“Excellent, Mr. Bathurst,” contributed Sir Austin, “sound reasoning.”
“And yet Daphne was the very girl about whom the blackmailing process had been. Strange wasn’t it? The Crown Prince had no knowledge of Sheila! Why was Sheila dead? Why did the murderer want time? But there was this point. I began to think very seriously about the group of people staying at the ‘Cassandra’—the hotel from which the suit-case had been stolen. Consider who they were! The Crown Prince, Daphne herself, a Captain Willoughby who knew most of them—and Chief-Inspector Bannister. He was there—you see—right in the circle of suspicion. The next stage was at Tranfield. Bannister went up—I went with him—Tranfield interested me—from more than one point of view. We discovered that the car that took Sheila to Seabourne had been driven back to her home at Tranfield. There was actually a Seabourne newspaper in it. Why had it been driven back? The answer was easy. The house had been searched for something—what it was I will tell you later. It was here that Sheila Delaney’s old lover—Alan Warburton came into my calculations. Here, at any rate, was a motive. The jilted lover—jealousy—ample motive, if you think it over. But a new aspect of the case struck me and just as I was considering it—I made a find. In Sheila’s bedroom I found a postcard. Just an ordinary postcard perhaps—the message I may describe as horticultural and amatory—it was signed ‘X’ But it contained the word ‘irides’—the true Greek plural of ‘iris.’ Now ninety-nine people out of a hundred say ‘irises’ when they speak of more than one ‘iris.’ Our unknown correspondent however was meticulous concerning his plurals. So had been Bannister! More than once he had used ‘maxima’ to me in conversation and I had been particularly struck with the fact that he used the word ‘data’ as a plural—with a plural verb—quite correctly. But nearly everybody uses ‘data’ as a singular noun and with a singular verb. People say ‘data helps’ not ‘data help.’ I rubbed my hands—I’m afraid it’s a habit of mine when I begin to ‘get hold.’ Yes—Bannister was particularly precise about his plurals.”
“Wonderful, Bathurst,” intervened Sir Austin, “a touch of genius—that. He was a Dulwich boy—you know.”
Anthony smiled. “Thank you, Sir Austin. Well, after a time—the theory I had formed concerning Alan Warburton developed as I expected it would and I was able to dispose of my blackmailing case quite smoothly. You will understand what I mean very shortly. Meanwhile, Bannister delivered himself into my hands! Miss Delaney as all of you here know had a nurse-companion—she was first mentioned to Bannister and me by Daphne Carruthers—down at Seabourne. She spoke of her surname as ‘Kerr’—but she pronounced it ‘car’ as in motor-car. Now I submit that anybody hearing that surname and having no knowledge of the spelling would ordinarily assume it to be ‘Carr’ —by far the commoner form of the two. Certainly I did. But when she came in answer to his telegram I happened to get hold of it and noticed that Bannister had actually telegraphed to her as ‘Kerr’—so I got her to write her name down on an envelope for me. She wrote it ‘Kerr.’ He had addressed her in that form because he knew her name, and didn’t think of the pitfall it carried for him. Still—I said to myself—‘what was the motive?’ The answer soon came—or rather part of the answer—we got news of ‘The Peacock’s Eye’—the great blue emerald. I heard of the mysterious Indian who had come miles to see you, Sir Matthew, but who never-the-less failed to turn up. He called on Sheila—it was safe doing that—she couldn’t detect his lack of knowledge of Hindustani—you could. He left you alone. He was counterfeit. I only wanted one link now—how had the criminal met Miss Delaney? I got it. The ‘Bank Frauds’ scandal gave it to me. Now listen—I will at this point reconstruct the entire case. In the February of last year, Chief-Inspector Bannister visited Westhampton in connection with the ‘Mutual Bank’ Frauds and was actually the officer who arrested Sir Felix Warburton. For confirmation of that see the ‘Westhampton and Chellingborough Independent’. He accompanied the Chief Constable, Major Desmond Carruthers, to the Hunt Ball. Carruthers kept his identity a secret.”
Lady Fullgarney leaned across excitedly. “We saw them together—I remember him well—we couldn’t place him—could we, Matthew?”
Anthony nodded and proceeded. “There he saw Sheila Delaney—they were introduced—his ‘incognito’ was maintained. They fell in love with each other—he was a fine man, you know. Fine physique—and so on. But Fate played a strange trick. The Crown Prince was there—also ‘incognito’—known only to the few—he was with Daphne Carruthers. Alan Warburton was there—with Sheila—he had the