`And I?' concluded Arbor. `Fifteen and one half minutes past, to the second. I never am wrong. This watch was made by…'
`Never mind,' interposed Dr Fell. `We shan't row about half a minute. There is, however, one thing I should like to ask. You said you were on your way out at this time, Mr Arbor. But the murder wasn't discovered until half- past two. How is it you were caught here when the detention order was issued?'
`I left one of my gloves behind, on the railing round the Raleigh first-edition in the Bloody Tower. They're — ah — rather special gloves,' he explained, carelessly. `Carter of Fifth Avenue does them for me, and I have no other pair of exactly this sort.'
General Mason looked pained, and Arbor lifted the shiny grey hat from his lap and indicated the gloves.
`I was all the way to the Strand in my cab before I remembered, and I returned. It was about twenty minutes to three when I arrived, and then I couldn't, get out.'
`I hope that cabby isn't still waiting,' the General mused. `It would be unfortunate,' Mr Arbor, if such an unfortunate witness got his head bashed in. Hold on! Wait! I remember now. There s something I wanted to ask, you.'
`With pleasure.' Arbor frowned. `You are…?'
'I'm the man you wanted to see,' the General replied, with some asperity. `I'm the deputy governor of the Tower. And what's more, sir, I'm damned if I let you paw over that Raleigh book. General Sir Ian Hamilton presented that to us. What was I saying? Oh yes. About the Raleigh. You said you had never seen it. Is this your first visit to the Tower?'
'It is.'
`The reason I asked is that you have all the names down pat. You speak familiarly of 'Water Lane', and the Green, and all the rest of it, when you didn't go any farther than the Bloody Tower.'
`Perfectly simple,' said, Arbor, with the air of a detective speaking to his dull-witted assistant. `I dislike, asking directions.' From his pocket he produced one of the green pamphlets. `This little guide, with a map, which I studied before entering the Tower at all, gave me a thorough working knowledge.'
Dr Fell pulled at his moustache.
`I've got just one more question, my friend, and then you are free to go. Are you acquainted with Mrs Lester Bitton, your host's sister-in-law?'
`Unfortunately, no. You see, as I told you, I have never before stopped at Bitton's house. Mr and Mrs Bitton were away when I first arrived. They returned last night. I am told, but I only came back from my week-end this morning, and both were out of the house.'
`You wouldn't recognize her, then, if you saw her?'
`I'm afraid not.'
'Before you go, though,' Hadley suggested, `isn't there something you want to tell us?'
Arbor had risen with almost a shake of relief. He was buttoning his coat slowly, so as not to `seem in a hurry; but he stopped. `Tell you? I don't understand.'
`Any hints, or instructions, Mr Arbor? A valuable manuscript virtually belonging to you has been stolen, you know. Aren't you interested in, recovering it? It would seem that you are very easily diverted from the loss of a ten-thousand pound possession, considering the trouble you took to acquire it. Aren't you making any inquiries at all?'
Arbor, Rampole sensed, had been dreading that question. But he did not immediately speak. He adjusted his hat to a nicety, drew on his gloves, and hooked his umbrella over his arm.
`Just so,' he agreed. `But you are forgetting something. I want no unpleasantness in this matter, gentlemen; I have already outlined my reasons. I prefer not to use the assistance of the police. But I assure you I have not been idle. I have made certain contacts and leads which are — excuse me — not open to you. Good day, gentlemen.'
After he had gone there was a long silence. An expression of malignancy was on General Mason's face. He moved his hands in the air after the fashion of a burlesque hypnotist.
`Hocus-pocus,' he muttered. 'Allagazam. I hope you haven't got any more witnesses, Hadley. That's enough. First hats, and then love-affairs, and now manuscripts; It hasn't helped any. It's only mixed us up worse… What did you make of our aesthete?'
`As a witness,' said Hadley, `he was either too difficult or too easy, at various times. He started off smoothly enough. Then he went, into a complete funk at the mention of the murder. Finally, I'd swear he was, telling the truth when he described what he knew of the happenings here.'
`Meaning?' prompted the General.
'He obviously didn't know it was Driscoll who had been murdered here. At least, he didn't know it was the young chap he'd met at Sir William's. And it nearly knocked him over when he heard. Why?
`Put it this way. Arbor's clever, and he's tricky. He dislikes unpleasantness, because it upsets his own self- conscious dignity; but he has no more courage than a rabbit. You could see that in everything he said. Agreed?'
`Without a struggle,' said the General.
`All right. Now, he tried to make a joke out of the suggestion that he himself might have stolen that manuscript. But when you know Arbor's character, and Sir William's, it isn't quite so fantastic as it sounds. He knew the old man would raise thirty-eight different kinds of hell if he demanded his manuscript. But if the thing were stolen, Sir William could whistle for it. He had no case. Arbor could point all this out to him (by telephone, if necessary) after he'd safely got the manuscript and left the house.'
`I doubt whether Arbor would actually pinch the manuscript himself,' said the General, shaking his head. `He wouldn't dare?
'Wait a minute. Now, he wasn't worried about that theft. He wasn't exerting himself, you see. Well, who might have stolen it for him?'
The General whistled. `You mean…'
`It can't be!' snapped the chief inspector. `It would be too much. But the possibility stares us right in the face. I mean this. Arbor said he talked Poe in that house until even the family began to wonder; broader and broader hints. He also said that with the dark and mysterious hints Sir William constantly let fall, everybody must have known about, the manuscript. Certainly a clever young fellow like Driscoll couldn't', have failed to know it. And. Driscoll was there to dinner when Arbor did much of his talking….'
`Oh, look here!' General Mason protested. `An infernal counter-jumper like Arbor might have done it, of course. But if you're suggesting young Driscoll… Out of the question.'
`I didn't say it was true,' Hadley said, patiently. `But consider, Driscoll was discontented. Driscoll was always short of money. So suppose he takes Arbor aside and says, 'Look here, if you happened to find that manuscript under your pillow one morning, what would it be worth to you?',' Hadley raised his eyebrows. `Perhaps Arbor then explained, as he might, that he was really the owner. Perhaps that didn't matter to Driscoll. But, since Arbor would have had to pay some sort of price to the old man if he bought it outright well? It was a good chance for a stroke of business.'
`NO!' boomed a thunderous voice.
Hadley jumped. There had been in that voice not only protest, but a sort of agonized appeal. They all turned to see Dr Fell lumbering to his feet.
`I beg of, you,' he said, almost imploringly — `I beg; and plead with you, whatever else you think of, anything in this case, not to get that absurd idea. If you do, Hadley, I warn you, you'll never, see the truth. Say whatever else you like. Say that the thief was Arbor, if you like. Say that it was General Mason or Father Christmas or Mussolini. But don't, I entreat you ever for a moment believe it was Driscoll.'
The chief inspector was peevish'. `Well, why not?'
`Cast your minds back a couple of hours. Damn it, where's my pipe? Ah. Well, we were speaking of Driscoll. And Sir William said he wasn't a coward. But one thing he most definitely did fear.'
And that?'
`He feared his uncle,' said Dr Fell. After a pause, while he spilled a considerable amount of tobacco in filling his pipe, he went on wheezily: `Look, here. Driscoll was an improvident sort, with expensive tastes. He lived entirely off his uncle's bounty. He got precious little from what freelance newspaper work he did, and Bitton helped him get along even with that.
