Part 10 (1/2)
Only a fool pretends that he is less than he is. Such a gifted man as I, with the blood of a proud and a n.o.ble race in his veins--everything to be desired--romance--and the gift to love as only an Italian loves--such a man must find a very splendid, rich girl. It is only a question of patience. But such a treasure will not be found with this old sea wolf. He is not of long descent. I did not know. I should have seen him and his little mean hole first before coming to him. I advertise again and get into a higher atmosphere.”
Brendon found his thoughts wholly occupied with Jenny Pendean. Was it within the bounds of possibility that she, as time pa.s.sed to dim her sufferings and sense of loss, might look twice at this extraordinary being? He wondered, but thought it improbable.
Moreover the last of the Dorias evidently aimed at greater position and greater wealth than Michael Pendean's widow had to offer. Mark found himself despising the extraordinary creature, who violated so frankly and cheerfully every English standard of reserve and modesty. Yet the other's self-possession and sense of his own value in the market impressed him.
He was glad to give Doria five s.h.i.+llings and leave him at the landing-stage. But none the less Giuseppe haunted his imagination.
One might dislike his arrogance, or rejoice in his physical beauty, but to escape his vitality and the electric force of him was impossible.
Brendon soon reached the police station and hastened to communicate with Plymouth, Paignton, and Princetown. To the last place he sent a special direction and told Inspector Halfyard to visit Mrs. Gerry at Station Cottages and make a careful examination of the room which Robert Redmayne had there occupied.
CHAPTER V
ROBERT REDMAYNE IS SEEN
A sense of unreality impressed itself upon Mark Brendon after this stage in his inquiry. A time was coming when the false atmosphere in which he moved would be blown away by a stronger mind and a greater genius than his own; but already he found himself dimly conscious that some fundamental error had launched him along the wrong road--that he was groping in a blind alley and had missed the only path leading toward reality.
From Paignton on the following morning he proceeded to Plymouth and directed a strenuous and close inquiry. But he knew well enough that he was probably too late and judged with certainty that if Robert Redmayne still lived, he would no longer be in England. Next he returned to Princetown, that he might go over the ground again, even while appreciating the futility of so doing. But the routine had to be observed. The impressions of naked feet on the sand were carefully protected. They proved too indefinite to be distinguished, but he satisfied himself that they represented the footprints of two men, if not three. He remembered that Robert Redmayne had spoken of bathing in the pools and he strove to prove three separate pairs of feet, but could not.
Inspector Halfyard, who had followed the case as closely as it was possible to do so, cast all blame on Bendigo, the brother of the vanished a.s.sa.s.sin.
”He delayed of set purpose,” vowed Halfyard, ”and them two days may make just all the difference. Now the murderer's in France, if not Spain.”
”Full particulars have been circulated,” explained Brendon, but the inspector attached no importance to that fact.
”We know how often foreign police catch a runaway,” he said.
”This is no ordinary runaway, however. I still prefer to regard him as insane.”
”In that case he'd have been taken before now. And that makes what was simple before more and more of a puzzle in my opinion. I don't believe that the man was mad. I believe he was and is all there; and that being so, you've got to begin over again, Brendon, and find why he did it. Once grant that this was a deliberately planned murder and a mighty sight cleverer than it looked at first sight, then you've got to ferret back into the past and find what motives Redmayne had for doing it.”
But Brendon was not convinced.
”I can't agree with you,” he answered. ”I've already pursued that theory, but it is altogether too fantastic. We know, from impartial testimony, that the men were the best of friends up to the moment they left Princetown together on Redmayne's motor bicycle the night of the trouble.”
”What impartial testimony? You can't call Mrs. Pendean's evidence impartial.”
”Why not? I feel very certain that it is; but I'm speaking now of what I heard at Paignton from Miss Flora Reed, who was engaged to Robert Redmayne. She said that her betrothed wrote indicating his complete change of opinion; and he also told her that he had asked his niece and her husband to Paignton for the regattas. What is more, both Miss Reed and her parents made it clear that the soldier was of an excitable and uncertain nature. In fact Mr. Reed didn't much approve of the match. He described a man who might very easily slip over the border line between reason and unreason. No, Halfyard, you'll not find any theory to hold water but the theory of a mental breakdown. The letter he wrote to his brother quite confirms it. The very writing shows a lack of restraint and self-control.”
”The writing was really his?”
”I've compared it with another letter in Bendigo Redmayne's possession. It's a peculiar fist. I should say there couldn't be a shadow of doubt.”
”What shall you do next?”
”Get back to Plymouth again and make close inquiries among the onion boats. They go and come and I can trace the craft that left Plymouth during the days that immediately followed the posting of Redmayne's letter. These will probably be back again with another load in a week or two. One ought to be able to check them.”
”A wild-goose chase, Brendon.”