do.
Nor, Roger thought, had Mr. Chitterwick any serious doubts as to the possibility of Sir Charles being guilty, though he was still looking so alarmed at Mrs. Fielder - Flemming's temerity in suggesting such a thing that it was not altogether possible to say what he did think. Indeed Roger was quite sure that nobody entertained the least suspicion of Sir Charles's innocence except Mrs. Fielder - Flemming - and perhaps, from the look of him. Sir Charles himself. As that outraged gentleman had pointed out, such an idea, looked at in sober reflection, was plainly the most preposterous nonsense. Sir Charles could not be guilty because - well, because he was Sir Charles, and because such things don't happen, and because he obviously couldn't be.
On the other hand Mrs. Fielder - Flemming had very neatly proved that he was. And Sir Charles had not even attempted yet to prove that he wasn't.
Not for the first time Roger wished, very sincerely, that anybody were sitting in the presidential chair but himself.
'I think,' he now repeated, 'that before we take any steps at all we ought to hear what Sir Charles has to say. I am sure,' added the President kindly, remembering the right phrase, 'that he will have a complete answer to all charges.' He looked expectantly towards the criminal.
Sir Charles appeared to jerk himself out of the haze of his wrath. 'I am really expected to defend myself against this - this hysteria?' he barked. 'Very well. I admit I am a criminologist, which Mrs. Fielder - Flemming appears to think so damning. I admit that I attended a dinner at the Hotel Cecil on that night, which it seems is enough to put the rope round my neck. I admit, since it appears that my private affairs are to be dragged into public, regardless of taste or decency, that I would rather have strangled Sir Eustace with my own hands than see him married to my daughter.'
He paused, and passed his hand rather wearily over his high forehead. He was no longer formidable but only a rather bewildered old man. Roger felt intensely sorry for him. But Mrs. Fielder - Flemming had stated her case too well for it to be possible to spare him.
'I admit all this, but none of it is evidence that would have very much weight in a court of law. If you want me to prove that I did not actually send those chocolates, what am I to say? I could bring my two neighbours at the dinner, who would swear that I never left my seat till - well, it must have been after ten o'clock. I can prove by means of other witnesses that my daughter finally consented, on my representations, to give up the idea of marriage with Sir Eustace and has gone voluntarily to stay with relations of ours in Devonshire for a considerable time. But there again I have to admit that this has happened since the date of posting the chocolates.
'In short, Mrs. Fielder - Flemming has managed, with considerable skill, to put together a prima facie case against me, though it was based on a mistaken assumption (I would point out to her that counsel is never constantly in and out of his client's premises, but meets him usually only in the presence of his solicitor, either at the former's place of business or in his own chambers), and I am quite ready, if this meeting thinks it advisable, for the matter to be investigated officially. More, I welcome such investigation in view of the slur that has been cast upon my name. Mr. President, I ask you, as representing the members as a whole, to take such action as you think fit.'
Roger steered a wary course. 'Speaking for myself, Sir Charles, I am quite sure that Mrs. Fielder - Flemming's reasoning, exceedingly clever though it was, has been based as you say upon an error, and really, as a matter of mere probability, I cannot see a father sending poisoned chocolates to the would - be fiance of his own daughter. A moment's thought would show him the practical inevitability of the chocolates reaching eventually the daughter herself. I have my own opinion about this crime, but even apart from that I feel quite certain in my own mind that the case against Sir Charles has not really been proved.'
'Mr. President,' cut in Mrs. Fielder - Flemming, not without heat, 'you may say what you like, but in the interests of - - '
'I agree, Mr. President,' Miss Dammers interrupted incisively. 'It is unthinkable that Sir Charles could have sent those chocolates.'
'Humph!' said Mr. Bradley, unwilling to have his sport spoiled quite so soon.
'Hear, hear!' Mr. Chitterwick, with surprising decision.
'On the other hand,' Roger pursued, 'I quite see that Mrs. Fielder - Flemming is entitled to the official investigation which Sir Charles asks for, no less than is Sir Charles himself on behalf of his good name. And I agree with Sir Charles that she has certainly made out a prima facie case for investigation. But what I should like to stress is that so far only two members out of six have spoken, and it is not outside possibility that such startling developments may have been traced out by the time we have all had our turn, that the one we are discussing now may (I do not say that it will, but it may) have faded into insignificance.'
'Oho!' murmured Mr. Bradley. 'What has our worthy President got up his sleeve?'
'I therefore propose, as a formal motion,' Roger concluded, disregarding the somewhat sour looks cast on him by Mrs. Fielder - Flemming, 'that we shelve the question regarding Sir Charles entirely, for discussion or report either inside or outside this room, for one week from today, when any member who wishes may bring it up again for decision, failing which it passes into oblivion for good and all. Shall we vote on that? Those in favour?'
The motion was carried unanimously. Mrs. Fielder - Flemming would have liked to vote against it, but she had never yet belonged to any committee where all motions were not carried unanimously and habit was too strong for her.
The meeting then adjourned, rather oppressed.
CHAPTER IX
ROGER sat on the table in Moresby's room at Scotland Yard and swung his legs moodily. Moresby was being no help at all.
'I've told you, Mr. Sheringham,' said the Chief Inspector, with a patient air. 'It's not a bit of good you trying to pump me. I've told you all we know here. I'd help you if I could, as you know' - Roger snorted incredulously - 'but we're simply at a dead end.'
'So am I,' Roger grunted. 'And I don't like it.'
'You'll soon get used to it, Mr. Sheringham,' consoled Moresby, 'if you take on this sort of job often.'
' I simply can't get any further,' Roger lamented. 'In fact I don't think I want to. I'm practically sure I've been working on the wrong tack altogether. If the clue really does lie in Sir Eustace's private life, he's shielding it like the very devil. But I don't think it does.'
'Humph!' said Moresby, who did.
'I've cross - examined his friends, till they're tired of the sight of me. I've cadged introductions to the friends of his friends, and the friends of his friends of his friends, and cross - examined them too. I've haunted his club. And what have I discovered? That Sir Eustace was not only a daisy, as you'd told me already, but a perfectly indiscreet daisy at that; the quite unpleasant type, fortunately very much rarer than women suppose, that talks of his feminine successes, with names - though I think that in Sir Eustace's case this was simply through lack of imagination and not any natural caddishness. But you see what I mean. I've collected the names of scores of women, and they all lead - nowhere! If there is a woman at the bottom of it, I should have been sure to have heard of her by this time. And I haven't.'
'And what about that American case, which we thought such an extraordinary parallel, Mr. Sheringham?'
'That was cited last night by one of our members,' said Roger gloomily. 'And a very pretty little deduction she drew from it.'
'Ah, yes,' nodded the chief inspector. 'That would be Mrs. Fielder - Flemming, I suppose. She thinks Sir Charles Wildman is the guilty party, doesn't she?'
Roger stared at him. 'How the devil did you know that? Oh! The unscrupulous old hag. She passed you the wink, did she?'
'Certainly not, sir,' retorted Moresby with a virtuous air, as if half the difficult cases Scotland Yard solves are not edged in the first place along the right path by means of 'information received.' 'She hasn't said a word to us, though I'm not saying it wouldn't have been her duty to do so. But there isn't much that your members are doing
