Part 4 (1/2)

And, gathering the little G.o.ddess and its chain into his palm, he transferred it to his pocket.

Just as he did so, voices sounded outside the cottage. Edgson, with three men in overcoats and bowler hats were coming up the garden path.

They entered the room without ceremony, and old Edgson, who accompanied them, said:

”These are the gentlemen from London, Master Raife.”

Two of the men respectfully saluted the young baronet--for he had now succeeded to the t.i.tle--while the third, Raife recognised as Inspector Caldwell from Tunbridge Wells.

”Well, Caldwell,” he said. ”This is a very sad business for us.”

”Very sad, indeed, sir,” was the dark-bearded man's reply. ”We all sympathise with you and her ladys.h.i.+p very deeply, sir. Sir Henry was highly respected everywhere, sir, and there wasn't a more just, and yet considerate, magistrate on any county bench in England.”

”Is that the popular opinion?” asked Raife, thoughtfully.

”Yes, sir. That's what everybody says. The awful news has created the greatest sensation in Tunbridge Wells. I wonder who this blackguardly individual is?” he added.

The two detectives from Scotland Yard had crossed to where the dead man was lying, his white face upturned, and were scrutinising him narrowly.

”I don't recognise him,” declared the elder of the pair. ”He's done time, no doubt. Look at his gloves.”

”An old hand, that's quite certain. We've got his finger-prints in the Department, you bet,” remarked the other. ”We'd better take off his gloves and take some prints as soon as we can; they will, no doubt, establish his ident.i.ty. Mr Caldwell, will you please telephone to a printer's somewhere near for a little printing-ink?”

”Certainly,” replied the inspector. ”I'll 'phone back to Tunbridge Wells and have it sent out by a constable on a bicycle.”

The three officers then proceeded to make a minute examination of the body, but Raife did not remain. He returned to the house, accompanied by Edgson.

A few minutes later he stood in the library before the open safe, plunged in thought. The suns.h.i.+ne streamed across the fine old room filled with books from floor to ceiling, for Sir Henry was a student, and his library, being his hobby, was cosily furnished--a pleasant, restful place, the long, stained-gla.s.s windows of which looked out upon the quaint old Jacobean garden, with its grey, weather-beaten sundial, its level lawns, and high, well-clipped beech hedges.

Raife stood gazing at the safe, which, standing open, just as it was when his father had surprised the intruder, revealed a quant.i.ty of papers, bundles of which were tied with faded pink tape: a number of valuable securities, correspondence, insurance policies, and the usual private doc.u.mentary treasures of an important landowner. Papers concerning the estate were mostly preserved at the agent's office in Tunbridge Wells: only those concerning his own private affairs did Sir Henry keep in the library.

What had his dead father meant by those dying words uttered to old Edgson? That warning to be careful of the trap! What trap? What could his father fear? What truth was it which his father had hesitated to tell him--the important truth the telling of which had been too late.

He recollected his father's words as uttered to the faithful old servant: ”I was a fool, Edgson. I ought to have told my boy from the first. Every man has a skeleton in his cupboard. This is mine!”

”And, further, who was the woman whom he had referred to as `her'?”

The young man gazed upon the dark patch on the carpet near the door, soaked by the life-blood of his unfortunate father. The latter, so suddenly cut off, had carried his secret to the grave.

That big, sombre room, wherein the tragedy had taken place, looked pleasant and cheerful with the bright, summer sunlight now slanting upon it. The big, silver bowl of roses upon the side-table shed a sweet fragrance there, while the s.p.a.cious, old-fas.h.i.+oned mahogany writing-table was still littered with the dead man's correspondence.

The writing-chair he had vacated on the previous night, before going to bed, stood there, the silk cus.h.i.+on still crushed just as he had risen from it. His big briar-pipe lay just as he had knocked it out and placed it in the little bowl of beaten bra.s.s which he used as an ash-tray.

The newspapers which he had read were, as usual, flung upon the floor, while the waste-paper basket had not been emptied that morning. The servants had not dared to enter that room of disaster.

Young Raife re-crossed the room, and again examined the open door of the safe.

He saw that it had not been forced, but opened by a duplicate key--one that had, no doubt, been cut from a cast secretly taken of the one which his father always carried attached to his watch-chain. So well had the false key fitted that the door had yielded instantly.

In the darkness in that well-remembered room, the room which he recollected as his father's den ever since he was a child, the two men-- the baronet and the burglar--had come face to face.

”I wonder,” Raife exclaimed, speaking to himself softly, scarce above a whisper. ”I wonder if there was a recognition? The words of the poor guv'nor almost tell me that, in that critical moment, the pair, bound together in one common secret, met. They hated each other--and they killed each other! Why did the guv'nor admit that he had been a fool?