“will you come to some place where we can have a talk?”
“yes. where shall we go?”
her eyes met his frankly, as she replied, and marsland as he looked at her was impressed with her beauty and the self-possession of her manner. she was young, younger than he had thought on the night of the storm—not more than twenty-two or twenty-three at the most—and as she stood there, with the bright autumn sunshine revealing the fresh beauty of her face and the slim grace of her figure, she made a striking picture of dainty english girlhood, to whom the sordid and tragic sides of life ought to be a sealed book. but marsland’s mind, as he glanced at her, travelled back to his first meeting with her in the lonely farm-house where they had found the body of the murdered man on the night of the storm.
he led her to one of the numerous tea-rooms on the front, choosing one which was nearly empty, his object being to have a quiet talk with her. since the eventful night on which he had walked home with her after they had discovered the dead body of the owner of cliff farm, several important points had arisen on which he desired to enlighten her, and others on which he desired to be enlightened by her.
“i thought of writing to you,” he said after he had found seats for his companion and himself in a quiet corner of the large tea-room and had given an order to the waitress. “but i came to the conclusion that it was unwise—that you might not like it.”
he found it difficult to strike a satisfactory balance in his attitude to her. on the one hand, it was impossible to be distant and formal in view of the fact that they were united in keeping from the police the secret of her presence at cliff farm on the night of the murder; on the other hand, he did not wish to adopt a tone of friendly familiarity based on his knowledge that she had something to hide. when he studied her from the young man’s point of view as merely an attractive member of the opposite sex he felt that she was a charming girl whose affection any one might be proud to win, but his security against her charms was the feeling of distrust that any one so good-looking should have anything to hide. he had no sentimental illusion that she would confide her secret to him.
she waited for him to continue the conversation, and pretended to be engaged in glancing round the room, but from time to time she gave him a quick glance from beneath her long lashes.
“what i wanted to tell you most of all is that, when i went back to cliff farm the next day, the detective from scotland yard found a comb on the floor of the sitting-room downstairs where we sat after you let me in.”
“a comb!” she cried. “what sort of a comb?”
“a tortoise-shell comb about three inches long, with a gold mounting.”
“that is strange,” she said. “it was found on the floor?”
“close to the chair where you stood.”
“do they know whom it belongs to?”
“no, fortunately. but they are very anxious to find out. naturally they think it points to the conclusion that there is a woman in the case.”
“of course they would think that,” she said.
“do you think any one in ashlingsea could identify it as yours?” he asked. “have you had it any length of time?”
“it was not mine,” she declared. “i did not lose a comb.”
“not yours?” he exclaimed in astonishment.
“i am trying to think to whom it belonged,” she said meditatively. “as far as i know, lady visitors at cliff farm were few. and yet it could not be mrs. bond—the woman who went there to tidy up the place once a week—you say it was gold mounted?”
“rather an expensive looking comb, i thought,” said the young man.
“yes; it looks as if there was a woman in the case.”
the arrival of the waitress with the tea-things brought about a lengthy pause in the conversation.
to marsland it looked as if there must be two women in the case if the comb did not belong to miss maynard. but he was not altogether satisfied with her statement that it was not hers. it is difficult for a young man of impressionable age to regard a good-looking girl as untruthful, but marsland recalled other things which indicated that she was not averse to seeking refuge in false statements. he remembered her greeting when he had knocked at the farm-house on the night of the storm. “where have you been?” was the question she put to him, and then she had added, “i have been wondering what could have happened to you.”
they were not questions which might reasonably be directed to a chance visitor on such a night, and he remembered that there had been a note of impatience in her voice. this impatience harmonized with the start of surprise which she gave when he spoke to her. obviously she had been expecting some one and had mistaken his knock for the arrival of the man for whom she had been waiting. and yet her subsequent story to marsland in explanation of her presence at the farm was that she had been overtaken by the storm and had sought shelter there. she had made no reference to the man whom she had expected to see when she opened the door in response to marsland’s knock. when directly questioned on the matter she had declared that it was frank lumsden she had expected to see.
“whom do the police suspect?” she asked, after the waitress had departed.
“i do not think they suspect any one in particular just yet,” he replied.
“have they no clue of any kind?”
“they have several clues of a kind. they have discovered some footprints outside the window of the room in which we sat. the window itself has been forced. and that reminds me of something else i wanted to tell you. the police have naturally questioned me in order to obtain any light i can throw on the mystery. one of the first things they asked me was how i got into the house. i told them that the door was open, and that as no one came when i knocked i walked in and sat down. i think that was what you told me you did.”
“yes,” she replied. “the door was open.”
“you see, i forgot to fortify myself with a ready made story which would fit all these questions. the theory of the police at present is that the murderer was in the house all the time we were there.”
“oh!” she exclaimed. it was obvious that she was deeply interested in that theory. “because of the crash we heard?”
“partly because of that, and partly because that strange looking document we found on the stairs has disappeared. it was gone when i went back to the house with the police sergeant. their theory is that the murderer was in the house when i arrived—that is, when you arrived—but of course they didn’t know about your being there. as they reconstruct the tragedy, the murderer was making his way downstairs with the plan in his hand just as i—meaning you—arrived at the door. in his alarm he dropped the plan and retreated upstairs. the crash we heard was made by him knocking down a picture that hung on the wall near the top of the staircase—that is on the second floor. after we left the house he came down, found the plan in the sitting-room and made off with it.”
“to think of his being in the house all the time i was there alone!” she said. “it makes me shudder even now.”
“the police are under the impression that they will not have much difficulty in getting hold of him, but on the other hand mr. crewe thinks there are some puzzling mysterious features which the police have overlooked.”
“mr. crewe!” she exclaimed. “do you mean the famous london detective?”
“yes.”
“how does he come into it?”
“my uncle, sir george granville, is responsible for that. perhaps you know him?”
“i know him by sight,” she said.
“i have been staying with him,” continued the young man. “and when i rang him up from the police station at ashlingsea, after leaving you, he was greatly excited about my discovery. he knows crewe very well—they used to be interested in chess, and that brought them together. crewe had come down to staveley for the week-end as my uncle’s guest, and they were sitting up for me when i telephoned from ashlingsea.”
“was that mr. crewe who was with you this morning?” she asked.
“yes. rather a fine looking man, don’t you think?”
she had other things to think of than the appeal of mr. crewe’s appearance to her feminine judgment.
“what did he want at grange’s shop?” she asked.
it occurred to him that he would like to ask that question concerning her own visit there. what he said was:
“he wanted to make some inquiries there.”
“inquiries?” she looked at him steadily, but as he did not offer further information she had to put her anxiety into words. “about this comb?”
“as a matter of fact, i am not fully in his confidence,” said marsland with a constrained smile. “crewe is a man who keeps his own counsel. he has to, in his line of business.”
she was not quite sure that a rebuke was contained in this reply, but she gave herself the benefit of the doubt.
“does mr. crewe know that i was at cliff farm that night?” she asked.
“no. i thought i made my promise on that point quite definite.”
“you did,” was her candid reply to his undoubted rebuke. “but i will release you from that promise if you think you ought to tell him.”
“i am under no obligation to tell him anything more than i have told the police.”
“i thought that perhaps the fact that your uncle has brought mr. crewe into the case might make a difference.”
as he made no reply to that suggestion she branched off to something else that was in her mind:
“do you think mr. crewe is as clever as people say he is?”
“there is no doubt that he is a very remarkable man. i have already had proof of his wonderfully quick observation.”
“then i suppose there is no doubt that he will find out who killed frank lumsden?”
he looked at her steadily as he replied:
“his appearance in the case lessens the guilty person’s chance of escape. but mr. crewe does not claim to solve every mystery which is presented to him.”
“do you think he will solve this one?” she asked.
he knew that she had a secret reason for hoping that some aspect of it would prove insoluble, but this knowledge did not influence his reply.
“it may baffle him,” he replied meditatively. “but i have been so deeply impressed with the keenness of his observations and his methods of deduction that i feel sure he will get very near to the truth.”
