Part 36 (1/2)

”You'll be pretty smart if you can,” Richard sighed. ”But get busy as soon as possible. Can you get over to-day?”

”Yes; and I must bring my a.s.sistant,--a young lady.”

”You're to use Sir Herbert Binney's rooms. Where shall I put the girl?”

”Is there a matron or housekeeper? Yes? Then the girl will attend to all that herself. Don't bother.”

”All right, I won't. Now, see here, Mr Wise, I want you to get at the truth, of course, but--if it leads----”

”Stop right there, Mr Bates. If I take this case, it's to get the truth, no matter where it leads. You've mentioned the two women most important in your life,--oh, yes, I see the importance of Mrs Everett. You are, you must be, interested in her daughter, for you showed it in your face when you spoke her name. Now, so far, I've nothing to connect those two women with the case, except that they are women, and the written paper accuses women. I believe that paper implicitly. I've had wide experience and no word of his murderer left by a dying victim is ever anything but the truth. I must see the paper as soon as I can; it may be informative.

But, remember, the processes of justice are inexorable,--where the truth leads, I must follow, absolutely irrespective of personal prejudice.”

”If you're sure it _is_ the truth----”

”Right. I must be sure, beyond all doubt. And I will be before I make any important decisions. You are sole heir?”

”Yes, except for some minor bequests.”

”Suspicion hasn't attacked you?”

Bates started at the question, but Pennington Wise seemed to think it a casual one, so Richard replied, frankly, ”No, it hasn't,--and I rather expected it.”

”Yes, it would not be strange. While, as I say, I believe, so far as I know now, that women killed him, yet others may feel the written message is faked.”

”Oh, it's positively Sir Herbert's writing; it doesn't need an expert to see that.”

”Were it not for the message, I should be inclined to look into his business relations.”

”I think that's the reason he wrote the note. My uncle was a quick thinker, and I can see how, knowing he must die, he did all he could to a.s.sist justice. I've no doubt he realized that attention would be turned toward men, and he wrote the truth, as far as he had strength to do so, in order to facilitate the work of his avengers. Without doubt he was intending to write the names of his murderers when his muscles or his brain power gave out.”

”That's the way I see it, but I can't be sure till I see the paper.

There are many motives for murder, but they can all be cla.s.sed as affairs of the heart, the mind or the purse. The first cla.s.s takes in all love interests; the second, business deals, and the third, robbery.

The last, I understand, we may eliminate; the second seems to be knocked out by that message, and we come back to some affair of the heart, which may not be love, but jealousy, revenge or a sudden, impulsive quarrel.

To look for the women is not an easy task, but it is a help to be started in the right direction.”

And so, Penny Wise established himself in the comfortable rooms lately occupied by the victim of the crime he was to investigate, and Zizi, his capable and picturesque a.s.sistant, found her quarters in the domain of the housekeeper.

Mrs Macey was a shrewd, capable woman, or she would not have been housekeeper at The Campanile. She looked in cold disdain at the glowing little face of the girl who unceremoniously invaded her room, and stared with increasing interest as the visitor talked.

”You see,” Zizi said, nodding her correctly hatted little head, ”I've just simply got to be taken in somewhere in the house, and it might as well be here. I'm too young to have an apartment by myself, and I'll promise you won't regret any 'small kindnesses' you may show me. In fact, Mr Pennington Wise, my sponsor in baptism, is the greatest rememberer of small kindnesses you ever saw!”

”My goodness!” remarked Mrs Macey, dazzled by the girl's beauty and animation, and bewildered by her insistent manner.

”Yep,” sauced Zizi, with her irresistible smile, ”it's your goodness that'll turn the trick. I'll confide to you that I'm here on business, most important secret business, and if your goodness pans out well and you put me up properly, you'll be what is known as handsomely rewarded.

So, which is my room?”

The girl whirled through a doorway and spied a neat little bedroom.

”This'll do,” she said, and setting down her small handbag proceeded to push things around on the dresser and fling her gloves and veil into a drawer, then with what was indubitably a farewell smile, she gently pushed Mrs Macey out, and closed the door after her, pausing only to say, ”You've good horse sense,--use it.”