XXXIV
A CONFIDENTIAL CONVERSATION
The laird of Stanesland strode into the Kings Arms and demanded:
"Mr. Carrington? What, having a cup of tea in his room? What's hisnumber? 27--right! I'll walk right up, thanks."
He walked right up, made the door rattle under his knuckles and strodejauntily in. There was no beating about the bush with Mr. Cromartyeither in deed or word.
"Well, Mr. Carrington," said he, "don't trouble to look surprised. Iguess you've seen right through me for some time back."
"Meaning--?" asked Carrington with his engaging smile.
"Meaning that I'm the unknown, unsuspected, and mysterious person who'sputting up the purse. Don't pretend you haven't tumbled to that!"
"Yes," admitted Carrington, "I have tumbled."
"I knew my sister had given the whole blamed show away! I take it youput your magnifying glass back in your pocket after your trip out toStanesland?"
"More or less," admitted Carrington.
"Well," said Ned, "that being so, I may as well tell you what my ideawas. It mayn't have been very bright; still there was a kind of methodin my madness. You see I wanted you to have an absolutely clear fieldand let you suspect me just as much as anybody else."
"In short," smiled Carrington, "you wanted to start with the otherhorses and not just drop the flag."
"That's so," agreed Ned. "But when my sister let out about that L1200,and I saw that you must have spotted me, there didn't seem much point inkeeping up the bluff, when I came to think it over. And since then, Mr.Carrington, something has happened that you ought to know and I decidedto come and see you and talk to you straight."
"What has happened?"
Ned smiled for an instant his approval of this prompt plunge intobusiness, and then his face set hard.
"It's a most extraordinary thing," said he, "and may strike you ashardly credible, but here's the plain truth put shortly. Yesterdayafternoon Miss Farmond ran away." Carrington merely nodded, and heexclaimed, "What! You know then?"
"I learned from Bisset this morning."
"Ah, I see. Did you know I'd happened to see her start and gone afterher and brought her back?"
Carrington's interest was manifest.
"No," said he, "that's quite news to me."
"Well, I did, and I learnt the whole story from her. You can't guess whoadvised her to bolt?"
"I think I can," said Carrington quietly.
"Either you're on the wrong track, or you've cut some ice, Mr.Carrington. It was Simon Rattar!"
"I thought so."
"How the devil did you guess?"
"Tell me Miss Farmond's story first and I'll tell you how I guessed."
"Well, she spotted you were a detective--"
Carrington started and then laughed.
"Confound these women!" said he. "They're so infernally independent ofreason, they always spot things they shouldn't!"
"Then she discovered she was suspected and so she got in a stew, poorgirl, and went to see Rattar. Do you know what he told her? That I wasemploying you and meant to convict Sir Malcolm and her and hang themwith my own hands!"
"The old devil!" cried Carrington. "Well, no wonder she bolted, Mr.Cromarty!"
"But even that was done by Simon's advice. He actually gave her anaddress in London to go to."
"Pretty thorough!" murmured Carrington.
"Now what do you make of that? And what ought one to do? And, by theway, how did you guess Simon was at the bottom of it?"
Carrington leaned back in his chair and thought for a moment beforeanswering.
"We are in pretty deep waters, Mr. Cromarty," he said slowly. "As towhat I make of it--nothing as yet. As to what we are to do--also nothingin the meantime. But as to how I guessed, well I can tell you this much.I had to get information from someone, and so I called on Mr. Rattar andtold him who I was--in strict confidence, by the way, so that he had nobusiness to tell Miss Farmond or anybody else. I had started off, I maysay, with a wrong guess: I thought Rattar himself was probably either myemployer or acting for my employer, and when I suggested this he told meI was right."
"What!" shouted Ned. "The grunting old devil told you that?" He staredat the other for a moment, and then demanded, "Why did he tell you thatlie?"
"Fortune played my cards for me. Quite innocently and unintentionally. Itempted him. I said if I could be sure he was my employer I'd keep himin touch with everything I was doing. I had also let him know that myemployer had made it an absolute condition that his name was not toappear. He evidently wanted badly to know what I was doing, and thoughthe was safe not to be given away."
"Then have you kept him in touch with everything you have done?"
Carrington smiled.
"I tell you, Mr. Cromarty, my cards were being played for me. Fiveminutes later I asked him who benefited by the will and I learned thatyou had scored the precise sum of L1200."
"I hadn't thought of that when I made my limit L1200!" exclaimed Ned."Lord, you must have bowled me out at once! Of course, you spotted thecoincidence straight off?"
"But Rattar didn't! I pushed it under his nose and he didn't see it!Inside of one second I'd asked myself whether it was possible for anastute man like that not to notice such a coincidence supposing he hadreally guaranteed me exactly that sum--an extraordinarily large andcurious sum too."
"I like these simple riddles," said Ned with a twinkle in his singleeye. "I guess your answer to yourself was 'No!'"
Carrington nodded.
"That's what I call having my cards played for me. I knew then that theman was lying; so I threw him off the scent, changed the subject, anddid _not_ keep Mr. Simon Rattar in touch with any single thing I didafter that."
"Good for you!" said Ned.
"Good so far, but the next riddle wasn't of the simple kind--or else I'meven a bigger ass than I endeavour to look! What was the man's game?"
"Have you spotted it yet?"
Carrington shook his head.
"Mr. Simon Rattar's game is the toughest proposition in the way ofpuzzles I've ever struck. While I'm at it I'll just tell you one or twoother small features of that first interview."
He lit a cigarette and leant over the arm of his chair towards hisvisitor, his manner growing keener as he talked.
"I happened to have met Miss Farmond that morning and my interview hadknocked the bottom out of the story that she was concerned in the crime.I had satisfied myself also that she was not engaged to Sir Malcolm."
"How did you discover that?" exclaimed Ned.
"Her manner when I mentioned him. But I found that old Rattar was wrongon both these points and apparently determined to remain wrong. Ofcourse, it might have been a mere error of judgment, but at the sametime he had no evidence whatever against her, and it seemed to suggest acurious bias. And finally, I didn't like the look of the man."
"And then you came out to see me?"
"I went out to Keldale House first and then out to you. I nextinterviewed Sir Malcolm."
"Interviewed Malcolm Cromarty!" exclaimed Ned. "Where?"
"He came up to see me," explained Carrington easily, "and the gentlemanhad scarcely spoken six sentences before I shared your opinion of him,Mr. Cromarty--a squirt but not homicidal. He gave me, however, one veryinteresting piece of information. Rattar had advised him to keep awayfrom these parts, and for choice to go abroad. I need hardly ask whetheryou consider that sound advice to give a suspected man."
"Seems to me nearly as rotten advice as he gave Miss Farmond."
"Exactly. So when I heard that Miss Farmond had flown and discovered shehad paid a visit to Mr. Rattar the previous day, I guessed who had givenher the advice."
Carrington sat back in his chair with folded arms and looked at hisemployer with a slight smile, as much as to say, "Tell me the rest ofthe story!" Cromarty returned his gaze in silence, his heaviest frownupon his brow.
"It seems to me," said Ned at last, "that Simon Rattar is mixed up i
nthis business--sure! He has something to hide and he's trying to putpeople off the scent, I'll lay my bottom dollar!"
"What is he hiding?" enquired Carrington, looking up at the ceiling.
"What do you think?"
Carrington shook his head, his eyes still gazing dreamily upwards.
"I wish to Heaven I knew what to think!" he murmured; and then heresumed a brisker air and continued, "I am ready to suspect Simon Rattarof any crime in the calendar--leaving out petty larceny and probablybigamy. But he's the last man to do either good or evil unless he saw adividend at the end, and where does he score by taking any part orparcel in conniving at or abetting or concealing evidence or anythingelse, so far as this particular crime is concerned? He has lost his bestclient, with whom he was on excellent terms and whose family he hadserved all his life, and he has now got instead an unsatisfactory youngass whom he suspects, or says he suspects, of murder, and who soloathes Rattar that, as far as I can judge, he will probably take hisbusiness away from him. To suspect Rattar of actually conniving at, ortaking any part in the actual crime itself is, on the face of it, toconvict either Rattar or oneself of lunacy!"
"I knew Sir Reginald pretty well," said Ned, "but of course I didn'tknow much about his business affairs. He hadn't been having any troublewith Rattar, had he?"
Carrington threw him a quick, approving glance.
"We are thinking on the same lines," said he, "and I have unearthed onevery odd little misunderstanding, but it seems to have been nothing morethan that, and, apart from it, all accounts agree that there was notrouble of any kind or description."
He took a cigarette out of his case and struck a match.
"There must be _some_ motive for everything one does--even for smokingthis cigarette. If I disliked cigarettes, knew smoking was bad for me,and stood in danger of being fined if I was caught doing it, why shouldI smoke? I can see no point whatever in Rattar's taking the smallestshare even in diverting the course of justice by a hair's breadth. Heand you and I have to all appearances identical interests in thematter."
"You are wiser than I am," said Ned simply, but with a grim look in hiseye, "but all I can say is I am going out with my gun to look for SimonRattar."
Carrington laughed.
"I'm afraid you'll have to catch him at something a little better knownto the charge-sheets than giving bad advice to a lady client, beforeit's safe to fire!" said he.
"But, look here, Carrington, have you collected no other facts whateverabout this case?"
Carrington shot him a curious glance, but answered nothing else.
"Oh well," said Ned, "if you don't want to say anything yet, don't sayit. Play your hand as you think best."
"Mr. Cromarty," replied Carrington, "I assure you I don't want to makefacts into mysteries, but when they _are_ mysteries--well, I like tothink 'em over a bit before I trust myself to talk. In the course ofthis very afternoon I've collected an assortment either of facts orfiction that seem to have broken loose from a travelling nightmare."
"Mind telling where you got 'em?" asked Ned.
"Chiefly from Rattar's housemaid, a very excellent but somewhathigh-strung and imaginative young woman, and how much to believe of whatshe told me I honestly don't know. And the more one can believe, theworse the puzzle gets! However, there is one statement which I hope tobe able to check. It may throw some light on the lady's veracitygenerally. Meantime I am like a man trying to build a house of what maybe bricks or may be paper bags."
Ned rose with his usual prompt decision.
"I see," said he. "And I guess you find one better company than two atthis particular moment. I won't shoot Simon Rattar till I hear from you,though by Gad, I'm tempted to kick him just to be going on with! Butlook here, Carrington, if my services will ever do you the least bit ofgood--in fact, so long as I'm not actually in the way--just send me awire and I'll come straight. You won't refuse me that?"
Carrington looked at the six feet two inches of pure lean muscle andsmiled.
"Not likely!" he said. "That's not the sort of offer I refuse. I won'thesitate to wire if there's anything happening. But don't count on it. Ican't see any business doing just yet."
Ned held out his hand, and then suddenly said, "You don't see anybusiness doing just yet? But you feel you're on his track, sure! Now,don't you?"
Carrington glanced at him out of an eye half quizzical, half abstracted.
"Whose track?" he asked.
Ned paused for a second and then rapped out:
"Was it Simon himself?"
"If we were all living in a lunatic asylum, probably yes! If we wereliving in the palace of reason, certainly not--the thing's ridiculous!What we are actually living in, however, is--" he broke off and gazedinto space.
"What?" said Ned.
"A blank fog!"
Simon Page 34