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Page 28
"He was awfully kind," she admitted; "in fact I quite changed my
opinion regarding the methods of the police authorities after my
interview with Inspector Gatton; but although he was so extremely
tactful with me, I really cannot forgive him his suspicions, which he
was at scarcely any pains to disguise, regarding Eric."
"Regarding Eric!" I exclaimed.
"Oh," continued Isobel, "he may have concealed his views from you, as
he knows that you are--a friend of Eric's; but he was less careful
about concealing them from me. To all intents and purposes Eric is
under police surveillance!"
"But this is utterly incredible!" said I. "You don't mean to tell me,
Isobel, that Coverly has persisted in his silence respecting his
movements last night? If he has done so, in the circumstances he has
only himself to thank. Social position and everything else counts for
nothing when an inquiry concerning a murder is concerned. He knows
that perfectly well."
I think I spoke hotly, and certainly I spoke with a certain
indignation, for I very strongly resented Coverly's attitude in the
case, which could only add to the difficulties and sorrows of Isobel's
position.
Yet a moment afterwards I regretted that I had done so, for:
"Are _you_ going to quarrel with me, too?" she asked pathetically.
"What do you mean? Who has been quarreling with you?"
"Eric quarreled with me fiercely at the solicitors' to-day, and when I
begged of him to be frank respecting his movements last night, his
attitude became"--she hesitated--"almost unbearable. He did not seem
to realize that I was only thinking of him, nor did he seem to realize
the construction which I might have placed upon his silence. I mean,
Jack, what can he possibly have to conceal?"
Temporarily I felt myself to have become tongue-tied. What _could_ it
be that Coverly was concealing? The idea of complicity in the crime I
scouted; nothing could have induced me to believe it. Only one
explanation presented itself to my mind, as evidently it had presented
itself to Isobel's--another woman. However:
"You may depend," I said, endeavoring to speak soothingly, "that he
has some good and sufficient reason for this silence, and one which is
not in any way discreditable. Nevertheless he will have to reconsider
his attitude in the near future. Of course there are times when almost
every one of us would be hard put to it to establish an alibi if we
were called upon to do so--as regards witnesses of our movements, I
mean; but at least we can state roughly where we were during any hour
of the day, even if we have to trust to luck to find witnesses to
prove the truth of words. His attitude of silence, Isobel, is
ridiculous."
"Have you seen the evening papers?" she asked pathetically.
"Some of them," I replied.
"They have got my name in already," she continued, "and my photograph
appears in one. It is outrageous how they leap at an opportunity for
scandal."
"It will all be cleared up," I said, speaking with as much confidence
as I had at my command. "You know and I know that Coverly is innocent
and I don't believe that Gatton thinks him guilty."
A while longer we talked and then I returned rather wearily to my
chair in the room where the air was still laden with tobacco fumes.
Without believing it to contain any very special significance as I had
supposed, but merely attracted by the strangeness of the passage, I
remembered how Gatton had harped upon Maspero's description of the
attributes of B�st. "Sometimes she plays with her victim as with a
mouse," etc. The big book with its fine plates, several of them
representing cats similar to that which Gatton had left behind for my
more particular examination, still lay open upon the table, and I
reread those passages appertaining to the character of the
cat-goddess, which I had marked for Gatton's information. Scarce
noting what I read--for all the time I was turning over in my mind the
manifold problems of the case--I sat there for an hour perhaps, in
fact until I was interrupted by the entrance of Coates.
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