On the light being switched on in the dining-room, I held my breath,
expecting that Langton would there find the body of the girl he loved.
It had, however, been removed.
The yellow cushion was still there, flung upon the leather couch where
the unfortunate girl had lain, but there was no sign of any tragedy
having been enacted.
Strangely enough, however, a bright fire burned in the grate, while upon
the table were the remains of a repast--dinner, no doubt--of which three
persons had partaken. Dessert had been finished, and the three
coffee-cups had been drained, while about the room was a strong odour of
cigars.
Who had been entertained there by Kirk?
The set table did not, of course, strike any of my companions as at all
unusual, and so they passed across to the morning-room on the opposite
side of the hall, one of the constables remaining at the foot of the
stairs in order to prevent the escape of any persons who might be
secreted in the house.
In the dining-room I loitered, for I had noticed in the grate a quantity
of burnt paper. Therefore, when I was alone, I stooped, and snatched up
a few half-consumed scraps--leaves of a manuscript-book they appeared to
be. But at the moment, having no time to examine them, I crushed them
into the pocket of my jacket, and followed the quartet on their tour of
investigation.
Every nook and corner, behind chairs, in cupboards, everywhere they
searched, expecting to discover somebody secreted. But they, of course,
found the house untenanted.
In the smaller drawing-room, where the clean-shaven young man had
noticed the light, there was a fire burning and an odour of cigars,
showing that some man or men had been in the room. What consultation, I
wondered, had taken place there?
The large drawing-room--the room from whence the Professor had
signalled--was cold and cheerless, while in the study nothing had
apparently been disarranged.
"I think, sir," remarked the inspector to young Langton, "that you must
have been mistaken. I don't see any evidence of the presence of thieves
here. The master is away, and the servants are all out for this
evening. That's all."
"But I'm quite certain there was a light when I first rang," declared
Langton.
"Then if anyone was here, he or she must still be here," replied the
officer with a slightly incredulous smile, while at the same moment I
recollected that as dinner had been served in the dining-room, there
must also have been servants there during that evening.
"Is there no other door--no back door?" I queried.
"No," replied Langton promptly; "both front and back doors are in Sussex
Place. The door leading to the park was bricked up by the Professor, as
he was always afraid that undesirable people might enter and steal the
secrets of his experiments. There are two locked doors leading to the
laboratory, of which he always keeps the keys. I'll show you them in a
moment." And he led the way across the landing from the study to the
boudoir.
Here I noticed that the drawers of Miss Greer's little rosewood
escritoire stood open, and that upon the table was a miscellaneous
collection of odds and ends; letters, fancy needlework, and other
things, as though a hasty search had been made among the dead girl's
effects. To me it appeared that whoever had been making the
investigation had been disturbed in the act and had escaped.
The police noticed it, while Langton exclaimed:
"Look! Ethelwynn is usually so very tidy! Somebody has, no doubt, been
turning over her treasures. For what reason?" and he halted before the
open door leading to the passage to the laboratory. "Look!"
Inspector, sergeant, and constable all looked, but saw nothing unusual.
The door stood open--that was all.
"Don't you see!" cried the young man excitedly. "This door--the door
which Professor Greer always keeps fastened--has been burst open.
Somebody has been here! I was not mistaken after all!"
And he made his way along the passage, opening the second door and
entering the darkness of the great lofty room. The constable followed
with his lamp, while I held behind, knowing that in a few seconds the
ghastly truth must be discovered.
Langton quickly found the switch, and the place was flooded with light.
At the same moment a strong and pungent smell of some acid greeted our
nostrils, causing us to catch our breath. It was due, we noticed, to a
bottle of some liquid which had been knocked off the table nearest us,
and lay smashed upon the tiled floor.
Full of fear and trembling, I glanced to the corner in which I had seen
the Professor's huddled-up body; but my heart gave a quick bound of joy.
It was not there!
Already evidences of the double tragedy had been removed. Was it for
that reason, in order to remove them, that Kershaw Kirk had been there?
"Why!" exclaimed Langton. "Look! the furnace is alight. The Professor
certainly cannot be in Scotland!"
I glanced to the left where he had indicated, and saw that the
good-sized brick furnace built in the right-hand wall, in which, by
means of a great electric fan, the Professor could generate, by forced
draught, the intense heat he sometimes required for his experiments, was
aglow. A fierce fire had evidently been burning there, but it was now
slowly dying out. The warmth of the laboratory and of the brickwork of
the furnace showed that the draught fan must have been used.
"I wonder what the Professor has been doing to-day?" remarked the
inspector, examining the place with considerable curiosity.
"I wonder rather what intruders have been doing here!" exclaimed
Langton. "You forget that both doors have been forced."
The inspector stood gazing round the place in silent wonder.
"Well," he exclaimed at last, "I don't see the slightest evidence of
burglars here, sir."
"They may be hidden upstairs," suggested the young man. "Remember there
are many people very anxious to obtain knowledge of the Professor's
discoveries. That is why he is always so careful to keep these doors
locked. His daughter, Ethelwynn, is the only person he ever allows in
here. He and she even carry in the coal for the furnace, the servants
being excluded."
"But thieves would hardly light up the furnace!" said the officer.
"Unless they wished to destroy something in the fire," responded the
other.
That suggestion held me aghast. Upon me, like a flash, came the
astounding suspicion that that furnace might have been lit for the
purpose of destroying the evidence of the mysterious crime. I
remembered Kirk's curious and guarded response when I had referred to
the burial of the body.
Was this, then, the reason why I had found him alone in the house?