The Mystery of the Downs | Page 8

upstairs," he said.
"Do you think the murderer was in the house while we were there?" she
asked.
"It is impossible to say definitely. My own impression now is that some
one was in the house--that the crash we heard was not caused by the
wind."
"Then he must have been there while I was sitting downstairs before
you came," she said, with a shiver at the thought of the danger that was
past.
"Yes," he answered. "The fact that you had a candle alight kept him
upstairs. He was afraid of discovery. When we went upstairs to the first
floor he must have retreated to the second floor--the top story."
She remained deep in thought for a few moments.
"I am glad he did not come down," she said at length. "I am glad I did
not see who it was."
Again Marsland was reminded of the way in which she had greeted him
at the door. Could it be that, instead of having gone to the farm for
shelter with a companion, she had gone there to meet some one, and
that unknown to her the person she was to meet had reached the house
before her and had remained hidden upstairs?
"Did you close the front door when we left?" she asked.
"Yes. I slammed it and I heard the bolt catch. Why do you ask?"

"There is something I want to ask you," she said, at length.
"What is it?"
"I want you to promise if you can that you will not tell the police that I
was at Cliff Farm tonight; I want you to promise that you will not tell
any one."
"Do you think it--wise?" he asked, after a pause in which he gave
consideration to the request.
"I do not want to be mixed up in it in any way," she explained. "The
tragedy will give rise to a lot of talk in the place. I would not like my
name to be mixed up in it."
"I quite appreciate that," he said. "And as far as it goes I would be
willing to keep your name out of it. But have you considered what the
effect would be if the police subsequently discovered that you had been
there? That would give rise to greater talk--to talk of a still more
objectionable kind."
"Yes; but how are they to discover that I was there unless you tell
them?" she asked.
He laughed softly.
"They have to try to solve a more difficult problem than that without
any one to tell them the solution," he said. "They have to try to find out
who killed this man Lumsden--and why he was killed. There will be
two or three detectives making all sorts of in-* *quiries. One of them
might alight accidentally on the fact that you, like myself, had taken
shelter there in the storm."
She took refuge in the privilege of her sex to place a man in the wrong
by misinterpreting his motives.
"Of course, if you do not wish to do it, there is no reason why you
should." She removed her hand from his arm.

He pulled her up with a sharpness which left on her mind the
impression that he was a man who knew his own mind.
"Please understand that I am anxious to do the best I can for you
without being absurdly quixotic about it. I am quite willing to keep
your name out of it in the way you ask, but I am anxious that you
should first realize the danger of the course you suggest. It seems to me
that, in order to avoid the unpleasantness of allowing it to be publicly
known that you shared with me the discovery of this tragedy, you are
courting the graver danger which would attach to the subsequent
difficulty of offering a simple and satisfactory explanation to the police
of why you wanted to keep your share in the discovery an absolute
secret. And you must remember that your explanation to me of how
you came to the farm is rather vague. It is true that you said you went
there for shelter from the storm. But you have not explained how you
got into the house, and from the way you spoke to me when you
opened the door it is obvious that you expected to see some one else
who was not a stranger."
She came to a halt in the road in order to put a direct question to him.
"Do you think that I had anything to do with this dreadful murder? Do
you think that is the reason I asked you to keep my name out of it?"
"I am quite sure that you had nothing whatever to do with the
tragedy--that the