Part 8 (1/2)

”I do not imply that she could, or would.” The Inspector was irritatingly calm. ”I merely asked you if such an event or events would not have been to her benefit?”

”I suppose they would,” I answered, sulkily, ”if you put it that way.”

”Did not Miss Temple ask you to a.s.sist her in preventing this marriage, Mr. Morgan, the night before the tragedy, and did you not promise to help her in every way in your power?”

”This is absurd,” I cried, now thoroughly angry. ”You will be accusing me of murdering Mr. Ashton next.”

”So long as we have not done so, Mr. Morgan, you need not accuse yourself. We only know, so far, that the jewel for which Mr. Ashton was murdered has been found in your possession.”

The significant way in which he uttered these words thrilled me with a vague sense of alarm. There upon the table, before Sergeant McQuade, lay Miss Temple's telegram. It was open, and I felt sure he had already read it. My mind seemed confused--my brain on fire. The Inspector turned to McQuade. ”Sergeant,” he said, ”you have the handkerchief in question with you, I believe?”

McQuade nodded, then drew from his pocket a leather wallet, and, extracting the folded handkerchief from its recesses, spread it carefully upon the table. He then produced a magnifying gla.s.s from one of his pockets and requested me to examine the surface of the bit of cambric and lace. I did so, and observed that it was covered with minute particles of some green substances, some very small, others of considerable size. I did not at first realize what they were.

”Do you see anything?” asked the Inspector.

”Yes,” I replied. ”The handkerchief is full of fine green specks, but I cannot imagine what they are.”

”They are bits of soap, Mr. Morgan,” said the detective, as he folded up the handkerchief and replaced it in his wallet.

”Soap,” I cried, more than ever mystified.

”Exactly!” The Inspector looked at me keenly. ”Has it not occurred to you, Mr. Morgan, that in order to place the jewel inside the cake of soap, it was first necessary to cut it in two, and hollow out a s.p.a.ce in the interior? Is it not also quite evident that anyone so hiding the jewel would perform this operation very carefully, so as to leave behind no traces, and that the bits of soap removed from the interior of the cake must have been carefully collected upon some object, this handkerchief, for instance, and subsequently thrown away, leaving the minute particles that you see still clinging to its surface?”

”Yes,” I replied, dazed. ”But who?”

”That, Mr. Morgan, is just what we are trying to find out. It hardly seems likely that Mr. Ashton would have gone to all this trouble, although it is possible, since he had reason, after his quarrel with Major Temple, to fear an attempt to gain possession of the jewel. If he did, how does it happen that he used Miss Temple's handkerchief for the purpose? He may of course have found it upon the floor and so utilized it, but it seems unlikely.”

”What, then, seems more likely?” I asked, hotly. ”Would the murderer have gone to all that trouble to get the stone, and then have left it behind?”

”Possibly, Mr. Morgan, to have been recovered at leisure--as you, indeed, happened to recover it. Such a jewel would not be a good thing to have in one's possession, immediately after the murder.”

”But the operation of hiding the stone in the soap would have taken fifteen or twenty minutes at least,” I objected, ”and we burst in the door within less than ten minutes from the time Mr. Ashton's cry was heard.”

”The alarm was given by you, Mr. Morgan. You alone heard Mr. Ashton's cry. Whether you heard it at six o'clock, or five, or four, rests upon your word alone. We do not accuse you, remember, we are trying to arrive at the truth. We do not imply that you hid the jewel any more than we imply that Miss Temple did so herself, and left her handkerchief behind as a mute witness of the fact. We do know that somebody did so, and the facts we have just stated, coupled with Miss Temple's refusal to explain her early expedition from the house that morning, all point to something we do not yet understand. With Miss Temple and yourself working together, much seems explainable that before seemed dark and mysterious. Even the closing of the window from within the green room may be explained, upon this hypothesis, for you had ample time to close it while Major Temple was examining Mr. Ashton's belongings in his frenzied search for the lost emerald. We are convinced of one thing: that the Chinaman did not commit the murder, for, had he done so, he would have taken the stone along with him, since that was the sole purpose he had in view.”

”I do not agree with you there,” I said. ”Mr. Ashton may have hidden the jewel himself, and then the Chinaman, after committing the murder, may have been unable to find it. That would account for Li Min's subsequent search of the room, and his confederates' actions when they began to suspect, as Li Min no doubt did when he saw me remove the cake of soap, that the emerald was hidden within it.”

”You are right in what you say, Mr. Morgan, if Mr. Ashton hid the jewel himself. But the subsequent actions of Li Min and his confederates are equally explainable upon the theory that they had nothing to do with the murder whatever, and were merely attempting to steal the jewel at the first opportunity.”

I made no reply. They seemed to be weaving a net of circ.u.mstantial evidence about me that, try as I would, I did not seem able to break through.

”We have alluded,” continued the Inspector, ”to your sympathy with Miss Temple, to the use of her handkerchief to hold the bits of soap, to the fact that you alone heard Mr. Ashton's cry and alarmed the house, to your presence in the murdered man's room at a time when you could readily have bolted the window from within, to your strange failure to mention the matter of the cake of soap to Sergeant McQuade, and to the fact that the jewel was found in your possession. We now come to another curious fact, which we trust you may be able to explain satisfactorily.

The weapon with which this murder was apparently committed was found this morning, locked in a drawer in the room you occupied at Major Temple's house. It was wrapped in a handkerchief marked with your initials. Can you tell us how it came to be there?”

I turned to the Inspector with a bitter laugh. ”I can tell you,” I replied, ”but, I presume, you will not believe me. I put the weapon, which was a bra.s.s-headed poker, there myself. I found it on the lawn outside of Mr. Ashton's window, the day before yesterday.”

”Why did you also conceal this important piece of evidence from Sergeant McQuade?” demanded the Inspector in a stern voice.

I felt like a fool, and looked like one, as well, I fear. ”I forgot it,”

I mumbled in confusion.