The Seven Secrets Part 6

"Yes, sir. I've often seen him in the 'Star and Garter' at Kew Bridge."

"Drinks?"

"Not much, sir. He was fined over at Brentford six months ago for letting a dog go unmuzzled. His greatest friend is one of the gardeners at the Palace--a man named Burford, a most respectable fellow."

"Then there's no suspicion of anyone as yet?" remarked the inspector, with an air of dissatisfaction. In criminal mysteries the police often bungle from the outset, and to me it appeared as though, having no clue, they were bent on manufacturing one.

I felt in my vest pocket and touched the little object with a feeling of secret satisfaction. How I longed to be alone for five minutes in order to investigate it!

The inspector, having dismissed the constable and sent him back to his post to unlock the door for the detective to pa.s.s out, next turned his attention to the servants and the remainder of the house. With that object we all descended to the dining-room.

Ethelwynn met us at the foot of the stairs, still wearing the shawl about her head and shoulders. She placed a trembling hand upon my arm as I pa.s.sed, asking in a low anxious voice:

"Have you found anything, Ralph? Tell me."

"No, nothing," I replied, and then pa.s.sed into the dining-room, where the nurse and domestics had been a.s.sembled.

The nurse, a plain matter-of-fact woman, was the first person to be questioned. She explained to us how she had given her patient his last dose of medicine at half-past eleven, just after Miss Mivart had wished her good-night and retired to her room. Previously she had been down in the drawing-room chatting with the young lady. The man Short was then upstairs with his master.

"Was the deceased gentleman aware of his wife's absence?" the inspector asked presently.

"Yes. He remarked to me that it was time she returned. I presume that Short had told him."

"What time was this?"

"Oh! about half-past ten, I should think," replied Nurse Kate. "He said something about it being a bad night to go out to a theatre, and hoped she would not take cold."

"He was not angry?"

"Not in the least. He was never angry when she went to town. He used to say to me, 'My wife's a young woman, nurse. She wants a little amus.e.m.e.nt sometimes, and I'm sure I don't begrudge it to her.'"

This puzzled me quite as much as it puzzled the detective. I had certainly been under the impression that husband and wife had quarrelled over the latter's frequent absences from home. Indeed, in a household where the wife is young and the husband elderly, quarrels of that character are almost sure to occur sooner or later. As a doctor I knew the causes of domestic infelicity in a good many homes. Men in my profession see a good deal, and hear more. Every doctor could unfold strange tales of queer households if he were not debarred by the bond of professional secrecy.

"You heard no noise during the night?" inquired the inspector.

"None. I'm a light sleeper as a rule, and wake at the slightest sound," the woman replied. "But I heard absolutely nothing."

"Anyone, in order to enter the dead man's room, must have pa.s.sed your door, I think?"

"Yes, and what's more, the light was burning and my door was ajar. I always kept it so in order to hear if my patient wanted anything."

"Then the murderer could see you as he stood on the landing?"

"No. There's a screen at the end of my bed. He could not see far into the room. But I shudder to think that to-night I've had an a.s.sa.s.sin a dozen feet from me while I slept," she added.

Finding that she could throw no light upon the mysterious affair, the officer turned his attention to the four frightened domestics, each in turn.

All, save one, declared that they heard not a single sound. The one exception was Alice, the under housemaid, a young fair-haired girl, who stated that during the night she had distinctly heard a sound like the low creaking of light shoes on the landing below where they slept.

This first aroused our interest, but on full reflection it seemed so utterly improbable that an a.s.sa.s.sin would wear a pair of creaky boots when on such an errand that we were inclined to disregard the girl's statement as a piece of imagination. The feminine mind is much given to fiction on occasions of tragic events.

But the girl over and over again a.s.serted that she had heard it. She slept alone in a small room at the top of the second flight of stairs and had heard the sound quite distinctly.

"When you heard it what did you do?"

"I lay and listened."

"For how long?"

"Oh, quite a quarter of an hour, I should think. It was just before half-past one when I heard the noise, for the church clock struck almost immediately afterwards. The sound of the movement was such as I had never before heard at night, and at first I felt frightened. But I always lock my door, therefore I felt secure. The noise was just like someone creeping along very slowly, with one boot creaking."

"But if it was so loud that you could hear it with your door closed, it is strange that no one else heard it," the detective-sergeant remarked dubiously.

"I don't care what anybody else heard, I heard it quite plainly," the girl a.s.serted.

"How long did it continue?" asked the detective.

"Oh, only just as though someone was stealing along the corridor. We often hear movements at nights, because Short is always astir at two o'clock, giving the master his medicine. If it hadn't ha' been for the creaking I should not have taken notice of it. But I lay quite wide awake for over half an hour--until Short came banging at our doors, telling us to get up at once, as we were wanted downstairs."

"Well," exclaimed the inspector, "now, I want to ask all of you a very simple question, and wish to obtain an honest and truthful reply. Was any door or window left unfastened when you went to bed?"

"No, sir," the cook replied promptly. "I always go round myself, and see that everything is fastened."

"The front door, for example?"

"I bolted it at Miss Ethelwynn's orders."

"At what time?"

"One o'clock. She told me to wait up till then, and if mistress did not return I was to lock up and go to bed."

"Then the tragedy must have been enacted about half an hour later?"

"I think so, sir."

"You haven't examined the doors and windows to see if any have been forced?"

"As far as I can see, they are just as I left them when I went to bed, sir."

"That's strange--very strange," remarked the inspector, turning to us.

"We must make an examination and satisfy ourselves."

The point was one that was most important in the conduct of the inquiry. If all doors and windows were still locked, then the a.s.sa.s.sin was one of that strange household.

Led by the cook, the officers began a round of the lower premises. One of the detectives borrowed the constable's bull's-eye and, accompanied by a second officer, went outside to make an examination of the window sashes, while we remained inside a.s.sisting them in their search for any marks.

Ethelwynn had been called aside by one of the detectives, and was answering some questions addressed to her, therefore for an instant I found myself alone. It was the moment I had been waiting for, to secretly examine the clue I had obtained.