Half-Mast Murder

by Milward Kennedy

  The Superintendent interrupted, to extract a few facts such as seemed to him likely to bear upon the corroboration of the story. The introduction, it appeared, was from the President of the Association for World Harmony (Inc.) ; and a few further questions elucidated the meaning of that confusing abbreviation. It further appeared that Mr. Quirk had only arrived in London two days before, and had spent the interval at the Savile Hotel. The American evidently foresaw the next question, and answered it without hesitation.

  “Why, certainly it was important to me to see the Professor at Once. My visit here is not merely one of pleasure. In my humble opinion the Professor was the man who above all others was the Architect of World Harmony. I am appalled, Superintendent, to think that I was present today at a tragedy——”

  For the first time the little man showed signs of excitement.

  “When you say you were present, Mr. Quirk,” the other interrupted him dispassionately, “do you” mean——”?

  “Not that I saw the deed,” the American explained hurriedly. “But when I surveyed the interior of that summer-house——”

  He was again interrupted before he could open the flood-gates of his eloquence. Still, the Superintendent was convinced that the little man’s emotion was genuine enough.

  “I shall have to ask you to give me particulars of your arrival at Torgate,” he said, almost apologetically.

  Mr. Quirk complied. He had arrived by train at 1.57. He had immediately driven to the Grand Hotel, where he had engaged a room, and deposited his luggage. He had then driven at once to Cliff’s End to call upon the Professor.

  “But you arrived here about a quarter to five, unless I am mistaken ?”

  “I arrived,” the American corrected him, “some time before that—a few minutes before three, I should reckon. But the Professor was engaged.”

  “Indeed ?” The Superintendent was distinctly surprised. “How was that ?”

  “Ask me another,” was the reply, accompanied by a shrug of the shoulders. “Or should I say, ask the butler.”

  “You mean he told you the Professor was engaged ?”

  “He did just that. I will admit to you that at the time I was doubtful whether he had indeed told the Professor of my call, but I was obliged to take his word for it. So I enquired when he would be free, and intimated that I would call again later.”

  “Ah, so then you came back at half-past four ?”

  “Just about, Superintendent, or a quarter to five. You see, the butler hinted that the Professor was not dead to such mundane attractions as the teapot.”

  “I see, sir. Now between 3.15 and 4.45 ?”

  “Well, I just strolled around, and along the cliffs, and admired the view.”

  The Superintendent pressed him sharply for fuller particulars. The American, however, was not able to add much, save that he asserted positively that he had not walked in the grounds of Cliff’s End. He had strolled on past the house, away from Torgate. Yes, he had seen a certain number of people, but he could not say whether they had noticed him.

  “I have no reason to suppose,” he added, with a mixture of stiffness and regret, “that my personal appearance is at all calculated to provoke comment.”

  “Quite so, sir,” the Superintendent assented cordially ; and indeed Torgate was not so immune from Americans, he reflected, as to make one an object of popular attention. Yet if it became important to check the American’s story of how he had spent that interval of time, it should not be difficult to find people who had seen him on his walk.

  “You hadn’t, then, made an appointment with the Professor?” The Superintendent switched to another topic. “Wouldn’t that have been—if I may say so—the obvious thing to do ?”

  “Why, no—I hardly think so,” Mr. Quirk replied. “The Professor knew approximately the date of my arrival, and that I should come at once to see him——”

  The Superintendent half smiled, and the other evidently noticed it, for he went on with a slight touch of acerbity.

  “I should explain that I was bringing with me a certain document which the Professor regarded as of the greatest importance to him for the book on which he was engaged. I am not at liberty to divulge its exact nature, but I may say in confidence that it throws an interesting light upon the origin of the World War.”

  “Indeed, sir ?” The other spoke politely, but evidently was little impressed ; he failed, perhaps, to realise that the dead man had had his own standards by which to measure the importance of historical facts.

  His tone had the effect of silencing the American, who looked indeed decidedly resentful of it.

  “Now may we return to what happened on your arrival—your second arrival—here ?” Guest resumed, ignoring the other’s attitude. “The butler made no difficulty about admitting you ?”

  “No.”

  “Did he tell you that the Professor was now at liberty to see you ?”

  A smile flitted across Mr. Quirk’s face, like the shadow of a cloud across a mountain pool.

  “The butler is no novice in diplomacy,” he remarked. “He did not in so many words tell me when I first called that he had apprised the Professor of my arrival. And when I returned the second time, he did not actually say that the Professor wished—or had assented—ta see me. So far as I recollect, he told me that the Professor was about to take tea. And thereupon he led me into the garden, where Mrs. Arkwright received me and——”

  “Quite so, sir,” the Superintendent again broke in. “I understand that the party at tea included Mrs. Arkwright, Mr. Trent, Miss Paley, Mr. Shipman, and yourself.”

  “The number is correct,” Mr. Quirk said, with a smile. “I cannot vouch for the identities. As I have observed before, nomenclature in this country——”

  “Now will you tell me what happened ?” Guest continued his policy of interruption.

  “Why, as I recollect, after a few minutes of conversation of an amiable if unstimulating character, Mrs. Arkwright intimated that it was high time to summon the Professor from his studies. Naturally, I protested against any interruption on my account, but in all countries the lady of the house is inclined to hold a specialised view of the importance of routine. So she asked the butler to tell the Professor that tea was getting cold or may be boiling over.” And he patted his forehead with a large handkerchief.

  “The English summer certainly is maligned by your writers,” he observed parenthetically.

  “And then what happened ?” The Superintendent dragged him firmly back to the matter in hand.

  The American reflected silently.

  “The facts,” he said at last, “are, I guess, few and simple. The difficulty for me, Superintendent, is to keep them distinct from impressions.”

  “Very likely, sir,” he agreed, “but I think it would be best if you stated them briefly first, at all events.”

  “I will surely try. For example, I have told you that Mrs. Arkwright told the butler to fetch the Professor. That I believe is a fact. But my impression is that each member of the party but myself wished to go to summon the Professor.”

  The Superintendent raised his eyebrows slightly, but gave no other sign of interest. The American, a trifle dashed, went on with his story.

  “I see that impression does not interest you. To resume, then. The butler went down the steps and along a pathway past a tennis-court and turned to his left and passed out of sight behind some bushes. The talk continued around the tea-table. Mrs. Arkwright and. I were the talkers, and had but little help from the others. I had the impression—but you don’t want——”

  “No, sir. You tell your story your own way,” the Superintendent said good-humouredly. “What was your impression ?”

  “Why, that they were all waiting for the butler to reappear from behind those bushes.”

  “So I expect they were—or else the Professor.”

  The American laughed.

  “I guess you’re right. Maybe it was the after event which gave undue significa
nce to my impression. However, when the butler did reappear, he was running, and he ran back to the steps and called out that he could not make the Professor hear and that the door was locked.”

  “Sure he said that ?”

  “Sure as the Constitution.”

  “And then ?”

  “Why, all the party went dashing down the steps, with Mrs. Arkwright and myself bringing up the tail of the procession in a more dignified manner.”

  “Rather curious wasn’t it, Mr. Quirk ?”

  “The dignity ? Oh, I see your meaning. Curious that we all went helter-skelter down to the summer-house, just because of what the butler said ? It certainly was curious. But it was a fact.”

  “No impression this time, Mr. Quirk ?”

  “Impression ? My impression was that Mrs. Arkwright and I went because the rest did—they kind of infected us.”

  “And the rest ?”

  “Now you’re getting warm, Superintendent. Well, I can’t tell you why they went. I’m not sure whether I’m inventing my impression because of what I know now. All I can say is that I believe now that I thought then that all three others were just waiting a signal, so to call it. And that the butler’s report was the pistol they were waiting for ,to start them on the race.”

  “Race ?”

  “I use the word advisedly. It occurred to me that each wanted to be there first.”

  “H’m. And who won the race ?”

  “You forget, Superintendent, I ‘ also ran ’—that’s all. But I judge it was a dead heat. Except for the young lady.”

  “Ah, yes. What about her, Mr. Quirk ?”

  Mr. Quirk shrugged his shoulders. “Hysterics,” he said briefly.

  “And its cause ?”

  The American shrugged his shoulders again, and even more vehemently. “I’m not a mind reader, Superintendent. But it certainly was strange.”

  “That she should collapse before she even knew whether her uncle was inside the summer-house ?”

  Mr. Quirk made a peculiar sound expressive of agreement, and also, perhaps, of appreciation of the Superintendent’s point.

  CHAPTER V

  BRINGS IN A BUTLER

  “Now what about the scene at the summer-house ?” asked Superintendent Guest.

  Mr. Quirk thought for a couple of seconds before he answered. Then, “When I came in sight of the door of the summer-house, the butler and one of the men—the younger one——”

  “Mr. Shipman ?”

  “I fancy that is the name. He and the butler were hammering on the door, and the other man was dodging round, trying to look in at the windows, I judge. Then he joined them, and I joined them. Or I meant to, but the doorway is not very wide, and I was rather in the second rank, if you take me. So when the door gave, the three of them went into the room like an avalanche out of control, and I followed them like a gentle snowflake.”

  “You can’t say whether the door was locked on the inside or the out ?”

  “No, I cannot.”

  “Did you notice what happened inside the summer-house ? I mean—for example, which of you examined the body ?”

  “Well, now, let me see. You’d be surprised, Superintendent, how difficult it is to recall these details. The older man—Trent, yes—went staggering into the sofa on the right. I remember that. The other two—well, I should say they kind of took root. Yes, I see it now. It was like that. Trent was the first to examine the body.”

  Guest thanked him, and then asked him to corroborate Trent’s account of how the three men had been sent, or sent themselves, on the various errands, leaving the stranger on guard. He did so.

  “Then it was you, Mr. Quirk, who hauled down the flag to half-mast ? The halyard is just by the door. I know.”

  “No, sir. It was not I who——”

  “You mean, that one of the ladies——?”

  “No, I mean that the flag was half-mast when we reached the summer-house.”

  “What ! Are you certain ?”

  “Absolutely.”

  The Superintendent looked at him in considerable surprise, not least because he wondered how the American had come to notice it in the excitement of the dash from the terrace. Mr. Quirk seemed to read his thoughts.

  “You haven’t realised, Superin,tendent, that the flag was one of the things—if not the thing—which upset Miss Paley’s nervous system ? I can assure you that I was pretty considerably startled, with those fellows hammering on the door in front of me and a charming young lady laughing—pardon me—like a jackass behind me. And then I heard her ha ha’s turn into ‘ half-mast,’ and I saw that it was. And I reckon that it gave Mrs. Arkwright a queer feeling too.”

  The Superintendent was not a little interested in this narrative. Mr. Quirk, however, had nothing to add, apart from a positive assurance that he had not so much as set his foot inside the summer-house from the moment when the four men left it. Asked what his own immediate plans, were, he said that he proposed to stay in Torgate, at least until the funeral.

  “Believe me, Superintendent,” he said, “I’d a very great respect for Professor Paley. It wasn’t to be that I should meet him alive. But—well, I most certainly intend to pay my last respects to him.”

  “Then I may count on you to give me any further help ?

  “You can,” he replied, with fervour. “I’ve told you as much as I am able to, of my own volition, but if there is anything further—if I can recall any illuminating detail or impression . . .”

  Finally he departed, full of determination to say a few correct words to whatever representative of the family he could find, and then to return to the Grand Hotel. Guest seized the opportunity to telephone to the station to ensure that an eye was kept on the stranger. He was very well impressed by him, but intended to take no risks.

  He then rang again for Richards.

  “Sit down,” he said, when he appeared. The butler hesitated, and then declined.

  “It’s not my place,” he explained. Guest smiled ; custom was more than skin deep, it appeared. He looked at the man with increased interest ; the picture of the perfect butler, he thought to himself. Richards waited in silence, his expression giving no clue whatever to his thoughts.

  “Now, Richards,” he began, “let’s hear what you know about this.”

  “Little enough, I fear,” was the answer ; his voice gave the first hint of humanity inside the automaton.

  He began to recount the story of Mrs. Arkwright’s orders to him to summon the Professor, and how he had found the door of the summer-house locked and——

  “Was it locked ? Are you certain ?”

  “Quite certain.”

  “And no sign of the key ?”

  “None. I thought it was locked on the inside.”

  “Now tell me this, Richards. Why did you suppose your master was inside ? Why shouldn’t he have gone out and locked the summer-house behind him ? Wasn’t that his custom ?”

  “Why, yes. It was. But—where should he be if he wasn’t there ? He always worked there in this weather. If he had left, why had he not come to tea ? And he had been there earlier in the afternoon.”

  “Ah ! You. saw him there earlier ?”

  “No. Not exactly saw him there. But I was aware that he had gone there after lunch—or was going there. And I was aware that he was not elsewhere in the garden about half an hour before Mrs. Arkwright sent me down.”

  “How was that ?”

  “I knew he was going to work there, because he told me to send him down a jug of lemonade. He had had some regularly there at his hand, this hot weather.”

  “Who took it down ? One of the maids ?”

  “No, sir, Miss Cynthia. I was about to take it when she met me and took the tray from me.”

  The Superintendent made no comment, but noted that Miss Cynthia must presumably have seen her uncle after Mr. Trent parted from him.

  Richards went on to explain his other point. It seemed that when Mr. Quirk first called, and demanded with
some insistence to be taken to the Professor, Richards finally pretended to go off to make enquiries.

  “Of course I had no intention to disturb the Professor,” he said. “I ascertained that he was not on the terrace or in the walled garden, so I knew he was in the summer-house.”

  “Ascertained ?”

  “I could trust my own eyes,” Richards replied with dignity. His interrogator hid a smile.

  “So you told Mr. Quirk that your master could not see him?”

  “I—conveyed that to him. He was quite satisfied.”

  The Superintendent saw no need to disillusion him. “Weren’t you taking rather a lot on yourself ?” he asked instead. “Suppose that Professor Paley had been waiting to see him ?”

  “He would have told me,” was the firm answer. “You must allow me to know my duties best, sir.”

  “You mean you were familiar with Professor Paley’s ways ?”

  “I was—and almost his thoughts.” There was a distinct catch in the voice this time.

  “You were devoted to him ? How long have you been in his service ?”

  “Twelve years, sir.”

  “Really, and before that ?”

  There was a second’s silence.

  “I think it better that you should ask Mrs. Arkwright about me, sir.”

  “But—come, man. You’re as bad as a young lady in a post office, who sells penny stamps, but not halfpenny ones.”

  “I think it would be better. I don’t want to give any wrong impressions.”

  There was something peculiar about it, the Superintendent saw. But he could get nothing at all out of the butler. Finally he gave way. “It’s all extra work,” he said, “but if you insist——Is there anything else you can tell me. Or wouldn’t that be correct ?”

  The butler hesitated.

  “You’ll understand when you’ve seen Mrs. Arkwright,” he said. “And you’ll understand why I—you may think it absurd that I should be so anxious, like, not to do wrong. But you’ll understand why I have tried to be a credit to the Professor. I really couldn’t bear for him to think that I was doing what wasn’t right.”