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Page 106
"Well," explained the girl, "he had evidently learned from someone,
presumably one of the servants, that there was enmity between Mr.
Camber and Colonel Menendez. He asked me if I knew of this, and of
course I had to admit that I did. But when I told him that I had no
idea of its cause, he did not seem to believe me."
"No," I murmured. "Any evidence which fails to dove-tail with his
preconceived theories he puts down as a lie."
"He seemed to have made up his mind for some reason," she continued,
"that I was intimately acquainted with Mr. Camber. Whereas, of course,
I have never spoken to him in my life, although whenever he has passed
me in the road he has always saluted me with quite delightful courtesy.
Oh, Mr. Knox, it is horrible to think of this great misfortune coming
to those poor people." She looked at me pleadingly. "How did his wife
take it?"
"Poor little girl," I replied, "it was an awful blow."
"I feel that I want to set out this very minute," declared Val
Beverley, "and go to her, and try to comfort her. Because I feel in my
very soul that her husband is innocent. She is such a sweet little
thing. I have wanted to speak to her since the very first time I ever
saw her, but on the rare occasions when we have met in the village she
has hurried past as though she were afraid of me. Mr. Harley surely
knows that her husband is not guilty?"
"I think he does," I replied, "but he may have great difficulty in
proving it. And what else did Inspector Aylesbury wish to know?"
"How can I tell you?" she said in a low voice; and biting her lip
agitatedly she turned her head aside.
"Perhaps I can guess."
"Can you?" she asked, looking at me quickly. "Well, then, he seemed to
attach a ridiculous importance to the fact that I had not retired last
night at the time of the tragedy."
"I know," said I, grimly. "Another preconceived idea of his."
"I told him the truth of the matter, which is surely quite simple, and
at first I was unable to understand the nature of his suspicions. Then,
after a time, his questions enlightened me. He finally suggested, quite
openly, that I had not come down from my room to the corridor in which
Madame de St�mer was lying, but had actually been there at the time!"
"In the corridor outside her room?"
"Yes. He seemed to think that I had just come in from the door near the
end of the east wing and beside the tower, which opens into the
shrubbery."
"That you had just come in?" I exclaimed. "He thinks, then, that you
had been out in the grounds?"
Val Beverley's face had been very pale, but now she flushed
indignantly, and glanced away from me as she replied:
"He dared to suggest that I had been to keep an assignation."
"The fool!" I cried. "The ignorant, impudent fool!"
"Oh," she declared, "I felt quite ill with indignation. I am afraid I
may regard Inspector Aylesbury as an enemy from now onward, for when I
had recovered from the shock I told him very plainly what I thought
about his intellect, or lack of it."
"I am glad you did," I said, warmly. "Before Inspector Aylesbury is
through with this business I fancy he will know more about his
limitations than he knows at present. The fact of the matter is that he
is badly out of his depth, but is not man enough to acknowledge the
fact even to himself."
She smiled at me pathetically.
"Whatever should I have done if I had been alone?" she said.
I was tempted to direct the conversation into a purely personal
channel, but common sense prevailed, and:
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