第15章 PROBLEM III(2)

"Must I express in words the limit I have set for myself in our affair?" she asked. "When, for reasons I have never thought myself called upon to explain, I consented to help you a little now and then with some matter where a woman's tact and knowledge of the social world might tell without offence to herself or others, I never thought it would be necessary for me to state that temptation must stop with such cases, or that I should not be asked to touch the sordid or the bloody. But it seems I was mistaken, and that I must stoop to be explicit. The woman who was killed on Tuesday might have interested me greatly as an embroiderer, but as a victim, not at all. What do you see in me, or miss in me, that you should drag me into an atmosphere of low-down crime?"

"Nothing, Miss Strange. You are by nature, as well as by breeding, very far removed from everything of the kind. But you will allow me to suggest that no crime is low-down which makes imperative demand upon the intellect and intuitive sense of its investigator. Only the most delicate touch can feel and hold the thread I've just spoken of, and you have the most delicate touch I know.""Do not attempt to flatter me. I have no fancy for handling befouled spider webs. Besides, if I had--if such elusive filaments fascinated me--how could I, well-known in person and name, enter upon such a scene without prejudice to our mutual compact?""Miss Strange"--she had reseated herself, but so far he had failed to follow her example (an ignoring of the subtle hint that her interest might yet be caught, which seemed to annoy her a trifle), "I should not even have suggested such a possibility had I not seen a way of introducing you there without risk to your position or mine. Among the boxes piled upon Mrs.

Doolittle's table--boxes of finished work, most of them addressed and ready for delivery--was one on which could be seen the name of--shall I mention it?""Not mine? You don't mean mine? That would be too odd--too ridiculously odd. I should not understand a coincidence of that kind; no, I should not, notwithstanding the fact that I have lately sent out such work to be done.""Yet it was your name, very clearly and precisely written--your whole name, Miss Strange. I saw and read it myself.""But I gave the order to Madame Pirot on Fifth Avenue. How came my things to be found in the house of this woman of whose horrible death we have been talking?""Did you suppose that Madame Pirot did such work with her own hands?--or even had it done in her own establishment? Mrs.

Doolittle was universally employed. She worked for a dozen firms.

You will find the biggest names on most of her packages. But on this one--I allude to the one addressed to you--there was more to be seen than the name. These words were written on it in another hand. Send without opening. This struck the police as suspicious;sufficiently so, at least, for them to desire your presence at the house as soon as you can make it convenient.""To open the box?"

"Exactly."

The curl of Miss Strange's disdainful lip was a sight to see.

"You wrote those words yourself," she coolly observed. "While someone's back was turned, you whipped out your pencil and--""Resorted to a very pardonable subterfuge highly conducive to the public's good. But never mind that. Will you go?"Miss Strange became suddenly demure.

"I suppose I must," she grudgingly conceded. "However obtained, a summons from the police cannot be ignored even by Peter Strange's daughter."Another man might have displayed his triumph by smile or gesture;but this one had learned his role too well. He simply said:

"Very good. Shall it be at once? I have a taxi at the door."But she failed to see the necessity of any such hurry. With sudden dignity she replied:

"That won't do. If I go to this house it must be under suitable conditions. I shall have to ask my brother to accompany me.""Your brother!"

"Oh, he's safe. He--he knows."

"Your brother knows?" Her visitor, with less control than usual, betrayed very openly his uneasiness.

"He does and--approves. But that's not what interests us now, only so far as it makes it possible for me to go with propriety to that dreadful house."A formal bow from the other and the words:

"They may expect you, then. Can you say when?""Within the next hour. But it will be a useless concession on my part," she pettishly complained. "A place that has been gone over by a dozen detectives is apt to be brushed clean of its cobwebs, even if such ever existed.""That's the difficulty," he acknowledged; and did not dare to add another word; she was at that particular moment so very much the great lady, and so little his confidential agent.

He might have been less impressed, however, by this sudden assumption of manner, had he been so fortunate as to have seen how she employed the three quarters of an hour's delay for which she had asked.

She read those neglected newspapers, especially the one containing the following highly coloured narration of this ghastly crime:

"A door ajar--an empty hall--a line of sinister looking blotches marking a guilty step diagonally across the flagging--silence--and an unmistakable odour repugnant to all humanity,--such were the indications which met the eyes of Officer O'Leary on his first round last night, and led to the discovery of a murder which will long thrill the city by its mystery and horror.

"Both the house and the victim are well known." Here followed a description of the same and of Mrs. Doolittle's manner of life in her ancient home, which Violet hurriedly passed over to come to the following: