The Circular Staircase - Page 117/154

"Well," I said, "if she knows that, she knows more. She is a very

cruel and ungrateful girl."

"She is a very sick girl," he said gravely. "Neither you nor I can

judge her until we know everything. Both she and her mother are ghosts

of their former selves. Under all this, these two sudden deaths, this

bank robbery, the invasions at Sunnyside and Halsey's disappearance,

there is some mystery that, mark my words, will come out some day. And

when it does, we shall find Louise Armstrong a victim."

I had not noticed where we were going, but now I saw we were beside the

railroad, and from a knot of men standing beside the track I divined

that it was here the car had been found. The siding, however, was

empty. Except a few bits of splintered wood on the ground, there was

no sign of the accident.

"Where is the freight car that was rammed?" the doctor asked a

bystander.

"It was taken away at daylight, when the train was moved."

There was nothing to be gained. He pointed out the house on the

embankment where the old lady and her daughter had heard the crash and

seen two figures beside the car. Then we drove slowly home. I had the

doctor put me down at the gate, and I walked to the house--past the

lodge where we had found Louise, and, later, poor Thomas; up the drive

where I had seen a man watching the lodge and where, later, Rosie had

been frightened; past the east entrance, where so short a time before

the most obstinate effort had been made to enter the house, and where,

that night two weeks ago, Liddy and I had seen the strange woman. Not

far from the west wing lay the blackened ruins of the stables. I felt

like a ruin myself, as I paused on the broad veranda before I entered

the house.

Two private detectives had arrived in my absence, and it was a relief

to turn over to them the responsibility of the house and grounds. Mr.

Jamieson, they said, had arranged for more to assist in the search for

the missing man, and at that time the country was being scoured in all

directions.

The household staff was again depleted that afternoon. Liddy was

waiting to tell me that the new cook had gone, bag and baggage, without

waiting to be paid. No one had admitted the visitor whom Warner had

heard in the library, unless, possibly, the missing cook. Again I was

working in a circle.