by Sax Rohmer
"Oh, I see," said Inspector Aylesbury, "a little private confab, eh?"
He sank his chin into its enveloping folds, treating Harley and myselfeach to a stare of disapproval.
"These gentlemen very kindly called to advise me of the tragicoccurrence at Cray's Folly," explained Colin Camber. "Won't you beseated, Inspector?"
"Thanks, but I can conduct my examination better standing."
He turned to Paul Harley.
"Might I ask, Mr. Harley," he said, "what concern this is of yours?"
"I am naturally interested in anything appertaining to the death of aclient, Inspector Aylesbury."
"Oh, so you slip in ahead of me, having deliberately withheldinformation from the police, and think you are going to get all thecredit. Is that it?"
"That is it, Inspector," replied Harley, smiling. "An instance ofprofessional jealousy."
"Professional jealousy?" cried the Inspector. "Allow me to remind youthat you have no official standing in this case whatever. You are merelya member of the public, nothing more, nothing less."
"I am happy to be recognized as a member of that much-misunderstoodbody."
"Ah, well, we shall see. Now, Mr. Camber, your attention, please."
He raised his finger impressively.
"I am informed by Miss Beverley that the late Colonel Menendez lookedupon you as a dangerous enemy."
"Were those her exact words?" I murmured.
"Mr. Knox!"
The inspector turned rapidly, confronting me. "I have already warnedyour friend. But if I have any interruptions from you, I will have youremoved."
He continued to glare at me for some moments, and then, turning again toColin Camber:
"I say, I have information that Colonel Menendez looked upon you as adangerous neighbour."
"In that event," replied Colin Camber, "why did he lease an adjoiningproperty?"
"That's an evasion, sir. Answer my first question, if you please."
"You have asked me no question, Inspector."
"Oh, I see. That's your attitude, is it? Very well, then. Were you, orwere you not, an enemy of the late Colonel Menendez?"
"I was."
"What's that?"
"I say I was. I hated him, and I hate him no less in death than I hatedhim living."
I think that I had never seen a man so taken aback, InspectorAylesbury, drawing out a large handkerchief blew his nose. Replacing thehandkerchief, he produced a note-book.
"I am placing that statement on record, sir," he said.
He made an entry in the book, and then:
"Where did you first meet Colonel Menendez?" he asked.
"I never met him in my life."
"What's that?"
Colin Camber merely shrugged his shoulders.
"I will repeat my question," said the Inspector, pompously. "Where didyou first meet Colonel Juan Menendez?"
"I have answered you, Inspector."
"Oh, I see. You decline to answer that question. Very well, I will makea note of this." He did so. "And now," said he, "what were you doing atmidnight last night?"
"I was writing."
"Where?"
"Here."
"What happened?"
Very succinctly Colin Camber repeated the statement which he had alreadymade to Paul Harley, and, at its conclusion:
"Send for the man, Ah Tsong," directed Inspector Aylesbury.
Colin Camber inclined his head, clapped his bands, and silently Ah Tsongentered.
The Inspector stared at him for several moments as a visitor to the Zoomight stare at some rare animal; then:
"Your name is Ah Tsong?" he began.
"Ah Tsong," murmured the Chinaman.
"I am going to ask you to give an exact account of your movements lastnight."
"No sabby."
Inspector Aylesbury cleared his throat.
"I say I wish to know exactly what you did last night. Answer me."
Ah Tseng's face remained quite expressionless, and:
"No sabby," he repeated.
"Oh, I see," said the Inspector, "This witness refuses to answer atall."
"You are wrong," explained Colin Camber, quietly. "Ah Tsong is aChinaman, and his knowledge of English is very limited. He does notunderstand you."
"He understood my first question. You can't draw wool over my eyes. Heknows well enough. Are you going to answer me?" he demanded, angrily, ofthe Chinaman.
"No sabby, master," he said, glancing aside at Colin Camber. "Number-onep'licee-man gotchee no pidgin."
Paul Harley was leisurely filling his pipe, and:
"If you think the evidence of Ah Tsong important, Inspector," he said,"I will interpret if you wish."
"You will do what?"
"I will act as interpreter."
"Do you want me to believe that you speak Chinese?"
"Your beliefs do not concern me, Inspector; I am merely offering myservices."
"Thanks," said the Inspector, dryly, "but I won't trouble you. I shouldlike a few words with Mrs. Camber."
"Very good."
Colin Camber bent his head gravely, and gave an order to Ah Tsong, whoturned and went out.
"And what firearms have you in the house?" asked Inspector Aylesbury.
"An early Dutch arquebus, which you see in the corner," was the reply.
"That doesn't interest me. I mean up-to-date weapons."
"And a Colt revolver which I have in a drawer here."
As he spoke, Colin Camber opened a drawer in his desk and took out aheavy revolver of the American Army Service pattern.
"I should like to examine it, if you please."
Camber passed it to the Inspector, and the latter, having satisfiedhimself that none of the chambers were loaded, peered down the barrel,and smelled at the weapon suspiciously.
"If it has been recently used it has been well cleaned," he said, andplaced it on a cabinet beside him. "Anything else?"
"Nothing."
"No sporting rifles?"
"None. I never shoot."
"Oh, I see."
The door opened and Mrs. Camber came in. She was very simply dressed,and looked even more child-like than she had seemed before. I thinkAh Tsong had warned her of the nature of the ordeal which she was toexpect, but her wide-eyed timidity was nevertheless pathetic to witness.
She glanced at me with a ghost of a smile, and:
"Ysola," said Colin Camber, inclining his head toward me in a gravegesture of courtesy, "Mr. Knox has generously forgiven me a breach ofgood manners for which I shall never forgive myself. I beg you to thankhim, as I have done."
"It is so good of you," she said, sweetly, and held out her hand. "But Iknew you would understand that it was just a great mistake."
"Mr. Paul Harley," Camber continued, "my wife welcomes you; and this,Ysola, is Inspector Aylesbury, who desires a few moments' conversationupon a rather painful matter."
"I have heard, I have heard," she whispered. "Ah Tsong has told me."
The pupils of her eyes dilated, as she fixed an appealing glance uponthe Inspector.
In justice to the latter he was palpably abashed by the delicatebeauty of the girl who stood before him, by her naivete, and by thatchildishness of appearance and manner which must have awakened thelatent chivalry in almost any man's heart.
"I am sorry to have to trouble you with this disagreeable business, Mrs.Camber," he began; "but I believe you were awakened last night by thesound of a shot."
"Yes," she replied, watching him intently, "that is so."
"May I ask at what time this was heard?"
"Ah Tsong told me it was after twelve o'clock."
"Was the sound a loud one?"
"Yes. It must have been to have awakened me."
"I see. Did you think it was in the house?"
"Oh, no."
"In the garden?"
"I really could not say, but I think that it was farther away thanthat."
"And what did you do?"
"Did he come immediately?"
"Almost immediately."
"He was dressed, then?"
"No, I don't think he was. He had quickly put on an overcoat. He usuallyanswers at once, when I ring for him, you see."
"I see. What did you do then?"
"Well, I was frightened, you understand, and I told him to find out ifall was well with my husband. He came back and told me that Colin waswriting. But the sound had alarmed me very much."
"Oh, and now perhaps _you_ will tell me, Mrs. Camber, when and whereyour husband first met Colonel Menendez?"
Every vestige of colour fled from the girl's face.
"So far as I know--they never met," she replied, haltingly.
"Could you swear to that?"
"Yes."
I think that hitherto she had not fully realized the nature of thesituation; but now something in the Inspector's voice, or perhaps inour glances, told her the truth. She moved to where Colin Camber wassitting, looking down at him questioningly, pitifully. He put his armabout her and drew her close.
Inspector Aylesbury cleared his throat and returned his note-book to hispocket.
"I am going to take a look around the garden," he announced.
My respect for him increased slightly, and Harley and I followed him outof the study. A police sergeant was sitting in the hall, and Ah Tsongwas standing just outside the door.
"Show me the way to the garden," directed the Inspector.
Ah Tsong stared stupidly, whereupon Paul Harley addressed him in hisnative language, rapidly and in a low voice, in order, as I divined,that the Inspector should not hear him.
"I feel dreadfully guilty, Knox," he confessed, in a murmured aside."For any Englishman, fictitious characters excepted, to possess aknowledge of Chinese is almost indecent."
Presently, then, I found myself once more in that unkempt garden ofwhich I retained such unpleasant memories.
Inspector Aylesbury stared all about and up at the back of the house,humming to himself and generally behaving as though he were alone.Before the little summer study he stood still, and:
"Oh, I see," he muttered.
What he had seen was painfully evident. The right-hand window, beneathwhich there was a permanent wooden seat, commanded an unobstructed viewof the Tudor garden in the grounds of Cray's Folly. Clearly I coulddetect the speck of high-light upon the top of the sun-dial.
The Inspector stepped into the hut. It contained a bookshelf upon whicha number of books remained, a table and a chair, with some few otherdilapidated appointments. I glanced at Harley and saw that he wasstaring as if hypnotized at the prospect in the valley below. I observeda constable on duty at the top of the steps which led down into theTudor garden, but I could see nothing to account for Harley's fixedregard, until:
"Pardon me one moment, Inspector," he muttered, brusquely.
Brushing past the indignant Aylesbury, who was examining the contentsof the shelves in the hut, he knelt upon the wooden seat and staredintently through the open window.
"One-two-three-four-five-six-_seven_," he chanted. "Good! That willsettle it."
"Oh, I see," said Inspector Aylesbury, standing strictly upright, hisprominent eyes turned in the direction of the kneeling Harley. "One,two, three, four, and so on will settle it, eh? If you don't mind mesaying so, it was settled already."
"Yes?" replied Harley, standing up, and I saw that his eyes were verybright and that his face was slightly flushed. "You think the case is sosimple as that?"
"Simple?" exclaimed the Inspector. "It's the most cunning thing that wasever planned, but I flatter myself that I have a good straight eye whichcan see a fairly long way."
"Excellent," murmured Harley. "I congratulate you. Myopia is so commonin the present generation. You have decided, of course, that the murderwas committed by Ah Tsong?"
Inspector Aylesbury's eyes seemed to protrude extraordinarily.
"Ah Tsong!" he exclaimed. "Ah Tsong!"
"Surely it is palpable," continued Harley, "that of the three peopleresiding in the Guest House, Ah Tsong is the only one who could possiblyhave done the deed."
"Who could possibly--who could possibly----" stuttered the Inspector,then paused because of sheer lack of words.
"Review the evidence," continued Harley, coolly. "Mrs. Camber wasawakened by the sound of a shot. She immediately rang for Ah Tsong.There was a short interval before Ah Tsong appeared--and when he didappear he was wearing an overcoat. Note this point, Inspector: wearingan overcoat. He descended to the study and found Mr. Camber writing.Now, Ah Tsong sleeps in a room adjoining the kitchen on the groundfloor. We passed his quarters on our way to the garden a moment ago. Ofcourse, you had noted this? Mr. Camber is therefore eliminated from ourlist of suspects."
The Inspector was growing very red, but ere he had time to speak Harleycontinued:
"The first of these three persons to have heard a shot fired at the endof the garden would have been Ah Tsong, and not Mrs. Camber, whose roomis upstairs and in the front of the house. If it had been fired by Mr.Camber from the spot upon which we now stand, he would still have beenin the garden at the moment when Mrs. Camber was ringing the bell forAh Tsong. Mr. Camber must therefore have returned from the end of thegarden to the study, and have passed Ah Tsong's room--unheard by theoccupant--between the time that the bell rang and the time that Ah Tsongwent upstairs. This I submit to be impossible. There is an alternative:it is that he slipped in whilst Ah Tsong, standing on the landing above,was receiving his mistress's orders. I submit that the alternative isalso impossible. We thus eliminate Mr. Camber from the case, as I havealready mentioned."
"Eliminate--eliminate!" cried the Inspector, beginning to recover powerof speech. "Do you think you can fuddle me with a mass of words, Mr.Harley? Allow me to point out to you, sir, that you are in no wayofficially associated with this matter."
"You have already drawn my attention to the fact, Inspector, but it cando no harm to jog my memory."
Harley spoke entirely without bitterness, and I, who knew his everymood, realized that he was thoroughly enjoying himself. Therefore I knewthat at last he had found a clue.
"I may add, Inspector," said he, "that upon further reflection I havealso eliminated Ah Tsong from the case. I forgot to mention that helacks the first and second fingers of his right hand; and I have yetto meet the marksman who can shoot a man squarely between the eyes,by moonlight, at a hundred yards, employing his third finger astrigger-finger. There are other points, but these will be sufficient toshow you that this case is more complicated than you had assumed it tobe."
Inspector Aylesbury did not deign to reply, or could not trust himselfto do so. He turned and made his way back to the house.
CHAPTER XXIV
AN OFFICIAL MOVE