“You’ll have to chuck me again.”

“Carr!”

“Somebody murdered James Lessiter last night, and they’ll be pretty well bound to think it was me.”

She kept her eyes very steadily on his face.

“And was it?”

He laughed harshly.

“There-you see-you’d believe it yourself for twopence!”

Elizabeth ’s eyes were very bright-hazel eyes as clear as water.

“Not for twopence-only if you said so.”

“Well, I didn’t. I might have before I saw you, not afterwards. And anyhow I shouldn’t have gone up behind him and brained him with a poker.”

“Carr!”

“Somebody did. I found him-”

“You didn’t go there!”

“Oh, yes, I did. It’s no good telling me I was a fool-I know that now. I didn’t know he was going to be murdered. I was going to see him and have a show-down and bang the door on the whole thing-finish-new book, chapter one-wedding-bells and a happy-ever-after story. It seemed like quite a good idea. You see if he was going to be up and down to Melling House, and I was going to be to and fro to the Cottage, we were more or less bound to meet. I thought it would be better to have a show-down in decent privacy. We could then cut each other at leisure, and Melling would stop asking us anywhere together. It did seem a good idea.”

She stood there, her head with its windblown hair a little tilted back on the long, slender throat, her eyes never wavering from his face.

“What happened? Tell me.”

He told her about seeing Catherine’s light and going on up to the house, then round the corner, up the two steps, and in through the door that stood ajar, and the drawn curtains. He spared her nothing-the man lying dead across his desk, the stained poker, the raincoat with its drenched sleeve and splashed skirt.

When he had finished she said,

“It’s a pity you wiped the poker.”

“I had to-in case-”

She shook her head.

“It was a pity. You said you wouldn’t have come up behind anyone and hit them over the head with the poker. Did you think Rietta would?”

The colour came up into his face.

“I didn’t begin to think until a lot later than that. That damned coat was there-the next I knew I was wiping the poker. I don’t suppose it made a ha’p’orth of difference. The murderer had been thinking all right. He either slipped on that coat to do the job, or else he messed it up afterwards- on purpose. Do you think he would have overlooked the poker?”

“No-” She thought for a moment. “Carr, if you took the raincoat away and didn’t leave any fingerprints yourself, I don’t see what there is to make anyone think it was you.”

He said grimly, “There’s our little Fancy-that’s all. She and I were looking at Henry Ainger’s papers together, when I turned up James Lessiter’s picture. I can’t remember what I said, but she will. Something on the lines of ‘I’ve got you, you swine!’ After which I proceeded to bang out of the house.”

“Won’t she hold her tongue? Couldn’t you have asked her-”

He was frowning fiercely.

“No!”

Then all at once he relaxed.

“It wouldn’t be a bit of good if I did. The child is quite artless, and they’d have it out of her. Better let her say her piece and take the line that we haven’t got anything to hide.”

The telephone bell rang. Elizabeth walked over to the table and lifted the receiver. He heard her say, “Yes, he’s here.” Then she looked over her shoulder.

“Carr, it’s Rietta. She wants to speak to you.”

Rietta Cray’s deep voice came to him along the wire.

She was speaking German. She said,

“It’s not too good, Carr. They have taken away the coat. We didn’t wash it well enough. Mrs. Mayhew knows I was there. She listened. She heard him speak about his will and say, ‘If young Carr murders me tonight, you’ll come in for a tidy fortune.’ It’s not so good, is it? I thought you had better be warned.”

There was a click as she hung up. He did the same, and turned, repeating what she had said. At the end he used the words Rietta had used.

“Not so good, is it?”

She said soberly, “They’ll find out who did it. But you ought to have legal advice.”

“Yes-I’ll go and see old Holderness.”

“He’s not-a criminal lawyer.”

His mouth twisted.

“Gosh-that rubs it in!”

“I’m sorry.”

“You needn’t be-we’re going to have to go through the mill all right. To come back to Holderness. He knows us all, and if we’re too criminal for him, he can turn us over to somebody else. He’ll know who we’d better have. I’ll go round and see him.”

“Come back and tell me what he says.”

He nodded, went a step or two towards the door, and came back.

“ Elizabeth, last night is washed out. We’re not engaged.”

Her eyes were brighter than ever. She was tall enough to put her arms round his neck without standing on tiptoe. Her locked hands drew his head down until she could lay her cheek against his.

“Aren’t we?”

“No.”

“All right, darling, I don’t mind-we’ll get married instead.”

“ Elizabeth!”

She said, “Don’t be silly! Run along and see Mr. Holderness!”

Mr. Holderness sat back in his chair. His florid colour stood high, but the black brows which made such a handsome contrast with his thick grey hair were drawn together in a frowning line, and the eyes they shaded had a worried look. It had become more and more pronounced as Carr’s story proceeded. He drew in his breath now and let it out again in gusty protest.

“My dear Carr!”

Carr’s lip twitched.

“Damnable-isn’t it?”

Mr. Holderness drummed on his knee with big white fingers.

“You realize, of course, that if all this comes out, you’ll be in very serious danger of arrest.”

“I’ve done nothing else but realize it.”

“Of course there is no reason why it should all come out.”

“How do you mean?”

“Who knows that you went up to Melling House last night? How many people have you told?”

Carr jerked a shoulder.

“Rietta- Elizabeth -you-”

“Then don’t tell anyone else. They must hold their tongues, and you must hold yours.”

He said slowly, “I’m not sure about that.”

“You’d better be.”

“I’m not sure. You see, they know Rietta was there-they’ll say she had a motive. She went up to warn him that I’d found out about him and Marjory. He told her some cock-and-bull story to soothe her down. Then he produced a will he had made in her favour when they were engaged-and Mrs. Mayhew was listening at the door! She heard him say, ‘If young Carr murders me tonight, you’ll come in for a tidy fortune.’ That puts it fair and square on Rietta-or me. If I back out, it just leaves Rietta. Besides, everything else apart, Fancy will tell them about my recognizing his photograph and slamming off in a blazing rage.”

Mr. Holderness set his jaw in a very obstinate manner.

“There will be time enough for you to commit suicide if it proves that Rietta is in real danger. I really must insist that you hold your tongue.”

Carr cocked an eyebrow.

“Suicide?”

Mr. Holderness stared at him angrily.

“You might just as well, if you propose to tell the police, firstly, that you recognized James Lessiter’s portrait last night as that of the man who seduced and deserted your wife, and secondly, that you were present on the scene of the crime at or about the time it was committed. You can do as you like, but I refuse to be associated with any such folly. Rietta is not, to my mind, in anything like so serious a position as you are. No one who knew her would believe that she would commit a sordid crime for money.”

Carr gave a half absent nod, and then came out with,

“I wonder who did do it-”

The large, well kept hand rose and fell upon Mr. Holderness’s knee.

“James Lessiter had made a great deal of money. That kind of fortune is often made at the expense of somebody else. It seems improbable to me that it was a local crime, though quite possibly pains may have been taken to make it look like one. I wonder, now, whether there is anything missing. I had a very careful inventory taken after Mrs. Lessiter’s death. I think the first thing for me to do will be to communicate with the police and suggest that they should check on it. There were some valuable things in that house. If any of them are missing-well, that will be something for the police to follow up. And meanwhile I insist that you keep your own counsel. If you are asked to make a statement you will say that, acting under the advice of your solicitor, you prefer to say nothing until the inquest. That will give me time to find out how the land lies.”