"Rather not! Of course I wouldn't breathe a word to them! I can tell Mr. Roberts, can't I?"
"Oh yes, you can tell him if you want to," replied Hannasyde, "Help me to put the tub back, will you, Sergeant?"
Jim said, his brows knit: "Do you think he ought to say anything about this to anyone at all, Superintendent? It's not my affair, I know, but—"
"It doesn't matter what he tells Mr. Roberts," replied Hannasyde. "It mustn't come to the butler's ears, though. But he understands that. All right, Hemingway, that's all."
"Are you going back to Portlaw?" inquired Timothy, seeing the two detectives preparing to depart. "Because if you are, I'll come with you as far as Victoria Place."
"All right," said Hannasyde, glancing at his wristwatch. "But we must hurry if we want to catch the ten forty-five bus."
"Look here, just a minute!" said Jim. "What are you going to do about this? I mean, it's all very well for you to waltz off in this airy fashion, but I happen to be rather vitally concerned in the case!"
"I hadn't forgotten that," said Hannasyde. "I am going to the police station to put through a number of urgent inquiries to Scotland Yard. I may be in a position to tell you the result of those inquiries by this evening, or possibly some time tomorrow. Meanwhile, I'm afraid you'll have to possess your soul in patience."
"And what about my precious life?" asked Jim.
"Sergeant Trotter will be answerable for that," replied Hannasyde with the glimmer of a smile. "I don't think it is in immediate danger."
He and Sergeant Hemingway, with Mr. Harte between them, walked off at a brisk pace down the avenue and arrived at the lodge gates just in time to catch the omnibus into Portlaw. The omnibus being empty, Mr. Harte was able to beguile the tedium of the journey by speculating on the case and trying to coax information out of his two companions. At Victoria Place, in Portlaw, he left them, promising to conduct himself with the utmost circumspection.
No sooner had he alighted from the omnibus than the sergeant drew a deep breath and said: "Well, I never thought I'd live to see this day, that's certain!"
"Pleasant surprise for you," said Hannasyde.
"Super, what's come over you? If anyone had told me you'd go pursuing investigations with a couple of people looking on and, what's more, explain it all to them on top of it, I'd have laughed in their face!"
"Would you?" said Hannasyde, not paying much heed to him.
"I would," said the sergeant emphatically. "You told me not to get rid of Terrible Timothy, and I didn't. But what's your game?"
"Think it out," replied Hannasyde.
The sergeant made a sound suspiciously like a snort. "What do we do now?" he asked.
"Telephone to the Yard first, and get them to put through an inquiry to Colt's, in America. We must know where this gun was bought."
"Well, I'm not surprised young James Kane wonders what you're up to," said the sergeant.
James Kane, however, assuming that Superintendent Hannasyde knew his own business best, did not waste much time in idle speculation. He decided to say nothing either to his fiancйe or to his relatives about the discovery of the gun, a resolve that he was soon forced to break, Ogle having informed her mistress of the ravages done to the garden, and Emily, as soon as she came downstairs, dressed for her morning drive, demanded to be told instantly what such conduct meant.
As she chose to address Jim in the presence of Miss Allison and Lady Harte, both of whom immediately joined with her in wanting to know the truth, Jim thought it best to disclose the bare fact of Hannasyde's having found the gun in the rain tub.
When Timothy came in an hour later, the first person he encountered was his mother, and he straightway poured the whole story into her ears. By lunchtime everyone but the servants was in possession of all the facts, and Miss Allison, knowing the strength of the bond between Mrs. Kane and Ogle, had little doubt that it would not be long before the news spread to the servants' hall.
"I told you Mr. Roberts would listen to me!" Timothy said triumphantly.
"Well, I think it's the most crackbrained idea I ever heard," replied Jim. "I can quite easily imagine Roberts lapping it up, because he's been full of crackbrained ideas from the start, but I did not expect the superintendent to run amok over it. What's he up to now? Do you know?"
"No, but I know Mr. Roberts has gone to the police station to see him, because as soon as I told him about the silencer and the fuse, he said it put an entirely new complexion on the affair, and he'd have to go and see the superintendent at once. So I came home. Gosh, I do wonder what's happening, don't you? Do you suppose they'll come and arrest Pritchard?"
"No, I don't, and for God's sake be careful what you say! We shall find ourselves had up for libel, or something, if Pritchard hears this sort of chat going on."
As the day wore on without news from Hannasyde Timothy found it increasingly hard to bear the suspense with anything approaching equanimity. He wandered about the house and grounds, propounding theories to anyone whom he encountered, until, in desperation, Jim bore him off to the nearest golf course and gave him an hour's coaching in approach shots. When they returned it was time to change for dinner. During the meal Pritchard's presence precluded any mention being made of the affair, but when the party assembled in the drawing room for coffee afterwards, it was not Timothy only who evinced a strong desire to discuss the subject ad nauseam . So persistent were the comments and surmises made that Sir Adrian, aloof from the discussion behind the evening paper, presently lowered it to say in a bored voice that, since the matter seemed to have become such an obsession with the family, he personally would feel extremely grateful to Hannasyde for solving the mystery.
The words were hardly out of his mouth when Pritchard entered the room to inform Jim that Superintendent Hannasyde had called and would like to see him.
Jim got up but was checked by an indignant outcry from his mother, his stepbrother, and his fiancйe.
Emily Kane, immovable in the winged armchair by the fireplace, said: "If he wants to see you he can see you here. I've no patience with all this hole-and-corner business." She nodded at Pritchard. "Show him in!"
A couple of minutes later Pritchard ushered Hannasyde into the room. To Mr. Harte's chagrin the superintendent made no effort even to detain him. As the door closed softly behind him, Mr. Harte, unable to contain himself, blurted out: "I say, aren't you going to arrest him after all?"
For the first time during their dealings with Superintendent Hannasyde the family heard him laugh. "No, I'm afraid I'm not," he answered. "I'm sorry to have to disappoint you about that."
"Didn't he do it?" asked Timothy, greatly cast down.
Hannasyde shook his head. Jim said: "Won't you sit down? Is the case still in the air, or have you cleared it up?"
"I haven't finished with it yet, but there's so little doubt that it will be cleared up that I came to set your mind at rest, Mr. Kane. You're no longer in danger of being murdered."
"Was he ever in danger?" said Lady Harte, laying down her Patience cards and removing the horn-rimmed spectacles from her nose.
"Yes, I think almost certainly."
"You didn't think so at the time."
"You will have to forgive me, Lady Harte, if I—reserved judgment. I did give him a bodyguard, you know," said Hannasyde, recognising the signs of tigress-in-defence-of-her-young.
Emily thumped her ebony stick on the floor. "That's enough beating about the bush!" she said sharply. "Do you know who murdered my son?"
"I have no proof that your son was murdered, Mrs. Kane. I know who murdered your great-nephew, Clement Kane."
"Who?" demanded Timothy. "Did Mr. Roberts put you onto him?"