The Mystery at Stowe

by Vernon Loder

  ‘I know they rather muddled it before.’

  ‘Absolutely. They meant well, but they were not sure what he was after, and he did not give them a chance to compare notes. Next time, he won’t be so easy with them. He will be out for blood, and determined to get at the exact facts.’

  She walked on, and when he caught up with her again, she shook her head. ‘I see that. But what can we do?’

  ‘Tell me all you know.’

  A vexed look crossed her face. ‘You will insist that I have some special knowledge.’

  ‘You know more about them both than I do,’ he said obstinately.

  ‘A little perhaps. But I can’t see, Jim, what it means to you. Suppose Margery was jealous, what can you make of it? All that it may lead us to is a suggestion that Ned committed a crime.’

  ‘I don’t care what it may lead to,’ he said fiercely, ‘so long as I prevent the police from charging you with having committed one.’

  ‘Be frank,’ said Elaine; pale again, and with a frown on her brow. ‘If you go along that line, where do you end? If Margery was jealous, she was jealous of me.’

  ‘Well?’

  ‘And if she was jealous of me, and this crime can be fastened on Ned—as we know it cannot—’

  ‘I don’t know anything of the sort.’

  ‘Then the inference is obvious, and it is an insult to me,’ she went on.

  ‘You know I want to protect you, not to insult you. Apart from that, what you say simply isn’t true. I could never believe you had anything to do with it.’

  ‘Ned was away, I was not.’

  ‘I know that. But what is the clue the police are working on now, do you think?’

  ‘I can’t understand it.’

  ‘I can; it is one that may involve him—mind you, I only say “may”—but has nothing to do with you at all.’

  She looked at him, with a sort of desperation in her eyes. ‘I am as far from it as ever. But never mind. What do you want me to tell you? If Margery was jealous? I believe she was.’

  ‘Of you and Ned?’

  ‘I suppose so.’

  ‘Thank you. Now I would like to know if Ned said anything about it. He must have done. Why, he has been with you a dozen times since she died.’

  ‘It has nothing to do with that.’

  ‘Well, tell me, and I shall know where I am.’

  ‘I have told you all I know.’

  Carton shrugged and looked angry. ‘I thought I had told you enough to let you see how serious the case was from your point of view.’

  ‘I do see that.’

  ‘Well, then—what I mean is this. Tollard must have been angry with her. I don’t know if he differed in any way from the normal husband, but most of them would be furious if their wives were like that when they had given them no cause. Was there a real breach between them lately?’

  ‘I believe Ned loved her.’

  ‘Then he took a strange way of showing it.’

  ‘You mustn’t say that! You don’t know him as well as I do.’

  Carton took a pull on himself. He was losing his temper, and she saw it and resented it. ‘Sorry. The fact is that she was jealous, and we can assume jealous because you and he were so busy together over the details of this projected expedition. Very well. A man in love with his wife, would, I think, take some trouble to soothe her down, even if he did not give up communicating with his friend.’

  Elaine shook her head, and set her lips firmly. She was not going to be examined any more in this way, and her face showed it. It was unfortunate that Jim Carton took her this way. But the matter was so urgent, the time so short, that he knew of no other.

  ‘You mean to say he never told you how he felt about it, or allowed you to see that it was making a breach?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘You mean he didn’t tell you, or you didn’t see?’

  ‘He didn’t tell me.’

  ‘But you saw it might be doing that?’

  She tried to be patient, to understand his point of view.

  ‘Jim, you don’t understand what my position was. A person who is treated as if he were ready to do some kind of nasty trick at any time (even hears a chance suggestion that he, or she, had already done it), is apt to resent it. If you are going on your ordinary way, and a woman suggests that you are following her to pick her pocket, you don’t turn back, and give up. If you did, she would be sure you were a criminal detected just in time.’

  ‘I see that,’ he murmured.

  ‘So you keep on your way, which happens to be parallel with hers, Jim. It may seem to outsiders that you are provoking her unnecessarily by going on; but why should you back out? If we had to step out of the way of all the fools in the world, we should never get anywhere! I am sorry for Margery now, but I can’t feel that I had anything to be ashamed of.’

  ‘You won’t tell me any more?’

  ‘No, I won’t. I should like you to believe in me, Jim, but I do absolutely refuse to be treated as if I were a hostile witness in a court of law. Anything Ned said to me in confidence I can’t tell you. It would not be fair, or decent.’

  ‘My heavens!’ he cried savagely. ‘Are we to talk about fairness and decency when the police may try to arrest you? Will the counsel in a case, if one comes on, say that he knows you promised not to tell something Ned Tollard told you, and won’t hurt your feelings by asking it? Not much! He’ll have it out of you one way or another.’

  ‘It’s different,’ she protested. ‘If I have to give evidence under duress, it’s different. I have a duty to the law, and to the oath I should have taken. But that hasn’t come yet.’

  ‘Would you tell me privately what he said, if he had not asked you to keep it secret?’

  ‘Yes, I think I would, now things have come to this point.’

  ‘Why not anticipate events?’

  ‘No. If this clue that you talk about proves false, I might have to reconsider it. But I must wait.’

  He walked on quicker. ‘Look here. Can you tell me this—does the thing you heard from Tollard, what he told you, throw any blame on him?

  ‘In what way?’

  ‘With regard to his wife’s death.’

  ‘I don’t think so. No, I should say not.’

  ‘Are you sure it doesn’t?’

  She reflected for a moment or two. ‘No, I don’t think it does. But I can’t tell you all the same.’

  He laughed bitterly. ‘It’s a pity Mr Barley didn’t come forward earlier with his offer.’

  ‘I didn’t know him then. This is my first visit to his house. I should never have met him if he had not recently been the chairman at my Elterham lecture.’

  ‘He—that is, Tollard—had a row with his wife the morning he drove to Elterham. Did he see that you had overlooked them when the row was in progress?’

  ‘I saw no row. If I guessed that there had been one, at least Ned did not know it.’

  ‘How was that?’

  ‘They did not see me.’

  Carton smiled triumphantly. ‘Then, if he didn’t know, he did not make you promise not to tell what you saw. It wasn’t a row, but the aftermath of a row. Didn’t you think so?’

  She shut her lips tightly. It was unfortunate to the last degree that the man who loved her, and had come so far to tell her so, should have to figure in this rôle. It presented him in an unamiable light, in spite of the fact that she knew he was trying to do his best for her. And it presented her, by reaction, in an ungracious part.

  ‘You won’t tell me even that?’ he asked.

  She turned about. ‘Jim, I think we had better go back. This is only worrying us both, and doing no good. I don’t want to talk to you as I have to talk. I remember the old days too. But things were different then.’

  He shrugged. ‘Confound Tollard and all his restrictions! He gets that bedroom locked up so that no one can examine it, and he locks up your tongue.’

  ‘The police can get into the bedroom at any time.’
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br />   He did not reply to that, but trudged back by her side. ‘Very well,’ he said, after a long silence. ‘I’m going to be damned unpopular, but I don’t care about that. I’ll go up to town and put Tollard through it.’

  She opened startled eyes. ‘Don’t do that!’

  He scowled at the dusty roadway. ‘If oysters won’t open by themselves, you have to use a knife,’ he growled. ‘I shall go.’

  ‘I shall dislike it very much if you do.’

  ‘I’m sorry for that. But I can’t help myself.’

  ‘It’s not fair to distress him after this business.’

  ‘It won’t be fair to arrest you for it.’

  They said no more, but walked steadily on, side by side, each engaged with thoughts that the other could not read.

  When they entered the park, and were nearing the house, they saw three or four men quartering the ground under a window, bent double, evidently searching for something with the greatest assiduity.

  CHAPTER XXV

  CARTON V. TOLLARD

  AS Elaine and Jim Carton neared the porch, Superintendent Fisher came out. He bowed to Elaine, who returned his bow and went in, but detained Carton.

  ‘Excuse me, sir, might I have a word with you?’

  ‘Certainly. You are not long getting your men on the job.’

  ‘No, they rushed them down by car.’

  ‘Have they found anything yet?’

  ‘Not a sign, but we aren’t half through. When it’s a case of looking for a pellet of fluff it takes time.’

  ‘Quite. Well, what is it?’

  ‘It’s about this air-gun. It won’t work!’

  Carton started. Had he not gained more than a few hours after all, too little to effect anything?

  ‘I thought you were sending it to Birmingham?’

  ‘We are. But Warren tried the pump, when he got back to the station, and it would not work.’

  ‘Jorkins might have put it out of action on purpose.’

  ‘Otherwise I would have called off the men here. It is not at all unlikely, what you say, but it does bring in a doubt.’

  ‘Granted, my dear fellow, but you can’t afford to leave the matter uninvestigated for all that. Birmingham, where the makers are, is the place where they can decide the point.’

  ‘I telephoned Warren to that effect, and asked him to take it down at once by train.’

  Less time saved! Carton had counted on their sending by post. But he must make the best of it.

  ‘Thank you for telling me. I intend to go up to town at once. I hope you won’t need me for twelve hours?’

  Fisher looked at him closely. ‘May I ask why, sir?’

  ‘In this case, you may. I am going to see Mr Tollard. I want to ask him some questions. Any objection?’

  ‘As you are not concerned with us, I don’t see that I can object. In any case, we shan’t be able to decide the point about the air-gun until we hear from the makers.’

  ‘That might be tomorrow morning?’

  ‘Or late tonight,’ said Fisher grimly. ‘It’s just two-and-a-half hours, fast train, and Warren has instructions not to let the grass grow under his feet.’

  ‘All right. I hope you get something to go on. Oh, here is Miss Gurdon again.’

  Elaine had gone up to her bedroom deep in thought. She had hardly reached it, and shut the door, when she came to a hasty decision. Then she thought of Superintendent Fisher, and decided that she ought to speak to him. She went out at once.

  Carton wondered if she were going to tell Fisher what she had refused to tell him. Fisher himself seemed to think there might be a revelation coming, for he looked very alert and eager as she came up.

  ‘I wondered, superintendent, if there was any objection to my going up to town for a few days,’ she said, without looking at Jim Carton. ‘I know I am one of the witnesses, but the inquest won’t be resumed for some time yet.’

  Carton held his breath. The superintendent looked as amiable and bland as he could, but shook his head slightly. ‘If you don’t mind postponing your visit to London for a day or two,’ he murmured. ‘A day or two.’

  ‘Which is it—one day, or two?’ she asked, forcing a smile.

  ‘I think I may say that, after tomorrow, you could do what you pleased—if all goes well,’ he replied slowly.

  Her colour ebbed a little. She knew now as well as Jim Carton what that last qualifying clause meant. If Jorkins was implicated, if the latest clue proved a good one, she was out of the affair. If it fell through, Fisher was going to move.

  ‘I could give you my address in town.’

  ‘I should prefer you to stay here for another day at least, miss.’

  ‘A day isn’t much,’ said Carton.

  She nodded to them, turned, and went back into the house.

  ‘I am not going to miss a point if I can help it,’ said Fisher apologetically. ‘I should have liked to oblige the lady, but I can’t let her go.’

  ‘Do, you know why she wants to go?’ Carton asked bitterly.

  ‘No, sir. Do you?’

  ‘I think so. She is finding me very trying. Like the rest of them, she thinks that I am being officious.’

  Fisher smiled. He had thought that at first, but, after all, this man was not exactly an amateur, and he had brought some grist to the mill.

  ‘I’ll know where I am tomorrow.’

  Carton turned. ‘Well, I must tell my host, and get ready to go. If you really want me, telegraph to the Colonial Club. I shall leave my address there.’

  ‘Very well, sir,’ said Fisher, and went on to the men who were still persistently searching the lawn and the shrubbery.

  Carton went at once to Mr Barley. The latter heard with surprise that his guest was making a hurried trip to London, but did not attempt to detain him. Perhaps he felt that Carton had not, in spite of his good intentions, put the other guests quite at their ease.

  ‘But I’ll come back by the earliest train tomorrow, if I may,’ he said.

  ‘Do,’ said Barley hospitably. ‘I hope it isn’t a falling out with Miss Gurdon, Carton?’

  ‘No, it has nothing to do with that,’ said Jim. ‘I’ll get the 4.50 comfortably. I’ll run up and pack a bag now.’

  Tea was waiting for him when he came down again, and he ate it rapidly, and went out to the car which Mr Barley had ordered. In twenty minutes he was on the station platform, and caught the London train comfortably.

  As he sat solitary in the corner of a carriage, he was musing on Warren’s discovery. It seemed to him, in spite of what he had told Fisher, that the break in the air-gun coupled with the rustiness of the weapon was a strong point against that weapon having been used. Time pressed more than ever. He was banking on a theory now, and, if that went, he did not see what there was to prevent the police from arresting Elaine.

  The jury might refuse to be convinced, but he could not afford to risk that. The key to the whole thing might rest in Tollard’s hands. What if Tollard proved obdurate?

  It was possible. More than possible. He had annoyed Tollard, and the man would be showing his roughest side. It was no pleasant interview that he faced now. But he had one lever, and he would use it—Elaine’s danger.

  If Tollard loved her, even if he were only the poorest kind of friend, he could not stand by and see that injustice done. If he did, Carton felt ready to believe in his guilt.

  He took a taxi-cab to Eaton Place, where Tollard had his house. The butler there informed him that Tollard was not home yet.

  ‘Would he be at his bank?’

  ‘Unlikely, sir, but you might try his club—the Bankers’. He takes his dinner there sometimes, if he is going out in the evening.’

  Carton was going away to try his luck at the club when he saw another car drive up. He waited, and saw Tollard get out.

  Tollard bowed to him stiffly. ‘Did you want to see me?’

  ‘For half an hour.’

  ‘I am afraid I cannot spare you the time.’

/>   He was angry. Carton repressed an impulse to reply as sharply, and said in a low voice: ‘This is most important. I must see you.’

  ‘Come in,’ said Tollard, and led the way into the hall, his head high, his colour rising.

  They were relieved of their hats and sticks, and Tollard went into a snuggery off the hall, inviting Carton to follow him. There he closed the door.

  ‘We did not part on very good terms, Carton,’ he said, when the other had sat down. ‘I shall expect you to justify your remark that this matter was important.’

  ‘I shall,’ said Carton shortly. ‘I want to know something too.’

  ‘If your questions are as injudicious and impertinent as before, I am afraid I shall refuse to reply to them.’

  ‘Do, and be damned!’ cried Carton. ‘Look here, Tollard, I am not working for myself, but for Elaine, and I won’t stand your attitude!’

  ‘I don’t admit that you have any right to speak for her.’

  ‘Will you then? It seems not. You stand there, being infernally high and mighty, but you don’t move a hand to save Elaine.’

  ‘Don’t be melodramatic! Save her from what?’

  ‘Arrest!’

  ‘Absurd!’ said Tollard; but he turned white nevertheless, and sat down abruptly, to stare with angry eyes at Carton. ‘Do you suggest that they could arrest her on such flimsy evidence; mere supposition?’

  Carton got up. ‘I have no time to waste. I am not here to explain what circumstantial evidence is, or how weighty a thing it can be. I have told you. Are you prepared to answer a question or two, or would you prefer me to go back?’

  That startled Tollard. ‘I am sorry if I seemed to throw doubt on your sincerity. But what leads you to think this terrible thing possible?’

  ‘Superintendent Fisher himself. I knew directly from him that he intends to apply for a warrant against her.’

  ‘I must go down at once.’

  Carton shrugged scornfully. ‘A lot of good you did before! I have given the police a new clue to work on, that will keep them busy till tomorrow. I don’t know if there is anything in it. If not, things will happen. But I gained time. I have another clue on hand I have not given them. It depends on you if it can be worked out or not. If it is, I don’t say that you will care for the result, but you will save Elaine from arrest, and a jury from a possible miscarriage of justice.’