CHAPTER XI. THE PROBLEM
When he had finished his breakfast, and after he had had the wash ofwhich he certainly stood in considerable need, Dunn made his way to thegarage and there occupied himself cleaning the car. He noticed that themud with which it was liberally covered was of a light sandy sort, andhe discovered on one of the tyres a small shell.
Apparently, therefore, last night's wild journey had been to the coast,and it was a natural inference that the sea had provided a securehiding-place for the packing-case and its dreadful contents.
But then that meant that there was no evidence left on which he couldtake action.
As he busied himself with his task, he tried to think out as clearly ashe could the position in which he found himself and to decide what heought to do next.
To his quick and hasty nature the swiftest action was always the mostcongenial, and had he followed his instinct, he would have lost no timein denouncing Deede Dawson. But his cooler thoughts told him that hedared not do that, since it would be to involve risks, not for himself,but for others, that he simply dared not contemplate.
He felt that the police, even if they credited his story, which healso felt that very likely they would not do, could not act on his soleevidence.
And even if they did act and did arrest Deede Dawson, it was certain nojury would convict on so strange a story, so entirely uncorroborated.
The only result would be to strengthen Deede Dawson's position by thewarning, to show him his danger, and to give him the opportunity, if hechose to use it, of disappearing and beginning again his plots and plansafter some fresh and perhaps more deadly fashion.
"Whereas at present," he mused, "at any rate, I'm here and he doesn'tseem to suspect me, and I can watch and wait for a time, till I see myway more clearly."
And this decision he came to was a great relief to him, for he desiredvery greatly to know more before he acted and in especial to find outfor certain what was Ella's position in all this.
It was Deede Dawson's voice that broke in upon his meditations.
"Ah, you're busy," he said. "That's right, I like to see a man workinghard. I've got some new things for you I think may fit fairly well, andMrs. Dawson is going to get one of the attics ready for you to sleepin."
"Very good, sir," said Dunn.
He wondered which attic was to be assigned to him and if it would bethat one in which he had found his friend's body. He suspected, too,that he was to be lodged in the house so that Deede Dawson might watchhim, and this pleased him, since it meant that he, in his turn, would beable to watch Deede Dawson.
Not that there appeared much to watch, for the days passed on and itseemed a very harmless and quiet life that Deede Dawson lived with hiswife and stepdaughter.
But for the memory, burned into Dunn's mind, of what he had seen thatnight of his arrival, he would have been inclined to say that no moreharmless, gentle soul existed than Deede Dawson.
But as it was, the man's very gentleness and smiling urbanity filled himwith a loathing that it was at times all he could do to control.
The attic assigned to him to sleep in was that where he had made hisdreadful discovery, and he believed this had been done as a further testof his ignorance, for he was sure Deede Dawson watched him closely tosee if the idea of being there was in any way repugnant to him.
Indeed at another time he might have shrunk from the idea of sleepingeach night in the very room where his friend had been foully doneto death, but now he derived a certain grim satisfaction and astrengthening of his nerves for the task that lay before him.
Only a very few visitors came to Bittermeads, especially now that Mr.John Clive, who had come often, was laid up. But one or two of thepeople from the village came occasionally, and the vicar appeared two orthree times every week, ostensibly to play chess with Deede Dawson,but in reality, Dunn thought, drawn there by Ella, who, however, seemedquite unaware of the attraction she exercised over the good man.
Dunn did not find that he was expected to do very much work, and infact, he was left a good deal to himself.
Once or twice the car was taken out, and occasionally Deede Dawsonwould come into the garden and chat with him idly for a few minutes onindifferent subjects. When it was fine he would often bring out a littletravelling set of chessmen and board and proceed to amuse himself,working out or composing problems.
One day he called Dunn up to admire a problem he had just composed.
"Pretty clever, eh?" he said, admiring his own work with muchcomplacence. "Quite an original idea of mine and I think the key movewill take some finding. What do you say? I suppose you do play chess?"
"Only a very little," answered Dunn.
"Try a game with me," said Deede Dawson, and won it easily, for in fact,Dunn was by no means a strong player.
His swift victory appeared to delight Deede Dawson immensely.
"A very pretty mate I brought off there against you," he declared. "I'venot often seen a prettier. Now you try to solve that problem of mine,it's easy enough once you hit on the key move."
Dunn thought to himself that there were other and more importantproblems which would soon be solved if only the key move could bediscovered.
He said aloud that he would try what he could do, and Deede Dawsonpromised him half a sovereign if he solved it within a week.
"I mayn't manage it within a week," said Dunn. "I don't say I will. Butsooner or later I shall find it out."
During all this time he had seen little of Ella, who appeared to comevery little into the garden and who, when she did so, avoided him in asomewhat marked manner.
Her mother, Mrs. Dawson, was a little faded woman, with timid eyes anda frightened manner. Her health did not seem to be good, and Ella lookedafter her very assiduously. That she went in deadly fear of her husbandwas fairly evident, though he seemed to treat her always with greatconsideration and kindness and even with a show of affection, to whichat times she responded and from which at other times she appeared toshrink with inexplicable terror.
"She doesn't know," Dunn said to himself. "But she suspects--something."
Ella, he still watched with the same care and secrecy, and sometimes heseemed to see her walking amidst the flowers as an angel of sweetnessand laughing innocence; and sometimes he saw her, as it were, withthe shadow of death around her beauty, and behind her gentle eyes andwinning ways a great and horrible abyss.
Of one thing he was certain--her mind was troubled and she was not atease; and it was plain, also, that she feared her smiling soft-spokenstepfather.
As the days passed, too, Dunn grew convinced that she was watching himall the time, even when she seemed most indifferent, as closely and asintently as he watched her.
"All watching together," Dunn thought grimly. "It would be simpleenough, I suppose, if one could hit on the key move, but that I supposeno one knows but Deede Dawson himself. One thing, he can't very wellbe up to any fresh mischief while he's lounging about here like this. Isuppose he is simply waiting his time."
As for the chess problem, that baffled him entirely. He said as muchto Deede Dawson, who was very pleased, but would not tell him what thesolution was.
"No, no, find it out for yourself," he said, chuckling with a merrimentin which, for once his cold eyes seemed to take full share.
"I'll go on trying," said Dunn, and it grew to be quite a custom betweenthem for Deede Dawson to ask him how he was getting on with the problem;and for Dunn to reply that he was still searching for the key move.
Several times little errands took Dunn into the village, where,discreetly listening to the current gossip, he learned that Mr. JohnClive of Ramsdon Place had been injured in an attack made upon him by agang of ferocious poachers--at least a dozen in number--but was makinggood progress towards recovery.
Also, he found that Mr. John Clive's visits to Bittermeads had not goneunremarked, or wholly uncriticized, since there was a vague feeling thata Mr. Clive of Ramsdon Place ought to make a better match.
"But a pretty face is all a young man thinks of," said the moreexperienced; and on the whole, it seemed to be felt that the openattention Clive paid to Ella was at least easily to be understood.
Almost the first visit Clive paid, when he was allowed to venture out,was to Bittermeads; and Dunn, returning one afternoon from an errand,found him established on the lawn in the company of Ella, and lookinglittle the worse for his adventure.
He and Ella seemed to be talking very animatedly, and Dunn took theopportunity to busy himself with some gardening work not far away, sothat he could watch their behaviour.
He told himself it was necessary he should know in what relation theystood to each other, and as he heard them chatting and laughing togetherwith great apparent friendliness and enjoyment, he remembered withconsiderable satisfaction how he had already broken one rib of Clive's,and he wished very much for an opportunity to break another.
For, without knowing why, he was beginning to conceive an intensedislike for Clive; and, also, it did not seem to him quite good tastefor Ella to sit and chat and laugh with him so readily.
"But we were told," he caught a stray remark of Ella's, "that it was agang of at least a dozen that attacked you."
"No," answered Clive reluctantly. "No, I think there was only one. Buthe had a grip like a bear."
"He must have been very strong," remarked Ella thoughtfully.
"I would give fifty pounds to meet him again, and have it out in thelight, when one could see what one was doing," declared Clive with greatvigour.
"Oh, you would, would you?" muttered Dunn to himself. "Well, one ofthese days I may claim that fifty."
He looked round at Clive as he thought this, and Clive noticed him, andsaid:
"Is that a new man you've got there Miss Cayley? Doesn't he rather wanta shave? Where on earth did Mr. Dawson pick him up?"
"Oh, he came here with the very best testimonials, and father engagedhim on the spot," answered Ella, touching her wrists thoughtfully. "Hecertainly is not very handsome, but then that doesn't matter, does it?"
She spoke more loudly than usual, and Dunn was certain she did soin order that he might hear what she said. So he had no scruple inlingering on pretence of being busy with a rose bush, and heard Clivesay:
"Well, if he were one of my chaps, I should tell him to put thelawn-mower over his own face."
Ella laughed amusedly.
"Oh, what an idea, Mr. Clive," she cried, and Dunn thought to himself:
"Yes, one day I shall very certainly claim that fifty pounds."