The Riddle of the Spinning Wheel Part 15

"And so we must put that down to Ross, and lay the whole blame upon _him_, at any rate!" snapped out Lady Paula in an angry voice; and Cleek thought, for a woman so shortly bereft, she was singularly well recovered from the shock--if it had ever been one in the first instance.

"For if he had not installed this dreadful thing, then surely, surely my poor, poor husband would never have met with his death at all!'

"Oh, have done with your nagging, Paula!" responded Ross irritably as she ceased speaking.

And Cleek obtained silence simply by stepping into the breach himself.

"Well," he said serenely, "the will has disappeared, at any rate. No servant has touched it, I suppose? Or entered this room last night before I came, Miss Duggan?"

"None that I know of. It's peculiar, to say the least of it."

H'm. Then among this little company around and about him Cleek registered the fact that one might include a thief and a murderer. Not any too pleasant a thought, when the guilt could not definitely be fixed upon any single one. But stay!--there was the boy Cyril, and if that will had been stolen, why should not he have done it as much as anybody?

He and his mother would benefit more if the will disappeared entirely than by the simple bequests which Maud Duggan had told him had been left to them. A widow had always a third share by law, that was an understood thing; and a third share of this enormous estate meant a good deal more than one at first imagined. The boy Cyril must be interviewed in due course.

Then there was another point to be taken up, the question of Captain Macdonald's presence in these grounds last night, shortly after the murder had taken place. That gentleman must account for his movements in the proper quarter. And if by any chance there were footprints outside that very window, then--b'gad! he, too, might be included in the circle of possible criminals.

He strode quickly over to the window and leaned out of it, looking down upon the flower-bed beneath it, just a matter of three feet or so, and the little walled-in courtyard that girt it about. Eh? what? There were marks in the soft earth, and plenty of 'em!

Then the a.s.sembled company fairly gasped at his next action, while Mr.

Narkom, knowing him better than they did, pelted over to the window and leaned out of it. For Cleek had climbed upon the ledge and had let himself down--light as a cat--down on to the bed, and stood looking in through the window at them with serenely smiling face.

"Gad!" he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed excitedly. "Well, and why not? Footprints!...

Constable, just nip along into the village, and fetch me back Captain Angus Macdonald. I want to speak to him rather particularly. Tell him it's the Law--and that he's got to come--and he'll come along pretty lively, I can promise you."

The constable nipped along forthwith, while of a sudden Maud Duggan's flushed face went white as a dead face, and her eyes fairly blazed at him.

"Captain Macdonald! Oh, it's ridiculous, Mr. Deland!--absurd! What on earth are you dragging _him_ in for? You must be mad to think for one moment----"

Cleek held up a silencing hand before he dropped to the ground and began peering at the footprints in the soft earth through a magnifying gla.s.s.

"I don't think, Miss Duggan--it's a policeman's business to _know_," he retorted; and then set about his task, while those others in the fateful room crowded about the open window and stood looking down at him with blank, unhappy faces.

Carefully he measured their length with his little foot-rule and noted the size down in his pocketbook. Then he fitted one of his own slim feet into the indentation, saw that it was rather larger and broader, stepped back upon the courtyard and faced them, all cl.u.s.tering about him, with serene countenance.

"A fair-sized boot, ladies and gentlemen," he remarked; "quite a fair-sized boot! Number tens, if I know anything of sizes. And looks like hunting-boots, too. Evidently a chap who rides. Now, this Captain Macdonald, Lady Paula----"

"One of the finest hors.e.m.e.n in the country," she returned, with a shrugging of shoulders and an uplifting of brows.

"Ah! Just so. That was what I imagined when I saw--when I encountered him here in these grounds last night. Light of foot, and the proper build, too. He'll no doubt be along in the course of another three quarters of an hour (if Jameson doesn't have a d.i.c.kens of a job locating him), so in the meanwhile, if Mr. Narkom is willing, we'll take a little turn together and talk over things, and then come back to you here in the allotted time. Willing, Mr. Narkom?"

"Perfectly willing."

And so it came about that, arm in arm, the two friends went off together down by the wide driveway that led to the great doors of wrought-iron which Rhea so ably guarded, and Cleek, stopping in the pathway, pointed up to the statue etched out against the sky in sinister outline, and told Mr. Narkom the story of it.

"Cinnamon! But what a magnificent thing it is!" e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed that gentleman with awe, when the tale was finished. "That's something to be proud of--eh, old chap? Now, if I had a fellow like that for an ancestor there'd be no living with me at all! These old families!--there's certainly something in this thing they call Birth and Race--though for the life of me I never can make it out."

"No," thought Cleek, with a smile, "you wouldn't." But he said nothing, merely pa.s.sed on toward the iron gates, and seeing that they had been left ajar, clanged them to sharply behind them.

"He'll ring his great bell when the latch falls--that's his ceremonious way of welcoming the coming and speeding the parting guest," threw in Cleek with a laugh. "I'm going to shove down the latch now, so watch him, my friend. Here goes!"

He sent the door clanging to with a vigorous pull, but--not a sound rang out over the still air. Rhea had failed in his duty for once in his whole long, dutiful lifetime. Cleek spun round and looked at him, face gone suddenly blank.

"What the--that's the funniest thing! It's never failed before, except last night, when I found it conveniently ajar," he e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, staring up at the sky. "Unless--perhaps it would have failed last night, too.

There's no knowing. But Miss Duggan a.s.sured me positively that the thing had never been stopped. But if it _had_ been stopped for this very happening last night, to silence the approach of an unwanted visitor, what's to prevent 'em from swaddling the clapper up--and not had time to undo it again? And yet, when the Inspector came it rang all right.

No--_that_ theory won't hold water, my friend."

"What's that you're mumbling about, Cleek?" threw in Mr. Narkom at this juncture. "Clapper swaddled up? You surely don't think the bell's been stopped for any purpose?"

"No--simply to protect the sensitive ears of the housekeeper," threw back Cleek with a contemptuous laugh; and then whirled around upon him and caught him by the shoulder. "Forgive me, old friend. My tongue scampers ahead of my heart sometimes, which is a very poor trait for a policeman to possess. What I mean to say is simply this: Up to yesterday that bell rang--even when we came here for the first time--for I have the evidence of my own ears to prove it. And now--it doesn't ring. So what's prevented it? I'm going up to see."

"Cleek, my dear fellow!--to climb that height! And in daylight, too!"

"What's the harm? say I--if you'll keep watch and tell me of approaching visitors. Here goes! Keep your eyes peeled upon the high-road, Mr.

Narkom, because it wouldn't do to be seen, y'know and if any one approaches, whistle 'G.o.d Save the King,' and I'll slip into a hiding-place somewhere until the coast's clear. And don't tell any strangers who you are, will you?"

Mr. Narkom acceded to all these requests with a quick nod, took up his post by the gateway leading out upon the road, and let his startled eyes travel backward now and again at Cleek's nimble, crawling figure climbing steadily up the sides of the huge gates, like a lizard upon a wall. Up, up, up he went, scaling the height and clinging here and there to the twists of iron and bronze that made an easy foot-hold--until, just as the summit was reached, and he was standing abreast of the enormous figure and looking up into its great face, with the bell dangling from the bar of iron upon which he stood, he heard the sound of "G.o.d Save the King" floating up to him in Mr. Narkom's whistle, darted quickly through the giant's legs, and drew himself up against the back of him and--hoped for luck. The sound of two men's voices--and one of them the Superintendent's--reached him where he stood upon the narrow ledge. He recognized the other as that of the bailiff, James Tavish, whom he had encountered upon the high-road only yesterday.

Mr. Narkom dallied with him for so long, pa.s.sing the time of day and making tactless inquiries about the murder, in his blunderbuss fas.h.i.+on ("Dear old bungler!" Cleek apostrophized him inwardly), that he began to wonder when the man would ever go. Then at length the voices ceased, and he saw Tavish's fine, well-set-up figure swing off in front of him up the driveway, and then himself slid back to the outer side of the statue, lest the bailiff look back, and waited until Mr. Narkom whistled "Coast all clear" again.

This done, Cleek swung himself down carefully, clinging on with knees and feet in a most impossible and seemingly dangerous position which brought a hasty warning from Mr. Narkom, and--found the clapper of the bell at last. It wasn't such a big bell--not much bigger than a man's head, but wrought of solid bronze, which made it almost impossible for him to swing it up on its chain to the platform upon which he hung poised above it. But somehow he managed to do the thing, and Mr. Narkom, watching with his heart in his mouth, saw his hand dive down inside of the bell and fumble there a moment. Then he heard Cleek's quick whistle of surprise as he swung the bell silently back again, and came down once more--empty-handed!

"Well, what did you discover?" hastily exclaimed the Superintendent as Cleek came to earth at last and stood dusting himself. "Or wasn't there anything at all? Was the bell m.u.f.fled _before_ last night's tragedy, Cleek--or is it simply a bird's nest that's lodged there and stopped the thing? I'm on tenterhooks to know."

"And know you shall, old friend," said Cleek, straightening himself from his self-imposed task and giving his cravat a twitch with nimble fingers to its correct position once more. "It wasn't a bird's nest--not by a long chalk! More like a hornet nest, I should say, between you and me; but that's apart from the question. And it wasn't m.u.f.fled before the tragedy, either, Mr. Narkom. It was m.u.f.fled _after_! Pretty strange, isn't it?... Yes, I thought you'd think so. Well, anyhow, I'm coming to-night to remove the 'm.u.f.fling' object when the rest of the people are in bed, and I want you to help me by keeping on the watch-out. We're due for a full moon to-night, and that'll help matters. So Rhea's in the mystery, too, is he? Umm. A difficult subject to tackle as well, on account of his silence. But he's told me something this day that has unravelled _one_ portion of the riddle, at all events. And when I've unravelled the remainder, you shall hear what it is.

"Now for Dollops, and the Three Fishers. I'm anxious to hear that 'Crown and Anchor' story from his own lips. And I've other work for him. So come along."

CHAPTER XV

ANOTHER FLY IN THE WEB

It was a full hour by the clock when Captain Macdonald, in the hands of his burly captor, and looking as furious as it is possible for a man to look in such circ.u.mstances, entered the library at Aygon Castle, where already Mr. Narkom, Cleek, and all the other members of that ill-a.s.sorted and tragic party were already a.s.sembled, and, looking neither to right nor left of him, pushed past Maud Duggan's detaining fingers and went straight up to his man on sight.

"Look here!" he said angrily, as, hat in hand, he stood before Cleek, his countenance showing a little of what he felt inside his hot young heart. "What the deuce--what the d.i.c.kens do you mean by sendin' a beastly policeman for me? That's what I want to know! I was on my way up here--the awful thing that has just happened I only heard this morning through my groom, who met one of the Castle grooms in the village, and he told him--and I was comin' up to see if I could be any help, when up comes my lord constable, seizes me by the sleeve, tips his cap, and says, 'You've got to come along with me'--just as if I'd picked a blessed pocket or something! I'm dashed well furious I can tell you! And I want an apology at once. Thought there was somethin' decidedly fishy in your appearance here in the Castle grounds last night, and now I know what you were about for."

"But, unfortunately, I don't know what _you_ were about for, Captain,"

retorted Cleek with a one-sided smile. "And that's exactly what I sent for you to find out. After you have explained yourself so fully and so--so emphatically--in the presence of these ladies, I will now claim a little of your time and attention for myself.

"You were perfectly right. I happened to be coming here, upon this very unpleasant and tragic errand, at the summons of Miss Maud Duggan----"

"_Maud_ sent for you?"

"She did. We had a prearranged signal--she'll probably tell you all about it"--he smiled at her sad young face, a hint of tenderness in his own. "You see, we happen to be friends _through_ friends, if you can follow what I mean. Miss Duggan's school-mate and chum chances to be the lady who has done me the honour to promise to become my wife, and of course it was naturally a firm link between us."

"Maud's school-friend?" The Captain's voice was incredulous. "And you?

A--a policeman! d.a.m.ned funny!"