The Greatest Works of Anna Katharine Green. Анна Грин

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СКАЧАТЬ Gryce’s look and gesture were eloquent, but Miss Butterworth, with an access of dignity, quietly remarked:

      “I was not to blame for being in the way when they passed, nor could I help hearing what she said.”

      “And what was it, madam? Did she mention a paper?”

      “Yes, she cried in what I now remember to have been a tone of affright: ‘You have left that line of writing behind!’ I did not attach much importance to these words then, but when I came upon the dying man, so evidently the victim of murder, I recalled what his late visitor had said and looked about for this piece of writing.”

      “And did you find it, Miss Butterworth? I am ready, as you see, for any revelation you may now make.”

      “For one which would reflect dishonor on me? If I had found any paper explaining this tragedy, I should have felt bound to have called the attention of the police to it. I did notify them of the crime itself.”

      “Yes, madam; and we are obliged to you; but how about your silence in regard to the fact of two persons having left that house immediately upon, or just preceding, the death of its master?”

      “I reserved that bit of information. I waited to see if the police would not get wind of these people without my help. I sincerely wished to keep my name out of this inquiry. Yet I feel a decided relief now that I have made my confession. I never could have rested properly after seeing so much, and——”

      “Well?”

      “Thinking my own thoughts in regard to what I saw, if I had found myself compelled to bridle my tongue while false scents were being followed and delicate clews overlooked or discarded without proper attention. I regard this murder as offering the most difficult problem that has ever come in my way, and, therefore——”

      “Yes, madam.”

      “I cannot but wonder if an opportunity has been afforded me for retrieving myself in your eyes. I do not care for the opinion of any one else as to my ability or discretion; but I should like to make you forget my last despicable failure in Lost Man’s Lane. It is a sore remembrance to me, Mr. Gryce, which nothing but a fresh success can make me forget.”

      “Madam, I understand you. You have formulated some theory. You consider the young man with the tell-tale face guilty of Mr. Adams’s death. Well, it is very possible. I never thought the butler was rehearsing a crime he had himself committed.”

      “Do you know who the young man is I saw leaving that house so hurriedly?”

      “Not the least in the world. You are the first to bring him to my attention.”

      “And the young girl with the blonde hair?”

      “It is the first I have heard of her, too.”

      “I did not scatter the rose leaves that were found on that floor.”

      “No, it was she. She probably wore a bouquet in her belt.”

      “Nor was that frippery parasol mine, though I did lose a good, stout, serviceable one somewhere that day.”

      “It was hers; I have no doubt of it.”

      “Left by her in the little room where she was whiling away the time during which the gentlemen conversed together, possibly about that bit of writing she afterward alluded to.”

      “Certainly.”

      “Her mind was not expectant of evil, for she was smoothing her hair when the shock came——”

      “Yes, madam, I follow you.”

      “And had to be carried out of the place after——”

      “What?”

      “She had placed that cross on Mr. Adams’s breast. That was a woman’s act, Mr. Gryce.”

      “I am glad to hear you say so. The placing of that cross on a layman’s breast was a mystery to me, and is still, I must own. Great remorse or great fright only can account for it.”

      “You will find many mysteries in this case, Mr. Gryce.”

      “As great a number as I ever encountered.”

      “I have to add one.”

      “Another?”

      “It concerns the old butler.”

      “I thought you did not see him.”

      “I did not see him in the room where Mr. Adams lay.”

      “Ah! Where, then?”

      “Upstairs. My interest was not confined to the scene of the murder. Wishing to spread the alarm, and not being able to rouse any one below, I crept upstairs, and so came upon this poor wretch going through the significant pantomime that has been so vividly described in the papers.”

      “Ah! Unpleasant for you, very. I imagine you did not stop to talk to him.”

      “No, I fled. I was extremely shaken up by this time and knew only one thing to do, and that was to escape. But I carried one as yet unsolved enigma with me. How came I to hear this man’s cries in Mr. Adams’s study, and yet find him on the second floor when I came to search the house? He had not time to mount the stairs while I was passing down the hall.”

      “It is a case of mistaken impression. Your ears played you false. The cries came from above, not from Mr. Adams’s study.”

      “My ears are not accustomed to play me tricks. You must seek another explanation.”

      “I have ransacked the house; there are no back stairs.”

      “If there were, the study does not communicate with them.”

      “And you heard his voice in the study?”

      “Plainly.”

      “Well, you have given me a poser, madam.”

      “And I will give you another. If he was the perpetrator of this crime, how comes it that he was not detected and denounced by the young people I saw going out? If, on the contrary, he was simply the witness of another man’s blow—a blow which horrified him so much that it unseated his reason—how comes it that he was able to slide away from the door where he must have stood without attracting the attention and bringing down upon himself the vengeance of the guilty murderer?”

      “He may be one of the noiseless kind, or, rather, may have been such before this shock unsettled his mind.”

      “True, but he would have been seen. Recall the position of the doorway. If Mr. Adams fell where he was struck, the assailant must have had that door directly before him. He could not have helped seeing any one standing in it.”

      “That is true; your observations are quite correct. But those young people were in a disordered state of mind. The condition in which they issued from the house proves СКАЧАТЬ