“The last time I saw it,” he said slowly, “it was hanging in the hall of Arthur Gine’s homuse.”

42

“Curiouser and curiouser,” said Puttler, who had literary leanings.

Dick heard his name shouted in an agitated voice, and, looking round, saw the butler running towards him, no longer sleepy-eyed, but very alert and white.

“What is the matter, Glover?”

“The maid – foolish girl only just told me – frightened!” gasped the old man, and pointed to the open study windows.

Dick walked quickly back, followed by Puttler. Drooping in his study chair was a plain-looking girl, wearing over her coarse nightdress a man’s overcoat; her lank hair falling over her shoulders, she presented a sight which at any other time would have moved Dick Alford to laughter.

“Now, Alice, tell Mr Alford what you told me,” said the old butler, beside himself with anxiety.

It was some time before she could speak coherently, and then she told her amazing story. She had gone to bed in the servants’ quarters soon after eleven, with a sick headache. She had heard nothing of the scream, but at some time, which she placed with accuracy, having an alarm clock with a phosphorescent dial by her bedside, at 1.45, she heard “a terrible commotion” downstairs. Her room was immediately above Lord Chelford’s. She heard shouts and screams, the smashing of glass and the sounds of a struggle.

“Hurry, hurry, woman!” said Dick, frantic with anxiety. “Downstairs, in his lordship’s room – are you sure?”

“Yes, sir,” whimpered the girl. “I simply dared not get up for fear I was murdered. I simply laid there and fainted and come to again.”

Before she had finished, Dick was across the hall and running up the stairs two at a time. He tried the door of Harry’s room, but it was bolted. He called him by name, and hammered on the panels, but there was no answer.

“We’d better break in the door,” said Puttler. “Have you got an axe?”

Mr Glover went downstairs in search of the tool and returned with an axe and a case-opener. In a second the panel of the door was smashed and Dick peered in.

All the blinds save one were drawn, and the exception admitted sufficient light to enable him to examine the room. He gave one glance and his heart sank. The room was in hopeless confusion; the bedclothes were thrown on the floor, two mirrors, one a cheval glass, had been smashed; the uncurtained window was open. Dick put his hand through the hole in the panel and unbolted the door, and the two men rushed in.

There were signs as of a terrible struggle. The wreckage of two chairs lay scattered about the floor. The table which had held the medicines was overturned and the floor was littered with broken glass, and wet with the spilt medicines.