remembered Hogenauer bein' in the Intelligence Service years ago. He also remembered L. who was at once cloudy and solid. If the whole Secret Service couldn't catch L. or find out who he was in the past, small blame would attach to Charters's constabulary if they failed to find him now. Charters had no idea where L. was; he supposed nobody had. L. was the man for his money. But in order to make clear the leerin' dangers of L. to all concerned, he had to bring in somebody who knew about 'em: in short, he had to bring in me. And, d'ye know, I'm rather wonderin' if it didn't tickle something under Charters's ribs: if it didn't give him a deep, sharp feelin' of satisfaction; when he sat there and spun that yarn about L., just to see whether in one last fling Martin Charters (the shelved one) couldn't make a fool of the old man. And he did.
'He'd got it worked out. Do you remember,' H.M. said abruptly, 'when I was questionin' Antrim about the famous night when Antrim gave Hogenauer the bromide, Antrim said that Hogenauer suggested bromide himself?
'Yes. Y'see, I'm inclined to think Charters knew a whole lot more about Hogenauer, and Hogenauer's `experiment,' than he admitted. To begin with, long before Charters had any idea of crooked work, long before the Willoughby case broke, he'd heard where Hogenauer was livin'. He was curious. He sent Sergeant Davis to see what the mysterious Hogenauer was up to, and, when he heard about the `lights round the flower-pot' he was still more curious. He wondered whether Hogenauer himself was up to hanky-panky. It looked like it, didn't it?’
'That, I'm inclined to believe, was why he thought he could safely go to Hogenauer with his bag of money, and get Hogenauer's opinion of the stuff. But Hogenauer wasn't having any. `I shouldn't be so holy,' Charters advises; 'considering what you're doing here:' And then poor old Hogenauer, suddenly realizin' that funny interpretations may be put on his conduct (for Keppel has warned him about the mysterious, sinister letters Hogenauer has been writin'), Hogenauer is afraid the police are after him. And he blurts out the truth. Which gives Charters an idea for a neat murder.'
Evelyn spoke suddenly.
'I think he was a devil,' she said. ''Gives him an idea for a neat murder.' If he'd been an honest murderer, he'd have brained Hogenauer with a poker then and there, and shut his mouth like that. But he didn't. I say, why are you defending him?'
'I said, if people will stop interruptin' me,' H.M. went on woodenly, 'I'll tell you what happened. Well, Charters promises Hogenauer he won't try to pass off the money as counterfeit; he soothes him down. He takes an interest in the `experiment,' which Hogenauer explains. But then Charters suggests it's pretty dangerous to the health —‘
Stone sat up.
'I've got you,' Stone said. 'He suggests Hogenauer ought to visit the doctor the night before the experiment for a going-over. He suggests Hogenauer ought to ask the doctor about bromide, and take a bromide before the experiment begins-'
'Sure. They were talkin' about Antrim, dye see, in that back parlour with the door shut. And Bowers, comin' in late and hearin' Hogenauer do so much talkie' about Antrim, thinks it's Antrim who's there.
'It's always the cussedest thing that happens. Those bottles really were switched in the surgery, with fake labels pasted on 'em: Charters arranged it in the evening before Hogenauer got there. He could get in easily through the French window. The trap was all ready.
'But a very revealin' question has been asked in this case. Somebody asked: If the murderer really switched the bottles, why was he so fastidious as to switch 'em back again to their right places? And there you got the answer before you. Because Charters's lop-sided conscience was always stingin' him in an unexpected place; it even stung him after it was dead, the way a wasp can. He could quite coolly arrange to poison Hogenauer. Y'know, I got a suspicion Charters has an idea that foreigners are — well, not exactly not human, but at least that poisonin' a foreigner is slightly less reprehensible an offense than poisonin' a countryman. He could kill Hogenauer. But he couldn't stand the thought that somebody else, somebody he wasn't after, might get a dose out of that bottle. Above all, at Madam Antrim's hands.'
'So,' put in Evelyn, 'during the ten or fifteen minutes while Antrim was out for a stroll after Hogenauer had left, he sneaked in — '
'No!' said H. M. sharply. 'That's just what I don't mean. Otherwise there'd have been no mix-up about that sash-window. Think back again. Antrim went for a stroll, yes. The house was open and the lights were on. But where did Antrim say he went for a stroll?'
'On the headland just behind the house,' said Evelyn.
'Yes. And so, with the lights on, Charters couldn't get in without bein' seen. And afterwards Antrim locked up the place. But Charters had to get in.’
'He did get in late that night, d'ye see. But somethin' was rackin' him all over again. There were holes in his plan. The bottles had been switched and put back into their places, yes. Hogenauer now had the dose of poison, yes. But suppose nobody noticed that there had been a switch of bottles from a mysterious hand: as he'd intended? Suppose it was simply thought Mrs. Antrim had given poison to Hogenauer, out of the strychnine-bottle, with deliberate intent — as Evelyn did think?'
'You don't believe he must have anticipated that?' asked Evelyn.
'Quite seriously, I don't think he did,' said H.M. 'Give the devil fair play. For see what he did. To show that an outsider must have been there, he manufactured evidence (it was bad evidence, but it had to be obvious stuff) in order to show the sash window had been burgled.'
'Hold on!' said Stone. 'This won't do! You can't have it both ways. You say he got in and manufactured the evidence. All right. You said earlier this evening that the catch on that window was broken from inside, and the scratches made from inside. But you also said that no other window or door in the house showed any sign of being tampered with! In that case, how in the name of Judas did Charters get in to make those marks on the inside? He couldn't have got in.'
H.M. again spoke with a sort of lowering mirth.
'Oh yes, son. Anybody could have got in. Anybody could have got in, and left no betrayin' sign on the French window. Anybody, that is, who had at hand a full kit of the finest and most modern burglar's tools. And Charters was the only one who had a kit like that. He lent it to Ken the following night.'
After a pause, H.M. went on:
'I tried to show it to you; that was why I hammered the point about that sash-window; and, burn me, Charters almost came out and admitted the truth when he was defendin' the Antrims. He pointed out how both of 'em could have been tellin' the truth when I pressed him. I told you the little things were important. He broke that window from the inside, so it would make little noise; he broke it with a big claspknife — the same clasp-knife, I rather think, that he made you a present of when I sent you to do some burglin' yourself at the Cabot Hotel in Bristol.
'But there was the trouble. Y'see, when he sneaked out that night, Serpos saw him.
'Serpos has admitted that much to me. It supplies the explanation to the last nightmare in the business. I mean the telephone-call to the Cabot Hotel at one-thirty, when someone whispered: `This is L. speaking. Would you like to know the truth about the money?' And then the laugh. It was Serpos speaking for blackmail. It was Serpos speaking — with a hint. It was Serpos speaking — with Charters standin' right beside him. If you got any memories, you'll recall that Antrim looked down over the banisters and saw Serpos loungin' against the edge of the stairs. Uh-huh. But there was somebody else there, too. Somebody bidden from Antrim under the protection of the stairs. Somebody standin' there and sweatin'. Charters.'
'Yes,' I said, 'but how the devil did Serpos come to call up Keppel? Where was the blackmail in that? What made him think of that?'
From behind me I heard a deep growl.
'Ah! That was what I hadda find out from Serpos when I questioned him in front of all of you. I hadda find out how much he knew of what had been goin' on — about Hogenauer's experiment. He admitted he'd guessed about it already. He admitted he got a full account of the circumstances of Hogenauer's death from the copper who brought him back to Torquay. Friend Serpos is a shrewd lad; you've seen that. He knew what was goin' on, and Keppel's parts in it. And he had seen Charters sneak out the night before
'He guessed Charters had-'
'And more. He made a long-shot guess, concernin' the `envelope. folded in half,' that Hogenauer had given poison innocently to Keppel: the innocent victim. And thus pleasant little Serpos faces Charters. `You haven't
