From that moment, the situation developed with such rapidity, and rose to such heights of dramatic fervour, that Mary, and Hugh, and the Inspector could do nothing but retire into the background. Ermyntrude certainly dominated the stage, but the Prince, no mean performer, very nearly stole the scene from her, once he had recovered from his first stupefaction.
"Above all else, I am a Mother!" Ermyntrude declared. She then said that she felt herself to be seeing Alexis for the first time, and announced in tragic accents that she had been a blind fool.
The Prince countered by assuring her that he had been grossly misunderstood by the Inspector, who was a dunderhead; but any mollifying effect that this might have had was at once ruined by Vicky, who accused him of wanting to get her out of the way. This made the Prince lose his temper, and he found himself in the middle of a violent quarrel with his persecutor before he had time to reflect that to call heaven to witness that she was a liar, a mischief-maker, and an unprincipled baggage was scarcely likely to assuage her mother's wrath. He clapped a hand to his brow, and cried out: 'Ah, my God, what am I saying? No, no, I do not mean it! But when you try to come between me and this dear Ermyntrude, I grow mad, I do not know what I say! For I love her, do you see? I love her!"
"A fine way to show me you love me!" said Ermyntrude. "Standing there insulting my baby! Oh, my eyes are opened at last! Don't touch me!"
"Duchinka, be calm!" implored the Prince. "It is a plot to undo me! Do not heed this foolish Vicky! She is jealous, but that I understand, and I forgive. You cannot think that I would seek to harm one who is dear to you!"
"Don't you talk to me!" said Ermyntrude. "You to try to fling my Vicky to the wolves!"
"Yes, I thought it wouldn't be long before I got cast for a part in this," said the Inspector, in a gloomy undertone.
"But I did not fling her to the wolves! It is false, quite false! Merely, when the police would have accused me, I said, to laugh to scorn the idea, "As well accuse Miss Fanshawe, or Miss Cliffe!" You see? To show the folly of it!"
Unfortunately Ermyntrude seized on only one point of this explanation, and exclaimed indignantly: "You dare to tell me you tried to drag Mary into it too? Well, never did I think to live to see the day when a Prince would behave like a cad! The idea of trying to put the blame on to two innocent girls, when for all we know, it was you who shot poor Wally all along, just because I told you I didn't hold with divorce! And if you think that I'd marry a man who comes to me with his hands red with my husband's blood, you've got a very funny idea of me in your head, because I wouldn't marry you, not if you had fifty titles! I dare say that's the way you carry on in Russia, but you needn't think you can bring your heathenish ways into this country, because you can't!"
The Prince showed signs of being about to tear his hair. "But I did not kill your husband! I defy you to say such a thing!"
"Then don't you let me hear you insinuating that my girl had anything to do with it! No, nor Mary either, for if anyone's behaved like a daughter to me I'm sure she has, and not a word will I hear against her!"
"Yet it is this quiet, good Mary who benefits by Carter's death!" said the Prince, nettled into taking another false step.
"It's not true! Mary won't inherit Clara Carter's fortune!" said Vicky. "Hugh says so!"
"She won't?" said Ermyntrude, momentarily diverted. "Well, I do call that a shame! Not that I ever believed in Wally's precious Aunt Clara, because, if you ask me there isn't any such person. And whatever the rights of it, I call it a real ungentlemanly thing to try to put the blame of Wally's death on to a couple of girls!"
Nothing that the Prince could say had the power to move her from this standpoint, and as he had, in fact, tried to do exactly what she accused him of, and was hampered in his denials by the Inspector's presence, he soon found himself in a very awkward position, and ended by losing his head, and recommending the Inspector to ask himself why the murdered man's relatives desired so palpably to discredit him.
It was not necessary for Vicky to fan the flames kindled by this unwary hand. The scene rocketed into the realms of melodrama, with Ermyntrude holding the centre of the stage, and the Prince trying to deliver an impassioned speech which was invariably interrupted at the third word.
Mary made one attempt to intervene, for she recognised the signs of rising hysteria in Ermyntrude, and guessed that this unleashed rage was to a great extent the outcome of overstrained nerves. Neither of the combatants paid the least attention to her soothing remarks, so she retired again into the background, and told Vicky that she ought to be ashamed of herself.
The Inspector glanced towards the door, measuring his chances of escape, but before he had made up his mind to risk the attempt, a fresh actor appeared upon the scene. Dr Chester stood upon the threshold, surveying the room. "What in the name of all that's wonderful is the matter?" he asked.
"Oh, Maurice, thank God you've come!" cried Mary, hurrying across the room towards him. "Oh, for Heaven's sake, do something!"
He took her hand, but looked towards Ermyntrude. "What is it?" he asked.
Her wrath had exhausted Ermyntrude. She collapsed suddenly on to the sofa, and burst into tears. "Ask him! Ask him what he said about my Vicky!" she sobbed. "Oh, I've never been so deceived in anyone in my life!"
The Prince at once burst into speech, but as his agitation had made him forget his English, no one, least of all the doctor, could understand much of what he said. It was Mary who gave the doctor a hurried account of the quarrel. He betrayed neither surprise nor indignation, but merely said that since the situation was clearly impossible, he thought the Prince had better come and stay at his house until after the Inquest.
Ermyntrude, who was weeping on Vicky's shoulder, lifted her head to say in a broken voice that she was sure she didn't want to hurry the Prince's departure, but Mary threw the doctor a look of heartful gratitude, and took the Prince aside to explain to him that Ermyntrude's nerves were in such a precarious condition that she feared a breakdown, and thought he would be better out of the house.
Finally, the Prince went upstairs to superintend the packing of his suitcases; Ermyntrude was resuscitated with brandy, and smelling-salts; and the rest of the party, with the exception of Vicky, who stayed to hold her mother's hand, withdrew into the hall.
Mary said: "I'll never forget this, Maurice, never! You are the truest friend anyone ever had!"
"Well, I think I'd better be getting along," said Hugh. "Can I give you a lift, Inspector?"
"No, thank you, sir: the police-car's waiting for me. Now, I don't want to worry you, miss, but just tell me one thing! Was Mrs. Carter thinking of divorcing her husband, or was she not?"
"No, no, of course she wasn't!" replied Mary. "She told me quite definitely that nothing would induce her to."
"Thank you, that's all I wanted to know," said Hemingway, and left the house in Hugh Dering's wake.
In the porch he drew a long breath, and said: "Talk about the old Lyceum! Why, it was nothing to it! Don't you run away, sir! I want you to tell me just what that young terror was playing at! I don't mind owning I didn't see my way at all."
"I warned you that you were in for a shock," grinned Hugh.
"Seems to me you'd better have warned me to bring along my trick cycle," retorted the Inspector. "Quite out of the picture, I was. Well, I've met some queer people in my time, but this little lot fairly takes my breath away. Don't tell me the Duchess of Malfi isn't on the stage, because I wouldn't believe you!"
Hugh laughed. "Was, not is. Are you interested in the Drama?"
"I am, but I never had a bit of use for Family Charades. What was it all about, that's what I'd like to know?"
"Miss Fanshawe," said Hugh carefully, "does not wish her mother to marry Prince Varasashvili."
"Well, I'm bound to say she shows sense," remarked the Inspector. "All the same, you'd think the girl could think of some way of getting rid of him without putting on a three-reel drama, wouldn't you? The nerve of her dragging me into her antics! Not but what it was a highly talented performance. She's got more brain than I gave her credit for."
At this moment, Vicky came out of the house. "Oh, good, you haven't gone!" she said, addressing Hugh. "It's suddenly dawned on me that it's very nearly eight o'clock. You'd better stay to dinner, because you'll be frightfully late if you go back to the Manor. Besides, we may as well think out a good plan of campaign while we have the chance." She noticed the Inspector, half-hidden in the shadows beyond the shaft of light coming through the open door. "Oh, you weren't meant to hear that! I dare say it doesn't actually matter, but I do rather feel that it's time you went home."
"Thanks to you, miss, I'm feeling very much the same myself. I suppose you didn't happen to think when you were carrying on like that, that there might be two ways of looking at that big act of yours?"
"There aren't two ways of looking at the Prince," said Vicky positively. "Anyone can see that he's utterly apocryphal, besides being a complete adder."
"We won't go into that," said the Inspector. "What I meant was, that you were so anxious to get me to say I'd a case against you to suit your own ends, that perhaps you didn't stop to think whether I might really have a case against you?"
"That's nonsense!" Hugh said quickly.
The Inspector looked at him. "Oh, is it? What makes you so sure of that, sir?"
"I saw Miss Fanshawe when she came up from the bridge. If she had just shot her stepfather, she's a better actress than she's yet given me any reason to suppose."
"Well, you needn't spoil it!" said Vicky indignantly. "What about the act I've just put on? I thought it went awfully well, and though you may not know it, it isn't everyone who can cry real tears in an act. I did!"
"Why didn't your dog bark, miss?"
"I can't think, and it's bothered me a lot," replied Vicky frankly. "Does that look as though I must have done it? Shall you arrest me?"
"Go inside, you impossible brat!" said Hugh, grasping her by the arm, and twisting her round. "You don't want her, do you, Inspector?"
"No, sir, you're more than welcome," replied Hemingway.
Hugh pushed Vicky into the house, and shook her.
"You ought to have been drowned at birth! Do you imagine all this is some kind of a parlour game?"
"Oh no, I think it's quite ghoulish, and as a matter of fact, it gives me nightmares. Oh, I can hear Alexis! Come quickly into the library! It would be most frightfully gauche and tactless of me to run into him after all that lovely sabotage! Besides, I'm going to ring up Robert."
"What the devil for?" demanded Hugh, following her into the library.
Vicky picked up the receiver and began to dial a number. "Oh, don't be silly! It's his cue, of course. You've no idea how cherishing he is, which is just what Ermyntrude needs. Darling Robert! He wouldn't try and set the police on to little Vicky! Oh, is that you, Robert? This is Vicky. Would you like to come and see Ermyntrude after dinner? I thought it would be a goodish sort of a move if you were just to drift in too utterly casually, because everything is most dislocated here, and I'm practically imprisoned already, which is naturally very upsetting for Ermyntrude… Oh no, truly, I'm not joking! It's only that I do so believe in wearing a brave smile, like Invictus… No, I don't think I could explain over the telephone, on account of people listening in… Oh no! that's all part of it; he's gone - at least, he's going… Yes, I thought you would. Good-bye, and come at about nine!" She put down the receiver, and turned towards Hugh, who was standing with his shoulders against the door, somewhat grimly regarding her. "The great thing is to strike while the iron's hot," she said earnestly.
"Does it occur to you," said Hugh, "that this matchmaking of yours is a trifle premature?"
"No, because Ermyntrude simply must have a protector. Poor sweet, she's not very sensible, you know, and she might quite easily let her kind heart get the better of her, and forgive Alexis, which would be fatal. Even you must see that he's the most appalling menace!"
Hugh could not deny this, but said: "You're a bit of a menace yourself, if I may say so, Vicky."
"Yes, but I have the most beautiful intentions," Vicky assured him.
But Mary, when they joined her in the dining-room a quarter of an hour later, seemed unable to perceive the beauty of Vicky's intentions. She had done what she could do to soothe the Prince's injured feelings, and had bidden him a most civil farewell upon the doorstep; and she had then been called to Ermyntrude's side, so that she had a good deal of excuse for being out of temper.
Although Ermyntrude had chosen to have her dinner sent into the drawing-room on a tray, conversation between Hugh and the two girls was necessarily of a spasmodic nature, since the butler was continually coming in and out of the room. This helped to add to Mary's exasperation, and by the time the dessert was on the table, and they were finally rid of Peake, she was cross enough, and tired enough, to say angrily to Vicky: "Well, I hope you're satisfied with your work!"
"Artistes are never wholly satisfied, but I must say I thought it went with quite a swing," replied Vicky sunnily.
"It may interest you to know that I think you behaved disgustingly! I was absolutely ashamed of you!"
"But, darling, be fair!" begged Vicky. "You said only yesterday that you didn't know how on earth to get rid of Alexis."
"I never dreamed you meant to do anything so ill-bred, and - and atrocious!"
"No, but I do rather feel that we couldn't have got rid of Alexis in a well-bred way. As a matter of fact, I've been frightfully bothered about it the whole afternoon, because I found him making the most subtle love to Ermyntrude, and I couldn't see my way at all. Only he very kindly played right into my hands, setting the police on to me."
"I don't believe he did any such thing!"
"Oh, I'm pretty sure you're wrong there, Mary!" Hugh interposed. "Every time I've had the privilege of meeting him, he's managed to cast suspicion on to someone or other."
"Next you'll say that you enjoyed that vulgar exhibition!" snapped Mary.
"Well, I did, rather," Hugh confessed. "You must admit it was epic!"
"I don't admit anything of the kind. I feel hot with shame whenever I think of it."
"Poor sweet, that isn't shame: this room's awfully stuffy. I'll open a window, shall I?" suggested Vicky.
"No! I'm only sorry that you can't see how badly you've behaved. Hugh may think it was very funny, and egg you on, but Maurice didn't. He said you ought to be smacked!"
"How dear and mild of him! He's rather precious, isn't he? Hugh said I ought to have been drowned at birth."
"You can try to turn it into a joke as much as you like, but you won't succeed in getting me to see the humour of it. You pitchforked us into a perfectly ghastly scene - in front of that Inspector, too! - and though I don't expect you to care about my feelings, I should have thought you'd have had more consideration for your mother than to have upset her like that."
"Darling, you simply can't imagine how resilient the poor lamb is! Besides, I've told Robert to look in this evening. To catch her first bounce, you know, because I quite agree it would be fatal for her just to trickle away to some frightful person on the boundary."
"Vicky, how can you talk like that?"
Vicky stretched out a hand towards a dish of grapes. "But, dearest pet, I don't see that it would be a bit helpful of me to pretend that Ermyntrude isn't the sort of darling idiot who'll make the most unparalleled muck of things, if not cherished by a Good Man. Well, I mean to say, just look at the way she fell for Wally, who was an utter loss! Naturally, you don't see it as I do, because she isn't your mother; but it's no good expecting me to sit back in a well-bred way while she lets a boa-constrictor like Alexis coil himself all round her."
"You're impossible," said Mary hopelessly. "Did it occur to you, when you deliberately played on her feelings, that the one thing she's been dreading, ever since Sunday, was that you'd be accused of having had something to do with Wally's death?"
"Oh, then that was why she reacted so superbly! I must say, I didn't expect her to turn on Alexis quite so fiercely. Now you come to mention it, though, I did think something was weighing on her mind. Did she tell you about it?"
Just now. Perhaps you'll soothe her yourself the next time you elect to drive her into hysterics!"
"I don't suppose I will," said Vicky, considering it.
"You're so much better at it than I am. Are you going to the Inquest tomorrow?"
"No, and I hope you're not either!"
"Well, I am, because it seems to me I'm a very interested party, and I want to see what's likely to happen next."
"I shouldn't go, if I were you," said Hugh. "I'll let you know if anything startling comes out. Not that it's likely to. The police are sure to ask for an adjournment."
"I should like," said Vicky, dipping her fingers in the cut-glass bowl before her, "to find out why Harold White wanted to see Wally on Sunday, and what they were going to do with that five hundred pounds."
"Oh, it's got to that now, has it?" said Hugh. "Any good my reminding you that that idea is nothing more than a suspicion of Mary's?"
"Well, not much," Vicky said, with one of her enchanting smiles.
"In any case, you're not likely to hear anything about it at the Inquest."
"I expect I'll go all the same," said Vicky tranquilly. "Then I suppose I shall have to take you," said Hugh. "Oh, no! Not a bit necessary."
"You'll only get into mischief if I don't keep an eye on you."
"I wouldn't wonder," Vicky murmured. "Oh, I've just been smitten with the most awesome reflection! How do you suppose Maurice is managing to entertain Alexis?"
"Vicky, you little beast!" said Mary. "That's the worst part of it all, that Maurice should be stuck with that awful man!"
"Well, I don't know," said Vicky. "After all, we've had him ever since Friday, so it's time somebody else had a turn."
This was too much for Mary, and she got up from the table, bringing the party to an end. Hugh declined going into the drawing-room with the two girls, but instead took his leave of them, and drove back to the Manor, having promised to meet Vicky outside the Coroner's Court on the following morning.
Not long after his departure, Steel arrived, and was ushered into the drawing-room. Ermyntrude, still reclining upon the sofa, greeted him with unaffected pleasure; and Mary could not help feeling, as she watched him take Ermyntrude's little plump hand in his own strong one, that he must undoubtedly represent a pillar of strength to clinging womanhood. The story was poured into his ears, and his reactions to it were all that Vicky had hoped they might be. Nothing could have formed a greater contrast to the Prince's excitable display than Steel's rugged calm. He indulged in no aspersions upon his late rival's character; he merely said that it was a good thing the fellow had gone, and that he had never taken to him much. He even refused to join Ermyntrude in attributing the Prince's oblique attack on Vicky to his having murdered Wally himself, remarking that he didn't think the fellow would have the guts to do it. When he was alone with Ermyntrude, he held her hand in an uncomfortably strong grasp, and told her that whatever happened she could rely on him.
Ermyntrude wept a little, and confided to him the fear that was gnawing at her nerves. "Oh, Bob, they won't think it was my Vicky, will they?"
"No," he replied.
The simple negative was wonderfully reassuring, but she could not be quite satisfied. "Bob, it keeps nagging at me day and night! I ought never to have told her about Wally and that girl, only I was so upset at the time, it just slipped out. And I keep thinking about it, wondering, because she's not like most girls, my Vicky. You never know what she'll get up to next! Bob, she - she couldn't have done a thing like that! She couldn't!"
"She didn't do it. You can put that clean out of your head."
"I know, I know! But I can't help its coming back to me. For there's no denying she was there, and it's in the blood, Bob. You can't get away from that!"
"That's a lot of rot," said Steel. "Your first husband wasn't a murderer!"
"No, but look at the animals he killed in his time! I mean, he had a regular passion for it, but he took it out on lions and tigers and things; and I can't help thinking of a book I read once, all about impulses, and what you inherit from your parents, and things that happen to you in the cradle that go and give you fixtures, or some such nonsense, and I ask myself if perhaps there is something in it after all, and I ought to have seen to it my Vicky had a chance to shoot bigger things than just a few rabbits here and there."
The suggestion that Vicky, finding rabbits poor sport, had added her stepfather to the bag, did not draw even a smile from Steel. He was rather shocked and extremely scornful of such far-fetched ideas; and he told Ermyntrude that she was not to worry her head over it any more.
She dabbed cautiously at her eyes. "You won't let that dreadful policeman take her away, Bob, will you? He's been at her already."
"Then he's a fool. But nothing's going to happen to Vicky, I give you my word."
"Oh, Bob, you are a comfort to me!" Ermyntrude said gratefully. "I feel better just for having seen you. Only you know what the law is, and if the Inspector was to get it into his head Vicky's done it, there isn't one of us could stop him taking her up for it!"
"Listen to me, Ermyntrude!" Steel said, looking very steadily at her. "You've got my word for it no harm's coming to Vicky. I told you you could depend on me, and I'm not a chap who says what he doesn't mean. Whatever happens, I won't let your girl get mixed up in this. Now, you trust me, and don't think another thing about it!" He gave her hand a final squeeze, and released it, rising to his feet. "I'm going home now, and you're going to get to bed, and have a good night's rest. That's what you need, and that's what I'm going to tell Mary."
Mary, when this piece of information was delivered to her, said that she had tried to put Ermyntrude to bed before dinner.
"She'll go now," Steel said. He turned to Vicky, and said abruptly: "So the police are on to you, are they?"
"Yes, I'm having a very crowded life all at once," replied Vicky. "Do you suppose I'll be arrested?"
"No. I've just set your mother's mind at rest about that. Don't you worry either! See?"
Vicky was quite entranced by this masterful speech, and no sooner had Steel left the house than she turned to Mary, and said: "Oh, I do think I've created a grand situation! Do you suppose he's going to give himself up in my stead?"
"I hope he wouldn't be such a fool!"
"So do I, but I can't help seeing that it would be a very Nordic act. Really, darling, you must admit I was quite right to send for him. He's even soothed Ermyntrude!"
"You know, Vicky," said Mary, "I'm absolutely horrified by the way you talk about your mother! It's positively indecent."
"Dearest pet, the way I talk truly isn't as indecent as the way you think," Vicky replied. "Because you've got the most degrading suspicions, and you disapprove of the poor sweet so much that you daren't put it into words. I don't disapprove of her at all; in fact, she has my vote."
Mary was silenced, and turned away, merely remarking over her shoulder that she hoped Vicky was not really going to the Inquest.
The hope, however, was without foundation, and she was not surprised when Vicky left the house next morning at half past ten, and drove off in the direction of Fritton.
Hugh Dering had already arrived at the King's Head Hotel, where the Coroner's Court was to sit, but he was not alone. He had brought his father to the Inquest, in spite of Sir William's strongly-worded announcement that he wished to have nothing to do with the affair. "I wish you would come, sir." Hugh had said. "I'd like you to take a look at some of the protagonists, and tell me what you make of them."
"Why?" demanded Sir William.
"I want your opinion. It's got me guessing, and I'd very much like to know how it strikes you."
After this, Sir William's protests had been merely a matter of form, for although he would have hotly denied such an idea, he was secretly much flattered to think that Hugh wanted his opinion. Whenever anyone asked him questions about Hugh, he naturally disparaged him, and said that he was an idle young hound, and that he didn't think he was at all clever (though, as a matter of fact, he took a first in Greats, for what that was worth), or particularly good at games (though actually he got his Rugger Blue, and had entered for the Amateur Golf Championship last year; not that that was anything to make a fuss about); but if Sir William had ever been obliged to enter a confessional, and to state his true opinion of his son, he would have said, with the utmost reluctance, that Hugh's equal for character, brains, physique, athletic prowess, and general virtue did not exist. So when this paragon expressed a desire to hear his opinion on the Carter case, Sir William swelled with inward gratification, and allowed himself to be persuaded to give up his own plans for the morning, and to accompany his young fool of a son to a stuffy room at the King's Head, all to listen to an inquest which he had no interest in, and which Hugh wouldn't have had any interest in either if he had had a grain of sense, which, however, he knew from long experience he hadn't, and probably never would have.
Having made quite clear his extreme reluctance to accompany Hugh, he got happily into the car beside him; wished he could drive as well as the boy could; said that Hugh took his corners too fast; was sorry for an acquaintance whom they passed on the road, whose son was a very poor specimen compared with Hugh, and never wanted to take his father anywhere.
When Hugh drew up outside the King's Head behind Vicky's sports-car, and Sir William saw Vicky sitting pensively at the wheel, and looking very young and fragile in a black hat and frock, he exclaimed: "Surely it's not necessary for that child to be present!"
"She thinks it is," responded Hugh, opening the door for him to get out. "She's a suspected party."
"Preposterous!" said Sir William. "As though a girl of her age could have had anything to do with it!"
"I wouldn't put it beyond her," said Hugh. "Hallo, Vicky! Congratulations on the ensemble!"
"Hush, I'm feeling frightfully holy, because black has that effect on me, I find. Oh, how do you do, Sir William! I'm glad you've come, because so far the most scruffylooking people have turned up, and I thought it was going to be utterly drab."
"My dear child, you ought not to be here," said Sir William, shaking hands with her. "There's no need at all: I can't think what that boy of mine wass about to let you come."
"You don't think he could stop me, do you?" asked Vicky, quite shocked. "Besides, I've rather fallen for the Inspector from Scotland Yard, on account of his reminding me awfully of a robin that got so tame it used to hop into the dining-room. Oh, Hugh, all the Whites have turned up, and Janet was terribly sweet to me, and said she'd stay with me, only I thought not, because she's wearing the kind of hat that makes you feel perhaps after all you're frittering your life away, and ought to be telling people how to look after their babies, or drilling Girl Guides, or something just as dispiriting. And the Prince hasn't turned up, which seems to me pretty callous, really."
Sir William rather blinked at these confidences, but though he did not approve of the younger generation, he was easily won over by a pretty face. Vicky made him feel fatherly, so he smiled tolerantly at the extravagances of her speech, and took her into the King's Head, telling her that he was glad she did not think he was scruffylooking.
Quite a number of people had come to attend the Inquest. Robert Steel was present, Dr Hinchcliffe, the three Whites, Mr. Jones, and, as Vicky immediately pointed out to Hugh, Gladys Baker, who was sitting beside her mother at the back of the room. In addition to these interested persons there was a large sprinkling of strangers, who appeared to have come in the hope of hearing startling revelations.
In this they were disappointed, for, as Hugh had warned Vicky, nothing exciting happened. Inspector Cook gave his evidence in a monotone; Dr Hinchcliffe followed him; and a man, who, Vicky said, looked like a haddock, got up, and announced that he was a gunsmith, and that he was prepared to swear that the bullet lodged in Wally Carter's chest had been fired from the rifle found in the shrubbery. No one, except, perhaps, the Coroner and the police, was at all interested in his evidence, for it was very dull, quite lacking in human interest. He said that the rifle was a Mannlicher-Schonauer .275, standard in all respects, except that it had a hair-trigger pull; and that it had the appearance of not having been kept in very good order, since the barrels were slightly rusty. He then displayed photographs, taken through a comparing microscope, of test bullets in juxtaposition with the bullet found in Wally Carter's body, and sat down.
After that, Harold White gave his evidence, and was followed by his friend Samuel Jones, and his daughter Janet. Sir William Dering muttered into his son's ear an uncharitable estimate of Mr. Jones's character, which differed hardly at all from that given by Alan White to his sister, and said that in his opinion there was not a penny to choose between him and Harold White.
Janet's way of giving her evidence made the optimists in the room feel that they had not wasted their time in coming, after all, but no sooner had she sat down, than Inspector Hemingway rose, and disappointed everyone by asking for an adjournment. This was granted, and there was nothing for the interested to do but to disperse.
"Well, sir?" said Hugh. "What do you make of it?"
"Not enough evidence. I don't make anything of it," answered Sir William. "I should like to know what those three were up to."
"Carter, Jones, and White? You think they were up to something?"
"All birds of a feather," said Sir William, with a snort. "That's what Mary suspects, that there was some deal on, probably shady."
"I shouldn't be surprised. Who's that child got hold of?"
Hugh looked round. "The Scotland Yard man. Heaven grant she isn't putting on some disastrous act! I think I'd better go and keep an eye on her."
By the time he reached Vicky's side, Janet and Alan White had also joined her, and Robert Steel was making his way towards the group. Janet at once began to describe her sensations at finding herself giving evidence in a murder-case, and Hugh, feeling that there was no reason why he should listen to this recital, said good morning to the Inspector, and asked him, with a twinkle, whether he had recovered from the shocks of the previous day.
"I have," responded Hemingway "I'm told you hold a watching brief for Miss Fanshawe, sir."
"By Miss Fanshawe, I should think," said Hugh. "I wish you'd put her under lock and key till all this is over."
"The trouble is, I'm hampered," explained the Inspector. "Who's the gentleman with the jaw, sir?"
"Steel."
Robert Steel had broken into the flood of Janet's conversation to address Vicky, in rather a rough voice. "Vicky, what are you doing here? You'd no business to come!"
"Oh, but I had, Robert! I told you I'd been entangled in the meshes."
"And I told you you were a little idiot! You've nothing to do with the case at all."
"But, darling Robert, I've got far more to do with it than you have, because I was there, and you weren't," Vicky pointed out.
"Oh, how thankful you must be that you weren't there!" said Janet earnestly. "It was dreadful! And you might have been, only, of course, I'm very glad you weren't, because it would have made it worse for me. I mean, inviting you, and then that happening!"
"What on earth are you talking about?" said Steel. "You didn't invite me!"
"Yes, I did. Don't you remember, when we came out of church, and I was asking you about King Edward raspberries?"
"No, I don't," said Steel shortly.
"Oh, but you must!" insisted Janet. "Because I always think it must be so lonely for you, living all by yourself, and I asked you if you wouldn't drop in at about five, only Father said he'd asked Mr. Carter, and you probably wouldn't want to come, which I'm afraid you must have thought was awfully rude of him, but it's only his way, you know, and he doesn't mean anything."
"Oh!" said Steel, looking rather annoyed. "Yes, I do remember now that you said something about dropping in to tea."
Hugh cast a covert glance at the Inspector. That gentleman's bird-like gaze was fixed with an expression of the deepest interest on Steel's frowning countenance.