Martin Hewitt, Investigator | Page 7

the
baronet, who was standing by the door----"I think we will see the other
room and take a walk outside the house, if you please. I suppose, by the
by, that there is no getting at the matches left behind on the first and
second occasions?"
"No," Sir James answered. "Certainly not here. The Scotland Yard man
may have kept his."
The room that Mrs. Armitage had occupied presented no peculiar
feature. A few feet below the window the roof of the billiard-room was
visible, consisting largely of skylight. Hewitt glanced casually about
the walls, ascertained that the furniture and hangings had not been
materially changed since the second robbery, and expressed his desire
to see the windows from the outside. Before leaving the room, however,
he wished to know the names of any persons who were known to have
been about the house on the occasions of all three robberies.
"Just carry your mind back, Sir James," he said. "Begin with yourself,
for instance. Where were you at these times?"
"When Mrs. Heath lost her bracelet, I was in Tagley Wood all the
afternoon. When Mrs. Armitage was robbed, I believe I was
somewhere about the place most of the time she was out. Yesterday I
was down at the farm." Sir James' face broadened. "I don't know
whether you call those suspicious movements," he added, and laughed.
"Not at all; I only asked you so that, remembering your own
movements, you might the better recall those of the rest of the
household. Was anybody, to your knowledge--anybody, mind--in the
house on all three occasions?"
"Well, you know, it's quite impossible to answer for all the servants.

You'll only get that by direct questioning--I can't possibly remember
things of that sort. As to the family and visitors--why, you don't suspect
any of them, do you?"
"I don't suspect a soul, Sir James," Hewitt answered, beaming genially,
"not a soul. You see, I can't suspect people till I know something about
where they were. It's quite possible there will be independent evidence
enough as it is, but you must help me if you can. The visitors, now.
Was there any visitor here each time--or even on the first and last
occasions only?"
"No, not one. And my own sister, perhaps you will be pleased to know,
was only there at the time of the first robbery."
"Just so! And your daughter, as I have gathered, was clearly absent
from the spot each time--indeed, was in company with the party robbed.
Your niece, now?"
"Why hang it all, Mr. Hewitt, I can't talk of my niece as a suspected
criminal! The poor girl's under my protection, and I really can't
allow----"
Hewitt raised his hand, and shook his head deprecatingly.
"My dear sir, haven't I said that I don't suspect a soul? Do let me know
how the people were distributed, as nearly as possible. Let me see. It
was your, niece, I think, who found that Mrs. Armitage's door was
locked--this door, in fact--on the day she lost her brooch?"
"Yes, it was."
"Just so--at the time when Mrs. Armitage herself had forgotten whether
she locked it or not. And yesterday--was she out then?"
"No, I think not. Indeed, she goes out very little--her health is usually
bad. She was indoors, too, at the time of the Heath robbery, since you
ask. But come, now, I don't like this. It's ridiculous to suppose that she
knows anything of it."

"I don't suppose it, as I have said. I am only asking for information.
That is all your resident family, I take it, and you know nothing of
anybody else's movements--except, perhaps, Mr. Lloyd's?"
"Lloyd? Well, you know yourself that he was out with the ladies when
the first robbery took place. As to the others, I don't remember.
Yesterday he was probably in his room, writing. I think that acquits him,
eh?" Sir James looked quizzically into the broad face of the affable
detective, who smiled and replied:
"Oh, of course nobody can be in two places at once, else what would
become of the alibi as an institution? But, as I have said, I am only
setting my facts in order. Now, you see, we get down to the
servants--unless some stranger is the party wanted. Shall we go outside
now?"
Lenton Croft was a large, desultory sort of house, nowhere more than
three floors high, and mostly only two. It had been added to bit by bit,
till it zigzagged about its site, as Sir James Norris expressed it, "like a
game of dominoes." Hewitt scrutinized its external features carefully as
they strolled around, and stopped some little while before the windows
of the two bed-rooms he had just seen from the inside. Presently they
approached the stables and coach-house,