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Page 99
"What was the motive?" asked Mary.
"They've found out something--perhaps a good deal--about what
happened between Braden and Ransford some years ago," replied
Bryce. "And their theory is--if you want to know the truth
--that Ransford ran away with Braden's wife, and that Braden
had been looking for him ever since."
Bryce had kept his eyes on Mary's hands, and now at last he
saw the girl's fingers tremble. But her voice was steady
enough when she spoke.
"Is that mere conjecture on their part, or is it based on any
fact?" she asked.
"I'm not in full knowledge of all their secrets," answered
Bryce, "but I've heard enough to know that there's a basis of
undeniable fact on which they're going. I know for instance,
beyond doubt, that Braden and Ransford were bosom friends,
years ago, that Braden was married to a girl whom Ransford had
wanted to marry, that Braden's wife suddenly left him,
mysteriously, a few years later, and that, at the same time,
Ransford made an equally mysterious disappearance. The police
know all that. What is the inference to be drawn? What
inference would any one--you yourself, for example--draw?"
"None, till I've heard what Dr. Ransford had to say," replied
Mary.
Bryce disliked that ready retort. He was beginning to feel
that he was being met by some force stronger that his own.
"That's all very well," he remarked. "I don't say that I
wouldn't do the same. But I'm only explaining the police
position, and showing you the danger likely to arise from it.
The police theory is this, as far as I can make it out:
Ransford, years ago, did Braden a wrong, and Braden certainly
swore revenge when he could find him. Circumstances prevented
Braden from seeking him closely for some time; at last they
met here, by accident. Here the police aren't decided. One
theory is that there was an altercation, blows, a struggle, in
the course of which Braden met his death; the other is that
Ransford deliberately took Braden up into the gallery and
flung him through that open doorway--"
"That," observed Mary, with something very like a sneer,
"seems so likely that I should think it would never occur to
anybody but the sort of people you're telling me of! No man
of any real sense would believe it for a minute!"
"Some people of plain common sense do believe it for all
that!" retorted Bryce. "For it's quite possible. But as I
say, I'm only repeating. And of course, the rest of it
follows on that. The police theory is that Collishaw
witnessed Braden's death at Ransford's hands, that Ransford
got to know that Collishaw knew of that, and that he therefore
quietly removed Collishaw. And it is on all that that they're
going, and will go. Don't ask me if I think they're right or
wrong! I'm only telling you what I know so as to show you
what danger Ransford is in."
Mary made no immediate answer, and Bryce sat watching her.
Somehow--he was at a loss to explain it to himself--things
were not going as he had expected. He had confidently
believed that the girl would be frightened, scared, upset,
ready to do anything that he asked or suggested. But she was
plainly not frightened. And the fingers which busied
themselves with the fancy-work had become steady again, and
her voice had been steady all along.
"Pray," she asked suddenly, and with a little satirical
inflection of voice which Brice was quick to notice, "pray,
how is it that you--not a policeman, not a detective!--come to
know so much of all this? Since when were you taken into the
confidence of Mitchington and the mysterious person from
London?"
"You know as well as I do that I have been dragged into the
case against my wishes," answered Bryce almost sullenly. "I
was fetched to Braden--I saw him die. It was I who found
Collishaw--dead. Of course, I've been mixed up, whether I
would or not, and I've had to see a good deal of the police,
and naturally I've learnt things."
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