The Mystery Queen | Page 6

well know the worst at once,
Miss Moon," said Penn, his lips quivering with nervousness, "your
father is dead. He has been murdered."
Chapter II.
A COMPLETE MYSTERY
It was Mrs. Bolstreath who carried Lillian upstairs in her stout arms, for

when Penn made his brusque announcement the girl fainted straight
away, which was very natural considering the horror of the information.
Dan remained behind to tell the secretary that he was several kinds of
fool, since no one but a superfine ass would blurt out so terrible a story
to a delicate girl. Not that Penn had told much, for Lillian had become
unconscious the moment her bewildered brain grasped that the father
she had left a few hours earlier in good health and spirits was now a
corpse. But he told more to Dan, and mentioned that Mr. Durwin was
in the library wherein the death had taken place.
"Mr. Durwin? Who is Mr. Durwin?" asked Dan trying to collect his
sense, which had been scattered by the dreadful news.
"An official from Scotland Yard; I told you so after dinner," said Penn
in an injured tone; "he came to see Sir Charles by appointment at nine
o'clock and found him a corpse."
"Sir Charles was alive when we left shortly after eight," remarked Dan
sharply; "at a quarter-past eight, to be precise. What took place in the
meantime?"
"Obviously the violent death of Sir Charles," faltered the secretary.
"What evidence have you to show that he died by violence?" asked
Halliday.
"Mr. Durwin called in a doctor, and he says that Sir Charles has been
poisoned," blurted out Penn uneasily. "I believe that woman--Mrs.
Brown she called herself--poisoned him. She left the house at a quarter
to nine, so the footman says, for he let her out, and--"
"It is impossible that a complete stranger should poison Sir Charles,"
interrupted Dan impatiently; "she would not have the chance."
"She was alone with Sir Charles for thirty minutes, more or less," said
Penn tartly; "she had every chance and she took it."
"But how could she induce Sir Charles to drink poison?"

"She didn't induce him to drink anything. The doctor says that the
scratch at the back of the dead man's neck--"
"Here!" Dan roughly pushed the secretary aside, becoming impatient of
the scrappy way in which he detailed what had happened. "Let me go to
the library for myself and see what has happened. Sir Charles can't be
dead."
"It's twelve o'clock now," retorted Penn, stepping aside, "and he's been
dead quite three hours, as the doctor will tell you."
Before the man finished his sentence, Dan, scarcely grasping the
situation, so rapidly had it evolved, ran through the hall towards the
back of the spacious house, where the library was situated. He dashed
into the large and luxuriously furnished room and collided with a police
officer, who promptly took him by the shoulder. There were three other
men in the room, who turned from the corpse they were looking at
when they heard the noise of Halliday's abrupt entrance. The foremost
man, and the one who spoke first, was short and stout and arrayed in
uniform, with cold grey eyes, and a hard mouth.
"What's this--what's this?" he demanded in a raucous voice. "Who are
you?"
"My name is Halliday," said Dan hurriedly. "I am engaged to Miss
Moon and we have just returned from the theatre to hear--to hear--" He
caught sight of Moon's body seated in the desk-chair and drooping
limply over the table. "Oh, it is true, then! He is dead. Good heavens!
Who murdered him?"
"How do you know that Sir Charles has been murdered?" asked the
officer sternly.
"Mr. Penn, the secretary, told me just now in the hall," said Dan,
shaking himself free of the policeman. "He blurted it out like a fool,
and Miss Moon has fainted. Mrs. Bolstreath has taken her upstairs. But
how did it come about? Who found the body, and--"

"I found the body," interrupted one of the other men, who was tall and
calm-faced, with a bald head and a heavy iron-grey moustache,
perfectly clothed in fashionable evening-dress, and somewhat
imperious in his manner of speaking. "I had an appointment with Sir
Charles at nine o'clock and came here to find him, as you now see
him"--he waved his hand towards the desk--"the doctor will tell you
how he died."
"By poison," said the third man, who was dark, young, unobtrusive and
retiring in manner. "You see this deep scratch on the back of the neck.
In that way the poison was administered. I take it that Sir Charles was
bending over his desk and the person who committed the crime
scratched him with some very sharp instrument impregnated with
poison."
"Mrs. Brown!" gasped Dan, staring