Michael Flynn

“ Bathurst, so we had better be in our places by midnight. He’s an awkward customer, there’s no doubt about that, this ‘Spider’ Webb, so if you’ve a revolver it might come in useful. I’ll bring along a couple of men from the station, so with Roper and Mr. Cunningham, there’ll be half a dozen of us. We mustn’t let him slip through our fingers.”
Sir Charles looked grave. “I’ll trust there will be no shooting, Inspector. Lady Considine is sufficiently upset already without ...” he looked at Baddeley with anxiety. ”

“ I am a trained man. I’ve trained myself to observe and to remember.”
Here, Lady Considine interrupted with “Pardon me, Mr. Bathurst. But these girls won’t sleep if you keep on discussing murders. Besides, Sir Charles wants his game of Auction.”
19
Two tables started, the military party playing solo. And gradually the hum of conversation subsided as the games got under way. Helen Arkwright played while her sister sang. Jack Considine and Anthony went into the garden to smoke cigars. I stayed and watched the cards. Prescott won steadily from most of them, but from Lieutenant Barker chiefly. ”

“ Baddeley shook his head. “Up to now, sir,” he declared—“it’s got me beat! I find out one thing and seem to see a little light, and then I chance on something else, equally important on the face of it, that knocks my first theory into a cocked hat. Nothing fits! Nothing tallies!”
“I confess that to some extent, I share your bewilderment, Inspector,” said Anthony. “If I knew——”
Baddeley suddenly became vividly alive. “Of course—there may be that explanation.” He swung round on to the three of us. “Any cards last night?”
“Yes,” I replied. “Why?”
“Never mind”—impatiently—“Prescott playing?” ”

“ Prescott was in the garden last night—after 12 o’clock—and he was not alone! But I’ll find out who was with him! And what’s more, I’ll find the scoundrel that murdered him!” He squared his shoulders.
“You’re certain of what you just told us?” queried Anthony.
“I am.”
“How are you certain?”
“That’s my business, Mr. Bathurst. Try your hand at finding things out yourself.”
“Right-o!” Anthony accepted the challenge laughingly. “Shall we go fifty-fifty with our discoveries?”
“If it suits me.” He turned to Sir Charles.
“I should like now, Sir Charles, to see Mr. Prescott’s bedroom.” ”

“ Baddeley turned to us all with a gesture that contained a certain amount of defiance and, at the same time, the fleeting hint of an apology—and he seemed to gain from it an added sense of dignity—“I need your help. And because I need it—I’m going to ask for it.”
“Ask on,” said Anthony. “I’m your man.”
“Well, I feel like this, Sir Charles and gentlemen, this isn’t an ordinary case. Can any of you; you, Sir Charles, Mr. Bathurst, Mr. Cunningham—or you, gentlemen”—he turned towards Arkwright and Jack—“tell me of anything you know that puts any motive into this affair? ”

“ I was two-up after the fourth but by deadly work on the green Mary took the fifth and sixth. The seventh saw me hook my “tee-shot” most flagrantly but I recovered for a half. I took the eighth, but the ninth—another short hole—went like its fellow, the third, to my opponent. Thus at the turn we were “all square.”
259
“There’s no wind, Bill!” exclaimed Anthony—“you ought to be doing better than you are. Keep your head down more and give your hips a bit more freedom. Then you’ll win in a canter, laddie.” ”

“ But Baddeley silenced him with a buffet to the mouth while Anthony and I flung ourselves upon him. The scuffle was sharp but short. Three against one is merciless odds, and each one of us was bigger than our quarry. A few ineffective kicks and he lay helpless on the ground. Baddeley clicked the bracelets on his wrists.
“Now, Mr. ‘Spider’ Webb,” he cried, “I charge you with the robbery, last night, or to be precise, yesterday morning, of Lady Considine’s pearls, and I warn you that anything you say may be used as evidence against you. Bring him inside, gentlemen.” He called to Roper. ”

“ What do you think of that, Jack—eh, Arkwright?—good-bye, Baddeley.”
“Good-day, Sir Charles.” We heard the Inspector’s footsteps down the drive. I turned to Anthony.
“You deliberately kept Mary’s evidence from him, and you didn’t show him those letter fragments I found in the bedroom. Why?”
“Why? Well, I told him as much as I thought was good for him to know!”
“It seems hardly fair to him,” I muttered. “He’s handicapped.”
“Less than if I hadn’t told him what I did. I’ve helped him. For instance he’s got the Barker I.O.U. and the cigar stub. He’ll probably get to work on the latter at once.” ”

“ Bathurst. You have hopes?”
“I have,” he said gravely. “And fears. We are on the verge of a very horrible discovery. But it can’t be helped. Good-bye.”
245
Mrs. Prescott looked white and troubled as he spoke. “Good-bye,” she murmured.
Anthony made off down the road—a prey to conflicting thoughts. Then he encountered a surprise, that quickly jolted him back to realities. Two figures passed by on the other side; well in his view. He stared in surprise. Major Hornby and Lieutenant Barker! “What the devil——” He stopped in the shadow of a wall and watched them curiously. ”

“ Sir Charles leading the way, stopped outside Prescott’s door. “Perhaps, Arkwright,” he said, “you and Jack would get back to the others. They must be having a pretty thin time. Tell them to have any breakfast they care to, and that Inspector Baddeley wishes to interview them all before he goes.”
Baddeley called Roper on one side. He seemed to say something quickly and imperatively, and I fancied I heard the words—“and keep your eye on her all the time.”
“A new development—hear that?” I whispered to Anthony. ”

“ Arkwright handed the clothes over.
“Pockets empty?” queried Baddeley. Roper proceeded to examine them. “Packet of cigarette-papers”—he threw them on the table—“box of matches, clasp-knife, nothing else ... stay though ...” he plunged his hand into the left-hand jacket pocket. “There’s something else here ...” he said, “tape or something.” He drew it out!
We sat and looked dumbfounded. For there, before our eyes, he dangled a worn brown shoe-lace!
“By Moses!” yelled the Inspector. “It’s our man after all.”
144
Webb looked astounded. “Wot d’ye mean?” he stammered. “Wot are yer drivin’ at now?” ”

“ No good purpose could have been served by their staying. I have a list of their present addresses for you. Mr. Cunningham and Mr. Bathurst, and my daughter and son-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Arkwright, will stay on. That is to say, for a time. Well, Fitch, what is it?”
The butler had approached him.
“Your pardon, Sir Charles, but there’s a newspaper man here wishes to speak to you. Here’s his card.”
Sir Charles took it. “Sydney Dennison. The Morning Message. A London reporter, gentlemen,” he announced. “Shall I?...”
Baddeley cut in. “Have him in, Sir Charles, won’t do any harm.” ”

“ We were most careful,” said Sir Charles. “Mr. Bathurst here,” he smiled, “was most insistent on that point.”
“Really! Very good of him.”
He turned and flung a quick glance in Anthony’s direction.
“Thank you,” smiled back Anthony. “I’m rather interested in this sort of situation.”
“Yes. A lot of people are till they find one. Roper, get those photographs and I’ll get to work.”
Roper, with camera, did his work quickly and quietly. Baddeley went through Prescott’s pockets.
27
“Absolutely empty, gentlemen. He’s fully dressed, too.”
“Not quite, Inspector,” said Anthony. “Look at his shoes!” ”

“ Over dewlit plains the moon emptied a flood of silver and polished the slough beyond the dooryard till it shone like burnished steel. Rolling off and away under that tender light, the huge earth waves seemed to heave, swell, sigh as a lover's bosom under the sweet eyes of his mistress, while from the corrals near by issued the heavy breathing of contented kine. Always music in the ears of a farmer, it stimulated Flynn, set him planning for the future ”

“ We never keep more than those of the current year. Is it important?”
“It is, rather,” responded Anthony. “Do you know what becomes of them?”
“I am not quite sure, Mr. Bathurst, but I believe Father sends them to the Cottage Hospital. Come in and see Father—he’ll tell you at once.”
Sir Charles and Lady Considine were in the library.
“Father,” said Mary, “Mr. Bathurst and Bill want you. They want to know where the old copies of The Prattler go?”
Sir Charles looked wonderment.
“It’s rather an unusual request, I know, sir,” said Anthony ”

“ It was Mary, who had just returned from her walk with Anthony.
She had a curiously strained and excited look on her face.
“Bill,” she said, “that question you asked me to-day—so seriously. I’ve decided to give you the chance you want. You’re far too hot for me at cricket, I know that well enough. We’ll consider that game played. But I’ll play you eighteen holes of golf over at Cranwick to-morrow morning. Jack will caddie for you and Mr. Bathurst has promised to do the same for me. ”

“ Anthony took out his pipe and filled it.
“Before I do anything more, Bill,” he said slowly, “I’m going to sit on this seat and smoke this good tobacco—and you can do likewise.”
“Good!” I uttered. “Tell me what you think.”
“No”—shaking his head—“I can’t do that, just yet. For Baddeley will be well on with his work of cross-questioning before very long, and there are some things I wouldn’t tell my mother—just yet.”
“Please yourself,” I grunted. “But what puzzles me,” I said, “is the scene of the crime as the journalists say. What took Prescott to the billiard room?” ”

“ And then to the crowd, "I don't think Flynn is likely to be disappointed if he's looking for trouble," he said dryly. "Trouble is one of the few things in this world a man can find if he looks for it."
"Aye, mon, an' without lookin' for it," laughed a broad-chested Scot at Peter's table.
"That's right. I met Flynn a while ago over in the office. I made him an offer. I said I'd fight him fair just man to man, for our opinions. He refused. I also told him he was a coward, a sneak and a liar. But he wouldn't fight—because he's what I said he was." ”

“ Flynn snorted. "A black Protestant from Ulster. He's no Irishman, but I can't touch him, as well you know. The bloody British in the State Department are protecting him."
"So you take it out on me, eh?" I suggested.
Flynn drew himself up. "See here, Mr. Tompkins," he said, "I've told you to get out of Washington and stay out of Washington. In a job like mine I have to follow my hunches and my hunch is that if you aren't out of here by noon tomorrow we'll send you over to St. Elizabeth's for observation. After all, we can't have people threatening the President." ”

“ Arkwright or Miss Considine now—or the other servants. I’ll make a point of seeing them alone, later ... will that suit you, Sir Charles? ... this latest development has made a big difference. Come along, Roper.”
99
They bustled out. Anthony linked his arm in mine. “We’ll have a little lunch, Bill, first, and then I’m going to smoke a pipe in the garden ... there’s something hammering at my brain that I can’t properly get hold of.... I must be suffering from senile decay or something. A little good food and better drink may stimulate me. It sometimes happens.” ”

“ A thunderin’ good all-round sportsman, and we can ill afford to lose him. I tell you I’m more than sorry that he’s gone—there are plenty of fellows the world could have spared before Gerry Prescott! I know we shall miss him in the ‘House.’”
247
This outburst of Jack’s startled me somewhat, and I noticed Helen Arkwright and her husband look at him curiously.
Sir Charles himself, also seemed a trifle taken aback.
“Seems to me we have to wait till we’re dead—to be thoroughly appreciated,” I put in.
“Something like that, Bill,” said Mary. “I’ve noticed that.”
She rose and went into the garden. ”

“ Sir Charles gasped.
“Marshall!” he exclaimed incredulously. “You astound me. And she came with such splendid references. Well, well, well, truly one never knows. My wife’s pearls, Inspector. Do you think there’s any probability of restoring them? You’ve done so splendidly that one becomes quite optimistic.” His eyes gleamed. “And you say you don’t really connect the affair with poor young Prescott?”
“At the moment, Sir Charles, I’m not inclined to link up the two ... and as for your praises”—he turned towards Anthony—“it’s Mr. Bathurst here that put me on the track.” ”

“ That was why.”
“You haven’t answered the Inspector’s question,” remarked Anthony. “Why did you open it?”
“For a breath of air. Seeing that corpse and that dagger fair frightened me it did. I was struck all of a ’eap. Thought I was goin’ to faint, I did. My first thought was air—air. So I rushed to the window—then I screamed.”
“I see,” snapped Baddeley, threateningly. “You were playing to orders—open window first, then scream—eh? Who told you to do that?”
98
“What d’ye mean?” she exclaimed defiantly. “Who told me! Nobody—I’m tellin’ the truth, I am.”
“The truth,” cried Baddeley incredulously. ”

“ One’s thoughts instinctively flew to the whirr of the mowing machine and a real plumb wicket. The insects hummed in the sun, and there was a murmur of bees that gave everybody a feeling that an English summer morning in Sussex could give anything in Creation a start and a beating.
“Toppin’ mornin’—what?” said Prescott. “Feel like gettin’ some more to-day, if we bat.”
“You won’t,” said Dick Arkwright. “You’ll field, and this big brute of a Bill can get rid of some of his disgraceful paunch. He hasn’t had much exercise all the week. ”