CHAPTER XXVI
THE END IN SIGHT
Cleek spent an hour in the "lock-up" with the man they had captured, andhad what he scathingly called a proper heart-to-heart talk with him,coming away with the contemptuous feeling in his heart which all cleanmen must find there upon discovering a fellow creature who, to save hisown skin if possible, is willing to split upon a pal.
He wended his way toward the Inn of the Three Fishers, with Dollopsbeside him, head downward, every faculty concentrated upon the properunravelling of the riddle that confronted him. If two and two made four,then he had the answer pretty well elucidated at last. One had to fillin the gaps with a bit of imagination, but--he patted the pocket wherethe missing will lay, lying close against that packet of love-lettersthat he had found in Sir Andrews's' desk. Funny how papers so oftenproved things where human flesh-and-blood failed. Clues--both of 'em.Strong clues. And likely to give surprise to one or two people he knewof. Lady Paula, for instance--and Ross Duggan.
"Dollops," he said quietly, as he let himself into the little hostelrywith his latchkey, just as the dawn was striking the sky with rosyfingers and rending aside the dark curtains of night, "this is going tobe a heavy day for us. I don't relish the task in front of me, andyet.... It's no use funking the issue. Justice must be done--and if it'sgoing to hurt some people pretty badly, it isn't my fault, is it?"
"It is not, sir," gave back Dollops emphatically. "But you come on up toyer room and let me attend to that there 'and. 'Urtin' pretty nasty,ain't it? I thought so. A bit er cold water'll 'elp some, an' I'm a dab'and at the First Aid stunt since I took them lessons in Lunnon larstwinter. We'll put yer right in a jiffy. But I carn't 'elp wishin' it was_my_ paw, all the same. Miss Lorne'll be that worried when she 'ears.
"Then the best thing to do is not to tell her, you little Worry-Box,"returned Cleek with a laugh. "It's luck it's my left one, so the writingwon't be affected. A week or two will see it right. I wish I could cureall the heartbreak and unhappiness in this old Castle-keep aseffectively in such a short time.... Thanks very much. That'll donicely, I think. And it's a good deal easier. Now, be off to bed, boy,and try to make up for the loss of that beauty-sleep which you'vemissed. To-morrow, or rather, to-day, is going to keep us all fairlybusy, I imagine. I shall want you to come up to the Castle with me inthe morning, you know--and I mustn't be later than ten o'clock."
* * * * *
And so it came about that in the morning Cleek, looking rather pale,with one hand in a roughly contrived sling, and with Dollops in closealliance with him, and Mr. Narkom bringing up the rear, made his way tothe great door of Aygon Castle, rang the bell coolly, and noddedpleasantly to the door-keeper who admitted him as though nothing out ofthe ordinary had happened in the night that had just passed. As hepassed through the gates with his companions and heard them clang tobehind him, he laid a hand upon the gate-keeper's arm and spoke in a lowvoice.
"Heard nothing at all after we left, Burns? Saw no one, I suppose, thismorning?"
"Not a soul, sair. Aiverybody seems to have overslept themsailves andnever a word has even come to me over the telephone in my lodge."
"Good! Excellent! Well, keep your mouth tight-closed and know nothing ifyou are questioned. Not even to the master of the Castle himself. To_nobody_. Simply nothing untoward happened at all last night that youknow of. Follow me?"
"Absolutely, sair."
"Very well, then. Come, Mr. Narkom, we'll make our way up to the Castlenow. Fine place, isn't it? Wonderful bit of stone-work in thatbalustrade round the tessellated tower. Never noticed it so plainlybefore. Perhaps it's the fine day."
Speaking, he led the way up the drive, followed by a wide-eyed Dollopsand a panting Superintendent who had not long finished his breakfast ofbacon and eggs, and had missed his usual ten minutes' perusal of thenewspaper after it.
Jarvis opened the door to them, bowing low over Cleek's cap as thelatter proffered it, and giving Dollops a friendly wink behind hismaster's back as he led them into the little ante-room and went tosummon his mistress.
As they sat waiting, Cleek saw Tavish, clad in riding-boots andtrousers, and making a fine figure of a man, swing past the half-opendoor. Cleek nodded to him as he glanced in.
"Good morning. I say--come in a moment, won't you? I've got a perfectlyastonishing piece of news!"
Then, as Tavish, with a nod and a smile, came into the tiny room,seeming, in his enormous stature, to fill up every nook and corner ofit, and shook Cleek firmly by the hand, that gentleman leaned a littleforward and whispered something in his ear.
Mr. Narkom saw the flare of eye and the slackening of jaw which betokenamazement as Tavish opened his mouth to speak. But Cleek held up asilencing hand.
"Hush! I don't want the thing made public yet, y' know, my dear chap.Only I thought perhaps you'd like to have a look in and see the finalround-up of the villains. Take a back seat, you know. There's no harm inthat. And I've the most amazing bit of evidence by me which I've tracedit all to. Stolen will among other things. Bring it home to _her_ assmart as you please. Ought to be worth watching when you see her face."
"Gad!--yes." Tavish struck one hand into the open palm of the other, andhis nice face went grim. "The woman's a devil from the first letter tothe last. And if you knew the things she's done to my futurewife--Johanna McCall--well, it fair makes a man's blood boil. I'dtighten the noose round _her_ neck, I can promise you, and with my ownhands, too. The earth is well rid of _her_ kind."
"In which I profoundly agree. And--hello! here's Miss Duggan. Athalf-past ten, then. I'll make arrangements for you to slip inunnoticed. It's going to be as sensational as a first-rate Londonmelodrama. And--not a word, old chap?"
"Not one of 'em."
"Thanks very much. I'll rely on you, then. And we might even want you tolend a hand. What's that, Miss Duggan? Lend a hand for what? Oh, simplyin capturing a somewhat wild mare that has got loose in this part of thecountry and has been kicking up a pretty shindy all over the place. Mr.Tavish's strength and knowledge of horse-flesh ought to be a real help,eh, my friend?"
Here he winked broadly at the vanishing Tavish, and brought up a chairfor Maud Duggan after she had greeted Mr. Narkom and given Dollops alittle forlorn smile as Cleek introduced him to her notice.
"And have you followed up any of the clues which you discoveredyesterday, Mr. Deland, to the utter desolation of all my hopes andfears?" she asked him wearily, sitting down with her hands lying looselyin her lap, a very picture of despondent womanhood.
He bowed his head.
"I'm afraid I have. Several of them. And yet--I don't know. Anyhow, Iwant you all to come along to the library again this morning--and forthe last time. After to-day you ought not to be put to any further worryand inconvenience, my dear young lady. But what I want _you_ to do is toassemble all the members of the immediate household together for me, andtell them I've discovered a perfectly new clue altogether--and from aperfectly new person--someone who, so far as you or I know, has nevereven entered the house at all, at any time. So you see, that's not suchbad news, is it?"
At these words her head came up upon the slim column of her neck, andshe looked into his face with suddenly bright eyes.
"You mean to say that--you mean to say that you can prove that neitherRoss nor--Captain Macdonald is guilty of that terrible crime?" she gaveout in a shrill voice, shutting her hands together in her emotion, andbreathing hard. "Oh, Mr. Deland, if you have only found out _that_----"
"Not quite so fast, please," he responded a trifle sternly. "I'm afraidI can't give you any of the facts yet. Only I want you to know that--inone direction, at any rate--you may have some cause to hope. That is, ofcourse, if my deductions are correct. It all depends. Even a policemancan make a mistake--isn't that so, Mr. Narkom?--and find himself ledaway upon a false scent. It depends a lot upon the wiliness of the foxhe's in pursuit of. And in this case, when there's a--animal's a female,one has the disadvantage of the woman's intuit
ive faculties and naturalgifts of deceit. 'The female of the species'--you know what Kiplingsaid, of course? That sounds rude, doesn't it? But it's amazingly true,all the same--yourself, I'm sure, always excepted."
She made no answer to the little sally other than to pass a pale handacross a paler forehead, and pat a piece of dark hair into place, withthat little gesture of forlornness which went straight to Cleek's heart.
"Then you have nothing more to tell me, Mr. Deland? Nothing for me tobuild my hopes on save that a new element has entered the case----"
"Together with an old element--yes," responded Cleek softly, with a stabat his heart for her pathetic appearance. "Just that. No more. I cantell nothing until I have you all there before me, and then--well,perhaps I shall be able to unravel the mystery for you, and put an endto your sufferings in _that_ direction, at any rate. Would you be goodenough, as you're passing, to ask the constable on duty outside thelibrary door to come to me a moment? Mr. Narkom and I want to questionhim about one or two things. There's another one _inside_ the room, sothere's no chance of any one getting in and falsifying clues while he'saway. Thanks very much."
She passed out, pale-faced, utterly forlorn, and the sagging droop ofher shoulders sent another stab of pity through Cleek's heart, while Mr.Narkom--tender-hearted as a chicken, as he himself often put it--blewhis nose loudly and passed the handkerchief surreptitiously across hiseyes, and turned a sad face to his famous ally's.
"Poor girl, Cl--Deland, poor, poor, unhappy girl! It goes to my heart tosee any woman so desolate as that. And a good-looking woman, too! Shefeels the whole wretched affair keenly. And if you'd only explained tome some of those wonderful theories of yours and given me some inklingof what you're going to say to 'em, I might have been a bit of help toher, you know. Human sympathy's a comforting thing----"
"But not always so comforting when it emanates from the police, who willprobably wring her heart dry," returned Cleek with a twisted smile. "No,no, my friend. Bless your tender heart for the kind thought, but in thiscase it's up to me to tread warily. And the least suspicious glance castat a guilty party, the least flutter of eyelid or brow in expression ofone's knowledge--and the cat would be out of the bag, and all ourtrouble taken for nothing. I'm going to play 'possum to-day and lay low.And you've just got to forgive me beforehand and put up with it. I've nodoubt your own theories coincide with mine but---- Here's P. C. Mackay.Good morning, Constable. Mr. Narkom and I just wanted to have a fewwords with you, with reference to what arrangements you made for me lastnight. You followed out my instructions?"
P. C. Mackay, who was a slight, wiry, light-rooted chap, and so chosenby Cleek for the very work he had been given to do, nodded his head, andhis hand came to the salute.
"I did that, sir."
"Good. No names mentioned, Constable ... but you found some clues there,I take it?"
"Yessir. _This._" He looked from side to side of the room, as thoughuncertain how to produce the clue in case of discovery. But the door wasshut, and only they four were within the confines of the small place.Then he put his hand into his breast-pocket and drew forth a little bitof crimson-covered flexible electric wire.
Cleek's face fell a little.
"That all?"
"Yessir--except for a photograph of a young wummun. It was hidden in acarved wood box on the dressin' table. I brought it along in case youmight find some use for it. Here it is."
Speaking, he drew the bit of pasteboard from his pocket and handed itacross to Cleek, who bent his eyes upon it, gave a little start atsomething which was written across it in bold capitals and underscoredthree times, gazed a moment at the pictured face, and then promptlyopened his pocketbook and placed it within.
"Very good, Constable. Mr. Narkom, you will do me a personal favour ifyou arrange for P. C. Mackay's promotion. He did good work last night,and it must not be forgotten. You may go, Constable."
"Thank you, sir."
The man saluted smartly, grinned all over his ruddy Scotch face at theword "promotion," and went back to his position outside the librarydoor, his head in the clouds and his heart longing for the time when hecould impart this wonderful knowledge to his Maggie, and see her blueeyes brighten.
Meanwhile Cleek, the door shut once more, dived down into his pocket andproduced the little bit of red electric wire which he had picked up inthe library that first day before the tragedy had taken place, when MaudDuggan was showing him over the house. He fingered it idly, and thenshowed Mr. Narkom the two pieces spread upon his open palm.
"Not much in that, I'm afraid. Just the ordinary kind of wire whicheveryone uses, and with nothing to show any peculiarities," he said,speaking half to himself and half to the Superintendent. "Both cut witha sharp knife, obviously. Now, if they mated evenly--and gad! they _do_mate!" He brought them together and dovetailed the two frayed ends oneagainst the other until the edges met in a perfectly even line. "That'sa funny thing! A deuced funny thing! But they belong to each other asmuch as two twin souls belong. They're one and the same piece. Gad! andwith the photograph of the estimable young woman--it proves it without adoubt!"
"Proves what, my dear chap?"
Mr. Narkom's voice was a trifle testy. The whole affair of that morninghad got upon his nerves. In the first place, he had had to get up tooearly after a broken night, and in the second, Cleek hadn't given himtime to digest his meal, and then the whole higgledy-piggledy of Cleek'swords, from which he could make neither head nor tail, served toirritate him still further.
Cleek laid a hand upon the Superintendent's arm, and spoke in his mostcoaxing voice.
"Have patience with me, dear friend, as you have done before, and as youwill have to do again," he said softly. "It isn't that I don't trustyou--haven't I trusted you with life itself before now, and never foundyou wanting?--but it is that at present my theories are in somewhat of amuddle, and it's only keeping my own counsel that's going to help me todisentangle them."
"I know, I know, old chap," returned the Superintendent, casting asidehis rancour at this apology from the man who was his best friend, withhis usual heartiness. "I'm a slow-thinking old beggar, and somehow yourlightning sketches get the better of my patience. But I'll back you tounravel the knot every time. Think you've come to the end, then?"
"I fancy so. With a little bit of bold guesswork thrown in to make equalmeasure. That must always be reckoned in the bargain, you know. But if Ihaven't found the person or persons who have murdered Sir Andrew in thatcold-blooded and diabolically clever manner, then my name's not--ArthurDeland. And I know as much about the methods of sleuth-hounds as my oldboot!"
So saying, he fell to examining the photograph again, and tossing thetwo pieces of flexible wire up and down in the palm of one hand, andmuttering to himself like a lunatic, while Dollops and Mr. Narkom, insilence, could do nothing more but wonder and look on.