Part 19 (2/2)

”Well, did you, as you went through the library, coming or going, hear Lord Loudwater snore?”

Hutchings knitted his brow, thinking; then he said: ”I can't call to mind as I did, sir. But, then, I wasn't giving him any attention. I was thinking about other things altogether. Of course, I went out quietly enough. But that was habit.”

”That sounds as if you had not heard him snore--as if you thought that he was awake,” said Mr. Flexen.

”I don't think I thought about him at all, sir, at the moment. I was thinking about other things,” said Hutchings.

”You say that Mr. Manley saw you go out?”

”Yes, sir. I pa.s.sed him in the hall and went into the library. We had a few words, and I told him I had come to fetch some cigarettes as I'd left behind.”

”Do you know what the time was?” said Mr. Flexen.

”No, sir--not exactly. But it must have been nearly half-past eleven, I should think.”

”It is very important to fix the time at which Lord Loudwater died,” said Mr. Flexen. ”You can't tell me nearer than that?”

”No, sir. It was nearly ten to twelve when I got home, and I reckon it's about twenty minutes' walk from the Castle to the cottage here.”

”And all you went to the Castle for was to speak to Elizabeth Twitcher?”

said Mr. Flexen.

”That was all I went for--every single thing. And it was all I did there--every mortal thing I did there, sir,” Hatchings a.s.severated, and he wiped his brow.

”H'm!” said Mr. Flexen. ”As you pa.s.sed through the library, did you happen to notice whether the knife was in its place in the big inkstand?”

Hutchings hesitated, and his lips twitched. Then he said: ”Yes, I did, sir. It was in the big inkstand.”

Mr. Flexen could not make up his mind whether he was telling the truth or not. He thought that he was not. But he did not attach much importance to the matter. People who knew themselves to be suspected of a crime had often told him quite stupid and unnecessary lies and been proved innocent after all.

”I should have thought that your mind was too full of other things to notice a thing like that,” he said in a somewhat incredulous tone.

Then there came an outburst. Mr. Flexen had thought that Hutchings was worked up to a high degree of nervous tension, and he was. He cried out that he knew that every one believed that he had done it; but he hadn't.

He'd never thought of it. He was d.a.m.ned if he didn't wish he had done it.

He might as well be hung for a sheep as a lamb, anyhow. He broke off to curse Lord Loudwater at length. He had been a curse to every one who came into contact with him while he was alive, and now he was getting people into trouble when he was dead. Yes: he wished it had occurred to him to stick that knife into him. He'd have done it like a shot, and he'd have done the right thing. The world was well rid of a swine like that!

His face was contorted, and his eyes kept gleaming red as he talked, and he came to the end of his outburst, trembling and panting.

Mr. Flexen was unmoved and unenlightened. It was merely the outburst of a badly-frightened man lacking in self-control, and told him nothing. It left it equally likely that Hutchings had, or had not, committed the crime.

”There's nothing to get so frantic about,” he said quietly to the panting man. ”It doesn't do any good.”

”It's all very well to talk like that, sir,” said Hutchings in a shaky voice. ”But I know what people are saying. It's enough to make any one lose their temper.”

”I should think that yours was pretty easy to lose,” said Mr.

Flexen dryly.

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