CHAPTER XXII
A LADDER OUT OF PLACE
At dinner Mr. Jamieson suggested sending a man out in his place for acouple of days, but Halsey was certain there would be nothing more, andfelt that he and Alex could manage the situation. The detective wentback to town early in the evening, and by nine o'clock Halsey, who hadbeen playing golf--as a man does anything to take his mind away fromtrouble--was sleeping soundly on the big leather davenport in theliving-room.
I sat and knitted, pretending not to notice when Gertrude got up andwandered out into the starlight. As soon as I was satisfied that shehad gone, however, I went out cautiously. I had no intention ofeavesdropping, but I wanted to be certain that it was Jack Bailey shewas meeting. Too many things had occurred in which Gertrude was, orappeared to be, involved, to allow anything to be left in question.
I went slowly across the lawn, skirted the hedge to a break not farfrom the lodge, and found myself on the open road. Perhaps a hundredfeet to the left the path led across the valley to the Country Club,and only a little way off was the foot-bridge over Casanova Creek. Butjust as I was about to turn down the path I heard steps coming towardme, and I shrank into the bushes. It was Gertrude, going back quicklytoward the house.
I was surprised. I waited until she had had time to get almost to thehouse before I started. And then I stepped back again into theshadows. The reason why Gertrude had not kept her tryst was evident.Leaning on the parapet of the bridge in the moonlight, and smoking apipe, was Alex, the gardener. I could have throttled Liddy for hercarelessness in reading the torn note where he could hear. And I couldcheerfully have choked Alex to death for his audacity.
But there was no help for it: I turned and followed Gertrude slowlyback to the house.
The frequent invasions of the house had effectually prevented anyrelaxation after dusk. We had redoubled our vigilance as to bolts andwindow-locks but, as Mr. Jamieson had suggested, we allowed the door atthe east entry to remain as before, locked by the Yale lock only. Toprovide only one possible entrance for the invader, and to keep aconstant guard in the dark at the foot of the circular staircase,seemed to be the only method.
In the absence of the detective, Alex and Halsey arranged to changeoff, Halsey to be on duty from ten to two, and Alex from two until six.Each man was armed, and, as an additional precaution, the one off dutyslept in a room near the head of the circular staircase and kept hisdoor open, to be ready for emergency.
These arrangements were carefully kept from the servants, who were onlycommencing to sleep at night, and who retired, one and all, with barreddoors and lamps that burned full until morning.
The house was quiet again Wednesday night. It was almost a week sinceLouise had encountered some one on the stairs, and it was four dayssince the discovery of the hole in the trunk-room wall.
Arnold Armstrong and his father rested side by side in the Casanovachurchyard, and at the Zion African Church, on the hill, a new moundmarked the last resting-place of poor Thomas.
Louise was with her mother in town, and, beyond a polite note of thanksto me, we had heard nothing from her. Doctor Walker had taken up hispractice again, and we saw him now and then flying past along the road,always at top speed. The murder of Arnold Armstrong was stillunavenged, and I remained firm in the position I had taken--to stay atSunnyside until the thing was at least partly cleared.
And yet, for all its quiet, it was on Wednesday night that perhaps theboldest attempt was made to enter the house. On Thursday afternoon thelaundress sent word she would like to speak to me, and I saw her in myprivate sitting-room, a small room beyond the dressing-room.
Mary Anne was embarrassed. She had rolled down her sleeves and tied awhite apron around her waist, and she stood making folds in it withfingers that were red and shiny from her soap-suds.
"Well, Mary," I said encouragingly, "what's the matter? Don't dare totell me the soap is out."
"No, ma'm, Miss Innes." She had a nervous habit of looking first at myone eye and then at the other, her own optics shifting ceaselessly,right eye, left eye, right eye, until I found myself doing the samething. "No, ma'm. I was askin' did you want the ladder left up theclothes chute?"
"The what?" I screeched, and was sorry the next minute. Seeing hersuspicions were verified, Mary Anne had gone white, and stood with hereyes shifting more wildly than ever.
"There's a ladder up the clothes chute, Miss Innes," she said. "It's upthat tight I can't move it, and I didn't like to ask for help until Ispoke to you."
It was useless to dissemble; Mary Anne knew now as well as I did thatthe ladder had no business to be there. I did the best I could,however. I put her on the defensive at once.
"Then you didn't lock the laundry last night?"
"I locked it tight, and put the key in the kitchen on its nail."
"Very well, then you forgot a window."
Mary Anne hesitated.
"Yes'm," she said at last. "I thought I locked them all, but there wasone open this morning."
I went out of the room and down the hall, followed by Mary Anne. Thedoor into the clothes chute was securely bolted, and when I opened it Isaw the evidence of the woman's story. A pruning-ladder had beenbrought from where it had lain against the stable and now stood uprightin the clothes shaft, its end resting against the wall between thefirst and second floors.
I turned to Mary.
"This is due to your carelessness," I said. "If we had all beenmurdered in our beds it would have been your fault." She shivered."Now, not a word of this through the house, and send Alex to me."
The effect on Alex was to make him apoplectic with rage, and with itall I fancied there was an element of satisfaction. As I look back, somany things are plain to me that I wonder I could not see at the time.It is all known now, and yet the whole thing was so remarkable thatperhaps my stupidity was excusable.
Alex leaned down the chute and examined the ladder carefully.
"It is caught," he said with a grim smile. "The fools, to have left awarning like that! The only trouble is, Miss Innes, they won't be aptto come back for a while."
"I shouldn't regard that in the light of a calamity," I replied.
Until late that evening Halsey and Alex worked at the chute. Theyforced down the ladder at last, and put a new bolt on the door. As formyself, I sat and wondered if I had a deadly enemy, intent on mydestruction.
I was growing more and more nervous. Liddy had given up all pretenseat bravery, and slept regularly in my dressing-room on the couch, witha prayer-book and a game knife from the kitchen under her pillow, thuspreparing for both the natural and the supernatural. That was the waythings stood that Thursday night, when I myself took a hand in thestruggle.
The Circular Staircase Page 22
