KELSON'S PERPLEXITY
"What do you think of Mr. Gervase Henshaw?" Kelson said, as, late in the
afternoon, he and Gifford walked towards the town together. Henshaw had
left Wynford Place half an hour previously, having kept to the end his
attitude of resentful incredulity.
"A nailer," Gifford answered shortly.
"Yes," Kelson agreed. "He gives one the idea of a man who will make
trouble if he can. As offensive as his brother was, I should say,
although in a different line. I did not detect one sign of any
consideration for the Morristons in their horribly unpleasant position."
"No," Gifford agreed. "I was very sorry for Morriston. He behaved
extremely well, considering the irritatingly antagonistic line the man
chose to take up."
"Brainy man, Henshaw; unpleasantly sharp, eh?"
"Yes," Gifford replied. "Added to his legal training he is by way of
being an expert in criminology."
"I do hope," Kelson remarked thoughtfully, "he is not going to make
himself unpleasant down here. The scandal will be quite enough without
that. Horribly rough luck on the Morristons as new-comers here to have an
affair like this happening in their house. I can't think what brought the
man down here."
"No; he came with a purpose, that's certain."
"A woman in it, no doubt. One can quite sympathize with the brother's
incredulity as to the suicide theory, though hardly with his manner of
showing it. The dead man was not that sort. The idea is simply
staggering."
Gifford made no response, and for a while they walked on in silence.
Presently he asked, "How did you get on to-day--I mean with Colonel
Tredworth?"
"Oh, everything went off beautifully," Kelson answered, his tone
brightening with the change of subject. "The old boy gave me his consent
and his blessing. I've scarcely been able as yet to appreciate my luck,
with this affair at Wynford Place intervening."
"No," Gifford responded mechanically. "It is calculated to drive
everything else out of one's head."
"It is suggested," said Kelson, "that we should be married quite soon.
The Tredworths are going abroad next month and don't propose to hurry
back. So it means that if the wedding does not take place before they
leave it must be postponed till probably the autumn."
"I should think the latter would be the best plan."
Kelson turned quickly to his companion. "To postpone it?" he exclaimed in
a rather hurt tone. "Why on earth should we? We have nothing to wait for,
I mean money or anything of that sort."
"No; but settlements take a long time to draw up."
"Not if the lawyers are told to hurry up with them."
"Then you will have to find a house, and get furniture. And there is the
trousseau," Gifford urged.
"Oh," Kelson returned with a show of impatience, "all these details can
be got over in two or three weeks if we set ourselves to do it. I don't
believe in waiting once the thing is settled."
"I don't believe in rushing matters," Gifford rejoined. "Least of all
matrimony."
Kelson stopped dead. "Why, Hugh," he said in an expostulatory tone, "what
is the matter with you? You are most confoundedly unsympathetic. Any one
would think you did not want me to marry the girl."
"I certainly don't want you to be in too great a hurry," Gifford
returned calmly.
"But why? Why?"
"I feel it is a mistake."
Kelson laughed. "You are not going to suggest we don't know our
own minds."
"Hardly. But why not wait till the family returns? Of course it is no
business of mine."
"No," Kelson replied with a laugh of annoyance; "and you can't be
expected to enter into my feelings on the subject. But I think you might
be a little less grudging of your sympathy."
"You quite mistake me, Harry," Gifford replied warmly. "It is only in
your own interest that I counsel you not to be in a hurry."
"But why? What, in heaven's name, do you mean?" Kelson demanded, vaguely
apprehensive.
"It is a mistake to rush things, that is all," was the
unsatisfactory answer.
"If I saw the slightest chance of danger I would not hesitate to take
your advice," Kelson said. "But I don't. Nor do you. Since when have you
become so cautious?"
Gifford forced a laugh. "It is coming on with age."
Kelson clapped him on the shoulder. "Don't encourage it, my dear Hugh. It
will spoil all the enjoyment in your life, and in other people's too, if
you force the note. I promise you I won't hurry on the wedding more than
is absolutely necessary."
"Very well," Gifford responded, and the subject dropped.
They had finished dinner, at which the absorbing subject of the tragedy
at Wynford Place was the main topic of their conversation, when the
landlord came in to say that Mr. Gervase Henshaw, who was staying at the
hotel, would like to see them if they were disengaged.
Kelson looked across at his friend. "Shall we see him?"
Gifford nodded. "We had better hear what he has to say. We don't want him
worrying Morriston."
"Ask Mr. Henshaw up," Kelson said to the landlord, and in a minute he was
ushered in.
With a quick, decisive movement Henshaw took the seat to which Kelson
invited him.
"I trust you won't think me intrusive, gentlemen," he began in his sharp
mode of speaking, "but you will understand I am very much upset and
horribly perplexed by the terrible fate which has overtaken my poor
brother. I am setting myself to search for a clue, if ever so slight, to
the mystery, the double mystery, I may say, and it occurred to me that
perhaps a talk with you gentlemen who are, so far, the last known
persons who spoke with him, might possibly give me a hint."
"I'm afraid there is very little we can tell you," Gifford replied. "But
we are at your service."
"Thank you." It seemed the first civil word of acknowledgment they had
heard him utter. "First of all," he proceeded, falling back to his dry,
lawyer-like tone, "I have been to see the medical man who was summoned to
look at the body, Dr. Page. He tells me that, so far as his cursory
examination went, the position of the wound hardly suggests that it was
self-inflicted."
"Is he sure of it?" Kelson asked.
"He won't be positive till he has made the autopsy," Henshaw answered.
"He merely suggests that it was a very awkward and altogether unlikely
place for a man to wound himself. Anyhow that guarded opinion is enough
to strengthen my inclination to scout the idea of suicide."
"Then," said Kelson, "we are faced by the difficulty of the locked door."
Henshaw made a gesture of indifference.
"That at first sight presents a problem, I admit," he said, "but not so
complete as to look absolutely insoluble. I have, as you may be aware,
made a study of criminology, and in my researches, which have included
criminality, have come across incidents which to the smartest detective
brains were at the outset quite as baffling. Clement's tragic end is a
great blow to me, and I am not going quietly to accept the easy, obvious
conclusion of suicide. I knew and appreciated my brother better than
that. I mean to probe this business to the bottom."
"You will be justified," Kelson murmured.
"I think so--by the result," was the quick rejoinder.
Gifford spoke. "What do you think was the real object in your brother
coming down here?"
Henshaw looked at his questioner keenly before he answered. "It is my
opinion, my conviction, there was a lady in the case. May I ask what
prompted you to ask the question?"
Gifford shrugged. "Some idea of the sort was in my own mind," he replied,
with a reserve which could scarcely be satisfying to Henshaw.
"Perhaps," he said keenly, "you have also an idea who the lady was."
Gifford shook his head. "Not at all," he returned promptly.
"Then why should the idea have suggested itself to you," came the
cross-examining rejoinder.
"Your brother was not a member of the Hunt, and it seemed to
us--curious."
Henshaw took him up quickly. "That he should come to the ball? No doubt.
I will be perfectly frank with you, as I expect you to be with me. It is
perhaps not quite seemly to discuss my brother's failings at this time,
but we want to get at the truth about his death. He had, I fear, rather
irregular methods in his treatment of women. One can hardly blame him,
poor fellow. His was a fascinating personality, at any rate so far as
women were concerned. They ran after him, and one can scarcely blame him
if he acquired a derogatory opinion of them. After all, he held them no
cheaper than they made themselves in his eyes. That note I looked at
which came from his pocket was written by him to make an assignation."
"Was it addressed?" Gifford put the question quickly, almost eagerly.
"No," Henshaw answered. "I wish it had been. In that case we should be
near the end of the mystery."
Kelson was staring at the glib speaker with astounded eyes. "Do you
suppose a woman killed your brother?" he almost gasped.
"Such things have been known," Henshaw returned with the flicker of an
enigmatical smile. "But no, I don't suggest that--yet. At present I have
got no farther than the conviction that Clement did not kill himself. I
mean to find out for whom that note of his was intended."
"Not an easy task," Gifford remarked, with his eye furtively on Kelson,
who had become strangely interested.
"It may or may not be easy," Henshaw returned. "But it is to be done. The
woman who, intentionally or otherwise, drew my brother down here has to
be found, and I mean to find her."
Kelson was now staring almost stupidly at Gifford.
"Neither of you gentlemen saw my brother dancing?" Henshaw demanded
sharply.
"I saw nothing of him at all in the ballroom," Gifford answered,
"as I did not arrive till about midnight. Did you see him, Harry?" he
asked, as though with the design of rousing Kelson from his rather
suspicious attitude.
Kelson seemed to pull himself together by an effort.
"No--yes; I caught a glimpse of him, I think, with a girl in green."
"You know who she was?" Henshaw demanded.
"I've not the vaguest idea," Kelson answered mechanically. "I did not see
her face."
Henshaw rose. Perhaps from Kelson's manner he gathered that the men were
tired, and had had enough of him. He shook hands, with a word of thanks
and an apology. "We may know more after the inquest to-morrow afternoon,"
he remarked, "although I doubt it. You will let me consult you again, if
necessary? Thanks. Goodnight."
As the door closed on Henshaw, Kelson turned quickly to Gifford with a
scared face. "Hugh!" he cried hoarsely, in a voice subdued by fear. "The
blood stain on my cuff that night. How did it come there? Was it--?"
Gifford forced a smile. "My dear Harry, how absurd! What could that have
had to do with it?"
Kelson gave an uncomfortable laugh. "It is a grim coincidence," he said.