XVI
RUMOUR
One windy afternoon a man on a bicycle struggled up to the door of Stanesland Castle and while waiting for an answer to his ring, studied the front of that ancient building with an expression which would at once have informed his intimates that he was meditating on the principles of Scottish baronial architecture. A few minutes later Mr. Bisset was shown into the laird of Stanesland's smoking room and addressed Mr. Cromarty with a happy blend of consciousness of his own importance and respect for the laird's.
"I have taken the liberty of calling, sir, for to lay before you a few fresh datas."
"Fire away," said the laird.
"In the first place, sir, I understand that you have been making enquiries through the county yourself, sir; is that not so?"
"I've been through this blessed county, Bisset, from end to end to see whether I could get on the track of any suspicious stranger. I've been working both with the police and independent of the police, and I've drawn blank."
Bisset looked distinctly disappointed.
"I've heard, sir, one or two stories which I was hoping might have something in them."
"I've heard about half a dozen and gone into them all, and there's nothing in one of them."
"Half a dozen stories?" Bisset's eye began to look hopeful again. "Well, sir, perhaps if I was to go into some of them again in the light of my fresh datas, they might wear, as it were, a different aspect."
"Well," said Ned. "What have you found? Have a cigar and let's hear what you've been at."
The expert crackled the cigar approvingly between his fingers, lit it with increased approval, and began:
"Yon man was behind the curtains all the time."
"The devil he was! How do you know?"
"Well, sir, it's a matter of deduction. Ye see supposing he came in by the door, there are objections, and supposing he came in by the windie there are objections. Either way there are objections which make it difficult for to accept those theories. And then it struck me—the man must have been behind the curtains all the while!"
"He must have come either by the door or window to get there."
"That's true, Mr. Cromarty. But such minor points we can consider in a wee while, when we have seen how everything is otherwise explained. Now supposing we have the murderer behind the curtains; that brings him within six feet of where the wee table was standing. How did he get Sir Reginald to come to the table? He made some kind of sound. What kind of sound? Some imitation of an animal; probably of a cat. How did Sir Reginald not cry out when he saw the man? Because he never did see the man! How did he not see him?"
"Man was a ventriloquist and made a sound in the other direction," suggested Ned with extreme gravity.
"God, but that's possible, Mr. Cromarty! I hadna thought of that! Well, it'll fit into the facts all right, you'll see. My theory was that either the man threw something at the master and knocked him down that way, or he was able to reach out and give him a bat on the heid without moving from the curtains."
"He must have been an awkward customer."
"He was that! A great tall man with long arms. And what had he at the end of them? Either a club such as savages use or something to throw like a boomerang. And he could imitate animals, and as you say, he was probably a ventriloquist. And he was that active and strong he could get into the house through one of the windies, just like a great monkey. Now what's the history of that man?"
"Pretty wild, I guess."
"Ah, but one can say more than that, sir. He was not an ordinary Englishman or Scotchman. He was from the Colonies or America or one of thae wild places! Is that not a fair deduction, sir?"
"It all points to that," said Ned, with a curious look.
"It points to that indeed, sir. Now where's he hidden himself? It should not be difficult to find him with all that to go on."
"A tall active strong man who has lived in the Colonies or America; one ought to get him. Has he only one eye, by any chance?"
The reasoner gazed petrified at his counsellor.
"God, but I've just described yourself sir!" he cried in an unhappy voice.
"You're determined to hang one of us, Bisset."
For a moment Bisset seemed to find conversation difficult. Then he said miserably:
"So it's no good, and all the alternatives just fa' to pieces."
The extreme dejection of his voice struck the other sharply.
"Alternatives to what?" he asked.
For a few seconds Bisset did not answer.
"What's on your mind, man?" demanded Cromarty.
"The reason, sir, I've got that badly off the rails with my deductions is just that I had to find some other theory than the story that's going about."
"What story?"
"You've no heard it, sir?"
Ned shook his head.
"I hardly like to repeat it, sir; it's that cruel and untrue. They're saying Sir Malcolm and Miss Farmond had got engaged to be married."
"Well?" said Ned sharply, and he seemed to control his feelings with an effort.
"A secret engagement, like, that Sir Reginald would never have allowed. But there I think they're right, sir. Sir Reginald was unco' taken up with Miss Farmond, but he'd have looked higher for his heir. And so as they couldn't get married while he was alive—neither of them having any money, well, sir, this story says—"
He broke off and neither spoke for an instant.
"Good God!" murmured Cromarty. "They actually accuse Malcolm Cromarty and Miss Cicely of—?"
He paused too, and Bisset nodded.
"Who is saying this?"
"It seems to be the clash of the haill country by this time, sir."
He seemed a little frightened at the effect of his own words; and it was small wonder. Ned Cromarty was a nasty looking customer at that moment.
"Who started the lie?"
"It's just ignorance and want of education of the people, I'm thinking, Mr. Cromarty. They're no able to grasp the proper principles—"
"Lady Cromarty must be told! She could put a stop to it—"
Something in Bisset's look pulled him up sharply.
"I'm afraid her ladyship believes it herself, sir. Maybe you have heard she has keepit Miss Farmond to stay on with her."
"I have."
"Well, sir," said Bisset very slowly and deliberately, "I'm thinking—it's just to watch her."
Ned Cromarty had been smoking a pipe.
There was a crack now as his teeth went through the mouthpiece. He flung the pipe into the fire, jumped up, and began pacing the room without a word or a glance at the other. At last he stopped as abruptly as he had started.
"This slander has got to be stopped!"
And then he paced on.
"Just what I was saying to myself, sir. It was likely a wee thing of over anxiety to stop it that made me think o' the possibility of a wild man from America, which was perhaps a bit beyond the limits of what ye might call, as it were, scientific deduction."
"When did Lady Cromarty begin to take up this attitude?"
"Well, the plain truth is, sir, that her ladyship has been keeping sae much to herself that it's not rightly possible to tell what's been in her mind. But it was the afternoon when Mr. Rattar had been at the house that she sent for Miss Farmond and tellt her then she was wanting her to stop on."
"That would be after she knew the contents of the will! I wonder if the idea had entered her head before, or if the will alone started it? Old Simon would never start such a scandal himself about his best client. He knows too well which side his bread is buttered for that! But he might have talked his infernal jargon about the motive and the people who stood to gain by the death. That might have been enough to set her suspicions off."
"Or I was thinking maybe, sir, it was when her ladyship heard of the engagement."
"Ah!" exclaimed Ned, stopping suddenly again, "that's possible. When did she hear?"
Bisset shook his head.
"That beats me again, sir. Her own maid likely has been telling her things the time we've not been seeing her."
"Did the maid—or did you know about the engagement?"
"Servants are uneducated creatures," said Bisset contemptuously. "And women at the best have just the ae' thought—who's gaun to be fool enough to marry next? They were always gossiping about Mr. Malcolm and Miss Cicely, but there was never what I should call a data to found a deduction on; not for a sensible person. I never believed it myself, but it's like enough her ladyship may have suspected it for a while back."
"I suppose Lady Cromarty has been nearly distracted?"
"Very near, sir."
"That's her only excuse. But the story is such obvious nonsense, Bisset, that surely no one in their proper senses really believes it?"
The philosopher shook a wise head.
"I have yet to learn, Mr. Cromarty, what folks will not believe."
"They've got to stop believing this!" said Ned emphatically.