‘Rather a strange attitude if there was nothing against his character before the accident occurred. Did he come into money from his wife?’

Frank cocked an eyebrow.

‘That, my dear ma’am, is one of the things which started people talking.’

‘One of the things, Frank?’

His light, cool gaze rested upon her.

‘There seems to have been an idea that the Blount family was rather too prone to accidents.’

‘There were others?’

‘Blount’s father broke his neck falling down an appropriately antique flight of stairs in his secondhand shop one dark night. He was alone in the house, and when they found him in the morning he was dead. His son had gone down into Sussex on a job.’

‘Then why was there any talk about it?’

‘Oh, just their nasty minds, I expect. He really did go down into Sussex, and he really did have a job there, but as some of the nasty-minded pointed out, he had a motorbike and he could have come back, done what he had planned to do, and returned to finish his job in Sussex. It’s just one of those things. If he had wanted to do it, I suppose it could have been done. He came into a paying business and the old man’s savings.’

Miss Silver said gravely,

‘Two accidents, and both of them profitable to Mr Blount. Do you really think that the present Mrs Blount may not have good reason to be afraid? She too has money of her own. Last night he talked in his sleep. It was what she heard him say that had induced the state of shock in which I found her. It must have been something of a very serious nature. Nothing less would account for her condition. In my own mind I feel very little doubt that it was something which would connect him with the murder of Mrs Graham.’

‘My dear ma’am!’

She looked at him steadily.

‘I do not need you to tell me that there is no evidence of such a connexion. Mrs Blount would not be available as a witness, and in any case I do not imagine that words uttered by a sleeping man would be admissible in a court of law. But consider for a moment Mr Blount’s character and behaviour. His father and his first wife both meet with accidents from which he profits. He marries a second woman with money of her own, brings her here, and begins to bid for Mrs Graham’s house. Then Mr Worple turns up. They bid one against the other until they have reached the extravagant price of seven thousand pounds, at which point Mr Worple withdraws his pretensions to the house but continues to pay marked and unwelcome attentions to Miss Graham. I do not know how you would interpret the situation up to this point, but in the light of what you have just told me about a previous intimacy between Mr Blount and Mr Worple it seems to me probable that, whatever their object in acquiring The Lodge, they had come to the conclusion that partnership might prove more profitable than rivalry.’

He was looking at her with great attention.

‘Whatever their object might be in acquiring The Lodge – what exactly do you mean by that?’

‘I am unable to believe in the motive put forward by either of them. Mr Blount is not the man to spend a large sum of money in order to gratify a whim of his wife’s. Nor does Mr Worple seem to me to have shown so much attachment to his family and his early surroundings as to make it at all credible that he should wish to sacrifice a large sum of money in order to acquire a totally unsuitable house.’

‘And you think that he has now agreed to share The Lodge with Mr and Mrs Blount?’

She looked down thoughtfully at the small pink vest and measured it against her hand.

‘No – that is not what I think. I do not believe that either Mr Blount or Mr Worple has any intention of residing at The Lodge.’

‘They were prepared to spend seven thousand pounds on a house without any intention of living it!’

‘If Mr Blount was prepared to pay seven thousand pounds for The Lodge, it was because he expected to make a handsome profit. If he and Mr Worple have come to some agreement, the purchase price would be shared between them, but the profit would also have to be shared. Since their rivalry has been eliminated, they will naturally not expect the price to be so high. Only this morning Mr Martin the house-agent intimated that the circumstances of Mrs Graham’s death must seriously affect the value of the property.’

‘Well, it would, wouldn’t it? But let us come back to the point. How do you suppose Mr Blount expects to turn a handsome profit upon an ordinary suburban house for which he was willing to pay seven thousand pounds? And he does seem to have been willing to pay that when he and Worple were still bidding each other up. The profit couldn’t possibly come from a re-sale, you know. What do you suppose he was after?’

Miss Silver gave a meditative cough.

‘I believe he may have wished to dig in the garden,’ she said.

IT TOOK QUITE a lot to startle Frank Abbott, but at this he pulled himself up in his chair and said,

‘What?’

Miss Silver reproved him with a glance and repeated her remark.

‘I believe he may have wished to dig in the garden.’

‘My dear ma’am!’

‘Or in the gazebo. Yes, I think it would probably be in the gazebo.’

She laid down the almost completed vest and took out of her knitting-bag that copy of the Rev. Thomas Jenkinson’s book which had engaged her interest. There was a neat white marker between the pages, so that it opened readily at the chapter on Grove Hill. She handed the volume to Frank, directing his attention to the paragraph which dealt with the Gordon Riots. Reading on, he would come naturally to the passage which had been marked by a faint underlining. Whilst his attention was engaged with the narrative she returned to her knitting and remained in silence. She could have guessed the moment when he reached the description of the unfortunate Mr Warren’s last moments. At the report of the Physician who was Mr D – L -’s brother his colourless eyebrows rose, but he read on to the end without speaking. Then, and not till then, he said across the open page, and quoting from it,

‘ “The dying man constantly muttered to himself some such phrase as, ‘The gold is safe,’ or, ‘I have saved the gold.’ ” This, I suppose, is the nub of the whole thing, the gold being presumably the gold Plate which is mentioned as being of great value. All very interesting, my dear ma’am, but highly speculative. Where did you come across this book?’

‘Althea Graham told me that her father had been much interested in the early history of Grove Hill. She spoke of some connexion with the Gordon Riots and told me her father’s books were in the attic, and that an account of the Riots was to be found in one of them. When I had a little time on my hands I looked for the volume and found it.’

‘That accounts for your being informed about the last moments of the unfortunate Mr Warren. But how do you suggest that Blount and Worple got to know about them?’

‘My dear Frank, Mr Worple was the stepson of the late Mr Martin whose own son, the present Mr Martin, is the leading house-agent in Grove Hill. In a conversation I had with him this morning he told me that his grandfather had founded the firm, and that his father had been much interested in local history and had possessed a copy of Mr Jenkinson’s book. Since this was the case, Mr Worple would have had access to it. This passage might well catch his imagination. Just what brought it to the forefront of his mind we have no means of knowing, nor just why he should have passed on his thoughts and speculations on the subject to Mr Blount, but…’

Frank Abbott threw the book down open on to the dining-table.

‘You know, I’m not at all sure you haven’t got something there. At least you may have one bit and I’ve got another. You didn’t ask me what Blount’s job was, apart from associating with crooks and keeping a second-hand shop, but it may have a considerable bearing.’