The Solitary Farm Part 46

"I knew that this gent"--he nodded towards Cyril--"was in love with Miss Bella also, and knew that Captain Huxham hated him."

"Why did he hate him?"

"I can tell you," said Cyril quickly; "because of my father. Huxham knew my father in Nigeria, and as my father wished to get these jewels he feared lest he should force him to give them up. For this reason Huxham came down here and planted corn all round his house as a means of defence, and installed a search-light. He wished to be on his guard."

"Did your father intend murder?" asked the inspector, sharply.

"I really can't say."

"But he did," struck in Luke, who had been listening earnestly. "All that the young gent says is true, sir. I only followed, as I thought that there would be a row between Captain Huxham and--as I thought--Mr.

Cyril. I waited outside the house, and then hearing loud voices in the study--in this place," said Tunks looking round, "I stole to the cas.e.m.e.nt and peeped through that broken pane. They did not know that I was there."

"What became of Mr. Pence meanwhile?" asked Inglis suddenly.

"He was watching the house, but I think he went away and then came back."

Inglis nodded. "That is unsatisfactory. I must examine Mr. Pence later.

You go on, Tunks, and tell us exactly what you saw."

Tunks settled down to his narrative. "I listened and heard all about the jewels and the death of Maxwell Faith and all about Miss Bella being his daughter. I saw by this time that Mr. Lister was not Mr. Cyril here, and I guessed from his likeness that he was Mr. Cyril's father. Mr. Lister wanted Captain Huxham to give up the jewels for some expedition, but the captain refused. They began to quarrel, and then the captain pulled out a big knife from a drawer of his desk and rushed on Mr. Lister. There was a struggle and Mr. Lister tried to pull out a revolver. At length Huxham got Mr. Lister down and cut his throat."

"Which would account for the quant.i.ty of blood found on the floor here when Huxham's body was found. I thought there was too much blood for one man's corpse to supply. Go on."

"Oh, it's terrible--horrible!" said Cyril, covering his face. "What did you do, Tunks? Why didn't you give the alarm?"

"What, and be run in for being an accomplice!" said Tunks disdainfully, "not me. But I was frightened, and when I saw that Captain Huxham had killed Mr. Lister--I knew his name by that time, having heard them talking--why, I ran away as hard as my legs could carry me."

"Where did you go?"

"Home to Granny, so that I might be able to supply an alibi if necessary. I didn't tell her anything, but she found out a lot when I was raving with the drink in me. But I couldn't rest, and when Granny was a-bed I stole out. It was after ten by this time. I went up to the Manor and to yonder window. Then I saw Mrs. Coppersley--as she was--and Mr. Vand, talking to the captain and telling him they were married. The knife, all b.l.o.o.d.y, was on the floor near the door, but they were all three so busy talking that they did not notice it. But I wonder the captain didn't cover it up.'

"Where was the body of my father?" asked Cyril impatiently.

"I don't know; the body was gone. I've never been able to find out where the captain put up the body. But, as I say, he turned out Mr. Vand and his wife, as I knew she was then, and cursed up and down. But he didn't pick up the knife; in place of doing so, which would have been more sensible, seeing that he had murdered the Lister cove with it, he went to his desk and pulled out a black bag. He emptied this of jewels, and my mouth watered."

"Ah, so you recognised the bag when you tried to steal it from Mrs. Vand in your mother's cottage?"

"Yes, I did," said Luke sullenly, "and very sorry I am that I didn't get clear off with it."

"You have quite enough to answer for as it is," said Inglis sharply. "Go on, as I have got everything down so far."

"Well, then while the captain was sitting at the desk gloating over the jewels Mr. Vand comes in softly like a cat. He saw the jewels and his eyes lighted up. Captain Huxham, being busy, didn't hear him, so he picks up the knife lying near the door, and before I could cry out he rushed at the old man. Huxham turned to meet him, and got the knife in his heart. Then Mr. Vand, as cool as you please, dropped the knife behind the desk, and taking the bag with the jewels, he put 'em back--went away."

"What did you do?"

"I went home and tried to sleep, but couldn't."

"Why didn't you warn the police?" asked Inglis.

"No, sir. I'm only a gipsy, and they'd have thought I'd something to do with the business. If I'd accused Mr. Vand him and his wife would have accused me, and it would be two to one. Besides," said Luke coolly, "I wasn't sorry to see old Huxham downed after killing the other gent.

Serve him right, say I. So that's all."

"Humph," said Inglis, finishing his writing. "You made capital out of this?"

"Yes, I did," said Luke defiantly, and taking the pen which Inglis held out to him. "I told Mr. and Mrs. Vand what I'd seen. They were frightened--it was the next morning, you see--and paid me heaps of money to hold my tongue. Then, like a fool, I went on the bend, and talked so much that Granny got to know heaps, and so set the n.i.g.g.e.r brute on our tracks. There"--Luke signed his name--"you can't hang me for what I've told you."

Inglis and Lister both signed as witnesses, and the inspector put the paper into his pocket. He was about to ask further questions--to cross-examine Tunks in fact--when the door opened and a young constable appeared in a mighty state of excitement.

"Sir," he cried to his superior officer, "Mrs. Vand has escaped!"

"Escaped!" cried the inspector, in a voice of thunder.

"Yes, sir. Dutton is lying drugged in the hut, and the old woman has been stunned. Mrs. Vand and the gipsy girl are gone."

CHAPTER XXIV

A REMARKABLE DISCOVERY

Next morning there was a great sensation in the village of Marshely, as in some way the events of the previous night leaked out. Certainly, the accounts of these were more or less garbled, and no one appeared to know who was responsible for them. But this much of the truth became public property, that Vand and the negro prince who had been stopping at "The Chequers" were dead, that Mrs. Vand had fled to escape arrest, and that the police were in possession of Bleacres. Later in the afternoon it became known that Vand had killed Captain Huxham for the sake of certain jewels.

But the villagers were greatly astonished when they heard--from what source was not known--that another man had been killed. No one, save Silas Pence, had seen Edwin Lister enter the Manor, and Pence himself had presumed, until informed, that the man was Cyril, so no one knew that any person was missing. Now it appeared that the man who was murdered by Vand had committed a crime himself previous to his own death. But what he had done with the body no one knew, and the police could find no traces of the same in spite of all their efforts.

Inspector Inglis called at Miss Anker's cottage in the morning and interviewed both Bella and her lover. From them he heard the whole tale, and was greatly astonished by the recital. Under the circ.u.mstances he was inclined to take the jewels into official custody, but Bella refused to give them up; and undoubtedly they were her property left to her by her father, Maxwell Faith. Inglis admitted this, so did not press the point.

Afterwards the inspector examined Silas Pence, and heard from him much the same story as he had told Bella. The preacher was lying on a bed of sickness, as the blow on his head and the many worries he had been through of late nearly gave him brain fever. Of course--and Inglis told him as much--he should have reported at once the death of Huxham, as he had seen the body. But as Pence had not beheld the blow struck, the police could do nothing but admonish. Silas stated that in one point of his story when he confessed to Bella he had been wrong, which was after seeing Edwin Lister enter the Manor--or, as he thought then, Cyril--he had rushed away in the direction of the common in the vain attempt to rid himself of troublesome thoughts. When he returned Mr. and Mrs. Vand were in the kitchen, as Luke proved; and Pence was thus enabled to enter the house. Undoubtedly the guilty pair had left the front door open, so that blame might be cast upon some outsider--on a possible burglar, for instance. When they heard the noise of Pence's flight and found the money gone, they were quite determined to place the blame on a robber.

Mrs. Vand confessed this later, although at the time of the robbery she had not dreamed the burglar was the talented young preacher whom she so greatly admired.

But the guilty woman was missing for some days. On inquiry being made it appeared that the Romany girl, bribed by Mrs. Vand to a.s.sist her flight, had made a cup of tea for the constable. As Dutton was wet and cold, he drank the tea only too willingly, never suspecting that it was drugged.

But it turned out to be dosed with laudanum, and he fell into a deep sleep. Granny Tunks, as she stated on reviving, had attempted to stay the flight of Mrs. Vand and the Romany girl, but the latter had promptly knocked her down with the very chunk of wood with which Mrs. Tunks had struck the half-drowned woman. In this way Granny's sins came home to her.

Inglis found, on the detail of the motor-car being reported by Cyril, who had heard it from Mrs. Vand, that use had been made of the same. He advertised for such a car in such a neighbourhood, and speedily was called upon by a public chauffeur, who drove for hire. The man confessed very frankly that Vand had engaged his car to wait for himself and his wife on the high road to Pierside, and that thinking that nothing was wrong he had done so. Vand had paid him well, and the driver merely thought it was the eccentric whim of a rich man. Vand, it appeared, had engaged the car in London from the stand in Trafalgar Square. When Mrs.

Vand left the hut the Romany girl had rowed her to the swamps in the boat she had brought for the removal of Luke to the caravan, and the woman had then crossed the marshy ground to the high road. Making some excuse for the non-appearance of her husband, she had been driven to London, and the driver, who had already received his money, dropped her in Piccadilly. That, as he confessed, was the last he saw of her.

Inspector Inglis was very angry with the man, and pointed out that he should have suspected that the couple were flying from justice from the fact of the large sum of money paid, and on account of the strange place where it was arranged that the car should wait. But the man exonerated himself completely, and in the end he was permitted to go free, as the police could not do anything. And after all the chauffeur, who did not look particularly intelligent, might have acted in all good faith.

However the point was that Mrs. Vand, dropped in Piccadilly, had vanished entirely. She had ample money, as it was proved that she had drawn fifty pounds in gold from her bank, and although she had fled from the hut with only the dripping dress she wore, there would be no difficulty in her obtaining a fresh disguise. The police advertised in the papers and with handbills, but nothing could be heard of the woman.

She had vanished as completely as though the earth had opened and swallowed her.

Strangely enough, it was from Mrs. Vand's solicitor that the first news came of her doings. Timson was the lawyer's name, and he came down to Pierside to see Inspector Inglis. On being shown into the inspector's office he broke out abruptly--

"Sir," said Timson, who was a mild-faced, spectacled, yellow-haired man, "I have a communication to make to you about my respected client, Mrs.

Rosamund Vand, if you will hear it."

"Respectable, eh?" questioned the officer ironically. "Perhaps you don't know, Mr.--Mr."--he referred to the card--"Mr. Timson, that your respectable client is wanted for her complicity in the murder of her brother?"