The Valley of Fear Part 3 (2/2)

”And why the ?”

”Quite so”

”And why no arrest? It's past t I take it for granted that since dawn every constable within forty er?”

”That is so, Mr Hole of clothes ready, they can hardly miss hione to theand was exa with his lens the blood mark on the sill ”It is clearly the tread of a shoe It is remarkably broad; a splay-foot, one would say Curious, because, so far as one can trace any footmark in this mud-stained corner, one would say it was a more shapely sole However, they are certainly very indistinct What's this under the side table?”

”Mr Douglas's dumb-bells,” said Ames

”Dumb-bell--there's only one Where's the other?”

”I don't know, Mr Holmes There may have been only one I have not noticed them for months”

”One dumb-bell--” Holmes said seriously; but his remarks were interrupted by a sharp knock at the door

A tall, sunburned, capable-looking, clean-shavedthat it was the Cecil Barker of whom I had heard His lance from face to face

”Sorry to interrupt your consultation,” said he, ”but you should hear the latest news”

”An arrest?”

”No such luck But they've found his bicycle The fellow left his bicycle behind him Come and have a look It is within a hundred yards of the hall door”

We found three or four groo a bicycle which had been drawn out froreens in which it had been concealed It was a well used Rudge-Whitworth, splashed as fro with spanner and oilcan, but no clue as to the owner

”It would be a grand help to the police,” said the inspector, ”if these things were nuistered But we ot If we can't find where he went to, at least we are likely to get where he came from But what in the name of all that is wonderful ot aithout it? We don't seeht in the case, Mr Holhtfully ”I wonder!”

Chapter 5

--The People of the Drama

”Have you seen all you want of the study?” asked White Mason as we reentered the house

”For the time,” said the inspector, and Holmes nodded

”Then perhaps you would now like to hear the evidence of so room, Ames Please come yourself first and tell us what you know”

The butler's account was a si ied five years before, when Douglas first caentleman who had made his money in America He had been a kind and considerate employer--not quite what A He never saw any signs of apprehension in Mr Douglas: on the contrary, he was the e to be pulled up every night because it was the ancient custom of the old house, and he liked to keep the old ways up

Mr Douglas seldoe; but on the day before the crie Wells He (Ames) had observed solas that day; for he had seemed impatient and irritable, which was unusual with hiht; but was in the pantry at the back of the house, putting away the silver, when he heard the bell ring violently He heard no shot; but it was hardly possible he would, as the pantry and kitchens were at the very back of the house and there were several closed doors and a long passage between The housekeeper had co of the bell They had gone to the front of the house together

As they reached the botto down it No, she was not hurrying; it did not seeitated Just as she reached the bottom of the stair Mr Barker had rushed out of the study He had stopped Mrs Douglas and begged her to go back

”For God's sake, go back to your roo For God's sake, go back!”

After soone back She did not scream She made no outcry whatever Mrs Allen, the housekeeper, had taken her upstairs and stayed with her in the bedroom Ames and Mr Barker had then returned to the study, where they had found everything exactly as the police had seen it The candle was not lit at that ti They had looked out of the ; but the night was very dark and nothing could be seen or heard They had then rushed out into the hall, where Ae Mr Barker had then hurried off to get the police

Such, in its essentials, was the evidence of the butler

The account of Mrs Allen, the housekeeper, was, so far as it went, a corroboration of that of her fellow servant The housekeeper's room was rather nearer to the front of the house than the pantry in which Ao to bed when the loud ringing of the bell had attracted her attention She was a little hard of hearing Perhaps that hy she had not heard the shot; but in any case the study was a long way off She reined to be the slaood deal earlier--half an hour at least before the ringing of the bell When Mr Ames ran to the front she ith him She saw Mr Barker, very pale and excited, colas, as coo back, and she answered him, but what she said could not be heard

”Take her up! Stay with her!” he had said to Mrs Allen

She had therefore taken her to the bedrooreatly excited, treo downstairs She just sat in her dressing gown by her bedroom fire, with her head sunk in her hands Mrs Allen stayed with her one to bed, and the alarm did not reach them until just before the police arrived They slept at the extreme back of the house, and could not possibly have heard anything

So far the housekeeper could add nothing on cross-examination save lamentations and expressions of amazement

Cecil Barker succeeded Mrs Allen as a witness As to the occurrences of the night before, he had very little to add to what he had already told the police Personally, he was convinced that the murderer had escaped by theThe bloodstain was conclusive, in his opinion, on that point Besides, as the bridge was up, there was no other possible way of escaping He could not explain what had become of the assassin or why he had not taken his bicycle, if it were indeed his He could not possibly have been drowned in the moat, which was at no place more than three feet deep

In his own las was a reticent man, and there were sorated to A man He had prospered well, and Barker had first met him in California, where they had beco claim at a place called Benito Canon They had done very well; but Douglas had suddenly sold out and started for England He was a er at that time Barker had afterwards realized his money and come to live in London Thus they had renewed their friendshi+p

Douglas had given hi over his head, and he had always looked upon his sudden departure fro a house in so quiet a place in England, as being connected with this peril He ianization, was on Douglas's track, which would never rest until it killed hih he had never told him what the society was, nor how he had coend upon the placard had so were you with Douglas in California?” asked Inspector MacDonald

”Five years altogether”

”He was a bachelor, you say?”

”A er”

”Have you ever heard where his first wife ca that she was of German extraction, and I have seen her portrait She was a very beautiful woman She died of typhoid the year before I met him”

”You don't associate his past with any particular part of Ao He knew that city well and had worked there I have heard hiood deal in his time”

”Was he a politician? Had this secret society to do with politics?”

”No, he cared nothing about politics”

”You have no reason to think it was crihtercurious about his life in California?”

”He liked best to stay and to work at our claio where other ht that someone was after him Then when he left so suddenly for Europe Iof so half a dozenfor him”