Part 33 (1/2)
”Has anybody asked either of them if they are--or ever were--engaged?”
”No, sir. But if they denied it now, folks would just say the same thing.”
”Yes. I see--naturally. Lady Cromarty believes it and is keeping Miss Farmond under her eye, the gossips tell me. Is that so?”
”Oh, that's true right enough, sir.”
”Who told Lady Cromarty?”
”That I do not know, sir.”
Again the visitor seemed to be thinking, and again to cast his thoughts aside and take up a new aspect of the case.
”Supposing,” he suggested, ”we were to draw the curtains and light these candles for a few minutes? It might help us to realise the whole thing.”
This suggestion pleased Mr. Bisset greatly and in a minute or two the candles were lit and the curtains drawn.
”Put the table where it stood,” said Carrington. ”Now which was Sir Reginald's chair? This?”
He sat in it and looked slowly round the darkened, candle-lit library.
”Now,” said he, ”suppose I was Sir Reginald, and there came a tap at that window, what would I do?”
”If you were the master, sir, you'd go straight to the windie to see who it was.”
”I wouldn't get in a funk and ring the bell?”
”No fears!” said Bisset confidently.
”And any one who knew Sir Reginald at all well could count on his not giving the alarm then if they tapped at the window?”
”They could that.”
Carrington looked attentively towards the window.
”Those curtains hang close against the window, I see,” he observed. ”A very slight gap in them would enable any one to get a good view of the room, if the blinds were not down. Were the blinds down that night?”
Bisset slapped his knee.
”The middle blind wasn't working!” he cried. ”What a fool I've been not to think on the extraordinar' significance of that fac'! My, the deductions to be drawn! You've made it quite clear now, sir. The man tappit at that windie----”
”Steady, steady!” said Carrington, smiling and yet seriously. ”Don't you go announcing that theory! If there's anything in it--mum's the word!
But mind you, Bisset, it's only a bare possibility. There's no good evidence against the door theory yet.”
”Not the table being cowpit and the body moved?”
”They might be explained.”
He was thoughtful for a moment and then said deliberately:
”I want--I mean you want certain evidence to exclude the door theory.