Pons nodded significantly, glancing from the housekeeper to Miss Stuart.
"Well said, Hannah. That is exactly my opinion and I am glad to have it confirmed by one so obviously sensible and level-headed as yourself. If you can remember anything specific about these events, which you feel might assist me. I should be glad of any confidence you might care to make."
"Certainly, sir," said Hannah, taking our cases and retreating up the wide staircase with them. "And I am so glad that you could come."
Pons remained staring after her for a moment, then Miss Stuart led the way througn into a long drawing room, whose windows, open to the garden and the drowsy hum of bees in the late afternoon, spilled golden stencils of light across the carpet.
"We will take tea immediately, gentlemen, if you wish. And then I presume you would like to examine the study, Mr. Pons."
Solar Pons sat down and tented his thin fingers before him, his eyes raking the room.
"By all means, Miss Stuart. And then I have a fancy to take a stroll about the church before dark."
Our client, who sat by the empty fireplace, which was filled with a great bowl of scarlet roses, smiled. She patted the small, bright-eyed spaniel which had wandered in from the garden.
"Anything you wish, Mr. Pons."
Solar Pons leaned forward as the housekeeper reappeared with a tea cart.
"Please do not raise your hopes too high, Miss Stuart. Nothing may happen while we are here. But I will do my best."
"You are being too modest, Pons," I said. "I am sure you will soon have the answer to these baffling events." "As always, you do me too much honor, Parker."
And he said nothing more until we had finished our tea.
4
Afterward, Miss Stuart conducted us to a large, handsome room on the ground floor, whose French windows opened onto the flagged terrace of which she had already spoken.
"This is the study, Mr. Pons," she said nervously.
My companion nodded.
"Where all these alarming things happened, Miss Stuart. Well, perhaps now we are on the ground we shall make sense where all has seemed opaque hitherto."
"Let us hope so, Mr. Pons."
Solar Pons looked around keenly, his eyes running over the serried ranks of musty ecclesiastical volumes, many in leather bindings, which ranged across from floor to ceiling. In the corner was the tall leather wing chair in which our client had sat on the fateful evening she had heard the intruder furtively rummaging among the books. But tonight, in this beautiful June weather, the library was a pleasant, placid place, with the mellow sunlight coming in through the open French windows and bringing with it the scent of roses.
Solar Pons had his powerful magnifying lens out now and ranged round the room, watched in silence by Miss Stuart. He moved swiftly down the shelves, his keen eyes darting here and there and then moved out onto the terrace, examining detail quite invisible to me. He straightened up, dusting his knees of his trousers and came back into the room.
"This is where you say the bearded man stood, Miss Stuart?"
"Exactly, Mr. Pons."
Pons turned to me. He stood about four feet in from the French windows, in front of a long, free-standing bookcase that made a shadowy aisle and divided this portion of the large room in two.
"And whereabouts were the books you spoke of, Miss Stuart?"
"On the third shelf. Here, Mr. Pons."
The fair-haired girl was at our side now and gravely took down a section of books about a foot long.
"As near as I can make out, Mr. Pons, these were the books dropped only two nights ago. It all seems so vivid and horrible and yet it could have been years back."
"Quite so, Miss Stuart," I murmured. "It is often so with a shock to the hervous system."
Pons took the proffered books from Miss Stuart's arms and carried them over to an oval mahogany table, examining them carefully, frowning in concentration.
"Hmm. There does not seem much out of the way here, Miss Stuart. Commentaries on the Epistles; The New Psaltery; The Holy Bible, King James edition; Travels in the Holy Land."
Miss Stuart shook her head.
"As I said, Mr. Pons. All the rare editions are in this central case down near the fireplace."
She motioned Pons forward as though she would have shown him but my companion held up his hand.
"Nevertheless, Miss Stuart, we will persist here for the moment, if you please. What do you make of it, Parker?"
I went forward to the table and glanced over his shoulder.
"As you say, Pons, it does not look very interesting."
I took up the Bible but moved round the table rather awkwardly, with the result that the book fell, spilling out two or three slips of paper onto the floor. Pons stopped quickly to pick them up.
"Hello! What have we here?"
Miss Stuart glanced casually at the material Pons held.
"Probably some jottings of my father's. He was always scribbling commentaries and annotations on odd slips of paper. He often worked on his sermons that way."
Pons sat down at the table and smoothed out the pieces of paper, his brow furrowed.
"You might look in the other volumes, Parker."
than two dusty bookmarks. Solar Pons went on sifting through the papers, deep concentration on his face.
"I am inclined to agree with you, Miss Stuart. A printed program for a Sunday School outing; some notes for a sermon; an account for Bibles supplied by a religious organization. This looks like something different, though."
He held up a sheet of white notepaper that bore what looked like a set of inked verses with numbers. Pons looked at it in silence, his eyes bright.
"Is this your father's hand, Miss Stuart?"
The girl took the paper, smoothing it out, her face puzzled.
"No, Mr. Pons. This is certainly not Father's hand, though it has a certain familiarity. But I cannot recollect ever seeing it before. Perhaps it came with the Bible. Father often bought second-hand books and they sometimes had strange things in them."
Solar Pons nodded.
"Perhaps you are right. However, I will keep this paper if you have no objection. And in a little while Parker and I will take a stroll over to the church."
"Certainly, Mr. Pons. You will find me in the drawing room when you return."
And with a quick smile, Miss Stuart quitted the room through the French windows and we were alone. Solar Pons sat, his brows heavy, the slip of paper on the table in front of him.
"Just take a look at this, Parker."
I sat down next to him and stared at the lettering.
"It looks like a set of Bible verses, Pons."
"Does it not, Parker. Corresponding to the text in this Bible, no doubt."
"Nothing unusual about that, Pons, surely."
"Perhaps not. But kindly peruse it if you will have the patience."
I did as he bid but I must confess I was no wiser when I had finished. This is what I read:
I did as he suggested but there was nothing else other
And as he went out of the temple, one of his disciples said unto him,
Master, see what manner of stones and what buildings are here.
Therefore I said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall
eat the blood of no manner of flesh.
An ungodly man diggeth up evil; and in his lips
there is as a burning fire.
Yet gleaming grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree,
two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough,
four or five in the outmost fruitful branches thereof.