第8章 BOOK I:AS SEEN BY TWO STRANGERS(8)

"I am not what I was.I can no longer get down on my hands and knees to pick up threads from the nap of a rug,or spy out a spot of blood in the crimson woof of a carpet.""You shall have Sweetwater here to do the active work for you.

What we want of you is the directing mind -the infallible instinct.

It's a case in a thousand,Gryce.We've never had anything just like it.You've never had anything at all like it.It will make you young again."The old man's eyes shot fire and unconsciously one foot slipped to the floor.Then he bethought himself and painfully lifted it back again.

"What are the points?What's the difficulty?"he asked."Awoman has been shot -"

"No,not shot,stabbed.We thought she had been shot,for that was intelligible and involved no impossibilities.But Drs.Heath and Webster,under the eye of the Challoners'own physician,have made an examination of the wound -an official one,thorough and quite final so far as they are concerned,and they declare that no bullet is to be found in the body.As the wound extends no further than the heart,this settles one great point,at least.""Dr.Heath is a reliable man and one of our ablest coroners.""Yes.There can be no question as to the truth of his report.You know the victim?Her name,I mean,and the character she bore?""Yes;so much was told me on my way down."

"A fine girl unspoiled by riches and seeming independence.Happy,too,to all appearance,or we should be more ready to consider the possibility of suicide.""Suicide by stabbing calls for a weapon.Yet none has been found,I hear.""None."

"Yet she was killed that way?

"Undoubtedly,and by a long and very narrow blade,larger than a needle but not so large as the ordinary stiletto.""Stabbed while by herself,or what you may call by herself?She had no companion near her?""None,if we can believe the four members of the Parrish family who were seated at the other end of the room.

"And you do believe them?"

"Would a whole family lie -and needlessly?They never knew the woman -father,maiden aunt and two boys,clear-eyed,jolly young chaps whom even the horror of this tragedy,perpetrated as it were under their very nose,cannot make serious for more than a passing moment.""It wouldn't seem so."

"Yet they swear up and down that nobody crossed the room towards Miss Challoner.""So they tell me."

"She fell just a few feet from the desk where she had been writing.

No word,no cry,just a collapse and sudden fall.In olden days they would have said,struck by a bolt from heaven.But it was a bolt which drew blood;not much blood,I hear,but sufficient to end life almost instantly.She never looked up or spoke again.

What do you make of it,Gryce?"

"It's a tough one,and I'm not ready to venture an opinion yet.Ishould like to see the desk you speak of,and the spot where she fell."A young fellow who had been hovering in the background at once stepped forward.He was the plain-faced detective who had spoken to George.

"Will you take my arm,sir?"

Mr.Gryce's whole face brightened.This Sweetwater,as they called him,was,I have since understood,one of his proteges and more or less of a favourite.

"Have you had a chance at this thing?"he asked."Been over the ground -studied the affair carefully?""Yes,sir;they were good enough to allow it.""Very well,then,you're in a position to pioneer me.You've seen it all and won't be in a hurry.""No;I'm at the end of my rope.I haven't an idea,sir.""Well,well,that's honest at all events."Then,as he slowly rose with the other's careful assistance,"There's no crime without its clew.The thing is to recognise that clew when seen.But I'm in no position,to make promises.Old days don't return for the asking."Nevertheless,he looked ten years younger than when he came in,or so thought those who knew him.

The mezzanine was guarded from all visitors save such as had official sanction.Consequently,the two remained quite uninterrupted while they moved about the place in quiet consultation.

Others had preceded them;had examined the plain little desk and found nothing;had paced off the distances;had looked with longing and inquiring eyes at the elevator cage and the open archway leading to the little staircase and the musicians'gallery.But this was nothing to the old detective.The locale was what he wanted,and he got it.Whether he got anything else it would be impossible to say from his manner as he finally sank into a chair by one of the openings,and looked down on the lobby below.It was full of people coming and going on all sorts of business,and presently he drew back,and,leaning on Sweetwater's arm,asked him a few questions.

"Who were the first to rush in here after the Parrishes gave the alarm?""One or two of the musicians from the end of the hall.They had just finished their programme and were preparing to leave the gallery.Naturally they reached her first."Good!their names?"

"Mark Sowerby and Claus Hennerberg.Honest Germans -men who have played here for years.""And who followed them?Who came next on the scene?

"Some people from the lobby.They heard the disturbance and rushed up pell-mell.But not one of these touched her.Later her father came.""Who did touch her?Anybody,before the father came in?""Yes;Miss Clarke,the middle-aged lady with the Parrishes.She had run towards Miss Challoner as soon as she heard her fall,and was sitting there with the dead girl's head in her lap when the musicians showed themselves.""I suppose she has been carefully questioned?""Very,I should say."

"And she speaks of no weapon?"

"No.Neither she nor any one else at that moment suspected murder or even a violent death.All thought it a natural one -sudden,but the result of some secret disease.""Father and all?"

"Yes."