“He was here yesterday evening, I believe?” 

 “No—yes.” 

 “Didn’t he have a guest with him? Another man?” 

 “He brought a friend with him to stay over Sunday, Mr. Bailey.” 

 “Mr. John Bailey, the cashier of the Traders’ Bank I believe.” And I knew that some one at the Greenwood Club had told. “When did they leave?” 

 “Very early—I don’t know at just what time.” 

 Mr. Jamieson turned suddenly and looked at me. 

 “Please try to be more explicit,” he said. “You say your nephew and Mr. Bailey were in the house last night, and yet you and your niece, with some women-servants, found the body. Where was your nephew?” 

 I was entirely desperate by that time. 

 “I do not know,” I cried, “but be sure of this: Halsey knows nothing of this thing, and no amount of circumstantial evidence can make an innocent man guilty.” 

 “Sit down,” he said, pushing forward a chair. “There are some things I have to tell you, and, in return, please tell me all you know. Believe me, things always come out. In the first place, Mr. Armstrong was shot from above. The bullet was fired at close range, entered below the shoulder and came out, after passing through the heart, well down the back. In other words, I believe the murderer stood on the stairs and fired down. In the second place, I found on the edge of the billiard-table a charred cigar which had burned itself partly out, and a cigarette which had consumed itself to the cork tip. Neither one had been more than lighted, then put down and forgotten. Have you any idea what it was that made your nephew and Mr. Bailey leave their cigars and their game, take out the automobile without calling the chauffeur, and all this at—let me see—certainly before three o’clock in the morning?” 

 “I don’t know,” I said; “but depend on it, Mr. Jamieson, Halsey will be back himself to explain everything.” 

 “I sincerely hope so,” he said. “Miss Innes, has it occurred to you that Mr. Bailey might know something of this?” 

 Gertrude had come down-stairs and just as he spoke she came in. I saw her stop suddenly, as if she had been struck. 

 Prev. P 21/167 next