Part 41 (1/2)
”My dear aunt,” he said in a hushed voice, ”these gentlemen, having heard of your extraordinary achievement this afternoon, have come to lay at your feet their united tribute of--”
Miss Penkridge shot a warning glance through her steel-rimmed spectacles.
”Don't talk nonsense, Richard!” she exclaimed sharply. ”Ring the bell for more cups and saucers!”
CHAPTER XXIX
WHO IS TO TELL HER?
But Viner, instead of ordering the teacups, whispered a word or two to Miss Penkridge, and then beckoned Lord Ellingham and the two solicitors to follow him out of the room. He silently led them to his study and closed the door.
”Miss Wickham will be all right for a while under my aunt's care,” he said, with a smile that had a certain meaning in it which was not lost on Mr. Pawle or on Mr. Carless, ”but there are matters connected with her which ought not to wait, even for ten minutes hanging round Miss Penkridge's tea-table. Now, I have been thrown headlong into this case, and like all the rest of you, I am pretty well acquainted with it. And I take it that now that the murder of Ashton has been solved, the real question is--what is the truth about the young lady who was certainly his ward?”
”That is right!” exclaimed Mr. Pawle. ”Carless--and Lord Ellingham--I am sure, agree with me.”
”Absolutely--as far as I'm concerned,” a.s.serted Mr. Carless. ”His Lords.h.i.+p will speak for himself.”
Lord Ellingham answered Viner's smile with one equally frank.
”I don't know whether I'm Lord Ellingham or not!” he said. ”I have had considerable doubt on that point ever since our conference the other day. But I will say this, gentlemen: I had some conversation with Miss Wickham the other day, after we left your office, Mr. Carless, when she was kind enough to allow me to escort her home, and--well, to be frank, gentlemen, whether she is my cousin or not, I--to me an old-fas.h.i.+oned phrase--desire her better acquaintance! And if she is my cousin, why, then--the t.i.tle is not mine but hers!”
The two lawyers exchanged significant glances.
”Admirably spoken, My Lord!” said Mr. Pawle. ”Excellent!”
”It is just what I would have expected of his Lords.h.i.+p,” remarked Mr.
Carless. ”I have known His Lords.h.i.+p since he was first breeched! But I believe Mr. Viner has something to say?”
”Yes--this,” answered Viner. ”Drillford found on Cortelyon the papers which are missing from those which Ashton had evidently kept together with a view to proving his ward's right to the t.i.tle and estates. He is a sharp, fellow, Drillford, and he told me just now that he had glanced over those papers since Cortelyon's arrest, and he--well, I only just stopped him from letting out to Miss Wickham who--if the papers and the deduction to be drawn from them are correct--she really is. I am right in supposing,” he continued, suddenly interrupting himself, ”that the Ellingham t.i.tle runs in the female as in the male line?”
”Quite right, Mr. Viner,” said Mr. Carless. ”Quite right. It does! I believe I mentioned the other day that there has already been one Countess of Ellingham in her own right. The male line came to an end at one period--the daughter of the last male holder succeeded, and the man whom she married took the family name of Cave-Gray, and their eldest son, of course, succeeded on the death of his mother. Quite right, sir.”
”Then,” suggested Viner, ”don't you think it would be advisable, rather than that Lord Ellingham should be kept in suspense, that we should go round to the police-station and inspect the doc.u.ments? I don't know whether Drillford will give them up until his prisoners have been brought before the magistrate, but he said he would give them to the proper persons eventually, and in any case he will show them to you three gentlemen.”
”Good!” said Mr. Pawle. ”Let us go at once--it is only a few minutes' walk.”
”And in the meantime,” suggested Mr. Carless, ”Miss Wickham might be asked to remain here--under the wing of the excellent Miss Penkridge?”
Viner laughingly remarked that he had no doubt whatever that Miss Penkridge would willingly a.s.sume this position of trust, and leading his callers into the hall, left them for a moment while he returned to the drawing-room. He was smiling when he returned.
”I think Miss Wickham will be safe for some time,” he said. ”Horrified as she is at the conduct of the wicked Mrs. Killenhall, she is sufficiently feminine to be taking a vast interest in my aunt's account of how she brought off her wonderful stroke of genius this afternoon. So--shall we go round?”
Drillford, found alone in his office, showed no surprise when Viner brought in and introduced his companions. He already knew the two lawyers, and exchanged comprehending words with them, but he looked at Lord Ellingham with the same interest which Viner had seen in him when Miss Wickham was present.
”Of course, you may see the whole lot, gentlemen,” he said as he unlocked the drawer. ”I don't want you to take these things away now, though, because we'd like to produce them when these people are brought up tomorrow morning. But after they've been shown, I'll hand them over--and in the meantime you can rely on it that they'll be taken care of--rather!
Well, now, here's the missing ring! Hyde, you know, admitted to picking up one--this is the other, without doubt. And--there's the fifty-thousand-pound diamond. Of course, Cortelyon robbed Ashton after he'd killed him as a piece of bluff--what he wanted was these papers. He evidently gave Cave, or Starr, his accomplice, certain of the papers, to play the game with, but the really important ones he kept in his own pocket, where I found 'em. There you are, gentlemen.”
He handed over a stout linen-lined foolscap envelope to Mr. Carless, and that gentleman, whose fingers trembled a little in spite of his determined attempt to preserve his professional coolness, drew certain papers from it, and laying them on a desk close by, beckoned the other men to his elbows, and began to examine them. For several minutes the four pairs of eyes ran over the various doc.u.ments, Mr. Carless' finger pointing to one particular pa.s.sage or another during their hasty perusal, and he and Mr. Pawle nodding a.s.sent as they exchanged glances and muttered remarks.