“Who but a woman,” Leonidas said, “would take it for granted that anyone would willingly and gladly and unhesitatingly exchange a refrigerator for a bigger one, a better one, or a newer one? If a man likes something, he is not going to be lured into giving it up for something bigger and better!”
“Why, I know that!” Cassie said. “You should have seen the clothes that Bagley used to fish in. That hat! I bought him a thousand hats, but he still wore that awful thing—oh. Oh, that’s what you mean, isn’t it? Well, there you are, right back to Chard. She never married. She probably doesn’t know— Bill, what are you grinning at?”
“The hats,” Leonidas said. “Even you, Cassie!”
“Well,” Cassie said, “you still can’t get away from Chard by laughing at me! You can’t justify her actions. You can’t justify her throwing away the gun and handcuffs, and knocking Leslie out, and biffing you, and rushing around your house this morning!”
“I think so,” Leonidas said. “Suppose that Miss Chard felt, all along, that Leslie stole Medora’s brush box—”
“Why?”
“Why not? The girl left in a rush, without explanations, and the money was gone. Anyway, when Miss Chard found that hundred-dollar bill in Leslie’s pocketbook, she was probably very sure that Leslie wras the thief. When she found the gun and handcuffs, she was probably positive. And I’ve no doubt she felt, also, that she was dealing with a thoroughly hardened criminal/’
“But the gun didn’t work. The handcuffs were locked. You knew it. You said so!”
“M’yes, but I wonder,” Leonidas said, “if Chard would have had sufficient experience with guns and handcuffs to know. Would you have known at once, Cassie? Would you have thought to investigate? Would it ever have occurred to you that the gun and handcuffs were to be used as models for a toothpaste advertisement?”
“Never,” Cassie said. “You’re right, Bill.”
“I think so. Now, Miss Chard’s orders were to bring Leslie back to Medora in Dalton. I suppose she thought the chances of getting her there intact would be greater if the gun and handcuffs were erased from the scene.”
“But why put them in a water cooler?”
“There were double windows on the Pullman,” Leonidas pointed out. “Chard wouldn’t know how to open a vestibule door. If you pause and reflect, you’ll agree with me that she did the best she could in disposing of them. Then, on her return to the drawing room, Leslie pounced on her—”
“What was that Leslie said?” Cassie interrupted. “Something about threatening her with every known form of torture?”
“M’yes. Suppose you had been in Chard’s place,” Leonidas said. “What would you have thought?”
“I should have been beyond thought,” Cassie returned. “Bill, I don’t understand how you can be so convincing about something you’re just guessing at from start to finish. But try and explain why you were knocked out. And how she expected to get Leslie off the train, after knocking her out!”
“Probably, after seeing me by the water cooler,” Leonidas said blandly, “Chard jumped to the conclusion that I was Leslie’s accomplice. And I assume she intended to explain Leslie by insinuating that the girl was mentally deranged, and in her care. Something like that.”
“Don’t you suppose she thought Leslie would have something to say?” Cassie demanded. “She certainly wouldn’t be fool enough to expect that Leslie would take something like that without a murmur!”
“That’s where the gun and the handcuffs come in,” Leonidas said. “Chard knew that Leslie, after her trip to the water cooler, would undoubtedly have the gun and handcuffs with her. Leslie had probably made it very clear that she intended to get them. So that is why Miss Chard was waiting to knock Leslie out with the heel of the—er—arch supporter.”
Cassie stared at him.
“Ground gripper. Bill, you mean that Chard was going to take the gun, and force Leslie to do whatever she wanted, at gunpoint. And then Chard found out that the gun wasn’t loaded, and no good, and all!”
“I think so,” Leonidas said. “I think, for a few unhappy moments before I appeared on the scene, that Miss Chard succumbed utterly to panic. I think she had cleared up the drawing room, and pulled down the shades, and arranged the blankets on top of Leslie’s inert form with the intention of leaving her and retiring from the whole affair. I think that Miss Chard was calling quits when I came in.”
He brushed his hand across the steamed window pane, and once again peered out.
“You make it all sound so awfully logical!” Cassie said. “I don’t like to carp, but your story of what happened on the train was fantastic, and so was Leslie’s. How can you make this sound so logical?”
Leonidas admitted that his own version of the train episode made little sense in itself.
“Nor did Leslie’s. But when you add my story to hers, things take form.”
“You’ve certainly made them take form! Hm,” Cassie said, “I suppose, when Chard found out the gun was no good, she nearly went out of her mind. I would have. And that’s why she biffed you. And why she jumped at Leslie’s suggestion that they get out, and why she thought of the Camavon train, and all. I’d have chinned myself from a straw to get out of the hole she was in. Bill, I must say that Chard has a strong sense of duty.”
“M’yes. Quite.”
“The strongest sense of duty I ever heard of. To go through all that because Medora told her to! It’s incredible. But that’s probably what she was trying to explain to Leslie while they waited to get off at Back Bay. About how she was just doing her duty —Bill, don’t you see any signs of Cuff and Margie? Where can those two be? I’m getting worried!”
“I’ll give them five minutes more,” Leonidas said, “and then we will take a cab. What time is it,
