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Page 59
"Oh, yes, rather."
"Yes, but what did Cayley come in for so secretly?"
"What did he want to shut the door for?" said Bill. "That's what
I don't understand. You couldn't have seen him, anyhow."
"No. So it follows that I might have heard him. He was going to
do something which he didn't want me to hear."
"By Jove, that's it!" said Bill eagerly.
"Yes; but what?"
Bill frowned hopefully to himself, but no inspiration came.
"Well, let's have some air, anyway," he said at last, exhausted
by the effort, and he went to the window, opened it, and looked
out. Then, struck by an idea, he turned back to Antony and said,
"Do you think I had better go up to the pond to make sure that
they're still at it? Because--"
He broke off suddenly at the sight of Antony's face.
"Oh, idiot, idiot!" Antony cried. "Oh, most super-excellent of
Watsons! Oh, you lamb, you blessing! Oh, Gillingham, you
incomparable ass!"
"What on earth--"
"The window, the window!" cried Antony, pointing to it.
Bill turned back to the window, expecting it to say something.
As it said nothing, he looked at Antony again.
"He was opening the window!" cried Antony.
"Who?"
"Cayley, of course." Very gravely and slowly he expounded. "He
came in here in order to open the window. He shut the door so
that I shouldn't hear him open the window. He opened the window.
I came in here and found the window open. I said, 'This window
is open. My amazing powers of analysis tell me that the murderer
must have escaped by this window.' 'Oh,' said Cayley, raising
his eyebrows. 'Well,' said he, 'I suppose you must be right.'
Said I proudly, 'I am. For the window is open,' I said. Oh, you
incomparable ass!"
He understood now. It explained so much that had been puzzling
him.
He tried to put himself in Cayley's place--Cayley, when Antony
had first discovered him, hammering at the door and crying, "Let
me in!" Whatever had happened inside the office, whoever had
killed Robert, Cayley knew all about it, and knew that Mark was
not inside, and had not escaped by the window. But it was
necessary to Cayley's plans--to Mark's plans if they were acting
in concert--that he should be thought so to have escaped. At
some time, then, while he was hammering (the key in his pocket)
at the locked door, he must suddenly have remembered--with what a
shock!--that a mistake had been made. A window had not been left
open!
Probably it would just have been a horrible doubt at first. Was
the office window open? Surely it was open! Was it? .... Would
he have time now to unlock the door, slip in, open the French
windows and slip out again? No. At any moment the servants
might come. It was too risky. Fatal, if he were discovered. But
servants were stupid. He could get the windows safely open while
they were crowding round the body. They wouldn't notice. He
could do it somehow.
And then Antony's sudden appearance! Here was a complication.
And Antony suggesting that they should try the window! Why, the
window was just what he wanted to avoid. No wonder he had seemed
dazed at first.
Ah, and here at last was the explanation why they had gone the
longest way round and yet run. It was Cayley's only chance of
getting a start on Antony, of getting to the windows first, of
working them open somehow before Antony caught him up. Even if
that were impossible, he must get there first, just to make sure.
Perhaps they were open. He must get away from Antony and see.
And if they were shut, hopelessly shut, then he must have a
moment to himself, a moment in which to think of some other plan,
and avoid the ruin which seemed so suddenly to be threatening.
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