The Middle of Things

by J. S. Fletcher

  CHAPTER VIII

  NEWS FROM ARCADIA

  When Viner, half an hour later, walked into the waiting-room at Crawle,Pawle and Rattenbury's, he was aware of a modestly attired young woman,evidently, from her dress and appearance, a country girl, who sat shylyturning over the pages of an illustrated paper. And as soon as he gotinto Pawle's private room, the old solicitor jerked his thumb at the doorby which Viner had entered, and smiled significantly.

  "See that girl outside?" he asked. "She's the reason of my ringing youup."

  "Yes?" said Viner. "But what--why? More mystery?"

  "Don't know," said Mr. Pawle. "I've kept her story till you came. Sheturned up here about three-quarters of an hour ago, and said that hergrandmother, who keeps an inn at Marketstoke, in Buckinghamshire, hadseen the paragraph in the papers this morning in which I asked if anybodycould give any information about Mr. John Ashton's movements, and hadimmediately sent her off to me with the message that a gentleman of thatname stayed at their house for a few days some weeks since, and that if Iwould send somebody over there, she, the grandmother, could give someparticulars about him. So that solves the question we were talking of atMarkendale Square, as to where Ashton went during the absence Mrs.Killenhall told us of."

  "If this is the same Ashton," suggested Viner.

  "We'll soon decide that," answered Mr. Pawle as he touched the bell on hisdesk. "I purposely awaited your coming before hearing what this youngwoman had to tell. Now, my dear," he continued as a clerk brought thegirl into the room, "take a chair and tell me what your message is, moreparticularly. You're from Marketstoke eh? Just so--and your grandmother,who sent you here, keeps an inn there?"

  "Yes, sir, the Ellingham Arms," replied the girl as she sat down andglanced a little nervously at her two interviewers.

  "To be sure. And your grandmother's name is--what?"

  "Hannah Summers, sir."

  "Mrs. Hannah Summers. Grandfather living?"

  "No, sir."

  "Very well--Mrs. Hannah Summers, landlady at the Ellingham Arms,Marketstoke, in Buckinghamshire. Now then--but what's your name, mydear?"

  "Lucy Summers, sir."

  "Very pretty name, I'm sure! Well, and what's the message yourgrandmother sent me? I want this gentleman to hear it."

  "Grandmother wished me to say, sir, that we read the piece in the paperthis morning asking if anybody could give you any news about a Mr. JohnAshton, and that as we had a gentleman of that name staying with us forthree or four days some weeks since, she sent me to tell you, and to saythat if you would send somebody down to see her, she could give someinformation about him."

  "Very clearly put, my dear--much obliged to you," said Mr. Pawle. "Now, Isuppose you were at the Ellingham Arms when this Mr. Ashton came there?"

  "Oh, yes, sir; I live there!"

  "To be sure! Now, what sort of man was he--in appearance?"

  "A tall, big gentleman, sir, with a beard, going a little grey. He waswearing a blue serge suit."

  Mr. Pawle nodded at Viner.

  "Seems like our man," he remarked. "Now," he went on, turning again toLucy Summers, "you say he stayed there three or four days. What did he dowith himself while he was there?"

  "He spent a good deal of time about the church, sir," answered the girl,"and he was at Ellingham Park a good deal--"

  "Whose place is that?" interrupted Mr. Pawle.

  "Lord Ellingham's, sir."

  "Do you mean that Mr. Ashton called on Lord Ellingham, or what?"

  "No, sir, because Lord Ellingham wasn't there--he scarcely ever isthere," replied Lucy Summers. "I mean that Mr. Ashton went into the parka good deal and looked over the house--a good many people come to seeEllingham Park, sir."

  "Well, and what else?" asked Mr. Pawle. "Did he go to see people in thetown at all?"

  "I don't know, sir--but he was out most of the day. And at night hetalked a great deal with my grandmother, in her sitting-room, I think,"added the girl with a glance which took in both listeners. "I thinkthat's what she wants to tell about. She would have come here herself,but she's over seventy and doesn't like travelling."

  Mr. Pawle turned to Viner.

  "Now we know where we are," he said. "There's no doubt that this is ourAshton, and that Mrs. Summers has something she can tell about him.Viner, I suggest that you and I go down to Marketstoke this afternoon.You've accommodations for a couple of gentlemen, I suppose, my dear?" headded, turning to the girl. "Couple of nice bedrooms and a bit ofdinner, eh?"

  "Oh, yes sir!" replied Lucy Summers. "We constantly have gentlementhere, sir."

  "Very well," said Mr. Pawle. "Now, then, you run away home toMarketstoke, my dear, and tell your grandmother that I'm very muchobliged to her, and that I am coming down this evening, with thisgentleman, Mr. Viner, and that we shall be obliged if she'll have a nice,plain, well-cooked dinner ready for us at half-past seven. We shall comein my motorcar--you can put that up for the night, and my driver too?Very well--that's settled. Now, come along, and one of my clerks shallget you a cab to your station. Great Central, isn't it? All right--mindyou get yourself a cup of tea before going home."

  "Viner," Pawle continued when he had taken the girl into the outeroffice, "we can easily run down to Marketstoke in under two hours. I'llcall for you at your house at half-past five. That'll give us time towash away the dirt before our dinner. And then--we'll hear what this oldlady has to tell."

  Viner, who was musing somewhat vaguely over these curious developments,looked at Mr. Pawle as if in speculation about his evident optimism.

  "You think we shall hear something worth hearing?" he asked.

  "I should say we probably shall," replied Mr. Pawle. "Put thingstogether. Ashton goes away--as soon as he's got settled down inMarkendale Square--on a somewhat mysterious journey. Now we hear that hehad a secret. Perhaps something relating to that secret is mixed up withhis visit to Marketstoke. Depend upon it, an old woman of overseventy--especially a landlady of a country-town inn, whose wits arepresumably pretty sharp--wouldn't send for me unless she'd something totell. Before midnight, my dear sir, we may have learnt a good deal."

  Viner picked up his hat.

  "I'll be ready for you at half-past five," he said. Then, halfway to thedoor, he turned with a question: "By the by," he added, "you wouldn'tlike me to tell the two ladies that we've found out where Ashton wentwhen he was away?"

  "I think not until we've found out why he went away," answered the oldlawyer with a significant smile. "We may draw the covert blank, you know,after all. When we've some definite news--"

  Viner nodded, went out, into the afternoon calm of Bedford Row. As hewalked up it, staring mechanically at the old-fashioned red brick fronts,he wondered how many curious secrets had been talked over and perhapsunravelled in the numerous legal sanctuaries approached through thoseopen doorways. Were there often as strange ones as that upon which he hadso unexpectedly stumbled? And when they first came into the arena ofthought and speculation did they arouse as much perplexity and mentalexercise as was now being set up in him? Did every secret, too, possiblyendanger a man's life as his old schoolfellow's was being endangered? Hehad no particular affection or friendship for Langton Hyde, of whom,indeed, he had known very little at school, but he had an absoluteconviction that he was innocent of murder, and that conviction hadalready aroused in him a passionate determination to outwit the police.He had been quick to see through Drillford's plans. There was a case, astrong _prima facie_ case against Hyde, and the police would work it upfor all they were worth. Failing proofs in other directions, failing thediscovery of the real murderer, how was that case going to be upset? Andwas it likely that he and Pawle were going to find any really importantevidence in an obscure Buckinghamshire market-town?

  He jumped into a cab at the top of Bedford Row and hastened back toMarkendale Square to pack a bag and prepare for his journey. MissPenkridge called to him from the drawing-room as he was running upstairs;he turned into the room to find her in company with tw
o ladies--dismal,pathetic figures in very plain and obviously countrified garments, bothin tears and evident great distress, who, as Viner walked in, rose fromtheir chairs and gazed at him sadly and wistfully. They reminded him atonce of the type of spinster found in quiet, unpretentious cottages inout-of-the-way villages--the neither young nor old women, who live oncircumscribed means and are painfully shy of the rude world outside. Andbefore either he or Miss Penkridge could speak, the elder of the twobroke into an eager exclamation.

  "Oh, Mr. Viner, we are Langton's sisters! And we are so grateful toyou--and oh, do you think you can save him?"

  Viner was quick to seize the situation. He said a soothing word or two,begged his visitors to sit down again, and whispered to Miss Penkridge toring for tea.

  "You have come to town today?" he asked.

  "We left home very, very early this morning," replied the elder sister."We learned this dreadful news last night in the evening paper. We cameaway at four o'clock this morning--we live in Durham, Mr. Viner,--and wehave been to Mr. Felpham's office this afternoon. He told us how kind youhad been in engaging his services for our unfortunate brother, and wecame to thank you. But oh, do you think there is any chance for him?"

  "Every chance!" declared Viner, pretending more conviction than he felt."Don't let yourselves be cast down. We'll move heaven and earth to provethat he's wrongly accused. I gather--if you don't mind my asking--thatyour brother has been out of touch with you for some time?"

  The two sisters exchanged mournful glances.

  "We had not heard anything of Langton for some years," replied theelder. "He is much--much younger than ourselves, and perhaps we are toostaid and old-fashioned for him. But if we had known that he was inwant! Oh, dear me, we are not at all well-to-do, Mr. Viner, but we wouldhave sacrificed anything. Mr. Felpham says that we shall be allowed tovisit him--he is going to arrange for us to do so. And of course we mustremain in London until this terrible business is over--we came preparedfor that."

  "Prepared for that!" repeated the other sister, who seemed to be afainter replica of the elder. "Yes, prepared, of course, Mr. Viner."

  "Now that we have found Langton, though in such painful circumstances,"said the first speaker, "we must stand by him. We must find some quietlodging, and settle down to help. We cannot let all the burden fall onyou, Mr. Viner."

  Viner glanced at Miss Penkridge. They were quick to understand eachother, these two, and he knew at once that Miss Penkridge saw what wasin his mind.

  "You must stay with us," he said, turning to the two mournfulfigures. "We have any amount of room in this house, and we shall beonly too glad--"

  "Oh, but that is too--" began both ladies.

  "I insist," said Viner, with a smile.

  "We both insist!" echoed Miss Penkridge. "We are both given to havingour own way, too; so say no more about it. We are all in the same boatjust now, and its name is _Mystery_, and we must pull together untilwe're in harbour."

  "Listen!" said Viner. "I have to go away tonight, on a matter closelyconnected with this affair. Let me leave you in my aunt's charge, andtomorrow I may be able to give you some cheering news. You'll be muchmore comfortable here than in any lodgings or hotel and--and I shouldlike to do something for Hyde; we're old schoolfellows, you know."

  Then he escaped from the room and made ready for his journey; and athalf-past five came Mr. Pawle in his private car and carried him off intothe dark. And hour and a half later the car rolled smoothly into the mainstreet of a quiet, wholly Arcadian little town, and pulled up before anold-fashioned many-gabled house over the door of which was set up one ofthose ancient signs which, in such places, display the coat of arms ofthe lord of the manor. Viner had just time to glance around him, and in aclear, starlit evening, to see the high tower of a church, the timberedfronts of old houses, and many a tall, venerable tree, before followingMr. Pawle into a stone hall filled with dark oak cabinets and bright withold brass and pewter, on the open hearth of which burnt a fine and cheeryfire of logs.

  "Excellent!" muttered the old lawyer as he began to take off hismultitudinous wraps. "A real bit of the real old England! Viner, if thedinner is as good as this promises, I shall be glad we've come, whateverthe occasion."

  "Here's the landlady, I suppose," said Viner as a door opened.

  A tall, silver-haired old woman, surprisingly active and vivacious inspite of her evident age, came forward with a polite, old-fashioned bow.She wore a silk gown and a silk apron and a smart cap, and her stillbright eyes took in the two visitors at a glance.

  "Your servant, gentlemen," she said. "Your rooms are ready, and dinnerwill be ready, too, when you are. This way, if you please."

  "A very fine old house this, ma'am," observed Mr. Pawle as they followedher up a curious staircase, all nooks and corners. "And you have, nodoubt, been long in it?"

  "Born in it, sir," said the landlady, with a laugh. "Our family--on oneside--has been here two hundred years. This is your room, sir--this isyour friend's." She paused, and with a significant look, pointed toanother door. "That," she said, "is the room which Mr. Ashton had when hewas here."

  "Ah! We are very anxious to know what you can tell us about him, ma'am,"said Mr. Pawle.

  Mrs. Summers paused, and again glanced significantly at her visitors.

  "I wish I knew the meaning of what I shall tell you," she answered.