Part 24 (1/2)
”That it was Cayley's idea to drag the pond.”
”Oh! Oh, I say!” Bill was rather excited again. ”You mean that he's hidden something there? Some false clue which he wants the police to find?”
”I hope so,” said Antony earnestly, ”but I'm afraid-” He stopped short.
”Afraid of what?”
”Afraid that he hasn't hidden anything there. Afraid that-”
”Well?”
”What's the safest place in which to hide anything very important?”
”Somewhere where n.o.body will look.”
”There's a better place than that.”
”What?”
”Somewhere where everybody has already looked.”
”By Jove! You mean that as soon as the pond has been dragged, Cayley will hide something there?”
”Yes, I'm afraid so.”
”But why afraid?”
”Because I think that it must be something very important, something which couldn't easily be hidden anywhere else.”
”What?” asked Bill eagerly.
Antony shook his head.
”No, I'm not going to talk about it yet. We can wait and see what the Inspector finds. He may find something-I don't know what-something that Cayley has put there for him to find. But if he doesn't, then it will be because Cayley is going to hide something there to-night.”
”What?” asked Bill again.
”You will see what, Bill,” said Antony; ”because we shall be there.”
”Are we going to watch him?”
”Yes, if the Inspector finds nothing.”
”That's good,” said Bill.
If it were a question of Cayley or the Law, he was quite decided as to which side he was taking. Previous to the tragedy of yesterday he had got on well enough with both of the cousins, without being in the least intimate with either. Indeed, of the two he preferred, perhaps, the silent, solid Cayley to the more volatile Mark. Cayley's qualities, as they appeared to Bill, may have been chiefly negative; but even if this merit lay in the fact that he never exposed whatever weaknesses he may have had, this is an excellent quality in a fellow-guest (or, if you like, fellow-host) in a house where one is continually visiting. Mark's weaknesses, on the other hand, were very plain to the eye, and Bill had seen a good deal of them.
Yet, though he had hesitated to define his position that morning in regard to Mark, he did not hesitate to place himself on the side of the Law against Cayley. Mark, after all, had done him no harm, but Cayley had committed an unforgivable offence. Cayley had listened secretly to a private conversation between himself and Tony. Let Cayley hang, if the Law demanded it.
Antony looked at his watch and stood up.