"Look here, Warr. You recollect that stranger who called and left the
note for Lady Lolita last evening? Well, there seems considerable
mystery about the affair, and somehow I feel there's connexion with the
fellow's visit with this poor young man's death. If so, her ladyship's
name must be rigorously kept out of it, you understand. There's to be
an inquest to-morrow, and we shall both be called to give evidence.
Recollect that not a word is said about the man Keene, the note, or the
message."
"If you wish it, sir, I'll keep a still tongue," was his reply. "I've
told nobody up to now--not even the missus."
"Very well. Remember only you and I know of this man's return, and the
knowledge must go no further. There's a mystery, but it must have no
connexion with her ladyship."
"You may trust me, sir. The family have been too good to me all these
years for me not to try and render them a service. I quite agree with
you that the stranger was suspicious, and from what he said to me in
private it is certain that he must know her ladyship very well indeed."
"You're sure you've never seen that young man before?" I asked,
watching his face narrowly.
"Him? No, I don't know him from Adam!" was the landlord's reply, yet
uttered in a manner and tone that aroused my distinct suspicions. His
assurance was just a trifle too emphatic, I thought.
I paused a moment, half inclined to express my doubt openly, then said
at last--
"That letter--what shall you do with it?"
"Give it to her, of course. I'll come up to the Hall when I come back.
I ought to have given it to her last night."
"Had you done so that man's life might perhaps have been saved--who
knows?"
"Ah!" he sighed in regret. "I never thought of that. I didn't know it
was of such importance. You see the missus is in bed with a cold, and I
couldn't leave the house in charge o' the girl. They were a bit merry
last night after Jim Cook's weddin'."
I was anxious to obtain possession of the mysterious letter, but I
already knew that he would only deliver it to Lolita personally. Yet I
had no wish that the man Warr should come to the Hall just at the moment
when the startling news of the tragedy would create a sensation
throughout the whole household. If he were to deliver the letter, it
should not be before the first horror of the affair had died down.
Therefore I made excuse to him that her ladyship was going over very
early to Lady Sudborough's to join a picnic and would not be back before
evening.
"Very well," he answered. "I'll come up then." And mounting his
machine he spun away down the hill.
Next moment, from where I stood, I distinguished a trap approaching
along a bend in the road. Three men were in it, two of them being in
uniform--the police from Northampton.
Having no desire that they should know that I had returned to the spot
to efface those tell-tale marks, the only way to avoid them was to
spring over the wall again into the park, which I did without a moment's
hesitation, crouching down until they had passed, and then crossed the
corner of the park and entered the Monk's Wood, a thick belt of forest
through which ran a footpath which joined the road about a mile further
down. The way I had taken to Sibberton was a circuitous one, it was
true, but at any rate I should avoid being seen in the vicinity of the
spot where the tragedy was enacted.
Walking forward along the dim forest path covered with moss and wild
flowers, where the rising sun glinted upon the grey trunks of the trees
and the foliage above rustled softly in the wind, I was sorely puzzled
over the innkeeper's manner when I had put that direct question to him.
Notwithstanding his denial, I felt convinced that he had recognised the
dead man.
I had almost gained the outer edge of the wood, walking noiselessly over
the carpet of moss, when of a sudden the sound of voices caused me to
start and halt.
At first I saw nothing, but next moment through the tree trunks twenty
yards away I caught sight of two persons strolling slowly in company--a
man and a woman.
The man's face I could not see, but the woman, whose hair, beneath her
navy blue Tam o' Shanter cap showed dishevelled as a ray of sunlight
struck it, and whose white silk dress showed muddy and bedraggled
beneath her dark cloak, I recognised in an instant--although her back
was turned towards me.
It was Lady Lolita, the goddess of my admiration. Lolita--my queen--my
love.