jauntily cocked over where the ear should be; and I had a horrible fancy, What if that damned thing should come alive? Beyond it was Halliday, grown quiet and satirical now. The candle burned on the table between him and the dummy, and flickered as the incense rose up. It was the sheer absurdity of the thing which made it come close to the terrible.
'Now that we're all locked in here nice and cozy,' said H.M., and his voice echoed in the little stone room, 'I'm goin' to tell you what happened night before last.'
Halliday scratched a match to light a cigarette; but he broke the head off, and he did not try again.
'You'll imagine,' continued H.M. drowsily, 'that you're in the positions you occupied then. Think back, now, to where everybody was. But we'll take up Darworth first; the dummy indicates him, and' - H.M. took his watch out of his pocket, leaned across the table, and laid it down -'we got some time to spare before somebody I'm expectin' arrives here tonight....”
'I've already told you some of what Darworth's done; I repeated it to Ken and the major yesterday, and to Halliday and Miss Latimer this morning. I told you about the confederate, and what was planned....”
'We'll start from where Darworth murders the cat; and that's where I began sittin' and thinkin'.'
'Not to interrupt,' said Halliday; 'but who are you expecting tonight?'
'The police,' said H.M.
After a pause he got his pipe out of his pocket and went on:
'Now, we've established that Darworth killed that cat with Louis Playge's dagger, by the punctures and rips in its throat. Very well; afterwards he's got the blood to splash hereabouts, he's got himself smeared up a bit - but that will pass unnoticed in the dark, under coat and gloves, if he doesn't see anybody, but gets Featherton and young Latimer to rush him out and lock him in here immediately. Point really is: What did he do with that dagger? Eh?
'Only two things he could 'a' done: (1) He could have brought it in here with him, or (2) Passed it to his confederate.
'Take the second point first, my lads. If he passed it to a confederate, that'd mean that his confederate had to be either young Latimer or Bill Featherton... ' Here H.M. sleepily raised the lids from his eyes, as though expecting a protest.
Nobody spoke. We could hear the watch ticking on the table.
'Because those were the only two with him, to whom he could have passed it. Now, it's not reasonable that he did such a fat-headed thing. Why hand it over to the confederate merely to take into the big house and bring out again? - runnin', meantime, the risk of being seen giving it to the confederate by the other person who's not in the plot, and the even bigger risk entailed by the confederate carryin' around a blood-stained dagger which will give the show away if anybody in the front room happens to spot it. No, no; Darworth took it into this room with him. That's the reasonin'.
'As a matter of fact, I knew from another cause that he did take it in; but we'll pass over that other cause for a minute: I'm showin' you the obvious reasons for things. ... Well, speak up, somebody!' he added with a sudden sharp look. 'What dye gather from that?'
Halliday turned round from gazing blankly at the watch.
'But what about,' he said, 'what about the dagger that touched the back of Marion's neck?'
'Humph. That's better. Exactly. What about it? Son, that apparently inconsistent point clears up a big difficulty. Somebody was prowlin' in the dark. Was that person holdin' another dagger? If so, the whole point is that he or she was holdin' it in a very odd way; an unnatural way; a way nobody under heaven ever carried a dagger
before. Mind you, she wasn't touched by the blade, but by the handle and hilt, so that the person must have been gripping it under the hilt, by the blade.... What is it, son, that you do naturally hold like that? What is it that is shaped rather like a dagger, so that a mind running on daggers might possibly mistake it for one in the
dark ... ?'
'Well?'
'It was a crucifix,' said H.M.
'Then Ted Latimer-?' I said, after a pause that seemed to echo like thunder. 'Ted Latimer—?'
'As I say, I was sittin' and thinkin'. And I thought a good deal about the psychological puzzle of Ted Latimer, both before and after we heard how he come home with a little crucifix in his hand....”
'Y'know, that half-cracked young feller would have concealed that crucifix from you quicker and deeper than he'd have concealed a crime. He would honestly have considered himself shamed if you had thought that he, the intellectual snipe, carried it because he reverenced it or thought it holy: which he would say he didn't at all.... And that's the dancin', topsy-turvy puzzle of people nowadays. They'll sneer at a great thing like the Christian Church, but they'll believe in astrology. They won't believe the clergyman who says there's something in the heavens; but they will believe the rather less mild statement that you can read the future there like an electric sign. They think there's something old-fashioned and provincial about believing too thoroughly in God, but they will concede you any number of deadly earthbound spirits: because the latter can be defended by scientific jargon.
'Never mind.... Point's this. Ted Latimer fanatically believed in the earthbound soul Darworth was goin' to exorcise. He'd got himself into a state of ecstasy and exaltation. He believed this house was swarmin' with deadly influences. He wanted to go out among 'em-face 'em - see 'em! He had been forbidden to move, and yet, d'ye see, he felt that he had to go out of the `safe' room into their midst.... And, my lads, when Ted Latimer got up and crept out of that circle, he was carrying the traditional weapon against evil spirits: a crucifix.'
Major Featherton asked hoarsely:
'You're saying he was the confederate? He was the one who went out?'
'Man, doesn't that crucifix sound like it? He went out, yes. But he was the one you heard go out.'
'Two-' said Halliday blankly. 'Then why didn't he tell us he'd gone out?'
H.M. leaned over and picked up his watch. Something was on the way; some force gathering round with the quick ticking....
'Because something happened,' said H.M. quietly. 'Because he saw or heard or noticed something that made even him suspect Darworth wasn't murdered by ghosts... Can you account for his wild behavior afterwards in any other way, son? He was done up. He screamed belief at you. How did Lady Benning feel when Masters ripped out all those wires in Darworth's seance room, and tore the bowels out of her beloved phantom James? Ted still believed in Darworth; and yet he didn't. In any case - whatever it was, dye see? - he still thought the Truth was bigger than Darworth; better to have everybody believe Darworth was really killed by spooks, if the trickery in this case went to support the Truth in the eyes of the world! . . . Didn't somebody tell me how he kept repeating, over and over, that this would bring the truth before the world, and what was one man's mere life compared to that? Didn't he keep hysterically insisting on that? By God, I thought so!'
'Then what was it,' said Halliday, choking suddenly, 'what was it Ted saw or heard or noticed?'
H.M. slowly got to his feet, immense in the firelit room.
'D'you want me to show you?' he asked. 'It's nearly time.'
The heat of the fire was suffocating, rather hypnotic. The mist of incense, the distortion of fire and candlelight, made the expression on the dummy's mask one of satirical enjoyment; as though, behind the embodiment of canvas and sand, Roger Darworth were listening to us in the haunted place where he had died.
'Ken,' said H.M., 'take Louis Playge's dagger off the table. Got a handkerchief? Good. You remember, there was a handkerchief found under Darworth's body.... Now take that knife and give the dummy three hard, scratching cuts: use your strength and rip the clothes: on his left arm, hip, and leg. Go on!'
The thing must have weighed fourteen stone. It did not move when I did as I was told, except a hideously lifelike jerk against the table. The face slid a little sideways under the rakish hat, as though the dummy had glanced down. Sand sprayed and spilled out across my hand.
'Now cut his clothes a little, but don't puncture the canvas, that's it – anywhere - half a dozen good ones. Now! Now you've done what Darworth himself did. So wipe your fingerprints off the handle with that handkerchief and drop the handkerchief on the floor... ''
Halliday said very quietly:
'There's somebody walking round outside this house.'
'Dagger back on the table, Ken. Now, then, I want all of you to watch the fire. Don't look at me; keep your eyes straight ahead, because the murderer's nearly here...”
