Tom Brown's Body

'Who, besides yourself, your wife, and the boys concerned, could have known the order in which the three plays were to be produced, and who else could have known how long each one took to perform?' she demanded straightly.

'Oh, the programmes were printed on the School press about a fortnight ago,' Mr Poundbury replied, apparently without a moment's thought. Mrs Bradley noted down this answer.

'So that, roughly speaking, anybody connected with the School . . .' she began.

'Could have known all there was to know? Yes, I suppose so. And, of course, the governors could have known,' said Mr Poundbury. 'Their programmes were sent off as soon as they were ready. Then, we have one or two visiting masters, and a young woman who takes the smallest preparatory boys for dancing. Each of them received a programme well in advance of the performance.'

'Who are the visiting masters?' Mrs Bradley enquired of Mr Wyck. She did not press the first and much more important question of the time each play took in the performing.

'A man named Pearson comes twice a week for wood- and metalwork; another, named Stenson, comes once a week for advanced art; a third, named Boulton, comes once a week for fencing and single-stick, and then there is a Mrs Wilkie for the youngest boys' dancing class. Oh, and Pearson's daughter Marion sometimes lends the School secretary a hand.'

'Ah!' said Mrs Bradley with satisfaction, whilst Gavin snorted with frustration. 'The ripples spread widely, I see.' There was nothing more to be done, it seemed, until Mrs Poundbury regained consciousness and was sufficiently recovered to be questioned.

'Unless,' said Gavin, when Mrs Bradley propounded this view, 'we could find out whether that grotesque get- up which scared those two boys so much came from Mother Harries's cottage. I shall get to work on that at once. It's quite likely it was the fancy dress belonging to Conway which Scrupe wanted to borrow.'

'We might question the boy Salisbury again,' suggested Mrs Bradley. 'It is as well to leave no stone unturned.'

'He said he knew nothing,' Gavin pointed out. 'Still, kids always say that.'

Salisbury was wary. He was a thin-faced, obviously intelligent boy, and he side-stepped the Headmaster's questions by repeating, 'I'm sorry, I don't know, sir,' to almost everything he was asked. Mr Wyck then came to the point.

'Now, boy,' said he, 'what arrangement had you come to with the second idol?'

'Please, sir,' said Salisbury, 'I had nothing to do with Mrs Poundbury's accident, sir.'

This sounded promising, and Mr Wyck pursued the point.

'Very well, boy. I accept that. But that is not what I asked you to tell me. Now, what do you know of the second idol?'

'Well, sir,' said Salisbury, 'I did have a letter, but I don't know who sent it. All it said was . . .'

'Have you the letter in your possession?'

'No, sir. I tore it up.'

'Why?'

'Well, Mr Poundbury saw me reading it, sir, and made me, sir.'

'Aha!' said Gavin, with a smile at Mrs Bradley.

'You were reading it at the wrong time, I suppose. Well, what did the note have to say?' asked Mr Wyck.

'It said, 'You're not the only pebble on the beach, and, if you see me, don't be surprised. I can make a better job of your part any day than you will, silly twerp.' That's all, sir.'

'Were those the exact words, boy?'

'Sir, yes, sir.'

'And you saw nothing of this practical joker?'

'No, sir, really I didn't. As a matter of fact, sir, I had forgotten about the note, and I was looking on to the stage all the time.'

'Very well, Salisbury. You may go.'

'Please, sir . . .'

'Yes, boy?'

'Please, sir, I heard about the head of the other idol. I think it may have been something out of the Lucastra Museum, sir. They have several Tibetan devil masks there, and, from what I've heard from Issacher, it sounds a bit like one of them, sir.'

'I am obliged to you, boy,' said Mr Wyck, but in such sepulchral tones that the lad was glad to escape.

'The head of the second idol did not come from the Lucastra Museum,' said Gavin. 'We have already made enquiries there.'

'Quite so,' said Mr Wyck, who had made independent inquiries himself. 'I am quite convinced it did not. I wonder, though, what made Issacher mention the museum? I thought that he was in a state of unreasoning terror when he saw the second idol.'

'Not unreasoning, apparently,' said Mrs Bradley. 'What is the Lucastra Museum?'

'It is a semi-private collection of Eastern and prehistoric treasures. It is housed in a mansion about eight miles away, and is open to the public on Thursdays. It takes its name from the wife of the owner of the collection, Lady Lucastra Sunningdale. We take the Third Form boys to see the collection every year. Everybody in the School above the Third Form will have seen it, therefore.'

'I should like to see it myself,' said Mrs Bradley. 'Is it open on Thursdays all the year round?'

'Yes, all the year round.'

'Then I shall go this next Thursday, when the School has broken up for the holidays. And I want to see Issacher again.'

Issacher was sent for and admitted to the Headmaster's drawing-room. He, like Salisbury, was sworn to secrecy concerning the questions he was about to be asked, and was informed by Gavin that he would be guilty of obstructing the police in the performance of their duty if he so much as dropped a hint to anybody of anything which was said at the interview. Issacher smiled in a superior way, but promised readily enough.

'And now,' said Mrs Bradley, 'I would like to ask you one question, Mr Issacher. You thought that perhaps the mask used by the second idol might have come from the Lucastra Museum. Now, if you could think of something so – if I may state my point in this way without offence – so rational at such a time, why were you also so much alarmed by what you saw?'

'I've been thinking things over,' replied Issacher calmly. 'I was scared at the time, but since then I find that I have a mental picture of what I saw, and I have examined it at my leisure.'

'Don't pose, boy,' said Mr Wyck kindly. 'And you had better remember that this is not what you told us before.'

'The point is,' continued Issacher, taking the first part of this advice and adopting a natural tone, 'the figure I saw was so frightfully tall.'

'Ah!' said Mrs Bradley. 'You mentioned this tallness before. Was the figure more than six feet high, do you mean?'

'Oh Lord, yes,' Issacher replied. 'I should think it was ten feet high at least. It was definitely more than normal height, and I don't think, sir,' he added, turning confidently to Mr Wyck, 'that ten feet would be an exaggeration.'

'Now, Issacher,' said Gavin, 'we want you to tell us who it was. You say you've thought the matter over, and that means that you've come to some conclusions.'

'Yes, but I'm not going to tell you what they are,' said Issacher flatly. 'I can't prove anything, and it's not right to ask me to guess.'

'Very well, my boy,' said Mr Wyck.

'Is that all, sir?'

'Yes, that's all,' said Mrs Bradley. 'I see that it was the height of the figure even more than its ugliness which impressed you.'

'It looked a devilish thing,' said Issacher. 'Good night, sir.'

'That boy doesn't like me,' said Mrs Bradley placidly, 'but we have found out one thing of great importance. Now to find out another.'