THE END IN SIGHT
Cleek spent an hour in the "lock-up" with the man they had captured, and
had what he scathingly called a proper heart-to-heart talk with him,
coming away with the contemptuous feeling in his heart which all clean
men must find there upon discovering a fellow creature who, to save his
own skin if possible, is willing to split upon a pal.
He wended his way toward the Inn of the Three Fishers, with Dollops
beside him, head downward, every faculty concentrated upon the proper
unravelling 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 fill
in the gaps with a bit of imagination, but--he patted the pocket where
the missing will lay, lying close against that packet of love-letters
that he had found in Sir Andrews's' desk. Funny how papers so often
proved things where human flesh-and-blood failed. Clues--both of 'em.
Strong clues. And likely to give surprise to one or two people he knew
of. Lady Paula, for instance--and Ross Duggan.
"Dollops," he said quietly, as he let himself into the little hostelry
with his latchkey, just as the dawn was striking the sky with rosy
fingers and rending aside the dark curtains of night, "this is going to
be a heavy day for us. I don't relish the task in front of me, and
yet.... It's no use funking the issue. Justice must be done--and if it's
going 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 to
yer 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 larst
winter. 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 writing
won't be affected. A week or two will see it right. I wish I could cure
all the heartbreak and unhappiness in this old Castle-keep as
effectively in such a short time.... Thanks very much. That'll do
nicely, 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've
missed. To-morrow, or rather, to-day, is going to keep us all fairly
busy, I imagine. I shall want you to come up to the Castle with me in
the 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 close
alliance with him, and Mr. Narkom bringing up the rear, made his way to
the great door of Aygon Castle, rang the bell coolly, and nodded
pleasantly to the door-keeper who admitted him as though nothing out of
the ordinary had happened in the night that had just passed. As he
passed through the gates with his companions and heard them clang to
behind him, he laid a hand upon the gate-keeper's arm and spoke in a low
voice.
"Heard nothing at all after we left, Burns? Saw no one, I suppose, this
morning?"
"Not a soul, sair. Aiverybody seems to have overslept themsailves and
never a word has even come to me over the telephone in my lodge."
"Good! Excellent! Well, keep your mouth tight-closed and know nothing if
you are questioned. Not even to the master of the Castle himself. To
_nobody_. Simply nothing untoward happened at all last night that you
know of. Follow me?"
"Absolutely, sair."
"Very well, then. Come, Mr. Narkom, we'll make our way up to the Castle
now. Fine place, isn't it? Wonderful bit of stone-work in that
balustrade round the tessellated tower. Never noticed it so plainly
before. Perhaps it's the fine day."
Speaking, he led the way up the drive, followed by a wide-eyed Dollops
and a panting Superintendent who had not long finished his breakfast of
bacon and eggs, and had missed his usual ten minutes' perusal of the
newspaper after it.
Jarvis opened the door to them, bowing low over Cleek's cap as the
latter proffered it, and giving Dollops a friendly wink behind his
master's back as he led them into the little ante-room and went to
summon his mistress.
As they sat waiting, Cleek saw Tavish, clad in riding-boots and
trousers, and making a fine figure of a man, swing past the half-open
door. Cleek nodded to him as he glanced in.
"Good morning. I say--come in a moment, won't you? I've got a perfectly
astonishing 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 of
it, and shook Cleek firmly by the hand, that gentleman leaned a little
forward and whispered something in his ear.
Mr. Narkom saw the flare of eye and the slackening of jaw which betoken
amazement as Tavish opened his mouth to speak. But Cleek held up a
silencing 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 final
round-up of the villains. Take a back seat, you know. There's no harm in
that. And I've the most amazing bit of evidence by me which I've traced
it all to. Stolen will among other things. Bring it home to _her_ as
smart 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, and
his nice face went grim. "The woman's a devil from the first letter to
the last. And if you knew the things she's done to my future
wife--Johanna McCall--well, it fair makes a man's blood boil. I'd
tighten the noose round _her_ neck, I can promise you, and with my own
hands, too. The earth is well rid of _her_ kind."
"In which I profoundly agree. And--hello! here's Miss Duggan. At
half-past ten, then. I'll make arrangements for you to slip in
unnoticed. It's going to be as sensational as a first-rate London
melodrama. 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 to
lend a hand. What's that, Miss Duggan? Lend a hand for what? Oh, simply
in capturing a somewhat wild mare that has got loose in this part of the
country 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 chair
for Maud Duggan after she had greeted Mr. Narkom and given Dollops a
little forlorn smile as Cleek introduced him to her notice.
"And have you followed up any of the clues which you discovered
yesterday, Mr. Deland, to the utter desolation of all my hopes and
fears?" she asked him wearily, sitting down with her hands lying loosely
in 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, I
want you all to come along to the library again this morning--and for
the last time. After to-day you ought not to be put to any further worry
and inconvenience, my dear young lady. But what I want _you_ to do is to
assemble all the members of the immediate household together for me, and
tell them I've discovered a perfectly new clue altogether--and from a
perfectly new person--someone who, so far as you or I know, has never
even entered the house at all, at any time. So you see, that's not such
bad news, is it?"
At these words her head came up upon the slim column of her neck, and
she looked into his face with suddenly bright eyes.
"You mean to say that--you mean to say that you can prove that neither
Ross nor--Captain Macdonald is guilty of that terrible crime?" she gave
out in a shrill voice, shutting her hands together in her emotion, and
breathing hard. "Oh, Mr. Deland, if you have only found out _that_----"
"Not quite so fast, please," he responded a trifle sternly. "I'm afraid
I can't give you any of the facts yet. Only I want you to know that--in
one direction, at any rate--you may have some cause to hope. That is, of
course, if my deductions are correct. It all depends. Even a policeman
can make a mistake--isn't that so, Mr. Narkom?--and find himself led
away upon a false scent. It depends a lot upon the wiliness of the fox
he's in pursuit of. And in this case, when there's a--animal's a female,
one has the disadvantage of the woman's intuitive faculties and natural
gifts of deceit. 'The female of the species'--you know what Kipling
said, 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 hand
across a paler forehead, and pat a piece of dark hair into place, with
that little gesture of forlornness which went straight to Cleek's heart.
"Then you have nothing more to tell me, Mr. Deland? Nothing for me to
build my hopes on save that a new element has entered the case----"
"Together with an old element--yes," responded Cleek softly, with a stab
at his heart for her pathetic appearance. "Just that. No more. I can
tell 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 end
to your sufferings in _that_ direction, at any rate. Would you be good
enough, as you're passing, to ask the constable on duty outside the
library door to come to me a moment? Mr. Narkom and I want to question
him about one or two things. There's another one _inside_ the room, so
there's no chance of any one getting in and falsifying clues while he's
away. Thanks very much."
She passed out, pale-faced, utterly forlorn, and the sagging droop of
her shoulders sent another stab of pity through Cleek's heart, while Mr.
Narkom--tender-hearted as a chicken, as he himself often put it--blew
his nose loudly and passed the handkerchief surreptitiously across his
eyes, and turned a sad face to his famous ally's.
"Poor girl, Cl--Deland, poor, poor, unhappy girl! It goes to my heart to
see any woman so desolate as that. And a good-looking woman, too! She
feels the whole wretched affair keenly. And if you'd only explained to
me some of those wonderful theories of yours and given me some inkling
of what you're going to say to 'em, I might have been a bit of help to
her, you know. Human sympathy's a comforting thing----"
"But not always so comforting when it emanates from the police, who will
probably wring her heart dry," returned Cleek with a twisted smile. "No,
no, my friend. Bless your tender heart for the kind thought, but in this
case it's up to me to tread warily. And the least suspicious glance cast
at a guilty party, the least flutter of eyelid or brow in expression of
one's knowledge--and the cat would be out of the bag, and all our
trouble 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 no
doubt your own theories coincide with mine but---- Here's P. C. Mackay.
Good morning, Constable. Mr. Narkom and I just wanted to have a few
words with you, with reference to what arrangements you made for me last
night. You followed out my instructions?"
P. C. Mackay, who was a slight, wiry, light-rooted chap, and so chosen
by Cleek for the very work he had been given to do, nodded his head, and
his 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 though
uncertain how to produce the clue in case of discovery. But the door was
shut, 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 bit
of 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 a
carved wood box on the dressin' table. I brought it along in case you
might find some use for it. Here it is."
Speaking, he drew the bit of pasteboard from his pocket and handed it
across to Cleek, who bent his eyes upon it, gave a little start at
something which was written across it in bold capitals and underscored
three times, gazed a moment at the pictured face, and then promptly
opened his pocketbook and placed it within.
"Very good, Constable. Mr. Narkom, you will do me a personal favour if
you 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 the
word "promotion," and went back to his position outside the library
door, his head in the clouds and his heart longing for the time when he
could impart this wonderful knowledge to his Maggie, and see her blue
eyes brighten.
Meanwhile Cleek, the door shut once more, dived down into his pocket and
produced the little bit of red electric wire which he had picked up in
the library that first day before the tragedy had taken place, when Maud
Duggan was showing him over the house. He fingered it idly, and then
showed Mr. Narkom the two pieces spread upon his open palm.
"Not much in that, I'm afraid. Just the ordinary kind of wire which
everyone uses, and with nothing to show any peculiarities," he said,
speaking half to himself and half to the Superintendent. "Both cut with
a sharp knife, obviously. Now, if they mated evenly--and gad! they _do_
mate!" He brought them together and dovetailed the two frayed ends one
against the other until the edges met in a perfectly even line. "That's
a funny thing! A deuced funny thing! But they belong to each other as
much as two twin souls belong. They're one and the same piece. Gad! and
with the photograph of the estimable young woman--it proves it without a
doubt!"
"Proves what, my dear chap?"
Mr. Narkom's voice was a trifle testy. The whole affair of that morning
had got upon his nerves. In the first place, he had had to get up too
early after a broken night, and in the second, Cleek hadn't given him
time to digest his meal, and then the whole higgledy-piggledy of Cleek's
words, from which he could make neither head nor tail, served to
irritate him still further.
Cleek laid a hand upon the Superintendent's arm, and spoke in his most
coaxing voice.
"Have patience with me, dear friend, as you have done before, and as you
will have to do again," he said softly. "It isn't that I don't trust
you--haven't I trusted you with life itself before now, and never found
you wanting?--but it is that at present my theories are in somewhat of a
muddle, and it's only keeping my own counsel that's going to help me to
disentangle them."
"I know, I know, old chap," returned the Superintendent, casting aside
his rancour at this apology from the man who was his best friend, with
his usual heartiness. "I'm a slow-thinking old beggar, and somehow your
lightning sketches get the better of my patience. But I'll back you to
unravel 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 equal
measure. That must always be reckoned in the bargain, you know. But if I
haven't found the person or persons who have murdered Sir Andrew in that
cold-blooded and diabolically clever manner, then my name's not--Arthur
Deland. And I know as much about the methods of sleuth-hounds as my old
boot!"
So saying, he fell to examining the photograph again, and tossing the
two pieces of flexible wire up and down in the palm of one hand, and
muttering to himself like a lunatic, while Dollops and Mr. Narkom, in
silence, could do nothing more but wonder and look on.