Part 21 (2/2)

”I said no, of course, and he took my answer and went quietly away,”

replied Peggie. ”And that--that's why I'm frightened of him.”

”Good heavens! Why?” demanded Selwood. ”I don't understand. Frightened of him because he took his answer, went away quietly, and hasn't annoyed you since? That--I say, that licks me!”

”Perhaps,” she said. ”But, you see, you don't know him. It's just because of that--that quiet--that--oh, I don't quite know how to explain!--that--well, silence--that I'm afraid--yes, literally afraid.

There's something about him that makes me fear. I used to wish that my uncle had never employed him--that he had never come here. And--I'd rather be penniless than that my uncle had ever got him--him!--to witness that will!”

Selwood found no words wherewith to answer this. He did not understand it. Nevertheless he presently found words of another sort.

”All right!” he muttered doggedly. ”I'll watch him--or, I'll watch that he--that--well, that no harm comes to--you know what I mean, don't you?”

”Yes,” murmured Peggie, and once more held out an impulsive hand. But Selwood again pretended to see nothing, and he began another energetic a.s.sault upon the papers which Jacob Herapath would never handle again.

CHAPTER XVII

THE LAW

Once within a taxi-cab and on their way to Maida Vale, Mr. Halfpenny turned to his companion with a shake of the head which implied a much mixed state of feeling.

”Tertius!” he exclaimed. ”There's something wrong! Quite apart from what we know, and from what we were able to communicate to the police, there's something wrong. I feel it--it's in the air, the--the whole atmosphere. That fellow Barthorpe is up to some game. What? Did you notice his manner, his att.i.tude--everything? Of course!--who could help it? He--has some scheme in his head. Again I say--what?”

Mr. Tertius stirred uneasily in his seat and shook his head.

”You haven't heard anything from New Scotland Yard?” he asked.

”Nothing--so far. But they are at work, of course. They'll work in their own way. And,” continued Mr. Halfpenny, with a grim chuckle, ”you can be certain of this much, Tertius--having heard what we were able to tell them, having seen what we were able to put before them, with respect to the doings of that eventful night, they won't let Master Barthorpe out of their ken--not they! It is best to let them pursue their own investigations in their own manner--they'll let us know what's been done, sure enough, at the right time.”

”Yes,” a.s.sented Mr. Tertius. ”Yes--so I gather--I am not very conversant with these things. I confess there's one thing that puzzles me greatly though, Halfpenny. That's the matter of the man who came out of the House of Commons with Jacob that night. You remember that the coachman, Mountain, told us--and said at the inquest also--that he overheard what Jacob said to that man--'The thing must be done at once, and you must have everything ready for me at noon tomorrow,' or words to that effect. Now that man must be somewhere at hand--he must have read the newspapers, know all about the inquest--why doesn't he come forward?”

Mr. Halfpenny chuckled again and patted his friend's arm.

”Ah!” he said. ”But you don't know that he hasn't come forward! The probability is, Tertius, that he has come forward, and that the people at New Scotland Yard are already in possession of whatever story he had to tell. Oh, yes, I quite expect that--I also expect to hear, eventually, another piece of news in relation to that man.”

”What's that?” asked Mr. Tertius.

”Do you remember that, at the inquest, Mountain, the coachman, said that there was another bit of evidence he had to give which he'd forgotten to tell Mr. Barthorpe when he questioned him? Mountain”--continued Mr.

Halfpenny--”went on to say that while Jacob Herapath and the man stood talking in Palace Yard, before Jacob got into his brougham, Jacob took some object from his waistcoat pocket and handed it, with what looked like a letter, to the man? Eh?”

”I remember very well,” replied Mr. Tertius.

”Very good,” said Mr. Halfpenny. ”Now I believe that object to have been the key of Jacob's safe at the Safe Deposit, which, you remember, could not be found, but which young Selwood affirmed had been in Jacob's possession only that afternoon. The letter I believe to have been a formal authority to the Safe Deposit people to allow the bearer to open that safe. I've thought all that out,” concluded Mr. Halfpenny, with a smile of triumph, ”thought it out carefully, and it's my impression that that's what we shall find when the police move. I believe that man has revealed himself to the police, has told them--whatever it is he has to tell, and that his story probably throws a vast flood of light on the mystery. So I say--let us not at present concern ourselves with the actual murder of our poor friend: the police will ferret that out! What we're concerned with is--the will! That will, Tertius, must be proved, and at once.”

”I am as little conversant with legal matters as with police procedure,”

observed Mr. Tertius. ”What is the exact course, now, in a case of this sort?”

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