The Riddle of the Spinning Wheel Read online

  CHAPTER XII

  CLEEK MAKES A STARTLING ASSERTION

  Cleek and Mr. Narkom spent a busy fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, theSuperintendent learned of the tragedy which had taken place and of whatevidence Cleek had got together for him, had a cursory look round thelibrary and at the body itself (which they examined more minutely), andgenerally took a survey of the whole appalling affair.

  "Cinnamon!" ejaculated the Superintendent for the thirty-third timesince the recital of the thing. "It's a teaser, I swear! If someone inthe house hasn't done it, who the dickens _has_? When your wire came forme to run up here, yesterday, I was up to my eyes in work. But I knewyou wouldn't send unless you really wanted me, and when _you_ dothat----"

  He stopped speaking and let the rest of the sentence go by default. ButCleek had seen, and Cleek _knew_. The friendliness in their two pairs ofeyes deepened to a fellowship which is rare--and good to see.

  "I know, old chap. But we mustn't go wandering down those particularprimrose paths just now. You're a bully old boy, and I'd back youagainst every other man in the kingdom. And you've been a sort of aguardian angel and a blithering idiot all rolled into one! And that's acombination which I for one, have strong leanings for!... Now, then,what about it?"

  What, indeed! He swung around in his tracks, hands out-thrown, andsurveyed the Superintendent with tilted head and narrowed eyes. "Anyideas, eh?"

  "Not a single, at the moment. Have you?"

  "Oh--several. But they're too uncertain at present for utterance.There's one thing I do know: That if I could find out certain items thatwent to the laundry from this household last week I'd know a great dealmore than I do now. And I'd be able to nail--someone--with a good sharein this beastly business. Also.... You saw Dollops, of course?"

  "Yes. Young beggar!--he was on tenterhooks. Afraid some ghostly lady hadcaught you last night and hugged you to death, or some such rubbish.Until I assured him that your biceps were equal to all the ghosts in theworld. Yes, I saw Dollops, all right. And he said he'd got work to dofor you, or something. Some constable had called with a note early inthe morning...."

  Cleek looked up quickly from a survey of the window-sill.

  "Yes--yes. Had he discovered what I asked him to?"

  There was a sort of dumb tolerance in the Superintendent's unimaginativecountenance. He shrugged his shoulders off-handedly.

  "My dear chap," he responded, "here's his identical message, only Ican't imitate his inimitable accent. 'Tell the Guv'ner, sir, as thatthere "Crahn and Anchor" wot he wants ter know abaht is an inmate of thepost-office!...' Now, if you can make any sense out of that, Cleek...."

  "Deland, my dear chap, Deland, I beg of you!" interposed Cleek hastily,whirling about with upraised hands. "Not a soul in the place knows who Ireally am. Even Highland fastnesses, you know, have their leakingspots--and I'll show you one of 'em by-and-by that'll make you situp!... But he _did_ get it, the young beggar! Well, well, well! thatpoints nearer home, anyway, and it'll be something to go on.... What'sthat? A clue? Well, perhaps, and perhaps not. Anyhow, it's not clueenough at present to hang any ideas on. But the stiletto's done thething in one instance, and the air-pistol in the other. But how?--butwhere?--but----" Then he whirled around suddenly and stood a momentlooking at the spinning wheel as though, of a sudden, it had actuallycome to life of its own accord, and then darting forward scanned thespindle. "H'm. Perhaps not the stiletto--perhaps _this_, and thepeasant-girl story to make a cloak of! The points are much thesame--stiletto or spindle? But--which?"

  "What the dickens are you mumbling over?" threw in Mr. Narkom at thisjuncture, as Cleek stood surveying this instrument of a by-gone year,and pinching his chin between thumb and forefinger thoughtfully thewhile. "Spindle? You don't suppose the spindle of _that_ thing couldhave anything to do with it, eh?"

  "Stranger things have happened, my dear friend, though I'm inclined tothink that in this case they have not!" responded Cleek serenely. "Thespindle theory is thin--deuced thin. But it's often in the thinnestmaterial that the thickest things are hid.... Now, if we could only findthe bloodstained article with which the stiletto was wiped, we'd settlethat question once and for all. I-- Gad! yes, I remember now! I'll askher later on what they were. H'm--ah! That's possibly where it is."

  But Mr. Narkom's patience was running a close race with his curiosity,and both in the same direction. He gave an exasperated sigh and rubbedthe top of his bald head disconsolately.

  "You're the most amazin' beggar," he gave out finally, in a tense voice."Mumbling away like a lunatic, of laundry-bills and spinning wheels and'crowns and anchors' which are 'inmates of village post-offices,' and Idon't know what all! If I didn't know something about you, I'd sayyou'd gone suddenly balmy, and light out for little old London beforeyou turned your hand on _me_! But you might let a chap have aninkling----"

  "When you've been in this house as long as I have, you'll have more thanan inkling--you'll probably _know_," returned Cleek with a little laugh."But, look here, my friend, we've got to get the body out ofhere--presto!--or we'll be having the ladies fainting away and upsettingthe apple cart with a vengeance! They're due in here inside of a quarterof an hour, when I'm going to give a little 'turn' of the whole thingagain, and see if we can't reconstruct it a bit. The constable outsidewill lend a hand. Here, Peters!"

  "Yessir?"

  "Get your friend from the outside window for a moment and give a hand toget--This--out of the room before the ladies come. I want to reconstructthe whole affair in the presence of all concerned. And we'll take awayall the gruesomeness that's possible.... Poor old chap! Poor oldtight-fisted laird! Eh, man, but you've got a sterner judge to face nowthan ever you were yourself! And this time Justice has to be done, andno gainsaying the fact, either!"

  The unpleasant task was barely finished before the sound of footstepsand the humming of many voices in the hallway without told those withinthat the family were reassembling for the "performance." Cleek, with ahasty glance to see that all was right, threw wide the door.

  "Come in, come in," he said in a pleasant, friendly voice. "There'snothing now to be seen but that which all may see, Lady Paula, soneither you nor Miss Duggan nor any other member of the party need fear.If you will all kindly take your places exactly as you took them lastnight, I'd be immensely grateful. At any rate, Mr. Narkom here"--heintroduced him to the assembly with a slight bow--"will be able to getsome kind of an idea of exactly how things were when the--tragedyhappened. Hello! Where's Miss--Miss--er--McCall? Wasn't she a member ofthe party, too?"

  Lady Paula entered the room with a rustling of soft black silk, and cametoward him with sadly smiling countenance.

  "I hardly thought, you know, that you would require her presence, Mr.Deland, and so I told her she might attend to her duties instead. But ofcourse if you wish----"

  "I do wish----"

  "Then she shall be immediately sent for. Maud, my dear, will you kindlycall her?"

  Maud, thus addressed, turned silently away and went out of the room, butin a few moments was back again, the slim, shrinking form of the girlfollowing closely behind her.

  Cleek came toward her and smiled down into her pale face.

  "If you would be so kind, Miss McCall, as to take up your position as itwas last night when--when the murder was committed, I should beexceedingly grateful. Thanks very much. You really needn't be sofrightened, you know. It's only a sort of grim dress rehearsal after theshow instead of before. Just to get some sort of idea.

  "Now, then, Sir Andrew, I take it, sat here in this chair"--he seatedhimself forthwith at the desk, and looked about him. "And you, Mr.Duggan, were in the centre, opposite, with your sister here at yourleft. You were at your husband's right hand, a little way back, LadyPaula? Oh, I see--just halfway behind his chair, in case he might needyou. Of course, of course. The right position for a lord's lady tobe.... Now, let me see. You, Miss Dowd, stood at the left hand, rightback against the wall, with Miss Debenham on _your_ left--oh, a littleforward, eh?
And Miss McCall on the other side of her. That's it. Now, Isuppose, we are all in our places. Now, Mr. Narkom, if you'd be so goodas to take up my present position and represent the ill-fated gentlemanfor one moment, I'll hop up and look about a bit. The scene's set, andwe'll try and reconstruct the drama from anything any one would like totell me. I believe one of the windows was open, was it not, LadyPaula?"

  He turned to her so swiftly that she was taken back, and in hernervousness went a shade pale under her olive tan.

  "I--don't know, Mr. Deland. I really never noticed...."

  "But _I_ did." It was Catherine Dowd who spoke, a note of decision inher clear voice. "The centre window was open, Mr. Deland--from thebottom. Wide open."

  "Yes--of course it was," Maud Duggan broke in excitedly. "I remembernoticing how the curtains blew while poor Father was speaking. Don'tyou, Ross?"

  He shook his head miserably.

  "I don't remember anything but what actually took place," he returned,in a low, unhappy voice. "I was so furious, Maud; you must remember theignominy of--of Father calling in everyone like this to see my namestruck out of the will! If he'd done it in private, even, it would nothave been so bad, but in front of others, people who were not of ourfamily"--his glance travelled from Johanna's mouse-like countenance tothe inscrutable Catherine's. "It--it seemed hardly cricket to me, and Iwas boiling over. I wish to God I hadn't been! It would have made itmuch easier to bear--now!"

  "My poor Ross!"

  Cynthia's voice, very low and tender, crept across to him, and he gaveher a weary smile in acknowledgment.

  "Well, now," said Cleek evenly, "let's start away at this wretchedaffair. Mr. Duggan, you were the only other gentleman present besidesyour father. Perhaps you will tell me how things went. The ladies looksomewhat pale. It's rather an ordeal, I'm afraid, but a very necessaryone. Your father, I understand, seated himself and began to denounce youin a loud voice, and you----"

  "Retaliated, Mr. Deland. Yes, I'm afraid I did. Poor old Dad! But I waspretty well strung up. And then, just as he had sat down again--he wasstanding up before, waving his fist in the air and calling me all sortsof names"--his voice broke a tone or two and then recovereditself--"just as he had taken up the pen and was about to scratch out myname and substitute my sister's, out went the lights; we were plungedimmediately into utter darkness, and in the midst of it----"

  "We heard distinctly the sound of the spinning wheel, humming just asthe Peasant Girl said it would hum upon the approaching death of anymale member of the family," supplemented Maud Duggan feverishly and withmuch excitement. "Hum-hum-hum! it went, Mr. Deland; then there was aswishing sound as of someone moving hurriedly--a sort ofhalf-gasp--a--a--oh! how shall I describe it?----"

  "A whizz and a whirr, and then the lights came up and there lay SirAndrew in his chair--dead."

  The finale came from Catherine Dowd, who spoke in a low, tense voice,every note of which sounded in that quiet room, and made the atmospherevibrate with the feeling of it.

  "My God!"

  The exclamation came from Lady Paula's and Mr. Narkom's lipssimultaneously, but from very different causes. For the lady had gonesuddenly white as death and fallen back against the wall, both handspressed to her face and her shoulders shaking.

  Maud Duggan hastened to her immediately, while Miss McCall, like theperfectly trained companion she was, produced smelling-salts from thecapacious pocket of her blue serge coat-frock, and held it under hermistress's nose. A dose of brandy set the lady to rights, and herSouthern emotionalism subsided when she sat down in front of the openwindow.

  She looked up into Cleek's downbent face with wide eyes.

  "I am so sorry," she said. "But it brought it all back--sodreadfully--so terribly! Oh, I shall never forget it--never! MissMcCall, my smelling-salts, again, please.... Thank you. Mr. Deland, youhave still--much more to proceed with?"

  He nodded.

  "A good deal, I'm afraid. In the first place, I must tell you that wehave discovered one of the weapons--the stiletto which stabbed yourhusband, Lady Paula. There remains but the air-pistol--and that will notbe a difficult matter, either, I imagine." He looked significantly atRoss, whose face went suddenly scarlet.

  "I say--if you dare to accuse--_me_...."

  "Not so fast, my friend; I'm accusing nobody," returned Cleek serenely,"and too much protestation often hides a guilty conscience. Please saynothing until you are questioned. It is the safest way. First--thestiletto."

  He drew it from his pocket and held it aloft where they could all seeit, the sunshine fighting upon its fine blade and turning it into anarrow ribbon of brilliancy.

  "Can any one claim this, please?"

  There was an instant's hush of amazement as all looked at the thing, asof the stillness before the storm, and then Maud Duggan hurried forwardand seized it in her two hands.

  "It is my stepmother's!" she exclaimed emphatically, and at the sound ofher voice Lady Paula sprang to her feet, instantly upon the defence, andher faintness forgotten in this exciting moment.

  "Mine--mine! Oh, of course it is mine!" she shrilled like a veritableharpy. "Every one of you would like to accuse me of this terrible crime,I suppose. Mine?--yes, it is mine. But who had it last, I ask you? Thatis another question to answer. Who but yourself, Maud?"

  "Not yesterday, Paula."

  "The day before, then----"

  "It was I you lent it to the day before, if you remember, Paula," struckin Ross's voice quietly. "Please try to stick to facts as much aspossible."

  "Well, you, then--or your wretched sister--one or the other of you," shereturned vehemently, stung out of all thought of good-breeding by thesudden appearance of this thing of ill-repute. "What does it matter, solong as it was used by one of you?"

  "And you will remember, if you think back, that I myself brought it upto your boudoir and handed it to you, Paula, and I myself saw you placeit in your top drawer," interposed Ross, still in that ice-cold terriblevoice which is so much more horrible to bear than red-hot anger.

  "You lie!--you lie!"

  "He does not!" It was Johanna McCall who spoke at thisjuncture--Johanna, with two red spots of colour in her usually palecheeks and her eyes fairly blazing. "I saw him do it, too-- _I_ saw you,Mr. Duggan. Don't believe what she says, Mr. Deland! It is she wholies-- I swear that!"

  To and fro the evil words flew like vultures seeking to peck eachother's hearts out in the combat. In the sudden hush which followed thislast denouncement, while Lady Paula was accumulating her forces toretaliate, Cleek held up his hand.

  "Then I take it," he said, "that the stiletto is the property of LadyPaula, but that it was last used by Mr. Duggan, who returned it to LadyPaula in the presence of a witness, and she put it back into her drawer.That is correct, is it not?"

  "A lie--an absolute lie!"

  "Perfectly correct, Mr. Deland."

  "Thank you, Mr. Duggan. At any rate, the ownership of the thing isestablished, which, by the way, Lady Paula, makes no assertion whateveras to incriminating _you_ in this disastrous affair. Miss Debenham,would you mind coming over here for a moment? I would like to look atyour dress----"

  "My _dress_, Mr. Deland?"

  He smiled at her with disarming frankness.

  "No wonder you think I am mad, but--ah, yes! see, right here on thispanel--I thought I was not mistaken. If you wouldn't mind turning rounda little more toward the middle of the room, Miss Debenham--thankyou--right here; those dark stains." He went down on his knees suddenlyand sniffed them, rubbed them with his fingers, and then beckoned themystified Mr. Narkom, who joined him immediately. "You see, Mr. Narkom,what it is? Rather peculiar, isn't it?"

  "What the devil are you driving at?" demanded Ross at this juncture,striding around the desk and taking up a stand beside his fiancee asthough to shield her from the hands of these merciless probers of humanhearts. "I wish to God you and your kind had never showed up here atall, I do, indeed! You always bring trouble in your wake."

  "_Follow_ trouble
, I think you mean, my friend," supplemented Cleekquietly. "The trouble is generally there first. It is our business tosee that it is thrust upon--the right shoulders."

  "Then Cynthia--what are you driving at now?"

  There was a moment's tense silence. Then Cleek's voice sounded clearly:

  "Simply this. Those three stains there--long, narrow ones--upon MissDebenham's gown (I noticed them this morning at breakfast)are--bloodstains, Mr. Duggan--_bloodstains_!"