The Riddle of the Spinning Wheel Part 16

"As you say--_very_ funny," returned Cleek, with an ironical bow. "But I must beg of you, my good Captain, to curb your language a little before the ladies. It's not done, you know, in the best society--even a mere policeman knows that. And as all this is entirely beyond the point I'm aiming at, let's get down to bra.s.s tacks at once. What I want to know is--what were you doing here last night, when the crime had only just been committed? And why did I encounter you, running from the direction of the house as fast as your feet could carry you? That's what I want to know."

A sudden gasp of amazement from Maud Duggan, hastily suppressed, brought Cleek's eyes round to her instantly. Meanwhile, the Captain, going red and white by turns, started to speak, hesitated, and then commenced again, looking the very picture of abject discomfort and unhappiness.

At last:

"Well, if you want so much to know--find out for yourself," he broke out in a sulky tone. "For I'm not going to tell you--that's flat! I've had nothing whatsoever to do with the beastly affair, and you know it. And if you don't know it, it won't take you long to find out. But what I was doing here last night is my private affair, and nothing to do with anybody."

"Oho!" said Cleek in two different tones, arching an eyebrow in Mr.

Narkom's direction. "Still more emphatic, I must say! And 'absolutely refuse,' too! The Law takes no refusals, Captain Macdonald, and if you don't know that fact, you'd better learn it now. And if you and Mr. Ross Duggan happen to be friends----"

"We are friends--the best of 'em, eh, old chap?" from Ross himself.

"Very well, then. All I can say is that you are harming Mr. Duggan's case with your ridiculous silence, and if you're not pretty careful, might end in driving him into the prisoner's dock."

It was a "tall order"--and it almost carried, but not quite. For Macdonald gave out a smothered exclamation of amazement, swung around and looked at Ross, and then, meeting Maud Duggan's agonized eyes, tightened his mouth and faced Cleek again with the set expression upon his face.

"Ross Duggan's no murderer--and you know it, dash you!" he gave out in a harsh, curt voice. "And it's no business of yours what I was doing here last night. I'm a friend of the family----"

"But forbidden the house, I take it?"

Macdonald flushed an ugly crimson.

"You're exceedin'ly well informed upon family affairs, I must say!" he retorted tartly. "Yes--forbidden the house by the master of it (poor old chap!) and therefore--well, I'm not goin' to say any more. It may implicate someone else who's entirely innocent, and you won't get my mouth open with a sledge-hammer and a nail!"

"And no necessity for it, either--you dunderheaded young donkey!"

thought Cleek amusedly. "For if you haven't given the whole show away, and made it perfectly plain to everybody that you were meeting your sweetheart--or about to do so--then my name's not Cleek--which, of course, it isn't! And there's no telling but that you're a better actor than you make out! And this may be a 'blind'--but at present there's no 'cover' to draw, so we'll be off cantering in the other direction until the scent's a bit stronger in _yours_." Aloud, he turned to the irate young man with a slight bow, and spoke in his easy, calm manner.

"Well, if you won't, you won't. These are not the days of the thumbscrew and the rack, Captain Macdonald, and a man's tongue cannot be made to speak by any other means than a little confinement in a prison cell. And I don't think that's really necessary, in your case, do you, Mr. Narkom?

So we'll let that pa.s.s for the present. But I'd like you to understand that--on account of your refusing to acquaint us with the facts of your presence here in the grounds of this place last night--we are obliged, in the maintenance of Law and Order, to put you upon your parole."

"Thanks very much."

Captain Macdonald bowed, with much mockery of lip and gesture, and then, turning to the others in that silent little knot of spectators, made his way over to the side of Maud Duggan, whose face was as pale as a dead face, and in whose eyes lurked the suspicion of a great fear, and laid his hand upon her arm.

They conversed for a moment or two in low voices utterly oblivious of those others who were searching their faces with curious eyes, while in the background Ross Duggan fidgeted with his watch-chain and sent his handsome eyes searching each figure in that still room, as though in an endeavour to find a clue therein which would lift the pall of hateful suspicion from his own shoulders.

Cleek surveyed them critically. It was an abominably personal sort of case, to say the least of it. And not much to his liking. But the element of mystery in the whole affair gripped his interest in spite of these other drawbacks.

Of course there was no truth in the c.o.c.k-and-bull story of the Peasant Girl--that went without saying. But that it had been used as a "blind"

to cover the real perpetrators of the crime was evident to his mind. And why _two_ of them? For in each case death would have been caused instantaneously. He looked down at the spinning wheel standing there in the recess of the window, and tried to link the thing up with it. But there seemed no peg to hang a clue upon there. Obviously the thing had been "worked" with just such an idea to disguise its real purport.

Then he thought of the letters that he had found in the desk, hidden away and yellowed with Time's fingers, and tied about with faded ribbon.

And of a sudden something flashed across his face which, Mr. Narkom watching him as a cat does a mouse and knowing to a nicety what those expressions so often meant, made that worthy gentleman positively jump with excitement.

Cleek smiled at him and shook a head over his eagerness. Then he turned to the rest of them.

"No need now to prolong this unpleasant and unhappy interview," he said quietly. "Mr. Duggan has given his parole, and also the worthy Captain over there. The Yard's men will do the rest. But I must renew my request that none of you leaves this house to-day, or goes beyond the walls of the garden, unless under special permission from Mr. Narkom or myself.

Just for to-day, my friends. By to-morrow perhaps the riddle may be solved, or its end in sight. But for the next twenty-four hours I must beg your a.s.sistance, every one of you, to bring it to a successful and definite close."

His request had an immediate and almost eager response. For there was not one of that little band of anxious people who was not glad to be released from the unpleasant and searching questionings of the Law, as represented by this bland gentleman of the fine manner and the polished ways, who seemed, indeed, as good as they were (if not better), and who met them upon the grounds of an equality which was hardly to be expected from one of his calling.

Maud and the Captain walked away together conversing in low voices, their faces grave. Ross, Cynthia Debenham, and Catherine Dowd--lagging a little behind, and favouring Cleek with a look of venomous hatred cast back at him over her shoulder as she pa.s.sed through the open door--turned toward the terrace, where they all sat down and discussed the thing from every point of view within their reach, and came to no definite ending at all; while Lady Paula, summoning Miss McCall with a regal gesture, rose from her chair, bowed charmingly to each of the two men left in the room, and withdrew to the safety and peace of her own boudoir.

When the door had shut upon the last of them, Cleek began pacing the room excitedly, pulling at his chin and gnawing at his lower lip, which gestures brought Mr. Narkom to the conclusion that he was indulging in a "jolly good think!"

"There's more in those letters than meets the eye," Cleek said aloud, apostrophizing the wall-paper and the fireplace in turn. "H'm. Not a doubt of it. 'Jeannette.' Something Scotch in the flavour of that, eh, Mr. Narkom?... Yes, that's my opinion, too. It wouldn't take a hammer and a nail to drive _that_ fact home, anyhow. And the date of 'em some seventeen years back.... But it's the 'humming sound' which gets me, I swear. Can't account for that, anyhow. Might be a dynamo, but there isn't a dynamo in the place, and no need for it, either. Plain stabbing and shooting upon the face of it. We'll go for a prowl this afternoon, old friend, and see what new lands we can discover."

"All right. I'm your man, Cleek--the same as always," returned Mr.

Narkom affectionately, as he slapped Cleek on the shoulder with his broad hand, and then slipped it about his ally's neck and kept pace with him up and down the narrow room.

"Anything that's going--with _you_ in it--will find me on the spot, too.

I'm a bit of a slow-mover, I know--but you're such a lightning-bug of a creature that there's not a soul on earth can keep pace with you. Have you looked into that laundry-bill question you were d.i.c.kering about a while ago?"

Cleek threw back his head and laughed.

"I have. But there's nothing doing there, as yet. The particular maid I questioned has got a bilious attack this afternoon and can't go over the lists for me. But I'm to hear to-morrow morning for certain.... It _is_ rather a teaser for you, isn't it, old chap? But you must bear with me until I've unravelled the ends myself, and when that's done, I'll put 'em into your hands, and you can wind 'em up for me into a tidy little ball. Let's get a move on now, there's a good fellow. By the way, who's the guilty party _now_, eh?"

Mr. Narkom scratched his head perplexedly and let a full minute elapse before replying.

"It's a d.i.c.kens of a tangle, looking at it any way," he returned dejectedly. "I could have sworn that chap Ross Duggan had murdered his father for the simple motive of keeping his name in the will and of course the name _wasn't_ erased, after all, was it? That's a black point against him. But this fl.u.s.tery-bl.u.s.tery-Captain-chap with his lord-high-almighty ways rather took the wind out of my sails. And when you said you had encountered him last night, Cleek, you could have knocked me down with a feather. How did it happen?"

"Oh--caught him running as hard as he could from the direction of the lawns beyond this window, and fell plump into him as the best way to attract his attention," returned Cleek serenely. "I thought it strange that he should be there at such a time. And he looked half-scared out of his wits, too. Expected me to tell the household, I suppose. Rather officious young chap, I must say--but I've a sneaking liking for him, all the same. D'you think he did the shooting, then?"

"Not a doubt of it!" Mr. Narkom was emphatic.

"Oh! And why, do you suppose?"

"Um--ah! Well, that's got to be discovered yet. Never know, Cleek; there might be some hidden business in this affair in which this Captain is involved. Anyhow, I doubt him--tremendously. Didn't ring true, I thought. Rather too noisy and all that."

"And you believe in the adage that 'empty vessels make the most sound,'

I take it?" rejoined Cleek with a smile. "Well, perhaps you're right.

Only I wouldn't call that young gentleman an empty vessel.... Anyhow, this evening will elucidate matters a little. For I'm going to remove that m.u.f.fling for the nonce, and subst.i.tute another one. And it ought to prove quite an enlightening job, too!"

So saying, he swung out of the courtyard of the house, vaulting the window lightly, and reaching a helping hand up to Mr. Narkom, who came through less easily, perspiring at every pore. And suddenly Cleek's finger went up to his lips, and with a hasty "Hus.h.!.+" for his wheezy comrade, he drew back into the screen of the bushes, standing as still as a statue, all eyes, while the amazing thing came to pa.s.s!

CHAPTER XVI

"TENS!"

"Did you see that, Mr. Narkom? Did you see that?" rapped out Cleek excitedly, when--a few minutes later--he stepped free from the detaining bushes and beckoned the Superintendent from his hiding-place. "Recognize the cut of _that_ lady--eh? And notice anything else about her?"

"Only that she looked like that Lady Paula Duggan who was here a few minutes ago," rejoined Mr. Narkom breathlessly. "But what had she got that black thing over her head for?--sort of veil, wasn't it? Couldn't see her face through--and gad! but how lightly she stepped!"

"Rubber shoes, my dear fellow! Where were your eyes?" snapped Cleek with a hasty exclamation. "Off somewhere where she doesn't want to be seen.