more +information about Colonel Grey, that he would get into touch with him, +and that soon. + +He had information about him sooner than he expected and without seeking +it. Inspector Perkins was awaiting him, with Mrs. Turnbull, the landlady +of the "Cart and Horses." The inspector had learned from her that the +Lord Loudwater had paid a visit to her lodger the evening before, and +that they had quarrelled fiercely. Mr. Flexen heard her story and +questioned her. The important point in it seemed to him to be Lord +Loudwater's threats to hound Colonel Grey out of the Army. + +Mrs. Turnbull left him plenty to ponder. Mr. Manley had told him that the +handle of the famous knife would probably provide him with an +embarrassment of riches in the way of finger-prints. It seemed to him +that the stories of William Roper, Mrs. Carruthers, and Mrs. Turnbull had +provided him with an embarrassment of riches in the way of possible +murderers. It grew clearer than ever to him that the inquest must be +conducted with the greatest discretion, that as few facts as possible +must be revealed at it. It was also clear to him that, unless the handle +of the knife told a plain story, he would get nothing but circumstantial +evidence, and so far he had gotten too much of it. + +He made up his mind that it would be best to see Colonel Grey at once and +form his impression as to the likelihood of his having had a hand in the +crime. He was loth to believe that a V.C. would murder in cold blood +even as detestable a bully as the Lord Loudwater appeared to have been. +But he had seen stranger things. Moreover, it depended on the type of +V.C. Colonel Grey was. V.C.s varied. + +Mr. Flexen lost no time. It was nearly six o'clock. It was likely that +the Colonel would be back at his inn after his fishing. Mrs. Turnbull was +sure that he had as usual gone fishing, for, when he set out in the +morning, he had taken his rod with him. Antony Grey was not the man to +omit a simple precaution like that. Therefore, Mr. Flexen ordered a car +to be brought round, and was at the "Cart and Horses" by twenty past six. + +He found that Colonel Grey had indeed returned. He sent up his card; +the maid came back and at once took him up to the Colonel's +sitting-room. Grey received him with an air of inquiry, which grew yet +more inquiring when Mr. Flexen told him that he was engaged in +investigating the affair of Lord Loudwater's death. Therefore, Mr. +Flexen came to the point at once. + +"I have been informed that Lord Loudwater paid you a visit last night, +and that a violent quarrel ensued, Colonel Grey," he said. + +"Pardon me; but the violence was all on Lord Loudwater's part," said +Colonel Grey in an exceedingly unpleasant tone. "I merely made myself +nasty in a quiet way. Violence is not in my line, unless I'm absolutely +driven to it; and any one less likely to drive any one to violence than +that obnoxious and noisy jackass I've never come across. The fellow was +all words--abusive words. He'd no fight in him. I gave him every reason I +could think of to go for me because I particularly wanted to hammer him. +But he hadn't got it in him." + +Grey spoke quietly, without raising his voice, but there was a rasp in +his tone that impressed Mr. Flexen. If a man could give such an +impression of dangerousness with his voice, what would he be like in +action? He realized that here was a quite uncommon type of V. C. He +realized, too, that Lord Loudwater had made the mistake of a lifetime in +his attempt to bully him. Moreover, he had a strong feeling that if it +had seemed to Colonel Grey that Lord Loudwater was better out of the +way, and a favourable opportunity had presented itself, he might very +well have displayed little hesitation in putting him out of the way. He +felt that the obnoxious peer would have been little more than a +dangerous dog to him. + +He did not speak at once. He looked into Colonel Grey's grey eyes, and +cold and hard they were, weighing him. Then he said: "Lord Loudwater +threatened to hound you out of the Army, I'm told." + +"Among other things," said Grey carelessly. + +Mr. Flexen guessed that the other things were threats to divorce Lady +Loudwater. + +"That would have been a very serious blow to you," he said. + +"You're quite--right," said Colonel Grey. + +Mr. Flexen could have sworn that he had started to say: "You're quite +wrong," and changed his mind. + +The Colonel seemed to hesitate for words; then he went on: "It would have +been a very heavy blow indeed. You can see that for a man who enlisted in +the Artists' Rifles in 1914, and fought his way up to the command of a +regiment, nothing could be more painful. It would have been +heartbreaking; I should have been years getting over it." + +The rasp had gone out of his voice. He was speaking in a pleasant, +confidential tone, and Mr. Flexen did not believe a word he said. At the +least he was exaggerating the distress he would have felt at leaving the +Army; but Mr. Flexen had the strongest feeling that he would have felt +next to no distress at all. Again he was astonished. Colonel Grey was +lying to him just as Lady Loudwater had lied. What could be their reason? +What on earth had they done? + +He kept his astonishment out of his face, and said in a sympathetic +voice: "Yes, I can see that. And then, again, it would have been painful +and very unpleasant to feel that your thoughtlessness had landed Lady +Loudwater in the Divorce Court." + +"Oh, Lord, no!" said Colonel Grey quickly. "There was no chance of any +divorce proceedings. Even for a divorce case, at any rate one brought by +the husband, there must be _some_ grounds; he must have _some_ evidence. +The cock-and-bull story of a gamekeeper is hardly enough to found a +divorce case on, is it?" + +"Oh, I don't know. The gamekeeper might convince a jury. You know what +juries are. You can never tell what form their stupidity will take," said +Mr. Flexen. + +"But apart from the lack of evidence, there was no chance of a divorce +case. I tell you, Loudwater hadn't got it in him," said Grey +confidently. "He'd have threatened and been abusive. He'd have gone on +throwing that cock-and-bull story at Lady Loudwater for as long as she +continued to stick to him; but it would have stopped at that. His +infernal temper never went any deeper than his lungs. Lady Loudwater had +nothing to fear." + +"Yet you think that he would have done his best to hound you out of the +Army?" said Mr. Flexen, finding this conception of Lord Loudwater as a +harmless, if violent, vapourer somewhat inconsistent. + +"That's quite another matter," said Grey quickly. "It merely meant using +his influence behind my back with some scurvy politician. There wouldn't +have been any publicity attached to that, any exposure of his bullying. +He'd have done that all right." + +"I should have thought that a man of Lord Loudwater's violent temper +would rather have sought an open row," Mr. Flexen persisted. + +"Of course--if he'd been really violent. But he wasn't, I tell you. He +was only a blustering bully where women and servants were +concerned--people he could cow. I tell you, I made it quite clear that he +crumpled up directly you stood up to him. Why, hang it all! Any man with +the soul of a mouse who really believed that I had been making love to +his wife, couldn't have taken the things I told him without going for me +at any risk. And as I'm still rather crocked up, and he knew it, there +must have seemed precious little risk about it. I tell you that he was +just a blustering ruffian." + +Mr. Flexen had a strong impression that Colonel Grey was unused to being +as expansive as this, that he was talking for talking's sake, possibly +to put him off asking some question which would be difficult or +dangerous to answer. He could not for the life of him think what that +question could be. + +"I daresay you're right," he said carelessly. "Bullies aren't over-fond +of a real scrap. But I am told that you paid a visit to the Castle last +night and came away about a quarter past eleven. Did you?" + +Colonel Grey showed no faintest disquiet on hearing that his visit to +Olivia the night before was known. But he did not give Mr. Flexen time to +finish the sentence. + +He interrupted him, saying quickly: "Yes. I went to see Lady Loudwater. I +thought it likely that she would attach a good deal more importance to +Loudwater's silly threats than they deserved and might be worrying. It +would have been quite natural. I wanted to talk it over with her and set +her mind at rest about it. It didn't take very long to do that, partly +because it was a long time since he had really frightened her. She had +got used to his tantrums and bullying; and even this new game had not +disturbed her very much. We both came to the conclusion that he was just +blustering again, and wouldn't do anything. As a matter of fact, I don't +think she cared very much what he did. She had got so fed up with him +that she didn't care whether they separated or not." + +Mr. Flexen felt more sure than ever that this garrulity was unusual in +Colonel Grey. He was talking with a purpose, apparently to induce him to +believe that both he and Lady Loudwater had taken her husband's threat of +divorce proceedings lightly. He began to think that they had not taken it +lightly at all, or, at any rate, one or other of them had not. + +"Yes," he said. "That's what always happens with those blustering' +fellows. In the end no one takes them seriously. But what I came to ask +you was: Did you, as you came through the library or went out through it, +hear Lord Loudwater snore?" + +Colonel Grey hesitated, just as Lady Loudwater had hesitated over that +question. Plainly he was weighing the effect of his answer. + +Then he said: "No." + +Mr. Flexen's instinct assured him that Colonel Grey had lied just as Lady +Loudwater had lied. + +"Are you sure that nothing in the nature of a snore came to your ears as +you came out? Did you hear any sound from the room? You can see how +important it is to fix as near as we possibly can the hour of Lord +Loudwater's death," he said earnestly. + +"No, I heard nothing," said Colonel Grey firmly. + +"Bother!" said Mr. Flexen. "It's very important. Possibly I shall be able +to find out from some one else." + +"I hope you will," said Grey politely. + +Mr. Flexen bade him good-night cordially enough, and drove back to the +Castle in a considerable perplexity. Both Colonel Grey and Lady Loudwater +were behaving in an uncommonly odd, not to say suspicious manner. + +He was quite sure that both of them had lied about the dead man's +snoring. But it was plain that either had lied with a different object. +Lady Loudwater had lied to make it appear that her husband had been alive +at midnight. Colonel Grey had lied to make it appear that he was dead at +a quarter-past eleven. But Mr. Flexen was sure that Colonel Grey had +heard Lord Loudwater snore and that Lady Loudwater had not. + +What did they know? What had they done? Or what had one of them done? + + + + +CHAPTER IX + + +When Mr. Flexen reached the Castle Wilkins took him to a bedroom in the +west wing. He found that his portmanteau had arrived, had been unpacked, +and that his dress clothes were laid out ready for him on the bed. + +As he dressed he cudgelled his brains for the reason why Lady +Loudwater and Colonel Grey had lied. Then an idea came to him: were +they lying to shield the unknown woman with whom Lord Loudwater had +had that violent quarrel? The longer he considered this hypothesis the +more possible it grew. + +He must find that unknown woman, and at once. Possibly Mr. Carrington, as +Lord Loudwater's legal adviser, would be able to put him on her track. + +He came to dinner, still perplexed, to find Mr. Manley waiting to +bear him company. They talked for a while about public affairs and +the weather. + +Then Mr. Flexen said: "Was Lord Loudwater the kind of man to confide in +his lawyers?" + +"Not if he could help it," said Mr. Manley with conviction. + +Mr. Flexen hoped that Lord Loudwater had not been able to help confiding +in his lawyers about this unknown woman. + +Then he said: "By the way, do you know Colonel Grey?" + +"Oh, yes. He was here a lot up to a little while ago. Then he had a row, +the inevitable row, with Lord Loudwater, and he hasn't been here since. +He dropped on to Lord Loudwater for bullying Lady Loudwater, and he +didn't drop on him lightly either. Hell, I fancy, was what he gave him." + +"Yes; I gathered that something of the kind had taken place. What kind of +a man is the Colonel?" said Mr. Flexen carelessly. + +"The best man in the world not to have a row with. He's a cold terror," +said Mr. Manley, in a tone of enthusiastic conviction. "He always seems +rather cooler than a cucumber. But my belief is that that coolness is +just the mask of really violent emotions. I saw them working once. I came +in on the end of his row with Loudwater--just the end of it--my goodness! +From my point of view, the dramatist's, you know, he's the most +interesting person in the county--bar Lady Loudwater, of course." + +"I should never have thought him a terror," said Mr. Flexen, in a tone of +somewhat incredulous surprise. "I had a talk with him this evening about +Lord Loudwater's death, and he seemed to me to be a pleasant enough +fellow and an excellent soldier. I take it that he's very keen on his +career in the Army?" + +"Not a bit of it. The war is merely a side issue with him," said Mr. +Manley in an assured tone. "I know from what he told me himself. We were +talking over our experiences." + +"But, hang it all! he's a V. C.!" cried Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes, he's a V. C. all right. But that's because he's one of those men +who have the knack of taking an interest in everything they turn their +hands to, and doing it well. But his two passions are Chinese art and +women," said Mr. Manley. + +"Women?" said Mr. Flexen. "He didn't strike me as being that kind of man +at all. He seemed a quite simple, straightforward soldier." + +"Simplicity and a passion for Chinese art don't go together--at least, +not what is usually called simplicity," said Mr. Manley dryly. "A friend +of mine, who knows all about him, told me that he had had more really +serious love affairs than any other man in London. He seems to be one of +those men who fall in love hard every time they fall in love. He said +that it was one of the mysteries of the polite world how he had kept out +of the Divorce Court." + +"Sounds an odd type," said Mr. Flexen, storing up the information, and +marking how little it agreed with his own observation of Colonel Grey. +"And you say that Lady Loudwater is interesting too?" + +"Oh, come! Are you pumping me or merely pulling my leg?" said Mr. Manley. +"Surely you can see that Lady Loudwater is pure Italian Renaissance. She +is one of those subtle, mysterious creatures that Leonardo and Luini were +always painting, compact of emotion." + +"It's so long since I was at Balliol, and then I was doing Indian Civil +work--the languages, you know. I've forgotten all I knew about the +Renaissance in Italy, and I don't look at many pictures. All the same, I +think you're wrong--your dramatic imagination, you know. My own idea is +that Lady Loudwater, at any rate, is a quite simple creature." + +"It isn't mine," said Mr. Manley firmly. "She's a great deal too +intelligent to be simple, and she comes of far too intelligent a family." + +"What family?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"She's a Quainton, with Italian blood in her veins." + +"The deuce she is!" cried Mr. Flexen, and half a dozen stories of the +Quaintons rose in his mind. + +He must amend his impressions of Lady Loudwater. + +"And she has a keener sense of humour than any woman I ever came across," +said Mr. Manley, driving his contention home. + +"Has she?" said Mr. Flexen. + +There was a pause. Then Mr. Manley said in a musing tone: "Do you suppose +that Colonel Grey finds her simple?" + +"What? You don't think that there is really anything serious between +them?" said Mr. Flexen quickly. + +"No, not really serious--at any rate, on Colonel Grey's part. You can +hardly expect a man, recovering very slowly from three bad wounds and +still crocked up, to fall in love, can you? Especially a man who, when he +does fall in love, falls in love with the violence with which Grey is +charged," said Mr. Manley. + +"There is that," said Mr. Flexen. "But that wouldn't prevent Lady +Loudwater from falling in love with Colonel Grey. And after the way her +husband treated her, she must have needed something in the way of +affection--badly." + +"It's no good a woman falling in love with a man unless he falls in love +with her," said Mr. Manley, in the tone of a philosopher. "Besides, women +don't fall in love with men who are so feeble from illness as the Colonel +seems to be. How can there be the attraction? She might, of course, want +to mother him very keenly. But that's quite a different thing." He +paused, then added in a tone of some anxiety: "I say, you're not trying +to mix her up with the murder--if it was a murder?" + +"I'm not trying to mix anybody up in it," said Mr. Flexen slowly. "But I +don't mind telling you that it is growing quite a pretty problem, and to +solve a problem you must have every factor in it. You see that the +strong point about both Lady Loudwater and Colonel Grey is, on your own +showing, that they are uncommonly clever; and only stupid people commit +murder--except, of course, once in a blue moon." + +"But what about these gangs of criminals we sometimes read about, with +extraordinarily clever men at the head of them? Don't they exist?" said +Mr. Manley, in a tone of surprise. + +"They exist; but they don't commit murders--not in Europe, at any rate," +said Mr. Flexen. "In the East and in the United States it's different +perhaps. Murder is always as much of a blunder as a crime. It makes +people so keen after the criminal. No: no really intelligent criminal +commits murder." + +"Of course, that's true," said Mr. Manley readily. He paused, then added +in a thoughtful tone: "I wonder whether the war has weakened our +conception of the sanctity of human life?" + +"I shouldn't wonder," said Mr. Flexen; and their talk drifted into a +discussion of generalities. + +He was glad that he was staying at the Castle. His talk with Mr. Manley +had been illuminating. + +Olivia dined in her sitting-room, and with a poor appetite. Away from +Grey, she had fallen back into her anxiety and fearfulness. Wilkins was +waiting on her, an insensible block of a fellow; but even he perceived +that she was very little aware of what she was eating, and now and again +paused, and in some worrying train of thought forgot that she was +dining at all. + +After dinner, however, her mood changed. The fearfulness and anxiety at +times vanished from her face, and a pleasant, eager expectancy took +their place. + +At a quarter to nine she took a dark wrap from her wardrobe, went quietly +down the stairs, and slipped out of the side door, across the east lawn, +and into the path through the shrubbery, unseen. Grey had suggested that +he should come to the Castle after dinner to spend the evening with her; +but they had decided that it would be wiser to meet in the pavilion. +There would be talk if he spent the evening with her so soon after her +husband's death, with his body still unburied in the house. This was the +only mention they made of him all the time they spent together. Besides, +both of them found the pavilion in the wood a far more delightful +meeting-place than the Castle. In the pavilion they felt that they were +out of the world. + +Grey, too anxious and restless to await her at the pavilion, had come +down the wood and into the end of the path through the shrubbery. It +startled her to come upon him so suddenly. But when they came out of the +shrubbery into the moonlit aisle of the wood, the fearfulness and +anxiety and restlessness had vanished utterly from their faces; both of +them were smiling. + +They walked slowly, saying little, touching now and again as they +swayed in their walk along the turf. It seemed wiser not to light the +candles in the pavilion. The moonlight, shining through the high +windows, gave them light enough to see one another's eyes. It was all +they needed. The time passed quickly in the ineffable confidences of +lovers. They had a hundred things to tell one another, a hundred things +to ask one another, in their effort to attain that oneness which is the +aim of all true love. But in their joy in being together, in the joy of +both of them, there was a feverishness, a sense that it was a menaced +joy which must needs be brief. Again they were striving to wring the +most out of the hour which was so swiftly passing. At times the sense of +danger which hung over them was so strong, that they clung to one +another like frightened children in the dark. + +Though Mr. Flexen had at the time shown himself somewhat unbelieving in +the matter of Mr. Manley's conclusions about the character and +temperament of Grey and Olivia, the impression they had made on him grew +stronger. He was too good a judge of men not to perceive that the budding +dramatist had the intelligent imagination which makes for real +shrewdness, and he was not disposed to underrate the value of the +imagination in forming judgments of men and women. Probably Colonel Grey +was a man of less intensity of emotion than Mr. Manley had declared, and +Lady Loudwater less subtile and intelligent. But, after making these +reductions, he had here possible actors in a drama of passion; and though +it was his experience that money, not passion, is the most frequent +motive of murder, he must take the probability of Lord Loudwater's murder +being a crime of passion into account, though, of course, the violent +Hutchings, threatened with ruin, would undoubtedly benefit from a +monetary point of view by the murder. At the same time, Hutchings had +just had an interview, which had gone better probably than he had +expected, with an uncommonly pretty girl. + +Mr. Carrington arrived soon after breakfast next morning, and Mr. Flexen +at once discussed the matter of the inquest with him and the Coroner. He +found the lawyer chiefly eager to have as little scandal as possible, and +the Coroner took his cue from the lawyer. This suited Mr. Flexen +admirably. He had no wish to show his hand so early. He foresaw that if +the story of William Roper were told, and the story of Lord Loudwater's +quarrel with Colonel Grey at the "Cart and Horses," there would be a +painful scandal. The majority of the people of the neighbourhood would at +once believe and declare that Lady Loudwater, or Colonel Grey, or both, +had murdered Lord Loudwater. Such a scandal would in no way serve his +purpose. It might rather hamper him. Pressure might be put on him which +might force him to take steps before the time was ripe for them. + +There was no difficulty in their having exactly the kind of inquest they +wanted, for it was wholly in the hands of Mr. Flexen and the Coroner. +After careful discussion they decided to limit it to Dr. Thornhill's +evidence, and that of the servants with regard to the dead nobleman's +mood on the night of his death. Mr. Carrington urged strongly that full +prominence should be given to the fact that the wound might have been +self-inflicted, and the Coroner promised that this should be done. + +When the Coroner had left them the lawyer said to Mr. Flexen: "In the +case of a man like the late Lord Loudwater, you can't be too careful, you +know. Really, it would be better if the jury brought in a verdict of +suicide. A suicide in a family is always better than a murder." + +"H'm! You could hardly expect me to rest content with such a verdict," +said Mr. Flexen. "Not, I mean, on the evidence." + +"Oh, no; I shouldn't," said Mr. Carrington. "All I want to avoid is a lot +of quite unnecessary painful scandal, which won't lead to anything of use +to you, about innocent people connected with my late client. You won't +act without something pretty definite to go upon, while the +scandalmongers will talk on no grounds at all. Lord Loudwater was a queer +customer, and goodness knows what will come to light, for, of course, +you'll investigate the affair thoroughly." + +The inquest accordingly was conducted on these lines. Only Dr. Thornhill, +Wilkins and Holloway were called as witnesses; and the Coroner directed +the jury to bring in a verdict to the effect that Lord Loudwater had died +of a knife-wound, and that there was no evidence to show whether it was +self-inflicted or not. + +But in this he failed. The jury, muddle-headed, obstinate country folk, +had made up their minds that Lord Loudwater was the kind of man to be +murdered, and that, therefore, he had been murdered. They brought in +the verdict that Lord Loudwater had been murdered by some person or +persons unknown. + +Mr. Flexen, Mr. Carrington and the Coroner were annoyed, but they had had +too wide an experience of juries to be surprised. + +"This will let loose a horde of reporters on us," said Mr. Carrington +very gloomily. + +"It will," said Mr. Flexen. "The pet sleuths of the _Wire_ and the +_Planet_ will leave London in about an hour." + +"Well, they'll have to be dealt with," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Oh, they're all right. I probably know them. I'll get them to work with +me. They must be treated very nicely," said Mr. Flexen cheerfully. + +"They're always a confounded nuisance," said Mr. Carrington, frowning. + +"Not if they're kindly treated. Indeed, I shall very likely find them +really useful," said Mr. Flexen. "But you might give the servants a +hint to be careful of what they say. The hint will come best from you, +and be much more effective than if it came from any one else. You +represent the family." + +"I'll see about it," said Mr. Carrington, and he went to Olivia's boudoir +to confer with her about the invitations to the funeral. + +Mr. Flexen was, indeed, little disturbed by the prospect of the coming of +the newspaper men. A popular member of the chief literary and +journalistic club in London, he would probably know them, or they would +know of him; and he would find them ready enough to work with him. +Besides, even if they discovered that the quarrel between Colonel Grey +and Lord Loudwater had its origin in Lady Loudwater, in the present state +of mind of the country, they would have to move very cautiously indeed in +the case of a V.C. + +He did not, indeed, think it likely that they would discover the cause of +the quarrel for some time--possibly not before their papers had tired of +the business and sent them on other errands. Mrs. Turnbull only knew of +Lord Loudwater's threat to hound Colonel Grey out of the Army; she did +not know the reason of his fury and his threat. Elizabeth Twitcher would +certainly hold her tongue about Lord Loudwater's subsequent quarrel with +Lady Loudwater, and his accusations and threats; Mrs. Carruthers was even +more unlikely to tell of it. It was unlikely that William Roper would +come within the ken of the newspaper men. No one could tell them that he +was the great repository of facts in the case, and Mr. Flexen believed +that he had given him good cause to keep his mouth shut till he called on +him to open it. + +Taking one thing with another, he thought it more than likely that the +newspaper men would not hinder him in his purpose of dealing with the +affair in his own way. + +On the other hand, they might very well be used to help him discover the +unknown woman who had had the furious quarrel with Lord Loudwater at +about eleven o'clock. Indeed, he regarded the information about that +quarrel as a sop to be thrown to them. She afforded just the element of +melodrama in the case which would be most grateful to their different +newspapers, and provide them with plenty of the kind of headlines which +best sold them. It was certain that James Hutchings would also occupy +their attention. The fact that he had been discharged with contumely and +threats, that he had departed uttering violent threats against the dead +man, and that he had returned to visit Elizabeth Twitcher late that +night, were doubtless being discussed by the whole neighbourhood. +However, only himself and William Roper knew, at present, that James +Hutchings had come and gone by the library window, had actually passed +twice within a few feet of his sleeping, or dead, master. That fact, +also, Mr. Flexen proposed to keep to himself till he saw reason to +divulge it. His next business must be to question Hutchings. + +It was quite likely that there lay the solution of the mystery. + + + + +CHAPTER X + + +It would have been easy enough for Mr. Flexen to send for Hutchings to +the Castle and question him there. But he did not. In the first place, he +did not think it fair to a man who had already prejudiced himself so +seriously by his threats against the murdered man. Besides, he would be +at a disadvantage, under a greater strain at the Castle, and Mr. Flexen +wanted him where he would be at his best, for he wished to be able to +form an exact judgment of the likelihood of his being the murderer. +Indeed, it must be a very careful and exact judgment, for he felt that he +was moving in deep waters; that it was a case in which it was possible, +even easy, to go hopelessly wrong. Also, he was fully alive to the fact +that if threatened men live long, the men who threaten are to blame for +it, and that threats such as Hutchings' are the commonest things in the +world, and, as a rule, of very little importance. But there was always +the chance that Hutchings was the unusual threatener; and, if he were, he +had assuredly been in circumstances most favourable to the carrying out +of his threats. + +Accordingly he learnt from Inspector Perkins the way to the gamekeeper's +cottage in the West Wood, where Hutchings was staying with his father, +and drove the car to it himself. Hutchings was alone in the cottage, for +his father was out on his rounds. He invited Mr. Flexen to come in. Mr. +Flexen came in, sat down in an arm-chair, and examined Hutchings' face. +He saw that the man was plainly very anxious and ill at ease. It was +natural enough. He must perceive quite clearly how black against him +things looked. + +He was forced also to admit to himself that Hutchings had not a pleasant +face. It was choleric and truculent, and in spite of the man's evident +anxiety, there was a sullen fierceness on it which gave him no little of +the air of a wild beast trapped. + +Mr. Flexen wasted no time beating about the bush, but said to him: "When +you visited Elizabeth Twitcher last night you entered and left the Castle +by the library window." + +"You got that from that young blighter Manley," said Hutchings bitterly. + +"Not at all. I did not know that Mr. Manley knew it," said Mr. Flexen. +"So you did?" + +"Yes, sir, I did. I always went to the village that way in the +summer-time. It's the shortest. Besides, his lordship was nearly always +asleep; and if he wasn't and did 'ear me, there was always something I +could be doing in the library, sir." + +He spoke with eager, rather humble civility. + +"Well, did you, as you went through the library, coming or going, hear +Lord Loudwater snore?" + +Hutchings knitted his brow, thinking; then he said: "I can't call to mind +as I did, sir. But, then, I wasn't giving him any attention. I was +thinking about other things altogether. Of course, I went out quietly +enough. But that was habit." + +"That sounds as if you had not heard him snore--as if you thought that he +was awake," said Mr. Flexen. + +"I don't think I thought about him at all, sir, at the moment. I was +thinking about other things," said Hutchings. + +"You say that Mr. Manley saw you go out?" + +"Yes, sir. I passed him in the hall and went into the library. We had a +few words, and I told him I had come to fetch some cigarettes as I'd +left behind." + +"Do you know what the time was?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"No, sir--not exactly. But it must have been nearly half-past eleven, I +should think." + +"It is very important to fix the time at which Lord Loudwater died," said +Mr. Flexen. "You can't tell me nearer than that?" + +"No, sir. It was nearly ten to twelve when I got home, and I reckon it's +about twenty minutes' walk from the Castle to the cottage here." + +"And all you went to the Castle for was to speak to Elizabeth Twitcher?" +said Mr. Flexen. + +"That was all I went for--every single thing. And it was all I did +there--every mortal thing I did there, sir," Hatchings asseverated, and +he wiped his brow. + +"H'm!" said Mr. Flexen. "As you passed through the library, did you +happen to notice whether the knife was in its place in the big inkstand?" + +Hutchings hesitated, and his lips twitched. Then he said: "Yes, I did, +sir. It was in the big inkstand." + +Mr. Flexen could not make up his mind whether he was telling the truth or +not. He thought that he was not. But he did not attach much importance to +the matter. People who knew themselves to be suspected of a crime had +often told him quite stupid and unnecessary lies and been proved innocent +after all. + +"I should have thought that your mind was too full of other things to +notice a thing like that," he said in a somewhat incredulous tone. + +Then there came an outburst. Mr. Flexen had thought that Hutchings was +worked up to a high degree of nervous tension, and he was. He cried out +that he knew that every one believed that he had done it; but he hadn't. +He'd never thought of it. He was damned if he didn't wish he had done it. +He might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, anyhow. He broke off to +curse Lord Loudwater at length. He had been a curse to every one who came +into contact with him while he was alive, and now he was getting people +into trouble when he was dead. Yes: he wished it had occurred to him to +stick that knife into him. He'd have done it like a shot, and he'd have +done the right thing. The world was well rid of a swine like that! + +His face was contorted, and his eyes kept gleaming red as he talked, and +he came to the end of his outburst, trembling and panting. + +Mr. Flexen was unmoved and unenlightened. It was merely the outburst +of a badly-frightened man lacking in self-control, and told him +nothing. It left it equally likely that Hutchings had, or had not, +committed the crime. + +"There's nothing to get so frantic about," he said quietly to the panting +man. "It doesn't do any good." + +"It's all very well to talk like that, sir," said Hutchings in a shaky +voice. "But I know what people are saying. It's enough to make any one +lose their temper." + +"I should think that yours was pretty easy to lose," said Mr. +Flexen dryly. + +"I know it. It is very short, sir. It always was; and I can't help it," +said Hutchings in an apologetic voice. + +"Then you'd better set about learning to help it, my man," said +Mr. Flexen. + +He took out his pipe and filled it slowly. The flush faded a little from +Hutchings' face. Mr. Flexen lighted his pipe and rose. + +Then as he went to the door he said: "I should advise you to get that +stupid temper well in hand. It makes a bad impression. Good afternoon." + +Mr. Flexen drove back to the Castle, considering Hutchings carefully. +There was no doubt that he was, indeed, badly frightened; but he had +reason to be. Mr. Flexen could not decide whether he had worn the air of +a guilty man or an innocent. He could not decide whether the butler had +been too deeply absorbed in his own affairs to hear the snoring of Lord +Loudwater as he went through the library. It was possible that Lord +Loudwater was alive, asleep, and yet not snoring at the time. Snoring is +often intermittent. + +He considered Hutchings' violent outburst. Certainly such an outburst +showed the man uncommonly unbalanced; it might, indeed, on occasion take +the form of uncontrollable murderous fury. But it seemed to him that an +actual meeting with Lord Loudwater would have been necessary to provoke +that. But Lord Loudwater had been sitting in his chair when he died; and +if he had not killed himself, he had been killed in his sleep. At any +rate, there was probably sufficient evidence, seeing what juries are, to +convict Hatchings. If he had been one of those not uncommon ministers of +the law, whose only desire is to secure a conviction, he would doubtless +arrest him at once. But it was not his only desire to secure a +conviction; it was his very keen desire to find the right solution of the +problem. He could not see where any more evidence against Hutchings was +to come from. What Mr. Manley had told him about the knife, that it had +been in general use, and that he had seen Hutchings cut string with it +the day before the murder, greatly lessened its value as evidence, even +if Hutchings' finger-prints were thick on it. He decided to dismiss +Hutchings from his mind for the time being, and devote all his energies +to discovering the mysterious woman with whom Lord Loudwater had had the +furious quarrel between eleven and a quarter-past. + +With this end in view, on his return to the Castle, he went straight to +the library, where Mr. Carrington was engaged, along with Mr. Manley, in +an examination of the murdered man's papers. They were uncommonly few, +and Mr. Manley had already set them in order. Lord Loudwater seemed to +have kept but few letters, and the papers consisted chiefly of receipted +and unreceipted bills. + +When he found that Mr. Flexen had come to confer with the lawyer, Mr. +Manley assumed an air of extraordinary discretion and softly withdrew. + +"I want to know--it is most important--whether there was any +entanglement between Lord Loudwater and a woman," said Mr. Flexen. + +"I should think it very unlikely," said Mr. Carrington without +hesitation. "At least, I have never heard of anything of the kind, +and so far I have come across no trace of anything of the kind among +his papers." + +Mr. Flexen frowned, considering; then he said: "Do you happen to know +whether he employed any one besides your firm to do legal work for him?" + +"As to that I can't say. But I should not think it likely. It was always +a business to get him to attend to anything that wanted doing, and he +always made a fuss about it. I can't see him employing another firm too. +But he may have done. The only thing is that I ought to have found either +their bills or the receipts for them among those papers--except that my +late client does not appear to have taken the trouble to keep many +receipts." + +"The thing is that I've learnt that Lord Loudwater had a furious quarrel +with some unknown woman between eleven and a quarter-past on the night of +his death, and I want to find her. You can see how important it is. It +may be that she stabbed him, or it may be that she provided him with the +motive to commit suicide--not that that seems likely. But you can't tell: +she might have been able to threaten him with some exposure. Those people +without any self-control are always doing the most senseless +things--bigamy, for instance, is often one of their weaknesses." + +"Loudwater was certainly without self-control; but I hardly think that he +was the man to commit bigamy," said the lawyer. + +"It would very much simplify matters if he had," said Mr. Flexen in +a dissatisfied tone. "I wonder whether Manley would know anything +about it?" + +"He might," said Mr. Carrington. + +Mr. Flexen went through the library window to find Mr. Manley strolling +up and down the lawn with every appearance of enjoying his pipe and the +respite from perusing papers. + +"Mr. Carrington tells me that you were in Lord Loudwater's confidence," +said Mr. Flexen. + +"Wholly," said Mr. Manley, with more promptness than his actual knowledge +of the facts warranted. + +It seemed to him fitting that a secretary of his intelligence and +discretion should have been wholly in the confidence of any nobleman who +employed him. Therefore he himself must have been. + +"Then perhaps you can tell me whether he was entangled with a woman," +said Mr. Flexen. + +"Entangled? In what way?" said Mr. Manley in a tone of surprise. + +"In the usual way, I suppose. Was he engaged in a love-affair with any +woman, or had he been?" + +"He certainly did not tell me anything about it if he was," said Mr. +Manley. "But that is the kind of thing he might very well _not_ confide +to his secretary." + +"You don't happen to know if he was making any payments to a woman--an +allowance, for example?" said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley was well on his guard by now. These questions must surely +refer to Helena. + +"He never told me anything about it," he said with perfect readiness. +"Not, of course, that I would tell you if he had," he added, in his most +amiable voice. "I've told you that I thought that he made enough trouble +while he was alive. I won't help him to make trouble now that he's dead." + +Mr. Flexen thought that the asseveration was unnecessary, since Mr. +Manley had not the knowledge which would make the trouble. He returned to +the lawyer and told him that Mr. Manley had no information to give. + +"It seems a very important point in the affair," said the lawyer. + +"It is," said Mr. Flexen, frowning. "I wonder if there was an intrigue +with a country girl or woman, some one in the neighbourhood?" + +"There might have been. Lord Loudwater rode a great deal. He was +hours in the saddle every day. He had time and opportunity for that +kind of thing." + +"On the other hand, there's no need for it to have been any one in the +neighbourhood at all. To say nothing of the train, it's a short enough +motor drive from London; and it was a moonlight night," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Then you may be able to find traces of the car. The woman must have left +it somewhere while she had the interview with Lord Loudwater," said Mr. +Carrington. + +"I'll try," said Mr. Flexen, not very hopefully, "But there are so few +people about at night nowadays. Five out of the eight gamekeepers are +still abroad. In ordinary times there would have been four at least of +them about the roads and woods. On that night there was only one." + +"There's the further difficulty that Lord Loudwater had so few friends. +That will make it harder to find out anything about an affair of this +kind--if he had one," said Mr. Carrington. + +"It will, indeed," said Mr. Flexen, and paused, frowning. Then he +added gravely: "I'm sure that there was such an affair, and I've got +to find the woman." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + + +Mr. Manley did not lunch with Mr. Flexen and the lawyer. In cultivating +Mr. Flexen he had been forced to see less than usual of Helena, and, +interesting a companion as Mr. Flexen was, Mr. Manley very much preferred +her society. He found her less nervous than she had been the day before, +but she still wore a sufficiently anxious air, and was still restless. +She seemed more pleased to see him than usual, and the warmth of her +welcome gave him a sudden sense that she was even fonder of him than he +had thought, or hoped. It stirred him to an admirable response. + +At lunch she questioned him with uncommon particularity about the +proceedings of Mr. Flexen, the discoveries he had made, the lines on +which he was making his investigation. Her interest seemed natural +enough, and he told her all that he knew, which was little. She seemed +much disappointed by his lack of information. He was careful not to tell +her that Mr. Flexen had inquired of him whether he knew of any +entanglement between Lord Loudwater and a woman. Thanks to his +imagination he was a young man of uncommon discretion, and it was plain +that she was suffering anxiety enough. + +At the end of her fruitless questioning she sighed and said: "Of course, +the whole affair is of no great interest to you really." + +"It isn't of very great interest to me," said Mr. Manley. "You see, the +victim of the crime, if it was a crime, was such an uninteresting +creature. Nature, as I've told you before, intended him for a bull, +changed her mind when it was too late to make a satisfactory alteration, +and botched it. You must admit that the bull man is a very dull kind of +creature, unless he can make things lively for you by prodding you with +his horns. When he is dead, he is certainly done with." + +"I wish he was done with," she said, with a sigh. + +"Well, as far as you are concerned, he is done with, surely," he said, in +some surprise. + +"Of course, of course," she said quickly. "But still, he seems likely to +give a great deal of trouble to somebody; and if there is a trial, how am +I to know that my name won't be brought up?" + +"I don't think there's a chance of it," he said. "How should it be +brought up?" + +"One never knows," she said, with a note of nervous dread in her voice. + +"Well, as far as I'm concerned, he'll get no help in making a posthumous +nuisance of himself from me; and I'm inclined to think that, as things +are going, he'll need my help to do that," he said in a tone of quiet +satisfaction. + +"A posthumous nuisance--you do have phrases! And how you do dislike +him!" she said. + +"The moderately civilized man, with a gentle disposition like mine, +always does hate the bull man. Also, he despises him," said Mr. +Manley calmly. + +She was silent a while, thinking; then she said: "What did you mean by +saying: 'If it was a crime.' What else could it have been?" + +"A suicide. The evidence was that the wound might have been +self-inflicted," said Mr. Manley. + +"Absurd! Lord Loudwater was the last man in the world to commit suicide!" +she cried. + +"That's purely a matter of individual opinion. I am of the opinion that a +man of his uncontrollable temper was quite likely to commit suicide," he +said firmly. "As for its being absurd, if there is any attempt to prove +any one guilty of murdering him on purely circumstantial evidence, that +person won't find anything absurd in the theory at all. In fact, he'll +work it for all it's worth. I think myself that, with Dr. Thornhill's +evidence in mind, the police, or the Public Prosecutor, or the Treasury, +or whoever it is that decides those things, will never attempt in this +case to bring any one to trial for the murder on merely circumstantial +evidence." + +"Do you think not?" she said in a tone of relief. + +"I'm sure of it," said Mr. Manley. "But why do we waste our time talking +about the tiresome fellow when there are things a thousand times more +interesting to talk about? Your eyes, now--" + +Mr. Flexen instructed Inspector Perkins and his men to make inquiries +about the rides of Lord Loudwater and to try to learn whether any one had +seen a strange car, or, indeed, a car of any kind, in the neighbourhood +of the Castle about eleven o'clock on the night of the murder. Also, he +could see his way to using the newspaper men to help him to discover +whether there had been any entanglement known to the club gossips or the +people of the neighbourhood between Lord Loudwater and a lady in London. +It was not unlikely that he had talked of it to some one, for if they +quarrelled so furiously he must need sympathy; and if he had not talked, +the lady probably had, though it might very well be that she was not in +the circle in which the Loudwaters moved in London. He had some doubt, +however, that she was a London woman at all. She had shown too intimate a +knowledge of Lord Loudwater's habits at Loudwater and of the Castle +itself, for it was clear from William Roper's story that she had gone +straight to the library window and through it, in the evident expectation +of finding Lord Loudwater asleep as usual in his smoking-room. It was +this doubt which prevented him from appealing to Scotland Yard for help +in clearing up this particular point. He wished to make sure first that +the woman did not belong to the neighbourhood. On the other hand, she +might always be some one who had been a guest at the Castle. + +He was about to go in search of Lady Loudwater to question her about +their friends and acquaintances who might have this knowledge of the +Castle and the habits of her husband, when the sleuth from the _Wire_ and +the sleuth from the _Planet_ arrived together, in all amity and the same +vexation at being prevented by this errand from spending the afternoon at +the same bridge table. The sleuth of the _Wire_ was a very solemn-looking +young man, with a round, simple face. The sleuth of the _Planet_ was a +tall, dark man, with an impatient and slightly worried air, who looked +uncommonly like an irritable actor-manager. + +Both of them greeted Mr. Flexen with affectionate warmth, and Douglas, +the tall sleuth of the _Planet_, at once deplored, with considerable +bitterness, the fact that he had been robbed of his afternoon's bridge. +Gregg, the sleuth of the _Wire_, preserved a gently-blinking, +sympathetic silence. + +Mr. Flexen at once sent for whisky, soda and cigars, and over them took +his two friends into his confidence. He told them that it was very +doubtful whether it was a case of murder or suicide; that the jury's +verdict was not in accordance with the directions of the Coroner, but +just a piece of natural, pig-headed stupidity. This produced another +bitter outcry from Douglas about the loss of his afternoon. Mr. Flexen +did not soothe him at all by pointing out that he was in a beautiful +country on a beautiful day. Then he told them about the coming of the +mysterious woman and her violent quarrel with the Lord Loudwater just +about the probable time of his death. Douglas at once lost his irritated +air and displayed a lively interest in the matter; Gregg listened and +blinked. Mr. Flexen told them also of Hutchings, his threats, and his +visit to the Castle. That was as far as his confidences went. But they +were enough. He had given them the very things they wanted, and they both +assured him that they would at once inform him of any discoveries they +might make themselves. They left him feeling sure that he might safely +leave the servants and the villagers to them and the policemen. If any +one in the neighbourhood knew anything about the mysterious woman, they +would probably ferret it out. What was far more important was that +tomorrow's _Wire_ and _Planet_ would contain such an advertisement of her +that any one in London or the country who knew of her relations with the +dead man would learn at once the value of that knowledge. + +When they had gone he sent for Mrs. Carruthers, and learned, to his +annoyance, that none of the upper servants except Elizabeth Twitcher had +been in service at the Castle for more than four months. She could only +say that during the six weeks that she had been housekeeper there had +been very few visitors; and they had been merely callers, except when +Colonel Grey had been coming to the Castle and there had been small +tennis parties. She had heard nothing from the servants about his +lordship's being on particularly friendly terms with any lady in the +neighbourhood. Hutchings would be the most likely person to know a thing +like that. He had been in service at the Castle all his life. Of course, +her ladyship, too, she might know. + +Mr. Flexen made up his mind to seek out Hutchings at once and question +him on the matter; but Mrs. Carruthers had only just left him when he saw +Olivia come into the rose-garden with Colonel Grey. He watched them idly +and perceived that, for the time being at any rate, Olivia had lost her +strained and anxious air. She was plainly enough absorbed, wholly +absorbed, in Grey. She had eyes only for him, and Mr. Flexen suspected +that her ears were at the moment deaf to everything but the sound of his +voice. They did look a well-matched pair. + +It occurred to him that he might as well again question Olivia about her +husband's possible intrigue with another woman and be done with it. There +could be no harm in Colonel Grey's hearing the questions. As for +interrupting their pleasant converse, he thought that they would soon +recover from the interruption. Accordingly he went out to the +rose-garden. + +Absorbed in one another, they did not see him till he was right on them, +and then he saw a curious happening. At the sight of him a sudden, +simultaneous apprehension filled both their faces, and they drew closer +together. But he had an odd fancy that they did not draw together for +mutual protection, but mutually to protect. Then, almost on the instant, +they were gazing at him with politely inquiring eyes, Lady Loudwater +smiling. He felt that they were intensely on their guard. It was +uncommonly puzzling. + +He changed his mind about questioning Lady Loudwater in the presence of +Grey, and asked if she could spare him a minute or two to answer a few +questions. + +"Oh, yes. I'm sure Colonel Grey will excuse me," she said readily. + +"But why shouldn't you question Lady Loudwater before me?" said Colonel +Grey coolly; but he slapped his thigh nervously with the pair of gloves +he was carrying. "It's always as well for a woman to have a man at hand +in an awkward affair like this, which may lead to a good deal of +unpleasantness if anything goes wrong. I'm a friend of Lady Loudwater, +and I don't suppose you fear that anything you discuss before me will go +any further, Mr. Flexen." + +He was cool enough, but Mr. Flexen did not miss the note of anxiety in +his voice. + +"I don't mind at all if Lady Loudwater would like it," he said readily. +"But it's rather a delicate matter." + +"Oh, I should like Colonel Grey to hear everything," said Olivia quickly. + +"It's about the matter of an entanglement between Lord Loudwater and some +lady. Are you quite sure there was nothing of the kind before his +marriage, if not after it?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"I don't know for certain," said Olivia readily. "But two or three times +Lord Loudwater did talk about other women in a boasting sort of way. +Only it was when he was trying to annoy me; so I didn't pay much +attention to it." + +"And you never tried to find out whether it was the truth or not?" said +Mr. Flexen. + +"No, never. You see, I didn't particularly care," said Olivia, with +unexpected frankness. "If I'd cared, I expect it would have been very +different." + +"And did Lord Loudwater never mention the name of any lady when he was +boasting?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"No. Never. It was just general boasting. And he certainly gave me to +understand that it was two or three, not one," said Olivia. + +"Have you any suspicion that he had any particular lady in mind--any of +your common friends, for example--some one who has stayed at the Castle?" +said Mr. Flexen. + +"None at all. I haven't the slightest idea who it could have been. It +must have been some one I don't know, or I should have been nearly sure +to notice something," said Olivia. + +"Can you tell me any one who might know?" + +Olivia shook her head, and said: "No. I don't know any friend of my +husband well enough to say. He never told me who his chief friends were. +It never occurred to me that he had an intimate friend. I always thought +he hadn't, in fact." + +"I tell you what: you might inquire of Outhwaite, you know the man I +mean, the man who used always to be getting fined for furious driving. He +was a friend of Loudwater, the only friend I ever heard him mention, +indeed. If he ever confided in any one, that would be the most likely +man," said Colonel Grey. + +"Thank you. That's an idea. I'll certainly try him," said Mr. Flexen, and +he turned as if to go. + +But Olivia stopped him, saying: "Do you think, then, that a woman did it, +Mr. Flexen?" + +"Well, there is a certain amount of evidence which lends some colour to +that theory, but I don't want any one to know that," said Mr. Flexen. + +And then he could have sworn that he heard Olivia breathe a faint sigh +of relief. + +But Colonel Grey broke in in a tone of some acerbity and more anxiety: +"It's nonsense to talk of any one having done it in face of the +medical evidence--any one, that is, but Loudwater himself. He +committed suicide." + +"You think him a likely man to have committed suicide, do you?" said +Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes. A man of his utterly uncontrollable temper is the very man to +commit suicide," said Colonel Grey firmly. + +"It is, of course, always possible that he committed suicide," said Mr. +Flexen in a non-committal tone. + +"It's most probable," said Colonel Grey curtly. + +"What do you think, Lady Loudwater?" said Flexen. + +"Why, I haven't thought much about it. I always--I--but now I do think +about it, I--I--think it's not unlikely," said Olivia, in a tone of no +great conviction. "And he was so frightfully upset, too, that night--not +that he had any reason to be; but he was." + +"Ah, well; my duty is to investigate the matter till there isn't a shadow +of doubt left," said Mr. Flexen in a pleasant voice. "I daresay that I +shall get to the bottom of it." + +With that he left them and went back into the Castle. + +At the sight of his back Olivia breathed so deep a sigh of relief that +Grey winced at it. + +"If only it could be proved that Egbert did commit suicide!" she said +wistfully. + +"I don't see any chance of it," said Colonel Grey gloomily. Then he +added in a tone of but faint hope: "Unless he wrote to one of his friends +that he intended to commit suicide." + +Olivia shook her head and said: "Egbert wouldn't do that. He hated +letter-writing." + +"Besides, if he had, we should have heard of it by now," said Grey. + +"The friend might be away," said Olivia. "I know that Mr. Outhwaite was +in France." + +"That's hoping too much," said Grey. + +They strolled on in silence, his eyes on her thoughtful face, which under +Mr. Flexen's questioning had again grown anxious. Then he said: "This sun +is awfully hot. Let's stroll through the wood to the pavilion. It will be +delightful there." + +"Very well," said Olivia, smiling at him. + +Mr. Flexen went back to his room, rang for Holloway, and bade him find +Mr. Manley, if he were in, and ask him to come to him. Holloway went, and +presently returned to say that Mr. Manley had gone out to lunch, but left +word that he would be back to dinner. + +Mr. Flexen, therefore, gave his mind to the consideration of his talk +with Colonel Grey and Olivia, and the longer he considered it, the more +their attitude intrigued and puzzled him. They certainly knew something +about the murder, something of the first importance. What could it be? + +Again he asked himself could either, or both of them, have actually had +a hand in it? It seemed improbable; but he was used to the improbable +happening. He could not believe that either of them would have dreamt of +committing murder to gain a personal end--to save themselves, for +example, from the injuries with which Lord Loudwater had threatened them. +But would they commit murder to save some one else, one to save the +other, for example, from such an injury? Murder was, indeed, a violent +measure; but Mr. Flexen was inclined to think that either of them might +take it. Mr. Manley's confident declaration that they were both creatures +of strong emotions had impressed him. He felt that Colonel Grey, under +the impulse to save Lady Loudwater, would stick at very little; and he +was used to violence and to hold human life cheap. On the other hand, +Lady Loudwater would go a long way--a very long way--if any one she loved +were threatened. The fact that she had good Italian blood in her veins +was very present in his mind. + +Again, it would be a matter of sudden impulse, not of grave deliberation. +The irritating sound of Lord Loudwater's snores and the sight of the +gleaming knife-blade on the library table coming together after their +painful and moving discussion of their dangers might awake the impulse to +be rid of him, at any cost, in full strength. He was not disposed to +underrate the suggestion of that naked knife-blade on them when they +were strung to such a height of emotion. Again, he asked himself, had +either of them murdered Lord Loudwater to save the other? + +At any rate, they knew who had committed the murder. Of that he was sure. + +Could they be shielding a third person? If so, who was that third person? + + + + +CHAPTER XII + + +Mr. Flexen sat pondering this question of a third person for a good +twenty minutes. + +It could not be Hutchings. There would be no reason to shield Hutchings +unless they had instigated or employed him to commit the murder, and that +was out of the question. He was not sure, indeed, that Hutchings was not +the murderer; the snores and the knife were as likely to have excited the +murderous impulse in him as in them. He was quite sure that if Dr. +Thornhill had been able to swear that the wound was not self-inflicted, +he could have secured the conviction of Hutchings. But it was incredible +that Lady Loudwater or Colonel Grey had employed him to commit the +murder. No; if they were shielding a third person, it must be the +mysterious, unknown woman who had come with such swift secrecy and so +wholly disappeared. + +It grew clearer and clearer that there most probably lay that solution +of the problem. If that woman herself had not murdered Lord Loudwater, +as seemed most likely, she might very well give him the clue for which +he was groping. He must find her, and, of course, sooner or later he +would find her. But the sooner he found her, the sooner would the +problem be solved and his work done. Till he found her he would not find +its solution. + +It still seemed to him probable that somewhere among Lord Loudwater's +papers there was information which would lead to her discovery, and he +went into the library to confer again with Mr. Carrington on the matter. +He found him discussing the arrangements for tomorrow's funeral with Mrs. +Carruthers and Wilkins. + +When they had gone he said: "Did you come across any information about +that mysterious woman in the rest of the papers?" + +"Not a word," said Mr. Carrington. + +"I've been thinking that you might come across traces of her in his +pass-books--payments or an allowance." + +"I thought of that. But there's only one passbook, the one in use. Lord +Loudwater doesn't seem to have kept them after they were filled. And +Manley knows all about this one; he wrote out every cheque in it for +Loudwater, and he is quite sure that there were no cheques of any size +for a woman among them." + +"That's disappointing," said Mr. Flexen. "What about the cheques to +'Self'? Are there any large ones among them?" + +"No. They're all on the small side--distinctly on the small +side--cheques for ten pounds--and very few of them." + +"It is queer that it should be so difficult to find any information +about a woman who played such an important part in his life," said Mr. +Flexen gloomily. + +"It's not so very uncommon," said the lawyer. + +"Well, let's hope that the advertisement she'll get from my newspaper +friends will bring her to light," said Mr. Flexen. + +"It would be a pleasant surprise to me to find them serving some useful +purpose," said Mr. Carrington grimly. + +Mr. Flexen laughed and said: "You're prejudiced. It's about time to dress +for dinner." + +Mr. Carrington rose with alacrity and said anxiously, "I hope to goodness +Loudwater didn't quarrel with his chef!" + +"I've no reason to think so. The food's excellent," said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley joined them at dinner, wearing his best air of a discreet and +indulgent man of the world, and confident of making himself valued. He +was in very good spirits, for he had persuaded Helena to marry him that +day month, and was rejoicing in his success. He did not tell Mr. Flexen, +or Mr. Carrington, of his good fortune. He felt that it would hardly +interest them, since neither of them knew Helena or was intimate with +himself. But, inspired by this success, he took the lead in the +conversation, and showed himself inclined to be somewhat patronizing to +two men outside the sphere of imaginative literature. + +It was Mr. Flexen who broached the subject of the murder. + +After they had talked of the usual topics for a while, he said: "By the +way, Manley, did you hear Lord Loudwater snore after Hutchings went into +the library, or before?" + +"So you know that I saw Hutchings in the hall that night?" said Mr. +Manley. "It's wonderful how you find things out. I didn't tell you, and I +should have thought that I was the only person awake in the front part of +the Castle. I suppose that some one saw him getting his cigarettes from +the butler's pantry." + +"So that was the reason he gave you for being in the Castle," said Mr. +Flexen. "Well, was it after or before you spoke to him that you heard +Lord Loudwater snore?" + +Mr. Manley hesitated, thinking; then he said: "I can't remember at the +moment. You see, I was downstairs some little time. I found an evening +paper in the dining-room and looked through it there. I might have heard +him from there." + +"You can't remember?" said Mr. Flexen in a tone of disappointment. + +"Not at the moment," said Mr. Manley. "Is it important?" + +"Yes; very important. It would probably help me to fix the time of Lord +Loudwater's death." + +"I see. A lot may turn on that," said Mr. Manley thoughtfully. + +"Yes. You can see how immensely it helps to have a fact like that fixed," +said Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes: of course," said Mr. Manley. "Well, I must try to remember. I +daresay I shall, if I keep the fact in my mind gently, and do not try to +wrench the recollection out of it. You know how hard it is to remember a +thing, if it hasn't caught your attention fairly when it happened." + +"Yes," said Mr. Flexen. "But I hope to goodness you'll remember it +quickly. It may be of the greatest use to me." + +"Ah, yes; I must," said Mr. Manley, giving him a queer look. + +"I was forgetting," said Mr. Flexen, understanding the thought behind the +queer look. "You'd hardly believe it, Mr. Carrington, but Mr. Manley told +me at the very beginning of this business that he was not going to help +in any way to discover the murderer of Lord Loudwater, because he +considered that murderer a benefactor of society." + +"But I never heard of such a thing!" cried the lawyer in a tone of +astonished disapproval. "Such a course might be possible in the case of +some minor crime, or in a person intimately connected with the criminal +in the case of a major crime. But for an outsider to pursue such a +course in the case of a murder is unheard of--absolutely unheard of." + +"I daresay it isn't common," said Mr. Manley in a tone of modest +satisfaction. "But I am modern; I claim the right of private judgment in +all matters of morality." + +"Oh, that won't do--that won't do at all!" cried the shocked lawyer. +"There would be hopeless confusion--in fact, if everybody did that, the +law might easily become a dead letter--absolutely a dead letter." + +"But there's no fear of everybody doing anything of the kind. The ruck +of men have no private judgment to claim the right of. They take +whatever's given them in the way of morals by their pastors and masters. +Only exceptional people have ideas of their own to carry out; and there +are not enough exceptional people to make much difference," said Mr. +Manley calmly. + +"But, all the same, such principles are subversive of society--absolutely +subversive of society," said Mr. Carrington warmly, and his square, +massive face was growing redder. + +"I daresay," said Mr. Manley amiably. "But if any one chooses to have +them, and act on them, what are you going to do about it? For example, if +I happened to know who had murdered Lord Loudwater and did not choose to +tell, how could you make me?" + +"If there were many people with such principles about, society would +soon find out a way of protecting itself," said the lawyer, in the +accents of one whose tenderest sensibilities are being outraged. + +"It would have to have recourse to torture then," said Mr. Manley +cheerfully. + +"But let me remind you that it is a crime to be an accessory before, or +after, the fact to murder," said the lawyer in a tone of some triumph. + +"Oh, I'm not going as far as that," said Mr. Manley. "A man might very +well approve of a murder without being willing to further it." + +Mr. Flexen laughed and said: "I understand Mr. Manley's point +of view. Sometimes I have felt inclined to be judge as well as +investigator--especially in the East." + +"And you followed your inclination," said Mr. Manley with amiable +certainty. + +"Perhaps--perhaps not," said Mr. Flexen, smiling at him. + +"The war has upset everything. I never heard such ideas before the war," +grumbled the lawyer. + +There was a silence as Holloway brought in the coffee and cigars. + +When he had gone, Mr. Flexen said in an almost fretful tone: "It's an +extraordinary thing that Lord Loudwater kept so few papers." + +"I don't know," said Mr. Manley carelessly. "During the six months I've +been here we were never stuck for want of a paper. He seemed to me to +have kept all that were necessary." + +"It's the destroying of his pass-books that seems so odd to me," said +the lawyer. "A man must often want to know how he spent his money in a +given year." + +"I'm sure I never want to," said Mr. Manley. "And certainly pass-books +are unattractive-looking objects to have about." + +"All the same, they might have proved very useful in this case," said Mr. +Flexen. "Of course, they wouldn't tell us anything we shall not find out +eventually. But they might have saved us a lot of time and trouble. They +might put us on to the track of another firm of lawyers who did certain +business for Lord Loudwater." + +"Well, no one but Mr. Carrington's firm did any business for him during +the last six months," said Mr. Manley, rising. "I feel inclined to take +advantage of the moonlight and go for a stroll. So I will leave you to go +on working on the murder. Good-bye for the present." + +He sauntered out of the room, and when the door closed behind him, the +lawyer said earnestly: "I do hate a crank." + +The words came from his heart. + +"Oh, I don't think he's a crank," said Mr. Flexen in an indulgent tone. +"He's too intelligent; that's all." + +"There's nothing so dangerous as too much intelligence. It's always a +nuisance to other people," said the lawyer. "Do you think he really knows +anything?" + +"He knows something--nothing of real importance, I think," said Mr. +Flexen. "But, as I expect you've noticed, he likes to feel himself of +importance. And whatever knowledge he has helps him to feel important. +It's a harmless hobby. By the way, is there anything in the way of +insanity in Lady Loudwater's family?" + +"No, I never heard of any, and I should have been almost certain to hear +if there were any," said the lawyer in some surprise. + +"That's all right," said Mr. Flexen. + +"By the way, how did you get on with the newspaper men?" said the lawyer. + +"I put them in the way of making themselves very useful to me, and, at +the same time, I gave them exactly the kind of thing they wanted. I +think, too, that when they've run the story I gave them for all it's +worth, they'll very likely drop the case--unless, that is, we've really +got it cleared up. I was careful to point out to them that the verdict of +the coroner's jury was a piece of pig-headed idiocy, and they'll see the +unlikelihood of securing a conviction for murder with the medical +evidence as it is, unless we have an absolutely clear case." + +"But, all the same, there's going to be a tremendous fuss in the papers," +said Mr. Carrington, in the tone of dissatisfaction of the lawyer who is +always doing his best to keep tremendous fusses out of the papers. + +"Oh, yes. That was necessary. It's out of that fuss that I hope to get +the evidence which will settle once and for all, in my mind at any rate, +the question whether Lord Loudwater was murdered or not." + +"But surely you haven't any doubt about that?" said the lawyer sharply. + +"Just a trifle, and I may as well get rid of it," said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley took his hat and stick and went leisurely out of the front +door of the Castle. He paused on the steps for half a minute to admire +the moonlit night and murmur a few lines from Keats. Then he strolled +down the drive whistling the tune of an American coon song. But presently +the whistle died on his lips as he considered Mr. Flexen's keen desire to +discover the other firm of lawyers who had done business for Lord +Loudwater. He could not but think, when he put this keenness of Mr. +Flexen beside Helena's strange anxiety, that she had done something of +which she had not told him, something that might have drawn suspicion on +her. He did not see what she could have done; but there it was. He had a +feeling, an intuition that it was she whom Mr. Flexen was seeking, and he +prided himself on his intuition. Well, the longer they were finding +Shepherd, the lawyer who had handled the business of her allowance, the +better he would be pleased. He had certainly done his best to block their +way. At the same time, they might at any moment learn who he was. It was +fortunate, therefore, that Shepherd had a job in Mesopotamia, and that +his business was closed down for the present. If they did learn who he +was, they would still be a long while before they obtained any +information about Helena from him. Mr. Manley's keen desire was that the +first excitement about the murder should have died down before they did +get it. He was a firm believer in the soothing effect of time. The +discovery of Helena's allowance, if it were made now, might cause her +considerable annoyance, if not actual trouble. Coming in six weeks' time, +or even a month's time, it would be far less likely to make that trouble. + +He wondered what it could be that she had done to bring herself under +suspicion. Remembering what she had said of her determination to discuss +the halving of her allowance with the dead man, and her remark that she +had such a knowledge of his habits that she could make sure of having an +interview with him to discuss it, it seemed not unlikely that she had +gone to see him on the very night of his murder, and that some one had +seen her. If it were so, he hoped that she would tell him, so that they +might together devise some way of preventing harm coming from the +accident that the interview had occurred at such an unfortunate hour. He +felt sure that he would be able to devise such a way. He never blinked +the fact of his extreme ingenuity. + +He found her strolling in her garden with the anxious frown which had +awakened his uneasiness, still on her brow. Her face grew brighter at the +sight of him, and presently he had smoothed the frown quite away. Again +he realized that the murder of Lord Loudwater had had a softening effect +on her. Before it they had been much more on equality; now she rather +clung to him. He found it pleasing, much more the natural attitude of a +woman towards a man of his imagination and knowledge of life. He was +properly gracious and protective with her. + +The next morning the _Daily Wire_ opened his eyes and confirmed his +apprehensions. The murder of a nobleman is an uncommon occurrence, and +the editor of that paper showed every intention of making the most of it. +The visit of the unknown woman to Lord Loudwater and their quarrel, +treated with the nervous picturesqueness of which Mr. Gregg was so famous +a master, formed the main and interesting part of the article. When he +came to the end of it, Mr. Manley whistled ruefully. He had no difficulty +whatever in picturing to himself the indignant and violent wrath of +Helena, and he could not conceive for a moment that Lord Loudwater had +been able to withstand it. Of course, he would be violent, too, but with +a much less impressive violence. + +Lord Loudwater had been lavish in the matter of newspapers; he was a rich +man, and they had been his only reading. Mr. Manley read the report of +the inquest in all the chief London dailies, and found in the _Daily +Planet_ another nervously picturesque article on the visit of the +mysterious woman from the nervously picturesque pen of Mr. Douglas. + +Here was certainly a pretty kettle of fish. He could not doubt that the +woman was Helena. It explained Flexen's questioning him whether he had +any knowledge of an entanglement between Lord Loudwater and a woman, and +Flexen's keen desire to find some other firm of lawyers who might have +been called in to deal with such an entanglement. But he could not for a +moment bring himself to believe that there could have ever been any need +for Helena to have recourse to the knife. He could not see Lord +Loudwater resisting her when she became really angry; he must have given +way. None the less, he did not underestimate the awkwardness, the danger +even, of her having paid that visit and had that quarrel at such an +unfortunate hour. + +He had matter enough for earnest thought during the funeral. It was a +large funeral, though there were not many funeral guests. Five ladies, an +aunt and four cousins, of Lord Loudwater's own generation, came down from +London. The younger generation was either on its way back from the war, +or too busy with its work to find the time to attend the funeral of a +distant relation, whom, if they had chanced to meet him, they neither +liked nor respected. But there was a show of carriages from all the big +houses within a radius of nine miles, which more than made up for the +fewness of the guests. Also, there was a crowd of middle- and lower-class +spectators who considered the funeral of a murdered nobleman a spectacle +indeed worth attending. It was composed of women, children, old men, and +a few wounded private soldiers. + +Olivia attended the funeral, wearing a composed but rather pathetic air, +owing to the fact that her brow was most of the time knitted in a +pondering, troubled frown. Lady Croxley, Lord Loudwater's aged aunt, rode +with her in the first coach. She was a loquacious soul, and whiled away +the journey to and from the church, which is over a mile from the Castle, +with a panegyric on her dead nephew, and an astonished dissertation on +the strange fact that Olivia had not had a woman with her during this sad +time. She ascribed her abstinence from this stimulant to her desire to be +alone with her grief. Olivia encouraged her harmless babble by a vague +murmur at the right points, and continued to look pathetic. It was all +her aunt by marriage needed, and it left Olivia free to think her own +thoughts. She gave but few of them to her dead husband; the living +claimed her attention. + +Mr. Manley wore an air of gloom far deeper than his sense of the fitness +of things would in the ordinary course of events have demanded. It was +the result of the nervously picturesque English which had flowed with +such ease from the forceful pens of Mr. Douglas and Mr. Gregg. Mr. +Carrington, who rode with him, and from attending the funerals of many +clients had acquired as good a funeral air as any man in his profession, +found his gloom exaggerated. He was all the more scandalized, therefore, +when, as they were nearing the Castle, Mr. Manley suddenly cried, "By +Jove!" and rubbed his hands together with a face uncommonly radiant. + +He had had the cheering thought that he had the Loudwater case, if ever +it should come to a trial, wholly in his hands. He had but to remember +having heard Lord Loudwater snore at, say, a few minutes to twelve, to +break it down. He did not conceive that he would encounter any difficulty +in remembering that if it should be necessary. + +The solemnity of the funeral and Mr. Carrington's conversation in the +coach--he had talked about the weather--had not weakened his resolve +that, if he could help it, no one should swing for the murder. + +This realization of his position of vantage made him eager to go to +Helena to set her mind at rest, should she, as he thought most likely, +be greatly troubled by the fact that her untimely visit to the murdered +man was known. But he had to lunch at the Castle with the funeral guests. +They were interested beyond measure in the murder and full of questions. +He talked to them with a darkly mysterious air, and made a deep +impression of discreet sagacity on their simple minds. He observed that +Olivia appeared to have been afflicted more deeply by the funeral than he +had expected. She looked harassed and seemed to find the lunch rather a +strain. He observed also that she did not, as did her guests, who were so +slightly acquainted with him, pay any tribute to the character of her +dead husband. + +Mr. Flexen was not lunching with them. He had spent an expectant morning +waiting for the local effects of the story in the _Wire_ and _Planet_, +and in having that story spread far and wide by Inspector Perkins and his +two men among the villagers, who only saw a paper in the public-houses of +the neighbourhood on a Sunday. He hoped, if it had been a local affair, +to have information about it in the course of the day. Up to lunchtime +the newspaper advertisement of the mysterious woman had proved as +fruitless as the earlier private inquiries. But he remained hopeful. + +It was past three before Mr. Manley escaped from the funeral guests and +betook himself at a brisk pace to Helena's house. As he went he made up +his mind that the quality most fitting the occasion was discretion. He +had better not let it appear that he was sure that she was the mysterious +woman of the _Daily Wire._ He must make his announcement that, in the +event of any one being brought to trial for the murder of Lord Loudwater, +his evidence could break down any case for the prosecution, and that he +would see that it did break it down, appear as casual as possible. But, +at the same time, he must make it quite clear to her that he could secure +her safety. He felt that though she might think his firm resolve that no +one should swing for the murder quixotic, she would perceive that it was +only in keeping with his generous nature. + +He had expected to find her much more disturbed by the nervously +picturesque articles of Mr. Gregg and Mr. Douglas than she appeared. +Indeed, she seemed to him much less under a strain, much less nervous +than she had been the night before. None the less, he was careful to +reassure her wholly by the announcement of his discovery of the important +nature of the evidence he could give, before he said anything about those +articles. When he did tell her that he could break down any case for the +prosecution, she did not at once confess that she was the woman of whose +visit to Lord Loudwater those stories told; they did not even discuss the +question, which had seemed so important to the _Daily Wire_, who that +woman was. They contented themselves with discussing the question who +could have seen her. He admired her spirit in not telling him, her +readiness to forgo his comfort and support before the absolute need for +them was upon her. Her force of character was what he most admired in +her, and this was a striking example of it. His own character, he knew, +was rather subtile and delicate than strong. He was more than ever alive +to the advantage of having her to lean upon in the difficult career that +lay before him. + +Mr. Flexen was disappointed that the advertisement of the mysterious +woman in the _Wire_ and the _Planet_ brought no information about her +during the morning. After lunch Mr. Carrington returned to London. At +half-past three Mr. Flexen telegraphed to Scotland Yard to ask if any one +had given them information about the woman he was seeking. No one had. +Then he realized that he was unreasonably impatient. Whoever had the +information would probably think the matter over, and perhaps confer with +friends before coming forward. In the meantime, he would make inquiries +of James Hutchings. + +He drove to the gamekeeper's cottage to find James Hutchings sitting on a +chair outside it and reading the _Planet_. He perceived that he looked +puzzled. Also, he perceived that he still wore a strained, hunted air, +more strained and hunted by far than at their last talk. + +He walked briskly up to him and said: "Good afternoon. I see that you're +reading the story of Lord Loudwater's murder in the _Planet_. It occurred +to me that you might very likely be able to tell me who the lady who +visited Lord Loudwater on the night of his murder was. At any rate, you +can probably make a guess at who she was." + +Hutchings shook his head and said gloomily: "No, sir, I can't. I +don't know who it was and I can't guess. I wish I could. I'd tell you +like a shot." + +"That's odd," said Mr. Flexen, again disappointed. "I should have thought +it impossible for your master to have been on intimate terms with a lady +without your coming to hear of it. You've always been his butler." + +"Yes, sir. But this is the kind of thing as a valet gets to know about +more than a butler--letters left about, or in pockets, you know, sir. But +his lordship never could keep a valet long enough for him to learn +anything. He was worse with valets than with any one." + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen in a vexed tone. "But still, I should have +thought you'd have heard something from some one, even if the matter had +not come under your own eyes. Gossip moves pretty widely about the +countryside." + +"Oh, this didn't happen in the country, sir--not in this part of the +country, anyhow. It must have been a London woman," said Hutchings with +conviction. "If she'd lived about here, I must have heard about it." + +"It was a lady, you must know. The papers do not bring that fact out. My +informant is quite sure that it was a lady," said Mr. Flexen. + +"That's no 'elp, sir," said Hutchings despondently. "She must have come +down by train and gone away by train." + +"She would have probably been noticed at the station. But she wasn't. +Besides, she could not have walked back to the station in time to catch +the last train. I'm sure of it." + +"Then she must have come in a car, sir." + +"That is always possible," said Mr. Flexen. + +There was a pause. + +Then Hutchings burst out: "You may depend on it that she did it, sir. +There isn't a shadow of a doubt. You get her and you'll get the +murderess." + +He spoke with the feverish, unbalanced vehemence of a man whose nerves +are on edge. + +"You think so, do you?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"I'm sure of it--dead certain," cried Hutchings. + +"It's a long way from visiting a gentleman late at night and quarrelling +with him to murdering him," said Mr. Flexen. + +"And she went it. You mark my words, sir. She went it. I don't say that +she came to do it. But she saw that knife lying handy on the library +table and she did it," said Hutchings with the same vehemence. + +"Any one who passed through the library would see that knife," said Mr. +Flexen carelessly, but his eyes were very keen on Hutchings' face. + +Hutchings was pale, and he went paler. He tried to stammer something, but +his voice died in his throat. + +"Well, I'm sorry you can't give me any information about this lady. +Good afternoon," said Mr. Flexen, and he turned on his heel and went +back to the car. + +He was impressed by Hutchings' air and manner. Of course, believing +himself to be suspected, the man was under a strain. But would the strain +on him be so heavy as it plainly was, if he knew himself to be innocent? +And then his eagerness to fasten the crime on the mysterious woman. It +had been astonishingly intense, almost hysterical. + +When he reached the Castle he found Inspector Perkins awaiting him with a +small package which had come by special messenger from Scotland Yard. It +contained enlarged photographs of the fingerprints on the handle of the +knife. They were all curiously blurred. + +_The murderer had worn a glove._ + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + + +Mr. Flexen studied the photographs and the report which stated this fact +with a lively interest and a growing sense of its great importance. For +one thing, it settled the question of suicide for good and all. Lord +Loudwater had worn no glove. + +Also, it strengthened the case against the mysterious woman. She had +come, apparently, from a distance, and probably in a motor-car. If she +had driven herself down, she would be wearing gloves. Also, only a woman +would be likely to be wearing gloves on a warm summer night. Indeed, +coming from a distance by train, or car, she would certainly wear gloves. +She would not dream of coming to an interview, with a man with whom she +had been intimate and whom she wished to bend to her will, with hands +dirtied by a journey. + +If that gloved hand had not been the hand of the mysterious woman, then +the murder had been premeditated, and the murderer or murderess had put +on gloves with the deliberate purpose of leaving no finger-prints. + +It _was_ the woman. In all probability it was the woman. + +Then Mr. Flexen's sub-conscious mind began to jog his intellect. +Somewhere in his memory there was a fact he had noted about gloves, and +that fact was now important in its bearing on the case. He set about +trying to recall it to his mind. He was not long about it. Of a sudden he +remembered that he had been a trifle surprised to perceive that Colonel +Grey had been carrying gloves when he had found him in the rose-garden +with Lady Loudwater. + +His surprise had passed quickly enough. He had decided that the life in +the trenches had not weakened Colonel Grey's habit, as a fastidious man +about town, of taking care of his hands. He remembered, too, that at his +first interview with him he had observed that his hands were uncommonly +well shaped and well kept. + +He did not suppose that Colonel Grey had come to the Castle on the +night of the murder wearing gloves with the deliberate intention of +killing Lord Loudwater without leaving finger-prints. But suppose that, +as he came away from a distressing interview with Lady Loudwater, the +knife on the library table had caught his eye and his gloves had been +in his pocket? + +Mr. Flexen took out his pipe, lit it, and moved to an easy-chair to let +his brain work more easily. He tabulated his facts. + +Colonel Grey had gone through the library window at about twenty +minutes past ten. + +Hutchings had gone through the library window at half-past ten. + +The mysterious woman had gone through the library window at about ten +minutes to eleven. + +She came out of the library window at about a quarter-past eleven after a +violent quarrel with Lord Loudwater. + +Colonel Grey came out of the library window at about twenty-five minutes +past eleven, after a distressing interview with Lady Loudwater, +apparently in a very bad temper. + +James Hutchings had come out of the library window at about half-past +eleven, also, if William Roper might be believed, furious. + +Lady Loudwater had come through the library window at a quarter to +twelve, and gone back through it at five minutes to twelve. + +Each of the last three had passed within fifteen feet of Lord Loudwater, +dead or alive, both on entering and on coming out of the Castle. The +mysterious woman had actually been in the smoking-room with him. + +If Lady Loudwater's statement that she heard her husband snoring at five +minutes to twelve were to be accepted, neither Colonel Grey, Hutchings, +nor the mysterious woman could have committed the murder--unless always +one of them had returned later and committed it. That possibility must +be borne in mind. + +But Mr. Flexen did not accept her statement. If he were to accept it, she +herself at once became the most likely person to have committed the +crime. It was always possible that she had. She certainly had the best +reasons of any one, as far as he knew, for committing it. + +The evidence of Mr. Manley about the time at which he heard Lord +Loudwater snore was of the first importance. But how to get it out of +him? Mr. Flexen had a strong feeling that not only would Mr. Manley +afford no help to bring the murderer of Lord Loudwater to justice, but, +that owing to the vein of Quixotry in his nature, he was capable of +helping the murderer to escape. That he could do. He had only to declare +that he heard Lord Loudwater snore at twelve o'clock to break down the +case against any one of the four persons between whom the crime obviously +lay. Mr. Flexen had a shrewd suspicion that Mr. Manley would fail to +remember at what time he had last heard Lord Loudwater's snores till the +police had set about securing the conviction of one of the possible +murderers. Then, when the case of the police against the murderer was +revealed, he would come forward and break it down. He had decided that +Mr. Manley was a sentimentalist, and he knew well the difficulty of +dealing with sentimentalists. Moreover, Mr. Manley was animated by a +grudge against the murdered man. Mr. Flexen could quite conceive that he +might presently be regarding perjury as a duty; he had had experience of +the queer way in which the mind of the sentimentalist works. + +It appeared to him that everything depended on his finding the +mysterious woman. + +That afternoon Elizabeth Twitcher determined to go to see James +Hutchings. She had not seen him since their interview on the night of the +murder. In the ordinary course she would not have dreamt of going to him +after that interview, for it had left them on such a footing that further +advances, repentant advances, must come from him. But there were pressing +reasons why she should not wait for him to make the advances which he +would in ordinary circumstances have made after his sulkiness had abated. +All her fellow-servants and all the villagers, who were not members of +the Hutchings family, were assured that he had murdered Lord Loudwater. +Three of the maids, who were jealous of her greater prettiness, had with +ill-dissembled spitefulness congratulated her on having dismissed him +before the murder; her mother had also congratulated her on that fact. +Elizabeth Twitcher was the last girl in the world to desert a man in +misfortune, and, considering James Hutchings' temper, she could only +consider the murder a misfortune. Besides, she had been very fond of him; +she was very fond of him still, and the fact that he was in great +trouble was making him dearer to her. + +Moreover, every one who spoke to her about him told her that he was +looking miserable beyond words. Her heart went out to him. + +None the less, she did not go to see him without a struggle. She felt +that he ought to come to her. However, her pride had been beaten in that +struggle by her fondness and her pity--even more by her pity. + +When she knocked at the door of his father's cottage James Hutchings +himself opened it, and his harassed, hang-dog air settled in her mind for +good and all the question of his guilt. She was not daunted; indeed, a +sudden anger against Lord Loudwater for having brought about his own +murder flamed up in her. Like every one else who had known him, she could +feel no pity for him. + +James Hutchings showed no pleasure whatever at the sight of her. Indeed, +he scowled at her. + +"Come to gloat over me, have you?" he growled bitterly. + +"Don't be silly!" she said sharply. "What should I want to do a thing +like that for? Is your father in?" + +"No; he isn't," said James Hutchings sulkily, but his eyes gazed at +her hungrily. + +He showed no intention of inviting her to enter. Therefore she pushed +past him, walked across the kitchen, sat down in the window-seat, and +surveyed him. + +He shut the door, turned, and gazed at her, scowling uncertainly. + +Then she said gently: "You're looking very poorly, Jim." + +"I didn't think you'd be the one to tell of my being in the Castle that +night!" he cried bitterly. + +"It wasn't me," she said quietly. "It was that little beast, Jane +Pittaway. She heard us talking in the drawing-room." + +"Oh, that was it, was it?" he said more gently. Then, scowling again, he +cried fiercely: + +"I'll wring her neck!" + +"That's enough of that!" she said sharply. "You've talked a lot too much +about wringing people's necks. And a lot of good it's done you." + +"Oh, I know you believe I did it, just like everybody else. But I tell +you I didn't. I swear I didn't!" he cried loudly, with a vehemence which +did not convince her. + +"Of course you didn't," she said in a soothing voice. "But what are you +going to do if they try to make out that you did? What are you going to +tell them?" + +He gazed at her with miserable eyes and said in a miserable voice: "God +knows what I'm to tell them. It isn't a matter of telling them. It's how +to make 'em believe it. These people never believe anything; the police +never do." + +She gazed at him thoughtfully, with eyes compassionate and full of +tenderness. They were a balm to his unhappy spirit. + +The hardness slowly vanished from his face. It became merely troubled. He +walked quickly across the room, dropped into the seat beside her and put +an arm round her. + +"You're a damned sight too good for me, Lizzie," he said in a gentler +voice than she had ever heard him use before, and he kissed her. + +"Poor Jim!" she said. And again: "Poor Jim!" + +He trembled, breathing quickly, and held her tight. + +After a while he regained control of himself, and sat upright. But he +still held her tightly to him with his right arm. + +They began to discuss his plight and how he might best defend himself. +She was fully as fearful as he. But she did not show it. She must cheer +him up, and she kept insisting that the police could not fix the murder +on him, that they had nothing to go upon. If they had, they would have +already arrested him. Certainly they knew what the servants and the +village people were saying. But that was just talk. There wasn't any +evidence; there couldn't be any evidence. + +Her support and encouragement put a new spirit into him. He had been so +alone against the world. His own family, though they had loudly and +fiercely protested his innocence to their friends and enemies in the +village, had not expressed this faith in him to him. + +Indeed, his father had expressed their real belief, when he said to him +gloomily: "I always told you that damned temper of yours would get you +into trouble, Jim." + +Then Elizabeth gave him his tea. After it they talked calmly with an +actual approach to cheerfulness till it was time for her to return to the +Castle to dress Olivia's hair for dinner. Then she would have it that he +should escort her back to the Castle. She declared, truly enough, that he +was doing himself no good by moping at the cottage, that people would say +that he dare not show himself. He _must_ hold his head up. + +She insisted also that they should take the long way round, through the +village; that people should see them together. She insisted that he +should look cheerful, and talk to her all the length of the village +street. The looking cheerful helped to lighten his spirit yet more. As +they went through the village she kept looking up at him in an +affectionate fashion and smiling. + +The village was, indeed, taken aback. It had made up its mind that James +Hutchings was a pariah to be shunned. It was not only taken aback, it was +annoyed. It had no wish that its belief that James Hutchings had +murdered Lord Loudwater should be in any way unsettled. + +Mrs. Roper, the mother of William Roper and a lifelong enemy of the +Hutchings family, summed up the feeling of her neighbours about the +behaviour of James Hutchings and Elizabeth. + +"Brazen, I call it," she said bitterly. + +Before they reached the Castle, Elizabeth had come to feel that during +the last three days James Hutchings had changed greatly, and for the +better. She had an odd fancy that murdering his master had improved his +character; the fear of the police had softened him. Not once did he try +to domineer over her. That domineering had been the source of their not +infrequent quarrels, for she was not at all of a temper to endure it. + +Olivia and Grey had again spent their afternoon in the pavilion in the +East wood. Their bearing at times had been oddly like that of Elizabeth +and James Hutchings. Now and again they had lapsed from their absorption +in one another into a like fearfulness. But, unlike Elizabeth and James +Hutchings, neither of them said a word about the murder of Lord +Loudwater. But both of them seemed a little less under a strain than they +had been. This new factor of a quarrel with an unknown woman seemed to +open a loophole. Olivia's colouring had lost some of its warmth; the +contours of her face were less rounded. Grey had manifestly taken a step +backwards in his convalescence; his face was thinner, even a little +haggard; there was a somewhat strained watchfulness in his eyes. + +They could not tear themselves away from the pavilion till the last +moment, and he walked back with her as far as the shrubbery on the edge +of the East lawn, and there they parted after she had promised to meet +him there that evening at nine. + +As Olivia came into her sitting-room Elizabeth and James Hatchings came +to the back door of the Castle. She did not say good-bye at once; of set +purpose, she lingered talking to him that the other servants might +understand clearly that her attitude to him was definitely fixed. + +But at last she held out her hand and said: "I must be getting along to +her ladyship, or she'll be waiting for me." + +James Hutchings looked round, considered the coast sufficiently clear, +caught her to him, kissed her, and said huskily: "You're just a +ministering angel, Lizzie, and there's more sense in your little finger +than in all my fat head. I'm feeling a different man, and I'll baulk +them yet." + +"Of course you will, Jim," said Elizabeth, and she opened the door. + +"Lord, how I wish I was coming in with you--back in my old place! I +should be seeing you most of the time," he said wistfully. + +Elizabeth stopped short, flushing, and looked at him with suddenly +excited eyes. + +At his words a great thought had come into her mind. + +"Wait a minute, Jim. Wait till I come back," she said somewhat +breathlessly, and, leaving the door open, she hurried down the passage. + +She hurried up to her room, took off her hat, and hurried to Olivia. She +found her in her sitting-room looking through an evening paper to learn +if any new fact about the murder had come to light. + +"If you please, your ladyship, James Hutchings has come to ask if your +ladyship would like him to come back for the time being till you've got +suited with another butler," said Elizabeth in a rather breathless voice. + +Olivia looked at Elizabeth's flushed, excited and hopeful face, +and smiled. + +"Why, have you and James made it up, Elizabeth?" she said. + +"Yes, m'lady," said Elizabeth, and the flush deepened in her cheeks. + +"Then go and tell him to come back, by all means," said Olivia. + +"Thank you, m'lady," said Elizabeth, in accents of profound gratitude, +and she ran out of the room. + +Olivia smiled and then she sighed. It was pleasant to have given +Elizabeth such obviously keen pleasure. She never dreamed that Elizabeth +and James Hutchings were under the same strain of fear and anxiety as +she herself, and that she had given them great help in their trouble, for +Elizabeth saw that the return of James Hutchings to his situation would +give the wagging tongues full pause. + +James Hutchings was dumbfounded on receiving the message. He stared at +Elizabeth with his mouth open. + +"Be quick, Jim. Get your clothes and be back in time to wait on her +ladyship at dinner," said Elizabeth. + +James Hutchings came out of his stupor. + +"Why, L-L-Lizzie, you must let me p-p-put up our b-b-banns tomorrow," he +stammered. + +"Be off!" said Elizabeth, stamping her foot. "We can talk about +that later." + +When she came from her bath Olivia sent Elizabeth to tell Holloway that +she would dine with Mr. Flexen and Mr. Manley that evening. She had a +sudden desire to see more of Mr. Flexen, to weigh him as an antagonist. + +Mr. Flexen was somewhat surprised to receive the information; then, +considering the terms on which Olivia had been with her husband, he found +her action natural enough. After all, she was not a woman of the middle +class, bound to make a pretence of grieving for a wholly unamiable bully. +Also, he was pleased: to dine with so charming a creature as Olivia would +be pleasant and stimulating. In the course of the evening his wits might +rise to the solution of his problem. Moreover, it would be odd if he did +not gain a further, valuable insight into her character. + +He was yet more surprised to find James Hutchings, still rather pale and +haggard, but quite cool and master of himself, superintending the +waiting of Wilkins and Holloway at dinner. Also, he liked the way in +which he spoke to Olivia and looked at her. To Mr. Flexen, James +Hutchings had the air of the authentic faithful dog. He was inclined to +a better opinion of him. + +Plainly, too, Olivia had learned that tongues were wagging against him, +and had taken this way of checking them. It was a generous act. At the +same time, he could very well believe that Olivia might, unconsciously of +course, be on the side of the murderer of such a husband. + +Thanks to Mr. Manley's invaluable sense of what was fitting, there was no +constraint about the dinner. He had decided that they were three people +of the world dining together, and the fact that there had been a murder +in the house three days before and a funeral in the morning should not be +allowed to impair their proper nonchalance. At the same time, decorum +must be preserved; there must be no laughter. + +Accordingly he took the conversation in hand, and kept it in hand. Mr. +Flexen was somewhat astonished at the ability with which he did it; now +and again he felt as if, personally, he were performing feats on the +loose wire, but that, thanks to Mr. Manley, he was not going to fall off. +They talked of the usual subjects on which people who have not a large +circle of common acquaintances fall back. They all three abused the +politicians with perfect sympathy; they abused the British drama with +perfect sympathy; with no less perfect sympathy they abused the Cubists +and the Vorticists and the New Poets. Mr. Flexen had an odd feeling that +they were behaving with entire naturalness and propriety; that their real +interest was in the politicians, the British drama, the Cubists, the +Vorticists and the New Poets, and not at all in the fate of the murderer +of the late Lord Loudwater. After a while he found himself vying +earnestly with Mr. Manley in an effort to display himself as a man of at +least equal insight and intelligence. + +Olivia did not talk much herself. She never did. But she displayed a +quickness of understanding and soundness of judgment which stimulated +them. All the while she was watching and weighing Mr. Flexen. He never +once perceived it. Plainly enough, the talk did her good. She had come +to dinner looking, Mr. Flexen thought, rather under the water. Before +long she was looking, as she had resolved to look, her usual self. When, +at a few minutes to nine, she left them, she was looking the most +charming and sympathetic creature in the world, and, what was more, a +creature without a care. + +When the door closed behind her, she seemed to have taken with her a good +deal of the brightness of the room. Mr. Flexen dropped back into his +chair and frowned. In the silence which fell he wondered. Plainly she was +free enough from care now. + +"But when the feast is finished and the lamps expire--" + +Then Mr. Manley said, in a tone almost insolent: "If you think she +murdered that red-eyed bull in a china shop, you're wrong. She didn't." + +Mr. Flexen did not resent his tone. Indeed, before he could speak, it +flashed on him that if she had done so, and Justice was depending on him +himself to bring her to it, it was depending on a somewhat frail reed. He +liked Mr. Manley for his readiness to fight for her cause. + +He laughed gently and said: "I wasn't thinking so. I was only wondering." +Then his eyes on Mr. Manley's face turned very keen, and he said: "I +believe you know a good deal more about the affair than I do, if you +liked to speak." + +It seemed to him that for a moment Mr. Manley's desire to make himself +valued struggled with his desire to be accurate. + +Then the young man shook his head and said in a tone of surprise: "But +what nonsense! You know so much more about it than I do. Why, you must +have all the threads in your hands by now. I never even dreamt of the +_Daily Wire's_ mysterious woman." + +"Not quite all--yet. But they're coming all right," said Mr. Flexen, with +a confidence he was far from feeling. + +James Hutchings, coming into the room to fetch cigarettes for Olivia, +interrupted them. + +"I'm glad to see you back again, Hutchings," said Mr. Manley in a tone of +hearty congratulation. "Your going away for a trifle after all the years +you've been here was a silly business." + +"Thank you, sir," said Hutchings gratefully. + +When Hutchings had gone, Mr. Flexen said: "It's all very well your +talking, but it was you who suggested that Lady Loudwater was a woman of +strong primitive emotions with a strain of Italian blood in her." + +"I never suggested for a moment that she was a woman of _primitive_ +emotions," Mr. Manley protested with some vehemence. + +"But the emotions of all women are primitive," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Not the emotion excited in them by beauty," said Mr. Manley with +chivalrous warmth. "And, hang it all! Does she look like a woman to +commit murder?" + +"Not on her own account, certainly," said Mr. Flexen. + +"And on whose account should she commit murder?" cried Mr. Manley. + +Mr. Flexen shrugged his shoulders. + +"I said you knew ten times as much about the business as I do," said Mr. +Manley in a tone of triumph. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + + +Mr. Flexen awoke next morning hopeful of news of the mysterious woman. +But the letters addressed to him at the Castle and those brought over +from the office of the Chief Constable at Low Wycombe brought none. After +breakfast, still hopeful, he telephoned to Scotland Yard. No information +had reached it. + +He perceived clearly that the case was at a deadlock till he had that +information. He was sure that it would come sooner or later, possibly +from the neighbourhood, more probably from London. It was always possible +that Mr. Carrington might discover that some other lawyer had handled an +entanglement for Lord Loudwater. In the meantime, his work at the Castle +was done. He had exhausted its possibilities. There was no reason why he +should not return to his rooms at Low Wycombe. After having conferred +with Inspector Perkins, he decided to leave one of the two detectives to +continue making inquiries in the neighbourhood. He told James Hutchings +that he would like his clothes packed, and went to the rose-garden to +taken his leave of Olivia and thank her for her hospitality. + +He found her looking very charming in a light summer frock of white lace +with a few black bows set about it, and he thought that she seemed less +under a strain than she had seemed the day before. He told her that he +was returning to Low Wycombe; she expressed regret at his going, and +thanked him for his efforts to clear up the matter of Lord Loudwater's +death. They parted on the friendliest terms. + +As he came away, Mr. Flexen thought it significant that, though she had +thanked him for his efforts, she had made no inquiry about the result of +them. It might be that she dreaded to hear that they were on the way to +be successful. + +He observed that James Hutchings, who watched over his actual +departure, seemed less pale and haggard than he had been the night +before. He could well believe that he was glad to see him going without +having had him arrested. + +As he drove through the park he told himself that Lady Loudwater and Mr. +Manley between them would probably break down any case the police might +bring against any one but the mysterious woman, and they might break down +that. For his part, he was not going to give much time or attention to it +till the mysterious woman had been discovered, and he did not think that +he would be urged by Headquarters to do so after he had sent in his +report, for, mindful of what he had told them of the unsatisfactory +nature of Dr. Thornhill's evidence, Mr. Gregg in the _Daily Wire_ and +Mr. Douglas on the _Daily Planet_ were dealing with the case in a +half-hearted manner, though they were still clamouring with some vivacity +for the mysterious woman. + +As Mr. Flexen came out of the park gates he met William Roper on the edge +of the West wood, stopped the car, and walked a few yards down the road +to talk to him out of hearing of the chauffeur. + +"I gather that you haven't told any one of what you saw on the night of +Lord Loudwater's death; or I should have heard of it," he said. + +"Not a word, I haven't," said William Roper. + +"That's good," said Mr. Flexen in a tone of warm approval. "It might +spoil everything to put people on their guard." + +He was more strongly than ever resolved to prevent, if he could, the +gamekeeper from setting afoot a scandal about Lady Loudwater which could +be of no service to the police or any one else. + +"Everybody says as James Hutchings did it, sir," said William Roper. + +"H'm! And what do they say about the mysterious lady the papers are +talking about--the lady you saw?" + +"Oh, they don't pay no 'eed to 'er--not about 'ere, sir. They know Jim +Hutchings," said William Roper contemptuously. + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen. + +"'Er ladyship and Colonel Grey, they still spends a lot of their time in +the East wood pavilion. But now 'er ladyship's a widder, it's nobody's +business but their own, I reckon," said William Roper. + +"Of course not, of course not," said Mr. Flexen quickly, pleased to find +that the ferret-faced gamekeeper attached so little importance to it. "I +suppose people about here see that." + +"They don't know about it. Nobody knows about it but me, and I don't tell +everything I sees unless there's something to be got by it. A still +tongue makes a wise 'ead, I say," said William Roper, with a somewhat +vainglorious air. + +"Quite right--quite right," said Mr. Flexen heartily. "Many a man's +tongue has lost him a good job." + +"You're right there, sir. But not me it won't," said William Roper +with emphasis. + +"I can see that. You've too much sense. Well, I shall keep in touch with +you, and when the time comes you'll be called on. Drink my health. Good +day," said Mr. Flexen, giving him half-a-crown. + +He walked back to the car, pleased to have done Olivia the service of +closing William Roper's mouth, at any rate for a time. He would talk, of +course, sooner or later, probably sooner. But he might have closed his +mouth for a fortnight. + +William Roper walked on to the village and went into the "Bull and Gate." +The village was simmering in a very lively fashion. The return of James +Hutchings to his situation at the Castle was a fact with which it could +not grapple easily. It was bewildered and annoyed. + +William Roper had not, as he had assured Mr. Flexen, told what he had +seen on the night of the murder of Lord Loudwater, but he had been +dropping hints. He dropped more. He was a supporter of the theory that +James Hutchings was the murderer because he desired to oust the father of +James Hutchings from his post as head-gamekeeper. That was the reason +also of his belief in James Hutchings' guilt. He was beginning to enjoy +the interest he awakened as the storehouse of undivulged knowledge. When +Mr. Flexen had supposed that he would remain silent for a fortnight, he +had overestimated both his modesty and his reticence. + +Later in the day the village was further upset by the behaviour of James +Hutchings himself. He came into the "Bull and Gate" with an easy air, +showed himself but little more civil than usual, and told the landlord +that he had just arranged that the parson should publish the banns of his +marriage with Elizabeth Twitcher on the following Sunday. The village was +staggered. This was not the way in which it expected a man who would +presently be tried and hanged for murder to behave. + +In all fairness to James Hutchings, it must be said that he would not +have acted with this decision of his own accord. Elizabeth had bidden him +to it, urging that a bold front was half the battle. However grave her +own doubts of his innocence might be, she was resolved that such doubts +should, if possible, be banished from the minds of other people. Under +her influence he was already becoming his old self as far as looks went. +A shade of his usual ruddiness had come back; he was losing his +haggardness. + +With the going of Mr. Flexen there came a lull. His departure was a +relief to Olivia, to Colonel Grey, and to James Hutchings. Doubtless he +was still working on the case; but, working at a distance, he seemed less +of a menace. All three of them seemed less under a strain. Olivia and +Grey spent their hours together in a less feverish eagerness to make the +most of them. + +Even Helena Truslove, when Mr. Manley told her that Mr. Flexen had left +the Castle, said that she was very pleased to hear it. She looked very +pleased. Mr. Manley's sense of what was fitting restrained him from +asking her the reason of this pleasure. He had, indeed, no great desire +to hear the reason of it from her own lips. It was enough for him to +guess that she was the mysterious woman. He felt no need of her full +confidence. + +The Castle seemed to be settling down to its old round, the quieter for +the loss of Lord Loudwater. His heir in Mesopotamia had been informed of +his death by cable. But no cable in reply had come from him. Mr. Manley +remained at the Castle as secretary to Olivia, who was making +preparations leisurely to leave it and settle down in a flat in London. +Colonel Grey was recovering from his wound with a passable quickness. +James Hutchings had come to look very much his old self. Thanks to the +shock he had had and thanks to Elizabeth, he wore a more subdued air, and +was much more amiable with his fellow-servants. + +The _Daily Wire_, the _Daily Planet_, and the rest of the newspapers had +let the Loudwater mystery slip quietly out of their columns. Mr. Flexen +was waiting with quiet expectation for information about the unknown +woman. Since the advertisement the papers had given her had failed to +produce that information he had a London detective working on the life in +London, before his marriage, of the murdered man. Mr. Carrington had +found nothing among Lord Loudwater's papers in the office of his firm to +throw any light on the matter. + +The chief actors in the affair regarded the quiet turn it had taken with +a timorous satisfaction. Not so William Roper; William Roper was +thoroughly dissatisfied. He had been willing enough to hold his tongue, +because by so doing his unexpected and damning appearance at the trial +would be the more dramatic and impressive. But he was impatient to make +that appearance, and chafed at the delay. Also, his prestige was waning. +The village was losing interest in the mystery, and it no longer looked +to him to drop hints as the holder of the secret. That did not prevent +him from dropping them. He would bring up the subject of the murder in +order to drop them. His acquaintances who wished now to talk about other +things found this practice tiresome. They did not hide this feeling. +Matters came to a climax one evening in the bar of the "Bull and Gate." + +William Roper dragged the subject of the murder into a conversation on +the high price of groceries, and then, as usual, hinted at the things he +could say and he would. + +John Pittaway, who had been leading the conversation about the high price +of groceries, turned on him and said with asperity: "I don't believe as +there's anything you can tell us as we don't know, or you'd 'ave told it +afore this fast enough, William Roper." + +"That's what I've been thinking this long time," said old Bob Carter, who +had for over forty years made a point of agreeing with the most +disagreeable person at the moment in the bar of the "Bull and Gate." + +"Isn't there? You wait an' see. You wait till the trial," said +William Roper. + +"Trial? There won't be no trial. 'Oo's a goin' to be tried? They ain't +agoin' to try Jim 'Utchings. It's plain that 'er ladyship 'as set 'er +face against that. And, wot's more, they can't 'ave much to try 'im on, +or they'd 'ave to do it, in spite o' wot she said," said John Pittaway in +yet more disagreeable accents. + +William Roper was very angry. This was not to be borne. Indeed, if John +Pittaway were right, and there was to be no trial, where was his +dramatic and impressive appearance at it? He had better be dramatic and +impressive now. + +"Who said as they were goin' to try Jim 'Utchings? I never did," he +growled. "There was other people went to the Castle that night besides +Jim 'Utchings, and that mysterierse woman the papers talked about." + +"An' 'ow do you know?" said John Pittaway in a tone of most disagreeable +incredulity. + +"I know because I seed 'em," said William Roper. + +"Saw 'oo?" said John Pittaway. + +Then the whole story he had told Mr. Flexen burst forth from William +Roper's overcharged bosom, the story with the embellishments natural to +the lapse of time since its first telling. No less naturally in the +course of the discussion which followed, he told also the story of the +luckless kiss in the East wood, and the landlord pounced on that as the +cause of the quarrel between Lord Loudwater and Colonel Grey at +Bellingham. William Roper supported his contention with an embellished +account of the interview with Lord Loudwater in which he had informed him +of that kiss. + +It was, indeed, his great hour, not as great as the hour he had promised +himself at the trial, not so public, but a great hour. + +He left the "Bull and Gate" at closing time that night a man, in the +estimation of all there, whose evidence could hang four of his +fellow-creatures, the great man of the village. + +Next morning the village was indeed simmering, and the scandal rose and +spread from it like a stench. That very afternoon Mr. Manley heard it +from Helena Truslove, and the next morning Mr. Flexen received two +anonymous letters conveying the information to him, and suggesting that +Colonel Grey and the Lady Loudwater had between them made away with her +husband. It is hard to say whether Mr. Manley or Mr. Flexen was more +annoyed by William Roper's blabbing. + +But there was nothing to be done. The scandal must run its course. Mr. +Flexen did not think that it would find its way into the papers, local or +London. None the less, he was alive to the danger that a sudden heavy +pressure might be put on the police, and he might be forced to take +ill-advised action, start a prosecution which would do Lady Loudwater +infinite harm, and yet end in a fiasco which would leave the mystery just +where it was. The one bright spot in the affair was that Lord Loudwater +appeared to have left no friends behind him who would make it their +business to see that he was avenged. As long as that avenging was +everybody's business it was nobody's business. + +Elizabeth Twitcher was no less disturbed than Mr. Flexen. She felt that +Olivia ought to be informed of what was being said that she might be able +to take steps to meet the danger. She took counsel with James Hutchings, +who could not help feeling relieved by this diversion of suspicion, and +he agreed with her that Olivia should be informed of the scandal at once. +But it was an uncommonly unpleasant task, and she shrank from it. + +Then a happy thought came to James Hutchings, and he said: "Look here: +let Mr. Manley do it. He's her ladyship's secretary, and it's the kind of +thing he'll do very well. He's a tactful young fellow." + +"It would be a blessing if he did," said Elizabeth with a sigh. +She paused and added: "You do speak differently about him to what +you used to." + +"Yes. I made a mistake about him like as I did about some other people," +said James Hutchings, with a rather shame-faced air. "He behaved very +well about seeing me here the night the master was murdered and saying +nothing to the police about it. An' then he congratulated me very +handsomelike on coming back as butler before Mr. Flexen." + +"He would do it better than I should," said Elizabeth. + +"Then I'll speak to him about it," said James Hutchings. + +He paused a while to kiss Elizabeth, then went in search of Mr. Manley. +He learned from Holloway that he had come in about twenty minutes earlier +and was in his sitting-room. He went to him and found him looking through +the MS. of the play he was writing, with an unlighted pipe in his mouth. + +"If you please, sir, I thought I'd better come and tell you that they're +saying in the village that Colonel Grey kissed her ladyship in the East +wood on the afternoon of his lordship's death, and his lordship was +informed of it and quarrelled with Colonel Grey and then her ladyship, +and she and Colonel Grey made away with his lordship," said James +Hutchings. + +"I've heard something about it," said Mr. Manley, frowning, and he struck +a match. "Who set this absurd story going?" + +"William Roper, one of the under-gamekeepers, sir." + +"William Roper? Ah, I know--a ferret-faced young fellow." + +"Yes, sir. And we was thinking that her ladyship ought to know about it +so as she can put a stop to it at once, and you were the proper person to +tell her, sir," said James Hutchings. + +On the instant Mr. Manley saw himself discharging this unpleasant but +important duty with intelligence and tact, and he said readily: "I was +thinking of doing so, and now that I know the lying rascal's name I can +do it at once. The sooner this kind of thing is stopped the better." + +"Thank you, sir," said Hutchings, and with a sigh of relief he +left the room. + +He had reached the top of the stairs when the door of Mr. Manley's room +opened; he appeared on the threshold and said: "Will you send some one to +tell William Roper to be here at nine o'clock tonight? And it wouldn't be +a bad idea to drop a hint to any one you send that William Roper has got +himself into serious trouble." + +Mr. Manley thought quickly. + +"Very good, sir," said James Hutchings, and he hurried down the stairs. + +Mr. Manley did not see Olivia at once, for she was still in the pavilion +in the East wood. But as soon as she returned, he sent a message by +Holloway to her, that he wished to see her on important business. +Holloway brought word that she would see him at once. + +He found her in her sitting-room, gazing out of the window, and she +turned quickly at his entrance with inquiring eyes. + +"It's a rather unpleasant business, and the sooner it's dealt with the +better," said Mr. Manley in a brisk, businesslike voice. "One of the +under-gamekeepers has been spreading a scandalous and lying story about +you and Colonel Grey, something about his kissing you in the East wood on +the afternoon of Lord Loudwater's death, and he has gone on to suggest, +or assert--I don't know which--that you and Colonel Grey had a hand in +Lord Loudwater's death." + +The blow she had been expecting had fallen, and Olivia paled and her +mouth went dry. + +"Which of the under-gamekeepers is it?" she said calmly but with +difficulty, for her tongue kept sticking to the roof of her mouth. + +"A ferret-faced, rascally-looking fellow, called William Roper," said Mr. +Manley with some heat. Then, to save her the effort of speaking, he went +on: "Of course you'd like him discharged at once. The sooner these people +understand that their excitement about Lord Loudwater's death is not +going to be held an excuse for telling lying stories the better. You will +not be troubled by any more of them." + +Olivia looked at him with steady eyes. She had recovered herself and was +thinking hard. Mr. Manley's certainty about the right method of dealing +with the matter was catching. It was better to show a bold front and at +once. There was no time to consult Antony Grey. + +"Yes. You're quite right, Mr. Manley. Gentle measures are of no use with +this kind of scandal-monger. William Roper must be discharged at once," +she said quietly. + +"Perhaps you would like me to deal with him? It's rather a business for a +man," Mr. Manley suggested. + +"Yes, if you would," she said in a grateful tone. + +"I will, as soon as I can get hold of him," said Mr. Manley +cheerfully. "He'll make no more mischief about here," He went out of +the room briskly. + +His confidence was heartening. When the door closed behind him Olivia +sobbed twice in the reaction from the shock of his announcement. Then +she recovered herself and went quietly to her bath. She observed +Elizabeth's sympathetic manner as she dressed her hair. Evidently all +the servants as well as the villagers were talking about her. But for +its possible, dangerous consequences, she was indifferent to their talk. +She was now wholly absorbed in Grey; he was the only thing of any +importance in her life. + +Mr. Manley ate his dinner with an excellent appetite. He was pleased with +the brisk, almost brusque, manner in which he had dealt with the matter +of William Roper, in his interview with Olivia. If he had shilly-shallied +and hummed and hawed about the scandal, it would have been so much more +unpleasant for her. He thought, too, that his practical, common-sense +attitude to the business would probably help her to take it more easily, +and he was sure that he had advised the best measure to be taken with +William Roper. + +He was smoking a cigar in a great content, when at nine o'clock Holloway +brought him word that William Roper had come. Mr. Manley bade him bring +him to him at a quarter-past. He felt that suspense would make William +Roper malleable, and he intended to hammer him. At thirteen minutes past +nine he composed his face into a dour truculence, an expression to which +the heavy conformation of the lower part lent itself admirably. + +William Roper, looking uncommonly ill at ease, was ushered in by James +Hutchings himself, and the butler had improved the thirteen shining +minutes he had had with him by increasing to a considerable degree his +uneasiness and anxiety. + +Mr. Manley did not greet William Roper. He stood on the hearth-rug and +glowered at him with heavy truculence. William Roper shuffled his feet +and fumbled with his cap. + +Then Mr. Manley said: "Her ladyship has been informed that you have been +spreading scandalous reports in the village, and she has instructed me to +discharge you at once." He walked across to the table, took the sheet of +notepaper on which he had written the amount due to William Roper, dipped +a pen in the ink, and added: "Here are your wages up to date, and a +week's wages in lieu of notice. Sign this receipt." + +He dipped a pen in the ink and held it out to William Roper with very +much the air of Lady Macbeth presenting her husband with the dagger. + +William Roper was stupefied. Mr. Manley, truculent and dramatic, +cowed him. + +"I never done nothing, sir," he said feebly. + +"Sign--at once!" said Mr. Manley, gazing at him with the glare of +the basilisk. + +"I ain't agoing to sign. I ain't done nothing to be discharged. I ain't +said nothing but what I seed with my own eyes," William Roper protested. + +"Sign!" said Mr. Manley, tapping the receipt like an official in a spy +play. "Sign!" + +He was too much for William Roper. The conflict, such as it was, of wills +ceased abruptly. William Roper signed. + +Mr. Manley pushed the money towards him as towards a loathed pariah. +William Roper counted it, and put it in his pocket. He walked towards the +door with an air of stupefied dejection. + +"Also, you are to be off the estate by twelve o'clock tomorrow. Loudwater +is not the place for ungrateful and slanderous rogues," said Mr. Manley. + +William Roper stopped and turned; his face was working malignantly. + +"We'll see what Mr. Flexen's got to say about this," he snarled, went +through the door, and slammed it behind him. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + + +Olivia came that night to her tryst with Grey in a great dejection. She +perceived clearly enough that the instant discharge of William Roper +would not stop the scandal, and she was desperately afraid of the results +of it. The hope which had sprung up in her mind on reading in the _Daily +Wire_ the story of her husband's quarrel with an unknown woman died down. +This was a far more important matter, and she could not see how the +police could fail to act on William Roper's story. + +She found Grey waiting for her with his wonted impatience, and presently +told him about William Roper. + +"This is the very thing I've been fearing," he said with a sudden +heaviness. + +"It will certainly force Mr. Flexen's hand," she said. + +"I don't know--I don't know," he said more hopefully. "Flexen struck me +as being the kind of man to act just when it suited him, and I expect +that he had known all along anything William Roper had to tell." + +"Yes, he did. Twitcher told me that Roper had an interview with him on +the afternoon after Egbert's death," she said, catching a little of his +hopefulness. + +"Well, if he hasn't done anything about it so far, there's no reason why +he should act immediately the story becomes common property," he said in +a tone of relief. + +"No--no," she said slowly. Then she sobbed once and cried: "But, oh, this +waiting's so dreadful! Never knowing what's going to happen and +when--feeling that he's lying in wait all the time." + +"It is pretty awful," he said, drawing her more closely to him and +kissing her. + +She clung tightly to him, quivering. + +"The only thing to do is to stick it out, and when the time comes--if +it comes--put up a good fight. I think we shall," he said in a +cheering tone. + +"Of course we will," she said firmly, gave herself a little shake, and +relaxed her grip a little. + +He kissed her again, and they were silent a while, both of them +thinking hard. + +Then he said: "Look here: let's get married." + +"Get married?" she said. + +"Yes. The more we belong to one another the better we shall feel." + +"But--but won't there be rather an outcry at our marrying so +soon?" she said. + +"Oh, if people knew of it, yes. But I don't propose that they should. +We'll get married quite quietly. I'll get a special licence. The padre +of my regiment is in Town, and he'll marry us. I can find a couple of +witnesses who'll hold their tongues. We can get married in twenty-four +hours. Will you?" + +"Yes," she said firmly. + +His surprise at her ready assent was drowned in the joy it gave him. + +The next morning at half-past nine Mr. Manley rang up Mr. Flexen at his +office at Low Wycombe. + +When he heard his voice he said: "Good morning, Flexen. A young fellow of +the name of William Roper will be calling on you this morning. I expect +you know all he has to say already. But do you see anything to be gained +by his making a pestiferous, scandal-mongering nuisance of himself?" + +"I do not. I will say a few kind words to him," said Mr. Flexen grimly. + +Mr. Manley thanked him and rang off. Then he sent Hutchings down to the +village to let it be known that any one who let William Roper lodge in +his or her cottage would at once receive notice to quit it. He thought it +improbable, in view of the general unpleasantness of William Roper, that +he would be called on to carry out the threat. + +William Roper had already started to pay his visit to Mr. Flexen. Mr. +Flexen kept him dangling his heels in his office for three-quarters of an +hour before he saw him. This cold welcome allowed much of William +Roper's sense of his great importance in the district to ooze out of him. + +Mr. Flexen emptied him of the rest of it. He greeted him curtly, heard +his story with a deepening frown, and abused him at some length for a +babbling idiot, and sent him about his business. William Roper returned +to his mother's cottage to find that her only object in life was to get +him out of her cottage then and there. She had conceived the idea that +the whole affair was a plot to have a good excuse for giving her notice +to leave that cottage. She knew well that it was the opinion of all its +other inhabitants that the village would be much better without her and +that there were very good grounds for it. + +William Roper perceived with uncommon clearness the truth of Mr. Flexen's +assertion that he was a babbling idiot. His dream of outing William +Hutchings from the post of head-gamekeeper and filling it himself was for +ever shattered, and he had been the great man of the village for little +more than fourteen hours, ten of which he had spent in sleep. He cursed +the hour in which he had espied that luckless kiss, and too late +perceived the folly of a humble gamekeeper's meddling with the affairs of +those who own the game he keeps. + +The next morning Elizabeth observed that her mistress was another +creature, almost her old self indeed. The air of strain and oppression +had, for the time being at any rate, gone from her face. She moved with +her old alertness. She even smiled at Elizabeth's strictures on the +treacherous William Roper. + +After breakfast she bade Elizabeth pack a trunk for her, since she was +going to London that afternoon and would spend the night, perhaps two or +three days, there. Also, she chose, with frowning thoughtfulness and no +little changing of mind, the frocks she would take with her, and +discussed carefully with Elizabeth the changes necessary to give them a +sufficiently mourning character. + +Elizabeth was indeed pleased with the change in her mistress. She +ascribed it to the influence of Colonel Grey. + +In the afternoon Olivia went to London and drove from Paddington to +Grey's flat. She found him awaiting her with the most eager expectation. +He had bought the special licence; the chaplain of his regiment and a +wounded friend were coming at seven o'clock. After they were married, +they would all four dine together, and, later, he and she would return +to his flat. + +They had tea, and then he showed her some of the beautiful things, for +the most part ivory and jade, which were his most loved possessions. She +admitted frankly that she had to learn to appreciate and admire them as +they deserved. But she was sure that she would learn to do so. + +She found the flat of a somewhat spartan simplicity after Loudwater +Castle, Quainton Hall, and the houses to which she was used. But she also +found that it had been furnished with a keen regard for comfort. In +particular, she observed that the easy chairs, which were the chief +furniture of the sitting-room, were the most comfortable she had ever +taken her ease in. + +At seven o'clock the padre and Sir Charles Ross, Grey's wounded friend, +arrived. After they had talked for a few minutes, making Olivia's +acquaintance, the padre married them. Henderson, Grey's valet, a tall, +spare Scot with rugged features who in the course of his seven years' +service had acquired, in his manner and way of speaking, a curious and +striking likeness to his master, was the second witness. + +It was wholly characteristic of Olivia that she felt no slightest need of +the supporting presence of a woman. Yet, for all the unfamiliar +simplicity of the scene, the ceremony did not lack dignity, or +impressiveness. At the end of it Olivia felt herself very much more the +wife of Antony Grey than she had ever felt herself the wife of Lord +Loudwater. + +They dined in a private dining-room at the "Ritz," and Olivia found the +dinner delightful. The three men, after some desultory talk about common +friends and the ordinary London subjects, fell to talking about their +work and their fighting in France. She was most pleased by the evident +respect and admiration with which the other two regarded her husband. It +was a new experience for her to be married to a man for whom any one +showed respect. + +At a few minutes past ten she and Grey went home to his flat. They +preferred to walk. + +Olivia did not return to Loudwater for three days. Grey did not return +till the day after that. Then they again spent much of their time in the +pavilion in the East wood, and since Olivia was careful not to replace +William Roper, no one knew of their meetings. Every week they went to +London for two days. They lived in an absorption in one another which +left them little time to be troubled by fears of the danger which hung +over them. The scandal about them ran the usual nine days' course. Then, +since no new development of the Loudwater case arose to give it a fresh, +active life, it died down. + +About a fortnight after their marriage Mr. Manley retired from his post +of secretary and went to London. A few days later he married Helena +Truslove at the office of a registrar, and they established themselves in +a furnished flat at Clarence Gate, while they furnished a flat of their +own. Mr. Manley found himself, under the influence of domesticity, the +stimulation of life in London, and the society of the intelligent, +writing his new play with all the ease and vigour he had expected. + +Mr. Flexen was beginning, somewhat gloomily, to think it probable that +the problem of the death of Lord Loudwater would have to be set among +the unsolved problems which have at different times baffled the police. +Then, before he had quite lost hope, there came a letter from Mr. +Carrington. It ran: + +"Dear Mr. Flexen, + +"I received this morning a letter from Mrs. Marshall, of 3, Laburnum +Terrace, Low Wycombe, asking me, as the agent of the present Lord +Loudwater, to have some repairs made to the house in which she is his +lordship's tenant. We have never handled this property; we did not +even know that it belonged to the late Lord Loudwater. If you can find +the man who managed it for him, he may be able to give you the +information you want. + +"Yours faithfully, + +"C.R.W. CARRINGTON." + +In ten minutes Mr. Flexen was at 3, Laburnum Terrace; in a quarter of an +hour he had learned that Mrs. Marshall had paid her rent to Mr. Shepherd, +of 9, Bolton Street, Low Wycombe; in twenty minutes he had learned from +Mrs. Shepherd that her husband was in Mesopotamia, and that she had not +heard from him for two months. In half an hour from the time he read Mr. +Carrington's letter he was in the train on his way to London. To get in +touch with Captain Shepherd in that distant and backward land was a +matter for Scotland Yard. No acting Chief Constable would do so without +considerable delay. + +He drafted the telegram in consultation with one of the commissioners, +who himself set about the business of getting it through to Captain +Shepherd and receiving his answer to it. Then he returned to Low +Wycombe. Three days later came a letter from Scotland Yard to inform +him that Captain Shepherd was in an out-of-the-way district in the +north of Mesopotamia, and that there must be a delay of days before he +received the telegram and sent his answer to it. Mr. Flexen possessed +his soul in the patience of a man who was sure that he was going to get +what he wanted. + +A few days later, on a Saturday, his work took him to Loudwater, and he +called on Olivia. He found her a different creature. She had lost her air +of being under a strain, and save that her eyes were at first anxious, +she showed herself wholly at her ease with him. He came away assuring +himself that she was one of the most charming women he had ever met. He +took it that she still met Colonel Grey in the pavilion in the East wood, +and that after a decorous lapse of time they would marry. He thought +Colonel Grey uncommonly fortunate. + +Then he again wondered what had so perturbed them when he had been at +the Castle inquiring into the death of Lord Loudwater. What did they know +of the mystery? What part had they played in it? + +Soon after he had left her Olivia went to London to spend the week-end +with her husband. But she did not go in her wonted joyful mood. She tried +to thrust it out of her mind; but Mr. Flexen's visit had brought back her +old fear. Grey at once perceived that she was not in good spirits, and he +was a little alarmed. He had firmly kept his thought from the danger +which still hung over them. Now he caught from her something of her +uneasiness. But he would not yield to it, and by the end of dinner he +had, for the while at any rate, banished it from both their minds. + +Then when he awoke that night, quietly, at the turning hour, he heard +Olivia crying very softly. + +He put his arm round her and said seriously "What is it, darling? What's +the matter?" + +"Oh, why ever did you kill him?" she wailed. "He--he wasn't worth it. And +I'd have come to you without. And we might have been so happy!" + +Grey, with a start, sat bolt upright, and in a tone of the last +astonishment stammered: "K-K-Kill him? Me? B-B-But I thought you +k-k-killed him!" + +He had never been so taken aback in his life. + +Olivia sat bolt upright in her turn. + +"Me?" she said in an astonishment fully as great as his. "No, I didn't." + +Then with one accord they clung to one another and laughed tremulously in +an immeasurable relief. + +Then Olivia said: "And you didn't mind? You married me when you actually +thought I'd murdered Egbert?" + +"Oh, Egbert!" said Grey in a tone of contempt which placed the late Lord +Loudwater definitely as a person the murder of whom was neither here nor +there. Then he added: "But, hang it all! You married me when you actually +thought I'd murdered him." + +"I thought you did it for my sake," said Olivia. + +"I thought you did it for mine--to get me out of a mess. Though I'll be +shot if I believe I should have cared if you'd done it entirely on your +own account. Not that you could." + +"Oh, Antony, how very fond of one another we must be!" said Olivia in a +hushed voice. + +It was after breakfast next morning that Olivia, who stood before the +window, smoking a cigarette and watching the passers-by, turned and said: +"But if neither you nor I murdered Egbert, who did?" + +"The mysterious woman, I suppose," said Grey, with very little show of +interest in the matter. + +"But I never believed that there was any mysterious woman, I thought the +papers invented her," said Olivia. + +"So did I," said Grey. "But it's beginning to look to me as if there +might have been one." + +"I wonder who she can be?" said Olivia. + +"A barmaid, I should think," said Grey, in a tone which placed definitely +the late Lord Loudwater as a lover. + +"You certainly do dislike Egbert," said Olivia, in a dispassionate tone +of one stating a natural fact of little importance. + +"I do," said Grey. + +"It's odd how little I remember him," said Olivia thoughtfully. "But then +I was always trying to forget him unless he was actually in the room with +me. And then I was always trying not to see him." + +"I remember the way he treated you," said Grey sternly. + +Olivia smiled at him. + +"I hope to goodness the police never do find that wretched woman!" he +said. + +Olivia frowned thoughtfully. Then she smiled again. + +"I don't think it would be much use if they did," she said. "I told Mr. +Flexen that I heard Egbert snoring about twelve o'clock. I didn't; but I +thought that as you went away about half-past eleven, it would make it +safer for you. I could always stick to it, if we thought it right." + +"And I told Flexen that I didn't hear him snoring at about half-past +eleven, and I did. I thought it would make it safer for you." + +"Well, we are--" said Olivia, and she laughed. + +Then of a sudden her eyes sparkled and she cried: "But if you heard him +snore at half-past eleven that lets the mysterious woman out. She went +away at a quarter-past." + +"By Jove! so it does," said Grey. + +Three days later, driving back in the evening from Rickmansworth to Low +Wycombe, Mr. Flexen passed Grey on his way home from an afternoon's +fishing. He stopped the car, and as Grey came up to it he perceived that +he was looking uncommonly well, though his limp appeared to be as bad as +ever. He was not only looking well, he was also looking happy, wholly +free from care. + +They greeted one another and Mr. Flexen said: "By Jove! you are +looking fit!" + +"Yes, I'm all right again," said Grey. Then he frowned and added: "But +the nuisance of it is that I shall always have this confounded limp." + +"You get off more lightly than a good many men I know," said +Flexen sadly. + +"Yes. I'm not grousing much," said Grey. + +There came a pause, and then Grey said: "I've been rather hoping to come +across you. When you questioned me about my doings on the night of +Loudwater's death, you asked me whether I heard him snore as I went +through the library, going in and out of the Castle, and for reasons +which seemed quite good to me at the time I told you I didn't. As a +matter of fact, he was snoring like a pig when I came out." + +Mr. Flexen looked at him hard, thinking quickly. Then he said softly: "My +goodness! That would be half-past eleven!" + +"Close on it," said Grey. + +"Well as a matter of fact, I didn't believe you," said Mr. Flexen +frankly. "In my business, you know, one acquires a very good ear for +the truth." + +Grey laughed cheerfully and said: "I expect you do." + +"All the same, I'm glad to have it for certain," said Mr. Flexen, smiling +at him. "Well, I must be getting on; let me give you a lift as far as +Loudwater." + +Grey thanked him and stepped into the car. + +When he had set him down, Mr. Flexen drove on in frowning thought. +Colonel Grey was speaking the truth, and in that case neither James +Hutchings nor the mysterious woman had committed the murder, unless they +had deliberately returned for the purpose. He did not believe that James +Hutchings had returned; he thought it improbable that the mysterious +woman had returned. + +Even more important was the fact that this admission of Colonel Grey +assured him that neither he nor Lady Loudwater had committed the murder. +Grey had evidently lied to shield her. He had no less evidently learned +that she did not need shielding. That admission had not at all simplified +the problem. + +The next morning Scotland Yard telegraphed to him the reply to its cable +to Captain Shepherd. It ran: + +_Loudwater allowed Mrs. Helena Truslove Crest Loudwater six hundred a +year and gave her Crest_. + +He had the mysterious woman at last! + +He drove over to the Crest at once and learned from the caretaker that +Mrs. Truslove was now living in London in a flat at Clarence Gate. He +could not get away from his work till the afternoon, and it was past +half-past four when he knocked at the door of her flat. + +The maid led him down the passage, opened the door on the right, and +announced him. + +Helena was sitting beside a table on which afternoon tea for two was set. +She looked surprised to hear his name. + +"Mrs. Truslove?" he said. + +"I was Mrs. Truslove," she said, rising and holding out her hand. "But +now I am Mrs. Manley. You know my husband. He will be so pleased to see +you again. I'm expecting him every minute." + +Mr. Flexen was for a moment conscious of a slight sensation of vertigo. +The mysterious woman was the wife of Herbert Manley! + +He could not at once see the bearings of this fact, but ideas, fancies +and suspicions raced one another through his head. + +He checked them and said in a somewhat toneless voice: "I shall be +delighted to see him again. Have you been married long?" + +"Rather more than a fortnight." said Helena. "But do sit down. My husband +will be so pleased to see you again. He has a great admiration for you." + +Mr. Flexen sat down and unconsciously stared hard at her. Ideas were +jostling one another in his head. + +"We won't wait for him. I'll have the tea made at once," she said, +bending forward to press the bell-button. + +"One moment, please," he said in his crispest, most official voice. "I've +come to see you on a very important matter." + +"Oh?" she said quickly, frowning. Then she looked at him with +steady eyes. + +"Yes. You know that I am investigating the Loudwater case, and I have +received information that you are the mysterious lady who visited Lord +Loudwater on the night of his death and had a violent quarrel with him." + +"We began by quarrelling," she said quietly. + +"_Began_ by quarrelling?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes. I'd better tell you the whole story, and you'll understand," she +said in a matter-of-fact voice. "Rather more than two years ago I was +engaged to be married to Lord Loudwater. He broke off our engagement and +married Miss Quainton. I was not going to stand that, and I was going to +bring a breach of promise action against him. He didn't want that, of +course. It would most likely have stopped his marrying Miss Quainton. So +he agreed to make over the Crest, my house just beyond Loudwater, to me, +and pay me an allowance of six hundred a year." + +"This was two years ago?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Yes," said Helena. "But stupidly, though I had the house properly made +over to me, I didn't have a deed about the allowance. And a few days +before he committed suicide--" + +"Committed suicide?" Mr. Flexen interrupted. + +"Of course he committed suicide. Didn't Dr. Thornhill say that the wound +might have been self-inflicted? Besides, poor Egbert had a most +frightful temper." + +"But why should he commit suicide?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"He may have been upset about Lady Loudwater and Colonel Grey. Why, I'm +quite sure that it would drive him mad--absolutely mad for the time +being. I know him well enough to be sure of that." + +"Yes--yes," said Mr. Flexen slowly. "It's a tenable theory, doubtless. +But about your quarrel with him." + +"A few days before he died he talked about halving my allowance. And, of +course, I was frightfully annoyed about it. I wanted to have it out with +him--I meant to--but I knew that he'd never let me get near him, if he +could help it. But I knew, too, that he sat in the smoking-room every +evening after dinner, and generally went to sleep. You know everything +about every one in the country, you know. And I determined to take him by +surprise, and I did. We did have a row, for I was frightfully angry. It +seemed so mean. But he stopped it by telling me that he had instructed +his bankers--we have the same bankers--to pay twelve thousand pounds into +my account instead of allowing me six hundred a year." + +There was just the faintest change in her voice as she spoke the last +sentence, and it did not escape Mr. Flexen's sensitive ear. He thought +that the whole story had been rehearsed; it sounded so. But she spoke the +last sentence just a little more quickly. The rest of the story rang +true, or, at any rate, truer. + +"Twelve thousand pounds," he said slowly. "And did Lord Loudwater tell +you when he instructed his bankers?" + +"No. But it must have been that very day. The letter must have been in +the post, in fact, for two mornings later I received a letter from the +bank telling me that they had credited me with that amount--the morning +after the inquest, I think it was." + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen, and he paused, considering the story. Then he +said: "And were you surprised at all at his doing this?" + +"Yes, I was," she said frankly. "It didn't seem like him. But since I've +wondered whether he had made up his mind to commit suicide and wished to +leave things quite straight." + +It was a plausible theory, but Mr. Flexen did not believe that Lord +Loudwater had committed suicide. + +"I suppose that your husband knows all about it?" he said at random. + +"He may, and he may not. He hasn't said anything to me about it," she +said. + +"Then we may take it that he did not write the letter of instruction to +the bankers," said Mr. Flexen. + +Oh, he might have done and still have said nothing about it. He has a +very sensitive delicacy and might have thought it my business and not +his. I haven't told him about the twelve thousand pounds yet. I don't +bother him about business matters. In fact, I'm going to manage his +business as well as my own." + +"And he didn't know about the allowance?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"Oh, yes, he did. I told him all about that," said Helena quickly. + +Mr. Flexen paused, considering. He seemed to have learnt from her all she +had to tell. + +There came the sound of the opening of the door of the flat and of steps +in the hall. Then the door of the room opened, and Mr. Manley came in. +Mr. Flexen's eyes swept over him. He was looking cheerful, prosperous, +and rather sleek. His air had grown even more important and assured. + +He greeted Mr. Flexen warmly and beamed on him. Then he demanded tea. But +Mr. Flexen rose, declared that he must be going, and in spite of Mr. +Manley's protests went. It had flashed on him that he might just catch +Mr. Carrington at his office. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + + +Mr. Flexen did find Mr. Carrington at his office, and Mr. Carrington's +first words were: + +"Well, have you found the mysterious woman?" + +"I've found the mysterious woman, and she's now Mrs. Herbert Manley," +said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Carrington stared at him, then he said softly: "Well, I'm damned!" + +"It does explain several things," said Mr. Flexen dryly. "We know now why +she was so hard to find--why there was no trace of her relations with +Lord Loudwater, no trace of Shepherd's managing the Low Wycombe property +among his papers, why there were no pass-books." + +Mr. Carrington flushed and said: "The young scoundrel had us on toast all +the while." + +"Toast is the word," said Mr. Flexen. + +"I never did like the beggar. I couldn't stand his infernal manner. But +it never occurred to me that he was a bad hat. I merely thought him a +pretentious young ass who didn't know his place," said Mr. Carrington. + +"I'm not so sure about the ass," said Mr. Flexen. + +"No--perhaps not. He certainly brought it off for a time, and shielded +her as long as it lasted," said Mr. Carrington slowly. + +"She didn't need any shielding," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Do you mean to tell me that she didn't murder Loudwater?" + +"She did not. You don't murder a man who has just given you twelve +thousand pounds," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Twelve thousand pounds?" said Mr. Carrington slowly. Then he started +from his chair and almost howled: "Are you telling me that Lord Loudwater +gave this woman twelve thousand pounds! He never gave any one twelve +thousand pounds! He never gave any one a thousand pounds! He never gave +any one fifty pounds! He couldn't have done it! Never in his life!" + +His voice rose in a fine crescendo. + +"Well, perhaps it was hardly a gift," said Mr. Flexen, and he told him +Helena's story. + +At the end of it Mr. Carrington said with dogged, sullen conviction: "I +don't care, I don't believe it. Lord Loudwater couldn't have done it." + +"But there's the letter from her bankers," said Mr. Flexen. "And I +suppose you can trace the twelve thousand pounds." + +Mr. Carrington started and said sharply: "Why, that must be where the +rubber shares went to." + +"What rubber shares?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"We can't lay our hands on a block of rubber shares Lord Loudwater owned. +The certificate isn't among his scrip--he kept all his scrip at the +Castle--he wouldn't keep it at his bank. Those rubber shares were worth +just about twelve thousand pounds." + +"Well, there you are," said Mr. Flexen. + +"No, I'm not, I tell you I don't believe in that gift--not even in the +circumstances. Lord Loudwater would a thousand times rather have gone on +paying the allowance--as little of it as he could. There's something +fishy--very fishy--about it, I tell you," said Mr. Carrington vehemently. + +"And where did the fishiness come in?" said Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Carrington was silent, frowning. Then he said: "I'll--I'll be hanged +if I can see." + +Mr. Flexen rose sharply and said: "There's only one point in the affair +where it could have come in as far as I can see. I should like to examine +Lord Loudwater's letter of instruction to his bankers." + +"By George! You've got it," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Well, can we get a look at it?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"We can. Harrison, the manager, will stretch a point for me. He knows +that I'm quite safe. Come along," said Mr. Carrington. + +"At this hour? The bank's been closed this two hours," said Flexen. + +"He'll be there. It's years since he got away before seven," said Mr. +Carrington confidently. + +He told a clerk to telephone to the bank that he was coming. They found a +taxicab quickly, drove to the bank, entered it by the side door, and were +taken straight to Mr. Harrison. + +He made no bones about showing them Lord Loudwater's letter of +instructions with regard to the twelve thousand pounds. Mr. Carrington +and Mr. Flexen read it together. It was quite short, and ran: + +"GENTLEMEN, + +"I shall be much obliged by your paying the enclosed cheque from Messrs. +Hanbury and Johnson for £12,046 into the account of Mrs. Helena Truslove. + +"Yours faithfully, + +"LOUDWATER." + +"Rather a curt way of disposing of such a large sum," said Mr. Flexen, +taking the letter and going to the window. + +"It was the way Lord Loudwater did things," said Mr. Harrison. + +"Yes, yes; I know," said Mr. Carrington. "Some things." + +They both looked at Mr. Flexen, who was examining the letter through a +magnifying glass. + +He studied it for a good two minutes, turned to them with a quiet smile +of triumph on his face and said: "I've never seen Lord Loudwater's +signature. But this is a forgery." + +"A forgery?" said the manager sharply, stepping quickly towards Mr. +Flexen with outstretched hand. + +"I'm not surprised to hear it," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Well, the signature is not written with the natural ease with which a +man signs his name," said Mr. Flexen, giving the letter to Mr. Harrison. + +Mr. Harrison studied it carefully. Then he pressed a button on his desk +and bade the clerk who came bring all the letters they had received +from Lord Loudwater during the last three months of his life and bring +them quickly. + +Then he turned to Mr. Flexen and said stiffly: "I'm bound to say that the +signature looks perfectly right to me." + +"I've no doubt that it's a good forgery. It was done by a very clever +man," said Mr. Flexen. + +"A first-class young scoundrel," Mr. Carrington amended. + +"We shall soon see," said Mr. Harrison, politely incredulous. + +The clerk came with the letters. There were eight of them, all written +by Mr. Manley and signed by Lord Loudwater. + +The manager compared the signatures of every one of them with the +signature in question, using a magnifying glass which lay on his desk. + +Then, triumphant in his turn, he said curtly: "It's no forgery." + +"Allow me," said Mr. Flexen, and in his turn he compared the signatures, +again every one of them. + +Then he said: "As I said, it's an uncommonly good forgery. You see that +the bodies of the letters are all written with the same pen, a +gold-nibbed fountain-pen; the signatures are written with a steel nib. It +cuts deeper into the paper, and the ink doesn't flow off it so evenly. +The forged signature is written with the same kind of nib as the genuine +ones. Also, the bodies of the letters are written in a fountain-pen +ink--the 'Swan,' I think. The signatures are written in Stephens' +blue-black ink. The forged signature is also written in Stephens' +blue-black ink. No error there, you see." + +"You seem to know a good deal about these things," said Mr. Harrison, +rather tartly. + +"Yes. I've been a partner in Punchard's Agency--you know it; we've done +some work for you--for the last two years. I didn't need this kind of +knowledge for my work in India. I only made a special study of forgery +after joining the agency. A private inquiry agency gets such a lot of +it," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Well, and if there's an error in these details, where is it? It's not in +the signature itself," said Mr. Harrison. + +"Indeed, it is," said Mr. Flexen. "It's an uncommonly good signature too. +The 'Loud' is perfect. But the 'water' gives it away. The forger had +evidently practised it a lot. In fact, he wrote the 'Loud' straight off. +But the 'water' has no less than five distinct pauses in it--under the +microscope, of course--where he paused to think, or perhaps to look at a +genuine signature, the endorsement on the cheque very likely." + +Mr. Harrison sniffed ever so faintly, and said: "Of course, I've had +experience of handwriting experts--not very much, thank goodness!--and +you differ among yourselves so. It's any odds that another expert will +find those pauses in quite different places from you, or even no +pauses at all." + +Mr. Flexen laughed gently and said: "Perhaps. But he ought not to." + +"There you are. And when it comes to a jury," said Mr. Harrison, and he +threw out his hands. "Besides, if you got your experts to agree, you'd +have to show a very strong motive." + +"Oh, we've got that--we've got that," said Mr. Carrington with +conviction. + +"Well, of course that will make it easier for you to get the jury to +believe your handwriting experts rather than those of the other side," +said Mr. Harrison, without any enthusiasm. Then he added, with rather +more cheerfulness: "But you never can tell with a jury." + +"No; that's true," said Mr. Flexen quickly. "I'm sure we're very much +obliged to you for showing us the letter." + +There was nothing more to be done at the bank, and having again thanked +Mr. Harrison, they took their leave of him. He showed no great cordiality +in his leave-taking, he was looking at the matter from the point of view +of the bank. The bank preferred to detect forgeries itself--in time. + +As they came into the street, Mr. Carrington rubbed his hands together +and said in a tone of deep satisfaction: "And now for the warrant." + +"Warrant for whom?" said Mr. Flexen in a tone of polite inquiry. + +"Manley. The sooner that young scoundrel is in gaol the better I shall +feel," said Mr. Carrington. + +"So should I," said Mr. Flexen. "But I'm very much afraid that for Mr. +Manley it's a far cry to Holloway. We have no case against him +whatever--not a scrap of a case that I can see." + +"Hang it all! It's as plain as a pikestaff! He's engaged to this +woman--this Mrs. Truslove--who has a nice little income. He hears that +her income is to be halved; and we know that if an allowance begins by +being halved, as likely as not it will be stopped altogether before long. +He saw that clearly enough. Then in the very nick of time this cheque +comes along. He sends it to the bank with this letter of instructions, +and murders Lord Loudwater so that he cannot disavow them. What more of a +case do you want?" + +"I don't want a better case. I only want some evidence. It's true enough +that Mrs. Manley told me that she told Manley that Lord Loudwater +proposed to halve her allowance. But where's the evidence that she talked +to him about it? She'd deny it if you put her into the witness-box, and +you can't put her into the witness-box." + +"Husband and wife, by Jove! Oh, the clever young scoundrel!" cried Mr. +Carrington. + +"And that halving of the allowance is the beginning of the whole +business. Manley had made up his mind to marry a lady with a fixed +income--indeed, they were probably already engaged. Loudwater upsets the +arrangement. Manley restores the _status quo_ by means of this cheque and +the murder of Loudwater. Of course, he hated Loudwater--he admitted as +much to me--more than once. But if Loudwater had played fair about that +allowance, he'd be alive now. Having established the _status quo,_ Manley +promptly marries the lady, and closes the mouth of the only person who +can bear witness that the allowance was in danger and he had any motive +for murdering Loudwater." + +Mr. Carrington ground his teeth and murmured: "The infernal young +scoundrel!" Then he broke out violently: "But we're not beaten yet. Now +that we know for a fact that he murdered Loudwater and why, there must be +some way of getting at him." + +"I very much doubt it," said Flexen sadly. "He's an uncommonly able +fellow. I don't believe that he's taken a chance. He wears a glove and +leaves the knife in the wound, so that there are no bloodstains. And +consider the cheque. The bank wouldn't have honoured Loudwater's own +cheque, the cheque of a dead man, but the stock-broker's cheque goes +through as a matter of course." + +"Of course," said Mr. Carrington. + +"And he has kept the business so entirely in his own hands. If we had run +in any one else, he'd have come forward and sworn that he heard Loudwater +snore after Roper had seen that person leave the Castle. I'm beginning to +think that he's one of the most able murderers I ever heard of. I +certainly never came across one in my own experience who was a patch on +him," said Mr. Flexen. + +"Don't be in such a hurry to lose hope. There must be some way of getting +at him--there must be," said Mr. Carrington obstinately. + +"I'm glad to hear it," said Mr. Flexen in a tone of utter scepticism. + +They walked on, Mr. Flexen reflecting on Mr. Manley's ability, Mr. +Carrington cudgelling his brains for a method of bringing his crime home +to him. At the door of his office Mr. Flexen held out his hand. + +"Come along in. I've got an idea," said Mr. Carrington. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + + +Mr. Flexen shrugged his shoulders with a sceptical air. He had not formed +a high opinion of Mr. Carrington's intelligence. However, he followed him +into his office and sat down, ready to give him his best attention. + +Mr. Carrington wore a really hopeful expression, and he said: "My idea is +that we should get at Manley through Mrs. Manley." + +"I'm not at all keen on getting at a man through his wife," said Mr. +Flexen rather dolefully. "But in this case it's manifestly our duty to +leave nothing untried. Murder for money is murder for money." + +"I should think it _was_ our duty!" cried Mr. Carrington with emphasis. + +"And there are three innocent people under suspicion of having committed +the murder. Fire away. How is it to be done?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"The new Lord Loudwater must bring an action against Mrs. Manley for the +return of that twelve thousand pounds on the ground that it was obtained +from the late Lord Loudwater by fraud--as it certainly was," said Mr. +Carrington, leaning forward with shining eyes and speaking very +distinctly. + +"I see," said Mr. Flexen. But his expression was not hopeful. + +"Once we get her in the witness-box we establish the fact that Lord +Loudwater had made up his mind to halve her allowance, for she'll have to +give the reason for her visiting him so late that night; and so we get +Manley's motive for committing the murder also established." + +"I see. But will you be able to use her evidence in the first trial at +the second?" said Mr. Flexen doubtfully. + +"That's the idea," said Mr. Carrington triumphantly. + +"You think it can be worked?" + +"We can have a jolly good try at it," said Mr. Carrington, rubbing his +hands together, and his square, massive face was rather malignant in +its triumph. + +Mr. Flexen did not look triumphant, or even hopeful. + +"But will you get the new Lord Loudwater to bring this action?" he said. + +"Why, of course. There's the money for one thing, and when he sees how +important it is from the point of view of getting at Manley, he can't +refuse," said Mr. Carrington confidently. + +"There isn't the money--not necessarily. He might get back the twelve +thousand pounds and have to pay Mrs. Manley six hundred a year for forty +or fifty years. She's a healthy-looking woman," said Mr. Flexen. "I take +it that the late Lord Loudwater had property of his own against which she +could claim." + +"Oh, of course, she could do that," said Mr. Carrington, and there was +some diminution of the triumphant expression. + +"She would," said Mr. Flexen. "Then you'll have to get over his objection +to incurring a considerable amount of odium. It will look bad for a man +of his wealth to try to recover from a lady a sum of money to which every +one will consider her entitled." + +"Oh, but it was obtained by fraud," said Mr. Carrington. + +"If you were sure of proving that, it would make a difference in the way +people would regard it. But you're not sure of proving it--not by a long +chalk. And you can't assure your client that you are. There'll be a lot +of conflicting evidence about that signature, as Harrison pretty clearly +showed. If you don't prove it, your client will be landed with the costs +of the case and incur still greater odium." + +"Ah, but he is bound to take the risk to bring his cousin's murderer to +justice," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Is he?" said Flexen dryly. "What kind of terms was he on with his +murdered cousin?" + +"Well, I must say I didn't expect you to ask that question," said Mr. +Carrington pettishly. "What kind of terms was the late Lord Loudwater +likely to be on with his heir? They hated one another like poison." + +"I thought as much," said Mr. Flexen. "And what kind of a man is the new +man--anything like his dead cousin?" + +"Oh, well, all the Loudwaters are pretty much of a muchness. But the +present man is a better man all round--better manners and better +brains," said Mr. Carrington. + +"Better brains, and you think he'll be willing to celebrate his +succession to the peerage by a first-class scandal of this kind, a +scandal which may bring him this money, but which will certainly bring +odium on him?" said Mr. Flexen. + +"When it's a case of bringing a murderer to justice," said Mr. Carrington +obstinately. + +"The murderer of a man he hated like poison? I should think that he'd +want to see his way pretty clear. And it isn't clear--not by any means. +For there's precious little chance of Mrs. Manley's giving Lord +Loudwater's threat to halve her allowance as the reason of her visit to +him that night. In fact, there's no chance at all. Manley will see to +that. Once attack the genuineness of that signature, and you open his +eyes to his danger. She'll come into the witness-box with quite another +reason for that visit, and a good reason too. Manley will find it for +her," said Mr. Flexen with conviction. "But there's the quarrel. She +can't get over that quarrel," said Mr. Carrington stubbornly. + +"She'll deny the quarrel. It's only Mrs. Carruthers' word against hers. +Besides, Mrs. Carruthers heard what she did hear through a closed door. +It will be so easy to make out that she made a mistake." + +"You seem to take it for granted that Mrs. Manley will commit perjury at +that young scoundrel's bidding," snapped Mr. Carrington. + +"I take it for granted that she'll be a woman fighting to save her +husband. And I'm also sure that there'll be precious few mistakes in +tactics made in the fight. I think that all you'll get out of the trial +will be a strong presumption that Lord Loudwater committed suicide. I'd +bet that that is the line Manley will take. And she'll make a thundering +good witness for him. She's a good-looking woman, with plenty of +intelligence." + +Mr. Carrington gazed at him with unhappy eyes. His square, massive face +had lost utterly its expression of triumph. + +"But hang it all!" he cried. "What are we going to do? Knowing what we +know, we can't sit still and do nothing." + +"I can't see _anything_ we can do," said Mr. Flexen frankly, and he rose. +"You have demonstrated that Manley's position is impregnable." + +He took his leave of the dejected lawyer. + +Outside Mr. Carrington's office he stood still, hesitating. He could have +caught a train back to Low Wycombe, but he could not bring himself to +take it. He could not at once tear himself away from London and Mr. +Manley. He must sleep on the new facts in the Loudwater case. He went to +his club, engaged a bedroom, and dined there. + +Mr. and Mrs. Manley dined at their flat. Mr. Manley talked during dinner +with elegance and vivacity. The maid brought in the coffee and went back +to the kitchen. + +As he lighted his wife's cigarette, Mr. Manley said in a careless tone: +"What did Flexen want to see you about?" + +Helena gave him a full account of her interview with Mr. Flexen, his +questions and her answers. + +"I guessed that you were the _Daily Wire's_ mysterious woman," he said. +"I saw how frightened you were when it came out. But, of course, as you +didn't say anything about it, I didn't." + +"That is so like you," she murmured. + +"One human being should never intrude on another," said Mr. Manley with a +noble air. + +"It might be your motto," she said, looking at him with admiring eyes. +She paused; then she added: "And I was frightened--horribly frightened. I +couldn't sleep. I was going to tell you about it, but I didn't like to. +You gave me no opening. Then the letter came from my bankers--about the +twelve thousand pounds--and it made it all right. It made it clear that I +had no reason to murder Loudwater." + +"Of course," said Mr. Manley. "But in the event of any new +developments, I should not admit that Lord Loudwater talked of halving +your allowance, or that you quarrelled with him. In fact, I shouldn't +let Flexen interview you again at all. In an affair of this kind you +can't be ton careful." + +"I won't let him interview me again," said Helena with decision. + +Mr. Flexen did not try to interview her again. But at eleven the next +morning he called on Mr. Manley. He had very little hope of effecting +anything by the call, though he meant to try. But he had the keenest +desire to scrutinize him again and carefully in the light of the new +facts he had discovered. + +Mr. Manley kept him waiting awhile in the drawing-room; then the maid +ushered him into Mr. Manley's study. Mr. Manley was sitting at a +table, at work on his play. He greeted Mr. Flexen with a rather +absent-minded air. + +Mr. Flexen surveyed him with very intent, measuring eyes. At once he +perceived that he had rather missed Mr. Manley's jaw in giving attention +to his admirable forehead. It was, indeed, the jaw of a brute. He could +see him drive the knife into Lord Loudwater, and walk out of the +smoking-room with an ugly, contented smile on his face. + +He had little hopes of bringing off anything in the nature of a bluff; +but he said, in a rasping tone: "We've discovered that the signature of +Lord Loudwater's letter of instructions to his bankers to pay that cheque +for twelve thousand pounds into your wife's account was forged." + +Mr. Manley looked at him blankly for a moment. There was no expression at +all on his face. Then it filled slowly with an expression of surprise. + +"Rehearsed, by Jove!" murmured Mr. Flexen under his breath, and he could +not help admiring the skilful management of that expression of surprise. +It was so unhasty and natural. + +"My dear fellow, what on earth are you driving at? I saw him write it +myself," said Mr. Manley in an indulgent tone. + +"You forged it," snapped Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley looked at him with a new surprise which changed slowly to +pity. Then he said in such a tone as one might use to an unreasonable +child: "My good chap, what on earth should I forge it _for?_" + +"You knew that he was going to halve Mrs. Truslove's allowance. You were +bent on marrying a woman with money. You took this way of ensuring that +she had money, forged the letter, and murdered Lord Loudwater," said Mr. +Flexen on a rising inflexion. + +"By Jove! I see what you're after. It shows how infernally silly a +schoolboy joke can be! Lord Loudwater never talked of halving my wife's +allowance. That was an invention of mine. I told her that he was doing so +just to tease her," said Mr. Manley firmly, with a note of contrition in +his voice. + +Mr. Flexen opened his mouth a little way. It was a superb invention. It +left Mrs. Manley free to go into the witness-box to tell the story she +had told him. It knocked the bottom clean out of Carrington's case. + +"What really happened was that Lord Loudwater was grousing about the +allowance--at being reminded every six months that he had behaved like a +cad. I suggested that he should pay her a lump sum and be done with the +business. He jumped at the idea. The cheque had come from his +stockbrokers that morning; he directed me to write that letter of +instructions to his bankers; I wrote it, and he signed it. There you have +the whole business." + +"I don't believe a word of it!" cried Mr. Flexen. + +Mr. Manley rose with an air of great dignity and said: "My good chap, I +can excuse your temper. It was an ingenious theory, and it must be very +annoying to have it upset. But I'm fed up with this Loudwater business. +I've got here"--he tapped the manuscript on the table--"a drama worth +fifty of it. Out of working hours I don't mind talking that affair over +with you; in them I won't." + +Mr. Flexen rose and said: "You're undoubtedly the most accomplished +scoundrel I've ever come across." + +"If you will have it so," said Mr. Manley patiently. Then he smiled and +added: "Praise from an expert--" + +They turned to see Mrs. Manley standing in the doorway, her lips parted, +her eyes dilated in a growing consternation. + +She stepped forward. Mr. Flexen slipped round her and fairly fled. + +She looked at Mr. Manley with horror-stricken eyes and said: "What--what +did he mean, Herbert?" + +"He meant what he said. But what it really means is that I won't let him +hang that wretched James Hutchings," said Mr. Manley with a noble air. + + * * * * * + +Three months later, on the first night of Mr. Manley's play, Colonel +Grey came upon Mr. Flexen in the lounge of the Haymarket, between the +second and third acts. Both of them praised the play warmly, and there +came a pause. + +Then Colonel Grey said: "I suppose you've given up all hope of solving +the problem of Loudwater's death." + +"Oh, I solved it three months ago. It was Manley," said Mr. Flexen. + +"By Jove!" said Colonel Grey softly. + +"Not a doubt of it. I'll tell you all about it one of these days," +said Mr. Flexen, for the bell rang to warn them that the third act was +about to begin. + +In the corridor Colonel Grey said: "Queer that he should have dropped +down dead in the street a week before this success." + +"Well, he was discharged from the Army for having a bad heart. But it is +a bit queer," said Mr. Flexen. + +"The mills of God," said Colonel Grey. + +"Looks like it," said Mr. Flexen. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Loudwater Mystery, by Edgar Jepson + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LOUDWATER MYSTERY *** + +This file should be named 8loud10.txt or 8loud10.zip +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, 8loud11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, 8loud10a.txt + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Mary Meehan +and PG Distributed Proofreaders + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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