Part 56 (1/2)

Mr. Prohack nodded. Indubitably she made a wonderful sight in her daring splendour.

”So you've found out all about it already!” said she, still meekly, while Mr. Prohack was seeking the right gambit. ”Please do tell me how,”

she added, disposing the folds of her short skirt about the chair.

”I'm not here to answer questions,” said Mr. Prohack. ”I'm here to ask them. How did you do it? And was it you or Charlie or both of you? Whose idea was it?”

”It was my idea,” Mimi purred. ”But Mr. Charles seemed to like it. It was really very simple. We first of all found out about the s.e.xton.”

”And how did you do that?”

”Private enquiry agents, of course. Same people who were in charge here last night. I knew of them when I was with Mr. Carrel Quire, and it was I who introduced them to Mrs. Prohack.”

”It would be!” Mr. Prohack commented. ”And then?”

”And then when we'd discovered Mrs. Slipstone--or Miss Slipstone--”

”Who's she?”

”She's a rather stout charwoman who has a fascination for the s.e.xton of St. Nicodemus. When I'd got her it was all plain sailing. She lent me the church keys and Mr. Charles and I went up the tower to reconnoitre.”

”But that was more than twenty-four hours before the clock ceased to strike, and you returned the keys to her.”

”Oh! So you know that too, do you?” said Mimi blandly. ”Mr. Prohack, I hope you'll forgive me for saying that you're most frightfully clever. I _did_ give the keys back to Mrs. Slipstone a long time before the clock stopped striking, but you see, Mr. Charles had taken an impression of the tower key in clay, so that last night we were able to go up with an electric torch and our own key. The clock is a very old one, and Mr.

Charles removed a swivel or something--I forget what he called it, but he seems to understand everything about every kind of machinery. He says it would take a tremendous long time to get another swivel, or whatever it is, cast, even if it ever could be cast without a pattern, and that you'll be safe for at least six months, even if we don't rely on the natural slowness of the Established Church to do anything really active. You see it isn't as if the clock wasn't going. It's showing the time all right, and that will be sufficient to keep the rector and the church-wardens quiet. It keeps up appearances. Of course if the clock had stopped entirely they would have had to do something.... You don't seem very pleased, dear Mr. Prohack. We thought you'd be delighted. We did it all for you.”

”Did you indeed!” said Mr. Prohack ruthlessly. ”And did you think of the riskiness of what you were doing? There'll be a most appalling scandal, certainly police-court proceedings, and I shall be involved, if it comes to light.”

”But it can't come to light!” Mimi exploded.

”And yet it came to my light.”

”Yes, I expect Mr. Charles was so proud that he couldn't help telling you some bits about it. But n.o.body else can know. Even if Mrs. Slipstone lets on to the s.e.xton, the s.e.xton will never let on because if he did he'd lose his place. The s.e.xton will always have to deny that he parted with the keys even for a moment. It will be the loveliest mystery that ever was, and all the police in the world won't solve it. Of course, if you aren't pleased, I'm very sorry.”

”It isn't a question of not being pleased. The breath is simply knocked out of me--that's what it is! Whatever possessed you to do it?”

”But something had to be done, Mr. Prohack. Everybody in the house was terribly upset about you. You couldn't sleep because of the clock, and you said you never would sleep. Mrs. Prohack was at her wit's end.”

”Everybody in the house was terribly upset about me! This is the first I've heard of anybody being terribly upset about me. I thought that everybody except me had forgotten all about the infernal clock.”

”Naturally!” said Mimi, with soothing calmness. ”Mrs. Prohack quite rightly forbade any mention of the clock in your presence. She said the best thing to do was to help you to forget it by never referring to it, and we all agreed with her. But it weighed on us dreadfully. And something really had to be done.”

Mr. Prohack was not unimpressed by this revelation of the existence of a social atmosphere which he had never suspected. But he was in no mood for compromise.

”Now just listen to me,” said he. ”You are without exception the most dangerous woman that I have ever met. All women are dangerous, but you are an acute peril.”

”Yes,” Mimi admitted, ”Mr. Carrel Quire used to talk like that. I got quite used to it.”

”Did he really? Well, I think all the better of him, then. The mischief with you is that your motives are good. But a good motive is no excuse for a criminal act, and still less excuse for an idiotic act. I don't suppose I shall do any good by warning you, yet I do hereby most solemnly warn you to mend your ways. And I wish you to understand clearly that I am not a bit grateful to you. In fact the reverse.”

Mimi stiffened herself.

”Perhaps you would prefer us to restore the missing part and start the clock striking again. It would be perfectly easy. We still have our own key to the tower and we could do it to-night. I am sure it will be at least a week before the church-wardens send an expert clock-maker up the tower.”