The Mystery Queen | Page 7

poor woman. That was about a quarter past eight o'clock."
"And Mrs. Brown--as we have found from inquiry--left the house at a quarter to nine. Do you think she is guilty?"
"I can't say. Didn't the footman see the body--that is, if Mrs. Brown committed the crime--when he came to show her out? Sir Charles would naturally ring his bell when the interview was over, and the footman would come to conduct her to the door."
"Sir Charles never rang his bell!" said the officer, drily. "Mrs. Brown passed through the entrance hall at a quarter to nine o'clock, and mentioned to the footman--quite unnecessarily, I think--that Sir Charles had given her money. He let her out of the house. Naturally, the footman, not hearing any bell, did not enter this room, nor--so far as any one else is concerned--did a single person. Only when Mr. Durwin--"
"I came at nine o'clock," interrupted the bald-headed man imperiously, "to keep my appointment. The footman told Mr. Penn, who took me to Sir Charles. He knocked but there was no answer, so he opened the door and we saw this." He again waved his hand towards the body.
"Does Mr. Penn know nothing?" asked Halliday, doubtfully.
"No," answered the other. "Inspector Tenson has questioned him carefully in my presence. Mr. Penn says that he brought Sir Charles his spectacles from the dining-room before you left for the theatre with the two ladies, and then was sent to his own room by his employer to write the usual letters. He remained there until nine o'clock when he was called out to receive me, and we know that Mr. Penn speaks truly, for the typewriting girl who was typing Sir Charles's letters to Mr. Penn's dictation, says that he did not leave the room all the time."
"May I look at the body?" asked Dan approaching the desk, and on receiving an affirmative reply from Durwin, bent over the dead.
The corpse was much swollen, the face indeed being greatly bloated, while the deep scratch on the nape of the neck looked venomous and angry. Yet it was a slight wound to bring about so great a catastrophe, and the poison must have been very deadly and swift; deadly because apparently Sir Charles had no time to move before it did its work, and swift because he could not even have called for assistance, which he surely would have done had he been able to keep his senses. Dan mentioned this to the watchful doctor, who nodded.
"I can't say for certain," he remarked cautiously, "but I fancy that snake-poison has been used. That will be seen to, when the post-mortem is made."
"And this fly?" Halliday pointed to an insect which was just behind the left ear of the dead man.
"Fly!" echoed Inspector Tenson in surprise, and hastily advancing to look. "A fly in November. Impossible! Yet it is a fly, and dead. If not," he swept the neck of the corpse with his curved hand, "it would get away. H'm! Now I wonder what this means? Get me a magnifying glass."
There was not much difficulty in procuring one, as such an article lay on the desk itself; being used, no doubt, by Sir Charles to aid his failing sight when he examined important documents. Tenson inspected the fly and removed it--took it to a near electric light and examined it. Then he came back and examined the place behind the left ear whence he had removed it.
"It's been gummed on," he declared in surprise--a surprise which was also visible in the faces of the other men; "you can see the glistening spot on the skin, and the fly's legs are sticky." He balanced the fly on his little finger as he spoke. "I am sure they are sticky, although it is hard to say with such a small insect. However," he carefully put away the fly in a silver match-box, "we'll have this examined under a more powerful glass. You are all witnesses, gentlemen, that a fly was found near the wound which caused Sir Charles Moon's death."
"And the scent? What about the scent?" Dan sniffed as he spoke and then bent his nose to the dead man. "It seems to come from the clothes."
"Scent!" echoed Durwin sharply, and sniffed. "Yes, I observed that scent. But I did not take any notice of it."
"Nor did I," said the doctor. "I noticed it also."
"And I," followed on the Inspector, "and why should we take notice of it, Mr. Halliday? Many men use scent."
"Sir Charles never did," said Dan emphatically; "he hated scents of all kinds even when women used them. He certainly would never have used them himself. I'll swear to that."
"Then this scent assumes importance." Durwin sniffed again, and held his aquiline nose high. "It is fainter now. But I smelt it