"You and father have always been on good enough terms," growled George, with an attempt at fairness which gained point from the dogged air with which it was given. This brought a shadow over the face which a moment before had shone with something like lofty feeling. "I cannot forget that we quarrelled an hour before he died," murmured Leighton, moving off with an air of great depression. Meantime I had taken a resolution. Advancing from the remote end of the hall where I had been standing with their young medical friend, I spoke up firmly, calmly, but with decision: "Gentlemen, I have been waiting to see what my duty was. I have reason to think, notwithstanding[47] my position as a stranger among you, that the clue to your father's strange act is to be found in my hands. Will you allow me, before explaining myself further, to request your answer to a single question?" [47] The surprise which this evoked, was shared by the coroner, who probably thought he had exhausted my testimony at our first interview. "It is a question which will strike you as strange and out of place at a time so serious. But I pray you to show your confidence in me by giving me a straightforward reply. Was Mr. Gillespie a man of dramatic instincts? Had he any special powers of mimicry, or, if I may speak plainly, had he what you might call marked facial expression?" In the astonishment this called out I saw no dissent. "Father was a man of talent," Alfred grudgingly allowed. "I have often heard Claire laugh at his stories, which she said were like little plays. But this is a peculiar if not inappropriate question to put to us at a time of such distress, Mr. Outhwaite." "So I forewarned you," I rejoined, turning to the coroner. "Dr. Frisbie, I must throw myself upon your clemency. When I entered this house in response to an appeal from Mr. Gillespie's grandchild, I found that gentleman labouring under great mental as well as physical distress. He was anxious, more than anxious, to have some special wish carried out; and being tongue-tied, found great difficulty in indicating what this was. But after many efforts, he made me understand that I was to take from him a paper which he held in his clenched hand; and when I had done so, that I was to enclose it, folded as it was,[48] in one of the envelopes lying on
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